Ricardo Cony Etchart was born to be an artist, but a law degree, accounting, and various other intellectual and philosophical pursuits shanghaied his early efforts. A few years ago, when the kids were less dependent on him and his career was at cruising altitude, he set up shop on the 7th floor of his Buenos Aires apartment and began to put some serious paint down. With a famous Argentinean artist guiding him, he started painting Vermeer style portraits in oil. Ricardo is a perfectionist, and these took him several months each to complete. His early success and natural ability might have led many of us down the road of portraiture, or, at least, realism; however, his incredibly strong sense of color, design, and composition combined with his fascination for people and the human condition led him down an entirely different path. As a native Argentinean, he was deeply influenced
