George Papadakis Artist

As a kid in New Jersey, I remember trying to draw my favorite Matchbox toy, a 1973 Lesney jet. It was bright yellow with an electric blue windshield. I couldn’t get it and I was so frustrated; I wanted so much to transfer that beautiful three-dimensional jet to my two-dimensional paper. This was the beginning of my lifelong fascination with drawing and painting – the captivating challenge of capturing a likeness. By high school in Yorktown, Va., I was already getting commissions to draw portraits for friends. I majored in fine art at Longwood University and just kept practicing drawing, shading, and coloring. That was it for me – I can’t imagine doing anything else.

For 40 years I’ve honed my technique and style to mixed media drawings and paintings done on watercolor boards. I really enjoy figuring out how to make a piece that instantly recalls the subject but has added vibrancy and emotion.

I loved sports growing up, so my early pieces were mostly NFL player portraits. When I graduated college, I needed to show my art somewhere, and I really wished my art program had required a business course! I found a local sports pub happy to hang my prints. One night the owner called because Chris Slade of the New England Patriots was there and wanted me to draw his portrait! I was so excited – the Patriots were one of my favorite NFL teams growing up (partly because of the great artwork on their helmets and uniforms).

That piece led to an invitation to do a portrait of Dan Marino for a celebrity event hosted by Bruce Smith (a Buffalo Bills all-pro defensive end). Dan autographed my portrait and it was the top-selling item in the live auction. I met other athletes there who invited me to their charity events. I started traveling nationwide to do portraits for NFL and MLB players: Marshall Faulk, Brian Mitchell, Ricky Proehl, John Smoltz, Junior Seau, Willie Stargell, and Torry Holt were all portraits I produced in this season. During this time, I was also taking personal and corporate commissions, including magazine covers of Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal for Athlon Sports.

I genuinely enjoyed traveling, showing my art to new people, meeting sports legends, and supporting the charities benefitting from these events. That’s really what I feel like I was put on this earth to do – create art that people appreciate and does good for the world. But when my dad became ill, my art and my life had to pivot. While taking care of him, I took a commission for Olympic pole vaulter Sandi Morris. It was the largest and hardest piece I had ever done, my dad was declining, I met the woman who is now my wife…It ended up being the most rewarding and lucrative piece I’ve created, borne out of a difficult but beautiful time.

Losing my dad, getting married, and moving to Williamsburg, Va. continued to shake up my life. I realized that I’d never really made art that I wanted to do, for me and my own inspiration. While caring for my dad, we watched movies from his youth and listened to a lot of Frank Sinatra. Watching his smiling expression as he enjoyed his “wonder years” through nostalgia was wonderful. There was a real sweetness to that time that greatly deepened our relationship.

I’ve been a commission-based artist for the majority of my career, happily creating art for others. But now I feel drawn toward the warm, nostalgic feeling I had with my dad and want to share it in my art. I’m drawing and painting glimpses of my childhood, transporting me back in time for a moment and reliving my fondest memories of growing up. I would love to hear what memories and images take you back…

When not working on my latest piece, I enjoy weight training, trying to figure out what is going on with the stock market, and getting sushi with my wife.