Nikolay Ivanovich Padalitsin was born into a teacher's family. He finished the Smolensk classical grammar school and graduated from the Philology Faculty of the Moscow University in 1917. He worked in the field of public education in Smolensk. He took part in art life of Smolensk of the postrevolutionary years, and attended the Proletkult studio to study under V. Shtranikh, N. Yablonsky, Ch. Stefansky, and P. Lalenkov.
He entered the Moscow Higher Art and Technical Studios (VKhUTEMAS) in 1922 and graduated in 1927. V. Favorskii was his main teacher.
From 1927 Nikolay Padalitsin was a permanent exhibitor of art exhibitions both in Russia and abroad. An artist with a broad creative range, he painted landscapes, portraits, ex-librises, publishing signs, illustrations, and book and journal design.
In June, 1930 Nikolay Padalitsin was arrested and condemned to capital punishment. The artist was executed on September 20, 1930. He was rehabilitated later.
In 1987 the artist’s sister handed 35 prints by Nikolay Padalitsin to the Smolensk Museum. In 1990 these art works were exhibited in the Smolensk Art Gallery. Collections of Nikolay Padalitsin’s works are kept in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), in the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) and abroad.