Sam Day - Wedding Painter

Joint Association Mixer Bubble Ball

2012-01-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

The 2011 JAM Bubble Ball was held December 19^th by the local chapters of the following organizations: Meeting Professionals International, International Special Events, National Association of Catering Executives (Seattle and Tacoma Chapters), Association of Bridal Consultants, and Wedding Network USA (Seattle and South Sound Chapters).

This is basically the holiday party for the Who’s Who of those who plan the parties in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area. So I was delighted to be invited to paint the event by organizers BreeAnn Gale and Adam Tiegs, who was also master of ceremonies. Adam appears in the painting as Santa Claus, on the right, near the tree. (BreeAnn is mingling in the crowd behind.)

Metaphorically serving us, front and center, is Mr. Don Boshears, Private Events Director of the Columbia Tower Club, where the event was held.

Looking down from the Columbia Tower Club’s 76^th floor is like looking down from an airplane on its approach to SeaTac Airport. The club is more than a thousand feet above the waterfront, five blocks away. With a good pair of binoculars, I could see the self portrait in the window of my studio, in the nearby neighborhood of Pioneer Square. Looking out to the horizon, there are mountains and sea for a hundred miles. I wasn’t there to paint the view, of course, and once the sun goes down it’s all just lights in the blackness anyway. But Seattleites who know this city view well might recognize a series of dots in the far window as the lights of 15^th Avenue Northwest, climbing over the horizon in Ballard, and the red radio tower lights on Queen Anne Hill. Through the window on the left we see the waterfront, under reflections of the holiday party.

The brightest lights are at the party, however— the party planners of Puget Sound themselves.

Macias-Lawson Wedding, Arctic Club Hotel, Seattle, November 26, 2011

2011-11-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

The Arctic Club Hotel is one of the greatest pieces of architecture in Seattle. Built in 1917, it is distinguished by two-dozen terra cotta walrus heads lining the Cherry Street and Third Avenue facades. After the Nisqually earthquake ten years ago, when the building was languishing as city offices, some of these walruses had their tusks held on with duct tape. But in recent years the building has been acquired and beautifully restored to its historic splendor by a company of Mr. William Lawson, whose son was married there on Saturday.

The building is mixture of architectural styles, but the Dome Room evokes Paris in the Belle Époque. I have painted in the room before, and I hope to again— many times. In fact, I think it would be my dream art studio. So it was really a privilege to paint the room for its new owners.

This painting was also an opportunity for me to do something I’ve never done before: a vertical wedding painting. The size and format were actually dictated by the wall on which the painting will eventually hang, but it works compositionally because of the Dome Room’s magnificent stained glass ceiling, which occupies the top half of the painting.

At most weddings and events, I paint on a French easel, which is a portable travel set designed in the days of the Impressionists to carry enough paints in the box for a plein aire outing. I use this for paintings up to 30 inches high, though it gets a little rickety with torque on paintings as wide as 40 inches. For the Macias-Lawson wedding, the canvas was 48 wide and 60 high— the second largest I’ve done for an event, and by far the tallest. I rented a van to move a big easel from the studio, even though the venue was just six blocks away! (Its also unadvisable to walk through the neighborhood carrying a big wet oil painting in the rain, after midnight.) The easel was designed for paintings up to 59 inches high, and needed a minor modification for this job. But it has a great sliding carriage, which allowed me to set the painting low at first, when I painted that grand ceiling before the wedding, and simply slide the whole thing up the ratcheted vertical support to paint the lower half during the reception. I used my French easel on the side for a tableau, to hold my paint and brushes.

It really would take a week to faithfully and realistically render the architectural details of this exquisite room. But as with paintings I’ve done at The Ruins, where an excellent muralist labored for three years to adorn the place, my scribblings are quick impressions, meant to evoke that single evening in its magic moment. By constricting my painting time to the time of the event (with some allowance to paint the setting in just the hours before), I control, harness, and channel the energy of expedience. If I were to take the painting back to the studio to touch it up, dither over it, and— as one of my illustration teachers called it — noodle it to death, that energy would leak out of the painting. Some people, upon hearing (but not seeing) what I do, ask me if I’m going to take a photo of the wedding, and do the whole painting back at the studio. I could, of course, and I could make the painting look just like the photo. But you can get that from any of several corporate studios that email your photos to China, where factory artists copy them faithfully for the cost of a good craft store frame.

