Kriss was mostly self-taught and his early work was influenced largely by the contemporary Italian painters Afro and Santomasso, the French painters Manessier and Bissiere, and by da Silva. His serious interest in painting started with an opportunity to live in Europe for a year, during 1957. He was "stunned" by the stained glass in the cathedrals of England, France, Belgium, Germany and Italy, and by the vibrant contemporary art scene so much a part of London, Copenhagen, Florence, Zurich, and Paris.

It was late in 1957 that he painted the "The Blue Hour", the work he regarded as the real beginning of his painting. On arriving home in 1958, he promptly fell ill with hepatitis. To keep his spirits up, he did a number of stained glass pieces, and then a series of paintings representing Biblical characters or events, taken from the Old Testament. Then came a series of large abstract paintings. The works completed since 1957 served as the basis for his 1961 show at the Stanford University Art Gallery.

SF Product Market (1950)