Today we’d like to introduce you to Gavin Glakas

Hi Gavin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I got really lucky because when I set out to become a professional artist at 24, after minoring in art in college and then working in an office for two years, I saw a Help Wanted sign in the window of an art gallery. I got a job there and the gallery turned out to be really successful. A year later they started selling my paintings regularly and getting me commissions.

At the same time, I found two teachers who were exactly what I needed. They taught me to paint, working at the gallery taught me about business, and I was off and running.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

The funny thing is that it has actually been relatively smooth, although full of non-stop struggles. I don’t think those two notions are mutually exclusive.

The blows to the ego and financial insecurity were really hard in the beginning but I didn’t have another option. All I could do was work through any failures, learn from them, and try to get better every day.

Once there’s no way out but forward, it gets relatively easy to overcome setbacks.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

I paint portraits, landscapes and cityscapes. I try to bring a 21st century sensibility to these ancient materials to create work that is simultaneously timeless, classical and contemporary.

My portraits hang in public collections all over the country and abroad, and I show my cityscapes and landscapes in galleries around the country.

I find that doing two entirely different things helps me stay fresh and get better at each one. It’s invigorating to try to solve the same problem – say, creating something that feels optimistic or moody or exciting but lonely – using subject matter as varied as a human face or a city street.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?

I’m thrilled to show with some amazing galleries – Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, and Charleston, SC, and Palm Avenue Fine Art in Sarasota, FL.

I paint commissions and I see each commission I do as a collaboration. A collector and I brainstorm about the best way to depict the subject in question – usually either a landscape or a portrait, but sometimes it’s something entirely different – and our ideas drive and feed off of each other.

People can see my giclee prints, which are available through my website – www.gavinglakas.com

I want my work to be seen by as many people as possible so I love collaborating on social media or in other ways. My paintings hang all over the world but I’ve also illustrated books, designed ad campaigns, developed a tv show with a friend who’s a director (very much a work-in-progress) in which my artwork serves as the pitch deck, drawn T-shirts, painted billboards, brainstormed a graphic novel with another director friend, sketched at parties, done cartoons for business cards, painted loads of public demos – I really just want to do everything and while the solitary nature and creative control of painting is what drew me to it in the first place, it’s perhaps because I spend so much time alone that I love to collaborate with creative people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gavinglakas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gavin_glakas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gavin.glakas
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gavinglakas9398