There are no photos from any wedding that depict what I paint; I do not capture a sliver of time in a click of a shutter, but the whole elapse of the evening over several hours. Mini-portrait-caricatures depict the key figures. The bride and groom, in this case, were painted in their entirety during their First Dance. I have to confess here that I take extensive liberties with perspective, even with my point of view. I have compressed nearly 180 degrees of view into this vertical rectangle. When a camera does this, we call it a fish-eye lens, and close objects become enormous and far details disappear. Its great for documenting architecture, but people, not so much. I paint as if I were on a ladder, and the floor angled like a raked stage. This allows me to give elements within the room relatively equal importance as events, rather than distorting closer things.

Artistry lies as much in the process and interpretation of what the artist sees, as in the skill with which it is rendered.

A Zinzanni Evening—Painting at the Circus

2011-11-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

In the Spiegeltent at Teatro Zinzanni for the third time, on Sunday the sixth of November, I did a painting for their annual gala auction to benefit the Zinzanni Institute for the Circus Arts. The Institute teaches children to juggle, clown, and tumble their way towards a chance to run away with the circus—or at least to develop some killer skills. The gala funds scholarships for kids who can’t afford the program. An amazing nine-year old graduate appears in my painting, center stage, juggling five balls, next to auctioneer Kevin Joyce.

It just another normal weekend for me to put on a bowtie and black apron and perform for a crowd, with my brushes and palette and mahl stick and a rapidly transforming canvas. Doing it under the big top with these performers lets me pretend I’m a tall, Danish version of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the Moulin Rouge. Their Spiegeltent dates from that era (so named because of the mirrors encircling the space), the dancing, singing waitresses wear corsets and fishnet stockings and feathers, paired with waiters in vests and caps. Décor of tassels and fringe and faded velvet are everywhere.

The air of Paris is especially strong at Zinzanni right now, since their current dinner show is Bonsoir Liliane!, a memoir about, and starring, Liliane Montevecchi— a grand dame of the stage, ballet, cinema, and theatre. I told her that her voice reminded me of a stretch version of Edith Piaf (she’s more than a foot taller than La Môme.)

With all the acrobats and contortionists and strays from the opera and ballet, this troupe has been called “the Kit Kat Club on Acid.” So why not throw in a barrel-voiced cross-dressing comedian/comedienne primped and powdered like a Venetian carnival queen? That’s him/her posing with the buyer of my painting and her daughter, center left. Kevin Kent is one of TZ’s original members.

Another regular at Zinzanni is Francine Reed, who came in from Atlanta for the gala and a concert the following night. As I mixed my colors and began to paint the background of the venue, while the crew tested lights and recording volumes, Ms. Reed spent a luxurious amount of time chatting with me. It was a pleasure getting to know the woman whose voice makes Lyle Lovett sound good. We talked about growing up singing in church, and she listened patiently while I sang to her a song I wrote for my wife, nodding and smiling approvingly. During the auction she sang God Bless the Child. She appears in my painting dressed in purple, with feathers, on the stage, middle right.

It feels great to donate a painting, and I do for several charity auctions each year. It feels even better when the event’s appreciation allows me to bring my wife and guests back for dinner and a show throughout the year!

The Klein-Susinno Wedding at the Salish Lodge, Snoqualmie Falls

2011-10-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, October 23, 2011, I was pleased to be invited to draw caricatures at the Klein-Susinno Wedding, held at the Salish Lodge,

Snoqualmie, Washington. The lodge sits atop the roaring 268 foot Snoqualmie Falls, and was made famous in the television series Twin Peaks.

I don’t do caricatures nearly as often as I used to. The live wedding paintings pay better, of course, because the couple is getting a work of art that can last for generations. But caricatures are an affordable alternative for the client, and a valuable wedding favor for the guests to take home.

And I truly love doing them. I never tire of drawing or painting faces. I love seeking out the personality of the sitter; it often manifests in a single brush stroke as they flash that smile they were hiding, or as they raise an eyebrow or smirk at the reaction of their friends to my drawing in progress. I love the family resemblances and variations I see, from grandparents to grandchildren. I love the subtle differences unique to every ethnicity (in this case German and Italian) that sits before me. These particular families were full of confident personalities, and I was able to caricature them honestly and playfully without being disrespectful or disparaging.

