The world’s happiest artist

Domingo Zapata is no tortured artist, says Louise Gannon in The Mail on Sunday (U.K.). The wolfishly handsome Spaniard sells his paintings for six-figure sums to collectors including Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Zapata, 38, made his name painting bullfights, but is now focused on the female form. His latest exhibition features portraits of 10 of the world’s most beautiful women. “I guess I’m a lucky man,” he shrugs. “Women like me and I love them. I only paint women. And yes, lots of times naked. It is easy for me to ask a woman to take off her clothes. I am an artist. I need to see who they are.” Some women, like actress Sofía Vergara, don’t need to be asked. “I was at her house and she wanted me to paint her. We had a problem, because there were paints but no canvas, so she just laughed and took off her dress and said, ‘I am the canvas. Paint me.’ So I did.” Word of the sitting spread around Hollywood. “Then Eva [Longoria] calls and says, ‘When are you going to paint my body?’ I tell her I want to do something different. I want to paint her with not so many clothes, a whip in one hand and an artichoke in the other.”

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