Artist scores with huge Maradona paintings

BUENOS AIRES – Maxi Bagnasco says he knows Diego Maradona’s features by heart after painting portraits of the soccer star almost daily since the Argentine World Cup winner died last November.

The artist, who creates lifelike paintings with spray paint on huge canvases, decided to make Maradona his niche after the outpouring of grief over the footballer’s death.

“I think Maradona will accompany me in other projects that I do.”

Bagnasco, 39, has been using his phone to copy photographs of Maradona, who has cult-like status in Argentina, where he was nicknamed “D10S”, a play on the Spanish word for “God” that incorporates the number 10 shirt he wore.

Bagnasco said he knew he wanted to be an artist at age nine when he won a contest copying a Van

Gogh painting. He is now looking to auction off the works. He said there had been strong demand and interest in his art, which had led to a number of commissions.