Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Modern-day PIRATES


This is a painting claimed by Hugo Diaz Mapi. He's a Spanish artist (and I'll use that lightly) who claims to be a digital painter by use of Photoshop. Oddly it bears quite a resemblance to

Don Hatfield's Looking for Treasures...

This is an original Hugo Diaz Mapi. Or is it?

Here is Don Hatfield's Brothers. Does moving a few pieces around and clicking a few filters on Photoshop constitute the rights to call something your own? Notice the boy in blue overalls on the left.

Whoops... here he is again in another Hugo Diaz Mapi!


With this lady of Don's

and this beach!

Son of a beach! What is this world coming too? Are some so jealous of other's ability to create that all they can do is copy, steal and pirate?

Beware of Hugo Diaz Mapi folks!


He contacted me with compliments on my impressionist art. He mentioned Don's name and asked if I knew of any other American impressionist. Then he asked that I look him up on Facebook and send him a friend request. I didn't give him any artists names, but I did send him a friend request. It was only after he accepted that I was able to see these images and more that were copied from dozen's of artists.

Send him a friend request on Facebook to see if you're one of his victims. After a few days, let him know what you think of his "art". We can all use our voice. Together we might speak loud enough...

I'll be cutting down the resolution on my painting images from now on. It's a shame. I really enjoy being able to click and enlarge paintings to see the details. There are always those who ruin it for everyone. Hugo Diaz Mapi. He's definitely one bad apple...

Hey Mr. Mapi, I can use Photoshop too.

25 comments:

  1. Thanks for exposing this character, Susan. I need not be concerned because I'm sure my art is not worth anyone copying but artists like yourself, Don and many others who are tying to make a living from their art are sure to be affected negatively by this unscrupulous man.
    Carol B.

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  2. Good work, Detective Roux. You're right--Mapi's definitely a son of a beach.

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  3. Grrrr.... Thanks for the info Susan.

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  4. Congratulations and thanks for exposing this Modern Pirate!

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  5. That's so wrong on so many different levels...he also cheats himself.

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  6. Oh wow, what an incredible post! Yes, great detective work. Son of a beach...I love that! :)

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  7. Thanks for sharing! You must have played Clue as a kid!

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  8. Wow! Aren't there laws for this kind of thing? I have to agree with William. Not a good man.

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  9. Makes me think twice about using watermarks on my images... thankis for posting this!

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  10. Je suis heureuse de pouvoir laisser un message grâce à un blogger qui m'a permis de réparer mon problème...
    Je ne vois pas où est l'intérêt de ce monsieur d'agir ainsi. Il ne peut pas être considéré comme un artiste. Autrement il saurait que le bonheur de peindre est de pouvoir mettre tout son ressenti sur une toile.
    En revanche je ne critiquerai pas les bons "copieurs" qui sont reconnus pour reproduire des vrais. Ceux-ci ne prétendent pas alors être les auteurs de l'original.
    Gros bisous

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  11. Incredible! Thanks for exposing this guy.

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  12. I think it's a wonderful exercise to try to replicate a Master's painting. With paint, NOT PHOTOSHOP! And sign it (Your Name) AFTER DON HATFIELD. Don's definitely a master painter, what a crook! At least he lost some of the exquisite look of Don's. Incredible. and I agree he's quite a prick.

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  13. UNBELIEVABLE!! Like you said "Modern-Day Pirates". I hope he never meets up with all of us...he might need that patch that you gave him!!!

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  14. WOW!!! Absolutely stunning!!! How in the world can this guy do this???

    Is there some way to stop him???? EGAD!!!

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  15. Good grief!! This man needs to be put in jail!!! ...... With no paints or computers!!

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  16. Wow, how rotten is that? What a creep. Thanks for posting the information, Susan.

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  17. Thanks for outing this pirate! It's people like him who give true digital painters a bad name!

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  18. Unbelievable! He is a son of a beach. I love your spunk, and fight for justice. If taken to court, that guy would definitely be in a heap of trouble.

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  19. Good job exposing him! I have had to put watermarks on all of my paintings, and only post 72 ppi images, because of people using my work for various things, like face book profiles, tatoos, images on purses, etc. I guess some people think if it's on the web, it's OK to use it.

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  20. Great job, Susan. I did not want to friend him on facebook, but I just checked out all the photos he has there which are public. I think he must have removed the incriminating ones. Unbelievable!

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  21. Informative post. Thanks for the alert. Love what you did with Photoshopping his picture... very appropriate.

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  22. isn't it strange how in the painting of the woman and the boy they look like they're cut out from different paintings and pasted on. The painting of the woman is awful and the painting of the boy is much better albeit a copy as well.
    An unscrupulous jerk and a great post. I hope this post also went up on FB.

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  23. Hi Susan, I have another attitude to being plagiarised, I say bring it on and see you in court, found a watercolour of mine on a wine bottle few years ago, and got £4k settlement!
    Am still providing hi res images of my work on net, look upon it as partly putting out nice bait for fish, but the main thing is to provide good quality images for clients to base a commission decision on.

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  24. Hello Susan,this is so well written and you have beautifully exposed a con artist. The beauty of the internet is that characters like Hugo do get the exposure they well deserve as frauds.

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  25. Colombian "painter".

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