If you’ve ever been to a flea market in the Northern Virginia or Washington, DC, area, you’ve probably seen this man, selling his oil paintings on canvas.
Mladen ‘Gino’ Novak was born in 1948 in Zagreb, Croatia. He was schooled at the Maksimir Artist School in Zagreb. ‘Gliha’ was his teacher and mentor who has works hanging in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Leaving Croatia in 1966, he studied technique in Islip, New York, for two years, then attended college in Ethiopia to continue his studies.
He eventually came to America in September 1988 to escape from Communism.
Novak is well known known in Europe for his watercolors. He has an excellent use of strong, bold colors with an emphasis on perspectives. His style is impressionist.
Presently he works on commissioned pieces.
Here’s some impressive credentials:
- Has works hanging in Galley 11 in Zagreb, Croatia, alongside Picasso and other famous painters.
- Presently has an exhibition in Fuchs Gallery in Valbonne, France.
- Has work hanging in the Cochrane Museum in Washington, DC, affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.
- Is in a “Who’s Who” book of famous modern American painters.
- Is a member of Washington Project for the Arts/Cochrane.
- His work was featured in the major motion picture “Little Manhattan” (2005) starring Cynthia Nixon.
Some years ago he saw our panels at a Northern Virginia flea market, and stopping dead in his tracks said, “Your panels… such symmetry, such texture… I must paint them. They inspire me.”
He now happily sketches and does preliminary design work on our antique tin panels before his commissioned pieces.
Here you can see some of his works on antique tin.
