Meet Michael Papadakis, an artist who uses sun and magnifying glass to paint

Here's why Michael Papadakis is making headlines:

WHO’S HE?
Papadakis is a Colorado-based artist. But not an ordinary one. He doesn't paint in a studio. In fact, he doesn't even use paint or brushes.


WHAT THEN?
Ever heard of heliography?

SOMETHING ABOUT THE SUN.
It usually refers to a photographic process, invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1822, which was used to make the earliest known surviving photograph from nature. In modern terms, it means photography of the sun.

AND PAPADAKIS USES HELIOGRAPHY?
Yes. On a trip along the Silk Road to Asia, he came upon the uses of the magnifying glass. He uses it to burn intricate artworks on wooden panels.

A MAGNIFYING GLASS TO CREATE ARTWORK?
Yes. Holding a wide range of magnifying glass types a few feet away from his wooden canvas, Papadakis focuses the sun’s rays on a small point. Then he expertly scorches his designs on the wood. He uses reflection and refraction to paint with the sun.

WHAT KIND OF DESIGNS?
From landscapes and animal portraits, to romantic and heartwarming scenes and company logos, there’s virtually nothing this artist can’t do as long as it is sunny out.

TOUGH WORK!
Luckily for him, his home town of Golden, in Colorado, gets around 300 days of sun a year, so he got a lot of practice in the last five years.

GO PAPADAKIS!
Interestingly, Papadakis is not the world’s first sun painter. Jordan Mang-osan, an artist from the Philippines, also uses magnifying glasses to make designs on wooden canvases.

SUNSCRIBING ASAP!