Freedom's Battle by A.F. Branco Antonio Branco

This is fantastic- in composition, in subject and in technique.

Lovely painting, love the colours you have used great work

Love this, such raw emotion, fantastic eagle :).

I like this very much. I like to think the United States and the UK are between both extremes! Excellent.

Very thought provoking and soooo well painted.

Brilliantly painted in every aspect. A really strong and cleverly thought-out idea behind it - one doesn't necessarily have to go all the way in agreeing with it to understand the point you're making, or to be impressed by its force.

I agree with Val that this is very thought provoking and I love the emotion you portrayed. Awesome job. I love it

Great design, well painted.

Painted very good. But hmmmm... Historical? It is what they teach You in schools? Then it is not that much of freedom there

Thank you all for your comments. They all are appreciated... This painting was not meant to offend, but sometimes art does illicit strong emotion and will offend some unintentionally. As an American I tried to capture my view of what my country has been up against, ideologically, over the past century, condensed on a 24x30 canvas. I'm not here to debate if Socialism, fascism, capitalism, or democracy is good or bad, but just express a feeling... Still, I welcome all your comments positive and negative, because it let's me know how this painting effects people differently.. :)

The important thing is that it DOES affect people - it doesn't matter at all that some of us disagree with you, or agree with you only in part. You are absolutely entitled to your point of view and you have expressed it brilliantly. That's what matters. Some of us on this side of the water think that Americans believe socialism and communism are the same thing: they aren't, and an examination of US history, politics and philosophy reveals distinctly socialistic influences - but., agree with this or not, your painting is a powerful statement of fundamental principles, particularly of liberty against repression. And you absolutely do not need to apologise for or explain that.

Thank you, Robert, for your enlightening and well articulated comment.

Asolutely superb, , with tongue in cheek, I would liked to have seen the Union Jack as well as the Star Spangled Banner

I love the painting for its depth of feeling and for the way it is painted, particularly like the eagle. Just back from a workshop about Turner and how anti-war he was and he cleverly showed this in some if his paintings - when I have more time I will post one on the forum with the notes from lecture. Husband loves it too

I think that the painting shows technical skill. You can certainly paint but the imagery is ridiculous (perhaps that's what you wanted). It seems you have a rather warped/patriotic attitude towards the past. America has never really been attacked by Nazis or Communists has it? I am from Great Britain and we are taught in our history classes that America was 'cowardly' in so much as they left it very late to come and fight against the spread of totalitarianism. America only joined the war (II) when the Germans were losing a war of attrition and suffering from massive casualties. Great Britain's widely believe that they did so only to 'Steal Glory' for a war that we had paid an unfathomable price for in terms of death. That historical and cultural phenomenon is partly the reason that Brits still harbour quite a lot of animosity towards Americans. I myself have nothing against Americans. I have met many brilliant people from your country and I actually do like the painting. I just find it a little offensive with regard to its connotations. Omar Z Bhatia

I do like an Artists who has something to say... and has the technique to express it. Excellent work.

just came across this, excellent !!!!!!!!

Omar, your comments about the US's role in the second world war aren't only offensive, they're plain wrong in fact. I don't want to debate it here, but I do want to make it clear that you're speaking entirely for yourself - you might remember that thousands of US servicemen died, or were maimed, fighting alongside people like my late father, and I can tell you that he was very far from convinced that Nazi Germany was losing the war at the time. Yes, Antonio's painting is a patriotic one and many of us won't see either US or British foreign policy since the last world war as a cause for unalloyed pride. Like you, I imagine, I am very uneasy at seeing the swastika and hammer and sickle tied together as though representing a common evil, when millions of Russians, soldiers and civilians, died hideously under the impact of Nazism. But you're not attacking just one painting or a point of view you think mistaken: you're attacking a whole nation, and in particular a generation of service personnel many of whom got shot to bits fighting a war on the other side of the world - please think again.