George Hartley wanted to be an artist from his earliest years. Childhood memories recall copying the Sunday comics, gazing for hours at his mother's Maxwell Parrish prints on the walls, Norman Rockwell's Sat. Evening Post covers, and N.C. Wyeth's illustrations for the Scribner Classics.
He used to go to the Boston Public Library to admire the Edwin Austin Abbey murals of King Arthur.
After a stint in the navy, then years of construction and logging, George decided to fulfill his life-long dream, and joined the atelier of Paul Ingbretson. Over the next five years Paul introduced him to the masters of the past and their methods. George also attended occasional classes with Numael Pulido who taught Renaissance methods.