My Story

My full name is Leonardo Cecchini. As a boy growing up in Italy, I answered to Nanni and, in those early years, my father noticed  my artistic abilities. I remember meals where I had a fork in one hand and a pencil in the other. Papa was an art critic and a collector of art and antiques. Can you imagine our house? I was surrounded by beauty, fantasy, architecture, and above all, love.

In my teens, Papa was determined that I develop my own style and not be distracted by trying to please instructors. He found the best school for me that let me experiment. In addition to art, my passions were swimming and tasting the joys of love and life.

To succeed in life, one needs someone to believe in you.

While I had many people who believed in me, I think back to Papa. When he died in 1990, I went back to Italy and my sister and I started to clean out the house. We found a folder. In it were all the drawings I did as a child. Papa had kept every one of them. He knew then, he believed in me. I sat there and wept, missing his strong hand on my shoulder.

As an adult, I have lived, laughed, and lost. It's curious how creativity bursts from the hands to the canvas. It comes in times of illuminating joy and of darkening despair. I think most artists must feel like this, art comes from the soul.  

My work is raw and unfiltered and my compositions are based on flashes of people and events on the timeline in my mind. I believe that being a world traveler, soaking up the culture of each place and people enhances my work.

Being Italian born, I have a following there with collectors in all walks of life. Collectors (each one becomes a dear friend) are found worldwide, and happily, some of my work is exhibited in the USA, Italy, France, and Switzerland.

Loving golf and sun, I make my home in Lighthouse Point, Florida