Of course, throughout the years I’ve drawn many people who were more reserved and anxious about how I might portray them. There are always people who ask me to make them thinner, or omit a double chin, or downsize a nose. At every caricature gig, I find myself repeating, for the nervous, the mantra that I always make the women look like movie stars. I then joke that the men get what they have coming to them. But the truth is I try not to offend anyone. I subscribe to Al Hirschfeld’s philosophy that caricatures never need to be insulting, because everyone has an interesting face.

Urban Unveiled, 2011, at Seattle's Benaroya Hall

2011-10-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

It was a pleasure to be invited to paint at Urban Unveiled for the third year in a row. The painting belongs to Jesse Brix and Travis Burney of True Colors events, which produces this hip

wedding show, featuring a fashion show by Luly Yang.

Painting the lobby of Seattle’s Benaroya Hall presents a challenge, to the nth degree, that I face in some measure at any wedding reception that runs into the evening. That is, I have to begin a painting during daylight, knowing that I will finish it after dark. All of my wedding and event paintings are a snapshot not of a moment in time, but a span of time over several hours. I have yet to try to depict both daytime and nighttime on the same canvas. I have to decide which it is, and almost always, it needs to be whichever comes later.

I always come to the venue a couple of hours before an event, and paint the room. Once the event begins, I can then focus on just painting people. But that means painting the grand lobby of this symphony hall in bright, south facing daylight. The people arrive as the setting sun colors the skyscrapers outside these four story glass walls with rapidly changing shadows, and then the ceiling dances with choreographed up-lighting, as the windows go dark and reflect the interior. From the very beginning, I paint in anticipation of this final lighting. At first, the window frames are dark lines against a bright background. But I know they will later become light lines against a dark background.

I know this because I’ve painted here before. But when I paint somewhere new, especially when it’s a destination wedding and I haven’t been able to scout out the place beforehand, I have to learn to look around and visualize with prescience. Always, even in familiar venues, I have to ask the planner what the lighting design will be— what will be dimmed, what will be accentuated.

Then, as everything changes, I take what comes, and paint from direct observation. It is the opposite of the perfection one seeks in studio painting. But the result is always something spontaneous, fluid, and irreplaceably unique.

Join me at Benaroya for Urban Unveiled!

2011-10-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, I’ll be painting at one of my favorite local wedding shows. Urban Unveiled is organized by True Colors Events, the peerless event-designing duo of Jesse Brix and Travis Burney. The venue, every year, is Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony, and features a fashion show by Luly Yang. Its an honor and a pleasure to be invited back to paint at this show for the third year.

Sizes and Prices, 2011

2011-10-01T20:45:00.002-07:00

I've had a surge of inquiries lately. I've also checked blog stats lately, and I see that the increased traffic also seems to be finding last year's listing of sizes and prices. So to make things a little more clear, here are the prices that are good through the end of 2011. Clients who book before the end of the year for dates next year or even later nevertheless get to lock in this year's prices.

Travel cost usually includes air fare and lodging for two nights, although larger paintings take more preparation time at the destination.

Inches Centimeters US Dollars

24 x 30 61 x 76 $2500

24 x 36 61 x 91 $2800

24 x 40 61 x 102 $3250

30 x 40 76 x 102 $4000

36 x 48 91 x 122 $5000

48 x 60 122 x 152 $6000

48 x 72 122 x 183 $7500

48 x 80 122 x 203 $9000

A Barbecue Among Friends

2011-10-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Not every event painting is a wedding painting. As you read older posts, you’ll find I’ve painted live at birthday parties, retirement parties, charity auctions, and even a wake. (That was a great memorial, with great people remembering a great person.) So it is not so strange that the occasion of this painting is simply a barbecue among friends.

The hosts had graciously allowed me to use their home for a photo shoot for one of my religious paintings, my reference for which involves costumed models and sets of some detail. (You can read about this at my other blog, here.) In exchange, they asked me to paint their barbecue later that evening.

As often happens in Seattle in autumn, dinner on the terrace was redirected indoors by a fragrant rain.

Painting at the Wedding MBA, Las Vegas

2011-09-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

More than a week has gone by since the convention in Vegas, and I haven’t stopped to catch my breath. The Wedding MBA (Wedding Merchant Business Academy) draws over 2000 wedding professionals from all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico— and a few from overseas, as well. It’s a three-day pow-wow of speakers from the top of the industry, including publishers like Carley Roney, co-founder of The Knot, and Kathy Ireland, CEO of pretty much everything.

