Jean Claude Kabongo is a talented impresionist painter. He was born and currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he has his atelier. Kabongo graduated from The University of Arts with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
This impressionist artist is recognized as one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated artists. From an early age, he displayed exceptional artistic talent. In his teenage years, he began exhibiting paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The landscapes of California are also Kabongo’s great passion. In spite of living in Philadelphia, Kabongo returned every year to California, drawn by the intense light and wide horizons of the coast. As a painter of endless beach scenes, Jean Claude Kabongo had a talent for capturing the effects of blazing sunlight. Jean Claude Kabongo painted the majority of these pictures were painted ‘en plein air’. Their densely painted surfaces are embedded with grains of sand.
Kabongo’s unique style of Impressionism
Impressionism was a French art movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Its main characters were Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne. Influenced by theuno-Impressionism, they used a more careful, less colorful palette in their paintings.
Kabongo paints with a more delicate brushstroke and a more contemplative eye. The palette is different but is still Impressionism. In his New Paintings to Enjoy, Jean Claude Kabongo presents us with a selection of his works inspired by Impressionism.
The colors in Kabongo’s landscapes
Unlike a conventional color palette, a landscape’s colors are based on light and atmosphere. The greens and blues in Kabongo’s paintings are beautiful, though they could also be interpreted as soothing and peaceful. The reds, oranges, and yellows, meanwhile, bring to mind fiery, unrestrained joy.
Kabongo’s New Exhibition of Paintings
In May 2018, Jean Claude Kabongo presented a selection of his works to the public for the first time in his New Paintings to Enjoy exhibition. The show consisted of twenty-four paintings, four watercolors, two lithographs, and two prints. All of the paintings had been inspired by Impressionism, with the exception of one, “Sunset,” which was inspired by his travels to California. The show was scheduled to open at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in August 2018.
Final Words
Impressionism was a major influence on Jean Claude Kabongo’s oeuvre. To create his New Paintings to Enjoy, Kabongo returned to the Impressionist style, which he had abandoned in his previous works. Impressionism was, to him, a time when “light was everything.” It was light that painted the pictures, and Kabongo used light as the basis for his new series of paintings. Impressionism was a time when painters were more concerned with the moment than with historical or cultural significance. They were not interested in celebrating or chronicling moments, but rather, in capturing the fleeting impressions of nature. Kabongo is a different kind of artist. He chooses artistic freedom to celebrate moments, not events. He paints vacation (and birthday) photos, not cultural milestones. However, he loves Impressionism and its ideals, and he hopes that his works will be appreciated by the art community in Philadelphia and beyond.