Leo vs Mike

After da Vinci's Horse

40" x  60"

acrylic on canvas

      Each year, the Punta Gorda Visual Arts Center chooses an artist to celebrate.  VAC member artists reproduce works of the masters to donate.  These paintings are auctioned off to support the center.  Last year it was Toulouse Lautrec, this year it's Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, thus "Leo vs Mike."  My inspiration was da Vinci's Horse.

      Leonardo worked on this horse for seventeen years and created a twenty-four foot tall clay model.  It was destroyed by the French in 1499 when they invaded Milan.  A twenty-four foot bronze cast was created by Nina Akamu in 1999 for the Milan Art Museum.  Influenced by these works, I painted my horse running along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill of 2010.