Selected Works
Artist Bio
Jota Leal, a Venezuelan artist, began drawing as a young child and always received pencils and crayons as Christmas gifts. However, having been surrounded by engineers, he studied electrical engineering and graduated with honors. It didn’t take long for circuits to become lines, numbers to become colors, and brushes replacing the sweep of physics theories. In 2001, he traveled to Spain and immersed himself in the history and technique of art. After returning to Venezuela, Jota received the Caricaturist of the Year Award for 2003.
Leal’s art follows the grand tradition of the great portrait painters of the past, as well as more recent caricature masters. His sense of humor shows the delicate whimsy of a Max Beerbohn or Al Hirschfeld, but with a more fully rendered painting style that reflects a synergy of remarkable skill and a probing sense of the subject’s soul. He works with pencil on paper, acrylic on board, and acrylic on canvas to achieve his amazing images, painting the inner soul of his subjects and manifesting this as their outer persona.
Jota exhibits his works in the United States and Asia.
