The Artist


Noah Stokes (Stokey, if you prefer) has always loved to draw. Drawing came natural at an early age but it was not a main focus of his life growing up. He was more interested in sports and wanted that to be his future.

The first notion he got of pursuing art as a career came from some encouraging words from an art teacher at junior college. Armed with that confidence Noah went to The Art Institute of Atlanta and got a degree in Visual Communication. Hired as a package designer and Assistant Art Director for a plastics manufacturer, creating clever packaging, logos, and point of purchase display designs became the focus of his work.

The itch to draw never went away and a desire to learn to paint guided Noah to give fine arts a try. Influenced by Bernie Fuchs and Norman Rockwell, Noah began to paint sports figures and teams that he knew had a passionate following. He produced limited edition prints of his work and began peddling them to retail art dealers.

That work continues today. Noah likes to use exaggeration often to capture ‘more’ of the person or subject he is painting. He says, “There is just as much uniqueness in the way we move as there is in our face – and that is one of the reasons I like to paint sports figures.” He works mostly in acrylics with the occasional dip into oils. And digital painting is a very popular medium today as well – especially for commercial and print work.

His work hangs in the National Pasttime Museum, The Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame, and the University of Georgia. It is also in the personal collection of UGA and NFL great Herschel Walker, FSU Coach Bobby Bowden, and “The Head Ball Coach” Steve Spurrier.

Noah is happily married to his beautiful wife Ruth, and has three amazing kids, Leah, Jake, and Sarah.