The morning of the first day is a general session, with the remainder of the conference broken into hourly classes of specific concern to various segments. I was asked to paint the general session.

Two thousand people fit quite snugly into a corner of a big exhibit hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There was a modest stage, and four big screens spread out in front of tables arranged as a massive classroom. I set up my easel about one screen away from the stage, and began at 8 a.m. with the opening talk. As I commonly do at weddings, I painted a view of about 180 degrees, like a wide-angle lens. But the painting only shows half the crowd; the other half is behind me. That's Carley Roney at the podium.

I finished at noon, as Andy Ebon wrapped up his remarks. He spoke about individuals who are distinctive in their disciplines, such as wedding planners or photographers, whose work separates them from their peers by excellence, creativity, or unique vision. I was the last professional he featured. The applause after his conclusion seemed just the right time for me to sign the painting, and take a little bow.

I’m deeply grateful to Andy for his remarks, and to Peter Merry for suggesting, and Shannon Underwood for allowing, me to be there.

The resulting attention was overwhelming. By the end of the afternoon, it was suggested I move my easel to a vendor booth, where I continued handing out business cards and responding to questions about my availability. I was, fortunately, able to attend some of the breakout sessions the other days, but convention goers were still asking to have their pictures taken with me until I packed the painting up at the end of the convention. (Shannon Underwood went home with the original.)

My expectations usually exceed actual results, because I’m a starry eyed artist, and I always expect my dreams to come true. I expected this event to get me gigs from the west coast to the east coast, and maybe Hawaii. I did not expect to be asked to travel to New Zealand and India.

This week I expedited a renewal of my passport.

I’m spilling gratitude everywhere I go.

September 11, 2011

2011-09-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

It is the tenth anniversary of the Twin Towers tragedy, and I’m in New York to paint a wedding. The Manhattan couple chose 9/10/11 for the auspicious sounding date.

Last night’s wedding was in the Hudson River valley, at the Pearl River Hilton. Although actually in New York State, about fifteen miles from the George Washington Bridge, some people at the hotel said, “Welcome to New Jersey.” It was a beautiful drive up the river: fall foliage, an almost cloudless sky, and amber evening light on the cliffs. The hotel looks like a French chateau. There were groundhogs on the lawn.

The ballroom was filled with thousands of white flowers. The florist told me just the roses alone numbered six thousand. They were accompanied by fresia, orchids, peonies, and flowered branches.

A chuppah was built of columns topped with enormous balls of these flowers and branches, arching over the ceremony like a canopy. Foot lights cast shadows of the branches on the ceiling.

Three hundred chairs faced the chuppah, and behind that the ballroom was curtained from the reception tables. An archway through the curtains was made of flowering branches, through which the wedding party entered, two by two.

Herein lies the challenge for a wedding painter.

I was positioned to the left of the chuppah, with a long view down the room. But I could only see three fifths of it, until after the ceremony. As I lay the foundation of a painting, my first task is to draw the lines and surfaces of the room, establishing perspective, light and mood. This is done with oil washes and a broad brush, blended afterwards with a fan brush for soft focus. I then work into this background all the features of the painting. If there is anything I cannot change later in the process of the painting, this is it.

I found my workaround above the archway. What I called “curtains” were really sliding and folding walls, typically found in modern ballrooms. They went all the way to the ceiling. But they were open to the width of the makeshift archway, above which I could see the decorative lines and partitions of the ceiling, all the way to the back wall. It was a narrow glimpse. I could not see the back corners of the room, but I could see enough to imagine them.

I rarely paint ceremonies. Receptions last much longer. But that chuppah was so beautiful, and my position was so perfect. And as I began my architectural background, the wedding party came in with the rabbi for rehearsal. I had not expected this, but it gave me an additional hour to paint them in the positions they’d occupy during the wedding.

After the beautiful and reverent ceremony, the assembly adjourned for cocktails, the lights came up, and the hotel crew “flipped the room.” The flowered archway was rolled to the side, the partitions folded back into the walls, the tables brought forth, candles lit, and the lights dimmed once again.

Of course, as people left the room after the ceremony, many of them stopped by my easel for a closer look. When they came back in for dinner, they found a very transformed painting. On the left, the ceremony is bright, and on the right, the room is dimmed as it was seen later. Between the two, the couple descends a little stair, greeting their future. I spent the rest of the evening painting guests.

