Michelle Kondos

The Edge

2025

Michelle Kondos is an award-winning western artist and portrait painter. She divides her time between Borrego Springs, CA and New Orleans, LA. She grew up in the Boston area and traveled extensively in childhood, as her mother is from Sweden and her father is Greek. Later, she lived in London while studying art history and painting at Regent’s College. She also attended Bennington College in Vermont and the New Orleans Academy of Fine Art. Additionally, she spent five years living in Venice, Italy painting plein air landscapes. Kondos began her professional career by doing fine art portraiture in New Orleans, quickly rising to become one of the most in-demand portrait artists in the city and across the South. In 2018, she was chosen to paint the official portrait of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu for the collection of the City of New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu’s portrait was her second mayoral portrait commission for the city, after having been commissioned to paint Mayor Marc Morial in 2002. Additionally, she has painted many university deans, judges, and business leaders in cities all over the South. Kondos still maintains a busy portraiture practice in New Orleans, but in 2013 she moved to Borrego Springs in the remote California desert to pursue her fascination with Western art. Michelle had become captivated with the beauty, history, and the spirit of the American West years earlier while living in Durango, CO. Her love of horses and all things equine had already begun in childhood as she was an avid rider. Today the main areas of focus in her painting are western wildlife, people, and landscapes. Kondos has had paintings selected for the prestigious C.M. Russell Museum Annual Auction Event in Great Falls, MT every year since 2018. She has also had work included in the Settlers West American Miniatures Show and the Mountain Oyster Club Annual Show in Tucson since 2017. She was elected a signature member of the prestigious Society of Animal Artists in 2019. Kondos was interviewed for the American Art Collector Podcast in 2023 and was also recently featured in an artist focus in the April 2024 issue of Western Art Collector Magazine. Since 2020, Kondos is pleased to have been part of the annual Cowgirl Up Show in Wickenburg, AZ, where in 2023 she received the Western Art Collector Award of Excellence, as well as the People’s Choice Award. Her work is represented in public and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.