Emmanouel Tzirtzilakis was born in 1940 in Drapanias kissamou, a small village in Chania, Crete. Today he spends most of his time in Athens (Greece) and he is the Father of two sons, George and Stratis.
His natural inclination towards painting became
obvious from his early childhood. He took his
first painting lessons from the French Fine Art
School ABC and in the age of 23 moved permanently
in Athens. Some time later he became Fotis Kontoglou
student and hereafter joined for six more years
Costas Georgakopoulos, Athens Fine Art School
Teacher of Fresco and Portable Icons Department.
Emmanouel joined Georgakopoulos after Kontoglou
death, first as a student and later as a co-operator
in big painting projects like St.Nicolas Acharnon
(Preserved Monument today), Holy Trinity of Ampelokipi
and St.Therapon Zografou.
Emmanouel has started his independent career in Eptanisa in 1973 by painting St.Spyridon church in Argostoli, the capitol of Kefallonia. During this period in Kefallonia he painted the church of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the church of St. Nicholas and in the Holy monastery of St. Gerasimos in Omala. Four years later he painted in former Yougoslavia the Chapel o St.Constantine and Helen of the Archiepiscopal Manor in Niss, and later the church of Ascension in VRBA Cralievo. Then he came back in Greece and Athens to paint the church of St. Andrew in Ano Patissia, the Chapel of St. Philothei inside the Archiepiscopal Manor of Athens, the Dormition of Theotokos church in Kypriadou, the Dormition of Theotokos in Tauros and the Chruch of Life-Giving Spring in the National Foundation for the Handicaped in Agioi Anargyroi. In 1999 he was assigned the painting of Holy Trinity Church of Charleston, South Carolina USA.
On November 2001 restored the destroyed part of
painting of St. Nicholas Church of Acharnon. During
his painting career, he has also painted numerous
icons that were distributed in various places
both in Greece and abroad. He has many participations
in exhibitions inside and outside Greece and some
of his paintigns were exhibited in Grand Palais
of Paris with the French Artists Society (Societe
des artistes Francais) in 1981 and 1982. His work
has been commented by the press and his recent
work in the United States has attracted the attention
of the television.
He is one of the establishing members of the Pan-Hellenic Union of the Hagiographers were he served as a vise president for eight years. Emmanouel is also member of Fine Art Chamber of Greece and in 1993 he was elected in the commitee responsible for the evaluation of the new canditates of the chamber. Between 1994-1996 he was elected as part of the decoration board in Fine Art Chamber of Greece.
