Gavin Glakas

McLean, Virginia

Gavin Glakas uses oil on canvas and charcoal on paper to create landscapes, cityscapes, and portraits.

Gavin Glakas grew up in Bethesda, MD, and started drawing about the time he started walking. He studied at Washington University in St. Louis and the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

After graduation, Glakas spent a year and a half working as a Senate staffer on Capitol Hill. He had planned to go to law school, but after an eight-month illness culminating in removing a tumor from his lung at the age of 24, he decided to pursue his lifelong ambition of a career as an artist.

Glakas began showing his work in galleries almost immediately and spent five years studying with Danni Dawson and Robert Liberace.

His paintings hang in the permanent collections of the United States Capitol, the Virginia State Capitol, the CIA, universities, museums, and numerous other collections, both public and private. Teal Canvas represents Glakas, Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, and Charleston, SC, and Palm Avenue Fine Art in Sarasota, FL.

He has won numerous honors for his artwork, including awards from the Portrait Society of America, the Art Renewal Center, the Plein Air Salon, and the Butler Institute of American Art. His paintings have been featured on NBC News and The Washington Post, as well as Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, Plein Air, International Artist, The American Scholar, Art Business News, The Strand, and Elan magazines, and exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the country. Glakas teaches painting and drawing at Georgetown University Medical School and the Yellow Barn Studio. He lives in McLean, VA, with his wife, Jasmine, and two barnstorming sons, Nico and Rory.

”Since childhood, I've created my own worlds through my drawing and painting, which hopefully adds a bit of positivity and optimism to the one in which we really live.”