I have chosen to call him, Leopardo, Italian for "leopard", in honor of his striking coat. The appaloosa color is no longer found in the bloodlines of the horses developed from the historic Spanish Colonial Horse. "Leo" underwent a transformation from the original resin to portray the Baroque leopard appaloosa in the above mentioned painting. This included resetting his forelegs, changing his broodmare belly to a gelding hay belly, completely reworking his back leg to be resting, including a complete restructuring of the pelvis to be tipped towards that leg, as nature intended in that position. He also had his neck realigned and ears twitched to represent the mood of the horse in the painting. The final sculptural touch is his plaited mane with bow, just like the painting. After hours of sculpting and prepping, I meticulously handpainted him using gesso, acrylics, charcoal, and pastels. He is a warm white with shading showing dark skin on his face and underside, including mottled skin and other appaloosa characteristics. I tried some new techniques to add more depth to a leopard appaloosa coat and I am very pleased with the results.

I then added Rio Rondo shoes and painted nailheads. I also made a small base for him with fall-colored landscape material for display or show, close in color to the ground color of the painting. And he comes with a laminated picture of his painting counterpart, a section of the original painting to a nice display size or for reference material when showing.

Sold at the North American Nationals 2006 Auction for $1600 - the highest selling lot of the auction!