Every wedding painting I’ve done is a portrait of a space of time— four to eight hours— as the light changes and people move about. But this was the first time I put the ceremony and reception on the same canvas.

And the bride was pleased.

Wedding MBA, Las Vegas, Sept 13-15, 2011

2011-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

I've been graciously invited to paint at the Wedding MBA convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center, September 13-15, 2011. This happened very quickly, after I met Peter Merry, author of The Best Wedding Reception Ever! just last weekend at a wedding. Much thanks to him, Shannon Underwood, and Andy Ebon for including me on such a level.

A Wedding at the W Hotel, Seattle

2011-08-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Lemon-McAllister Wedding, 24 x 40 inches, oil on canvas, August 27, 2011, at the W Hotel in Seattle.

I love painting a beautiful bride. Of course, all brides are beautiful, and they should be the radiant focus of every wedding painting.

How do I decide where to put the couple in the painting? When I started painting weddings, this was something we pre-arranged. I'm happy to discuss this with the couple before the big day. But as I've become more experienced, most couples now trust me to decide as the evening unfolds. I've learned to recognize opportunities as they present themselves.

In many of my paintings, the bride and groom stand for a few minutes in front of me (as time allows), and are thus at the front of the crowd. In some paintings I manage to paint the couple in their first dance. In that case I have to paint quickly, and perhaps add details later in the evening. At this reception there were long toasts, which kept the couple in a handy pose for a good amount of time. The view was from quite a ways across the room, but the placing ended up making for a pleasing composition.

This painting is wider (24 x 40) than the smaller sizes I more commonly sell (24 x 30, 24 x 36), and allows for a more expansive view of the ballroom.

A Bainbridge Island Birthday Party

2011-07-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

These people know how to throw a party.

Over a year ago, the wife contacted me to do a caricature of her, which she then personally copied onto her own handmade china plates for more than fifty guests for her 70th birthday. It would take her a year to create the ceramics. When she came to the studio for her caricature, she saw examples of my wedding paintings, which I often keep at the studio and deliver after they've dried. She loved the idea, and immediately booked me for the date.

The couple live on Bainbridge Island, looking across Puget Sound at Seattle, Washington. The party was set on their expansive, many terraced lawns, amid lush flowering gardens and ancient cedar trees. A well kept path led down the bluff to the sandy beach. A dance floor was laid for the occasion, and a cover band played classic rock. There were fire dancers, belly dancers, and exquisite food. The guests came dressed to the nines, but also in extraordinary costumes (note the elephant on a stick in the lower center of the painting.) Desserts included fresh spun cotton candy.

And since the event was at the client's home, I was able to leave the painting there, for a change!

I'm hoping to be invited back for her 80th.

Museum Quality Reprints

2011-07-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. A groom recently asked me if it would be possible to make reprints of my painting of their wedding. As a matter of fact, I have an excellent source for that. The guy who make giclée prints on canvas of my religious paintings is right here in the neighborhood (Pioneer Square, Seattle), and can print individual copies on demand. These are archival, museum quality prints, canvas stretched over wood, just like the original oil. In the case of my client who thought of it first, prints were made for the grooms' parents. But a couple might also consider reprints as thank-you cards, using traditional offset printing.

Having an artist painting live at a wedding tends to be a great entertainment for the guests. It goes without saying that the couple will enjoy the painting in their home, happily ever after. With today's technology, so can their guests!

The Barron-Coles Wedding, The Canal, Seattle

2011-03-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

For the Barron-Coles wedding, I was privileged to return to one of the very first venues at which I have created a live painting. The Canal overlooks the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, a.k.a. the Ballard Locks, on the ship canal connecting Lakes Washington and Union with Puget Sound. It's the site of the infamous, nearly perennial battles between the Washington State Department of Fisheries and and certain lox-eating California sea lions. The view is entrancing, especially for lovers of yachts and other maritime comings and goings. But because the event venue is a stone's throw downstream from the actual locks that raise and lower vessels between lake and sea level, the crowds of tourists which gawk there are kept at a distance. There is actually a sense of privacy where we were perched. And this was a family gathering.

Pan Pacific Hotel Bridal Open House

2011-02-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

It's a pleasure to participate in several bridal shows a year. This one on February 17, 2011, was at the Pan Pacific Hotel-Seattle.

