[1] He was committed to the tradition of the realist painter Wilhelm Leibl, which was highly valued by Adolf Hitler, and was very successful as an official artist at Nazi Germany.
[2] Padua was born in Salzburg, Austria, but grew up in poor conditions with his grandparents in Geiselhöring and Straubing, in Lower Bavaria.
In 1938 he created the fresco painting depicting farmers dressed in the costume of the region of Bavarian Oberland, on the front side of the Weilheimer Hochlandhalle, a livestock auction hall built in 1937/38, which has since then also served as an event hall for the city of Weilheim, and was included as a monument in the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection's, in 2017.
In 1943, Padua was included in the exhibition Young Art in the German Empire, held in the Vienna Künstlerhaus.
He portrayed personalities such as Friedrich Flick, Helmut Horten, Makarios III, Otto Hahn, Herbert von Karajan and Franz Josef Strauss.
Since 1960 onwards, Padua traveled regularly to the fishing town of Nazaré, in Portugal, where he created several paintings, often inspired by the local people.