The Pan Pacific-Seattle is the international hotel chain's first location in the United States, having established its luxury mark throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim from its base in Singapore. It is indeed grand, richly paneled in lightly stained wenge, my favorite tropical hardwood. (Look closely at the walls in the painting. They have horizontal stripes. If you go to this hotel, be bold enough to run your fingers along the wall; you can feel the age lines of these trees.)

The Grow Your Love Bridal Open House was not your typical sprawling convention center trade show. It was a more intimate affair, hosted as a mock wedding, with 200 brides-to-be as the invited guests. Actors were hired as the bride and groom of the evening, whose gregarious mothers warbled an amusingly altered version of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. They were married by a nice Reverend and toasted by their shy, proud fathers, all local actors. They even tossed the bouquet and cut the cake. I've immortalized them in this painting as I would any real couple.

My friend BreeAnn Gale of Pink Blossom Events orchestrated this fair, and I would have painted her into the scene, but she didn't stand still long enough. And frankly, I have a lot of experience painting people who aren't standing still.

I get asked about this a lot:

"Are you going to take photos and paint from the pictures?"

"If I give you photos of my [already transpired] wedding, can you paint from that?"

My specialty is painting live. This is the ancient art of looking at things and painting them as they happen. I do need a few minutes with the bride and groom, generally.

A lot of my wedding paintings can be a bit dark, as they are paintings of receptions in romantically dimmed rooms. This one is brightened by spring green fabrics from Aría|Style, whose talented owner wore a coat of matching silk, embroidered with pink flowers to evoke the accent lighting that uplit the corners of the room. She appears mid-painting, against the wall. For me, this green theme evoked my parents' dining room, which is trimmed in a similar shade of tulip stem, against walls of just barely minter-than-white— my father's design.

But I digress.

Did I mention the few from deck, with its veriegated pebble garden and teak lounge chairs?

Live Auction Painting at the Heart Ball 2011

2011-02-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

The Tacoma chapter of the American Heart Association held their 2011 Heart Ball at the Hotel Murano, Tacoma Washington. This is the second year I've been asked to paint at this auction. The 1930 Packard in the corner is courtesy of the LeMay Museum.

Host Hospitality Party and Event Planning put me in the center of the Bicentennial Plaza on a riser the size of a small stage, between the entrance and the ballroom. In the wings to either side of me were the displays for the silent auction. As has become the custom when I paint at auctions, I painted the crowd as they browsed and bidded on the silent items. When the live auction began, I took off my apron, put on my tux coat, and carried my painting to the main stage to parade it around, Vanna White style, during the bidding. After the auction, the buyer and spouse came back to my easel to pose for their quick portrait.

This is not like a presidential portrait, with the smooth finish of a John Singer Sargent— although I can do that too. This is an impressionistic portrait; an oil painting version of the caricatures I honed at events for 20+ years.

Photos from the Roemer Davenport Wedding

2010-12-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

Photos from a wedding always seem to trickle in for months. I'm grateful to Mrs. Jamie Davenport for sending me these photos of me painting at her wedding at the Seattle Art Museum's sculpture park, which I blogged about here.

Magnolia Cooperative Preschool Auction, December 4, 2010

2010-12-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Magnolia Cooperative Preschool Auction presented some painting challenges, as it was set in Seattle's Fremont Studios, a soundstage production facility that doubles as a venue for events. There are some definite positives in such a venue. One can always ask for gaffer's tape or proximity to an electrical outlet, which I need for the lamp I perch on my easel, in order to paint in the dark. Painting in the dark is always a challenge. And a soundstage has black walls, black floors, and a black ceiling.

The first thing I paint at a wedding or event is the room. For most of my clients— weddings, that is— the venue is an important part of the memory of the occasion. But at any event, I have to establish the plane in which the social activity unfolds. (The academic word for this is perspective, but I twist perspective so much as to defile it.) This means, in the most mundane sense, painting the floor, the walls and the ceiling. And in this room, that means painting with a lot of black.

I don't carry a tube of black paint. I mix ultramarine blue and burnt umber (an ancient pigment, a very dark brown) to get the sootiest, most charcoal like hue— but with more interesting undertones. In a conventional technique, this would be used very sparingly until after other colors and brighter areas are defined. But with the unique demands of these event paintings, the figures are painted last. So the challenge of painting this black room full of luminous, beautiful people was to keep it bright. When I was a less experienced painter, I swore through many elegant evenings, as bright dresses got muddy and faces got sooty on my canvas.

I am most pleased with this painting for managing the light in a room full of dark.

Also unique to a soundstage or large photo studio is a wall known as a psyche. It is generally painted white, and used to photograph objects so that they appear to be floating in space. This is accomplished by a sweeping curve that blends the wall with the floor. At Fremont Studios, the room that doubles as an event venue and concert hall has two psyche walls, south and west. A semi truck with a sixty foot trailer can be photographed in this room. And for this event, the psyche walls were transformed, movie screen like, cast in neon blue with rising bubbles.

One does not paint lines to establish the perspective of such a room. It is all done in fields of color. That color is mostly black. And against that dark frame, the clear, bright faces of the couple who bought this painting really shine.

Huerta-Reidmiller Wedding, The Ruins, Seattle, Washington, October 10, 2010

2010-10-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

From the exterior, The Ruins has the appearance of an old warehouse— old enough to be torn down, that is, not old enough to be quaint. There is a painted door with a street number on it, and a doorbell. But it is in fact a “private dining club,” and inside this plain door is a richly dressed garden, and within that, what seems to be a building built within a building. We step through another, more auspicious door, and into a European palace, re-imagined for the Pacific Northwest. It is an eclectic collection of antiques, both real and recreated. A full sized equestrian statue painted all over with flowers stands in the hallway. There are several reception rooms, separate dining rooms, and two chef’s kitchens. It has the feel of something Mad Ludwig might have built, if he’d emigrated to Seattle by way of Venice, dragging with him the spoils of many garage sales.

The ballroom is Baroque, gilded, and covered in murals of Northwest scenes, wildlife, and Native American histories. Jennifer Carrasco spent three years painting these walls and ceiling. I had a couple of hours to copy them before the guests arrived.

As with the challenge of painting a reception in a room full of sunlight that goes dark before the painting is done, this room dims from blue to ghostly black when the chandeliers are dimmed. It glimmers, then. The gold trim shines and the murals glow. The large room feels intimate instead of cavernous. I find myself carving figures into the shadows.

I painted the couple as they danced. This can’t be done with a rapid line. But with a flat brush I could form simple shapes fast enough— a few dark strokes for a tux, a white space for a dress. Details of their faces were added later, as I got glimpses of them throughout the evening.

Roemer Davenport Wedding, SAM Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA, September 18, 2010

2010-10-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

It makes so much sense that anyone getting married in an art museum should have an artist there to paint the occasion—especially when the artist has the same name as the acronym of the museum. The art museum in question was, of course, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), and the specific venue was the Olympic Sculpture Park. The park sprawls over nine acres of waterfront in downtown Seattle, between Belltown and Myrtle Edwards Park, on Elliott Bay. Atop the highest elevation, the cornerstone and principal gateway of the park is the Paccar Pavilion, where the Roemer Davenport wedding was held. The event was celebrated under the watch of the statuesque installations of Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, Claus Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Louise Bourgois and others.

The families and friends of the bride and groom were as colorful and interesting as the art, and a pleasure to paint. The bride’s dress was like a cloud, in which a floor length black ribbon was continually getting lost. She matched the cake, a design as architectural as the building.

There were considerable challenges in painting this mind-bending space. The architect designed it to open up to space, rather than recede into it. That’s an artsy way of saying the perspective is backwards. The corners of a room usually appear, to the natural eye, to taper towards an implicit vanishing point on the horizon. That is, the far end of the room looks narrower than the nearer part, and that’s how we unconsciously know its father away. The lines of the corners of a room are the first things I paint, because that perspective then helps establish where everything else in the painting is, in relation to each other.

But in the Paccar Pavilion, looking north and west toward the gardens, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains, the dimensions of the room get both broader and taller, so that the lines of one’s view expand to the sky. As I try to draw the room as a conventional square, it appears as if it has no corners.

The bride and groom graciously gave me time to meet with them before their rehearsal, and we discussed and agreed on my vantage point. I was on the stairs, which they descended as they entered the room after the ceremony, as man and wife.

It was the perfect view.

5th Avenue Theater Gala Auction and 30th Anniversary, June 19, 2010

2010-07-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

This year my vantage point was from the landing on the central staircase of the ornate Chinese entry hall. In 1926, architect Robert C. Reamer and interior designer Gustav F. Liljestrom modeled this interior after three of Imperial China's most splendid structures: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heavenly Peace and the Summer Palace. It was restored to its glory in 1980.

The great challenge for me in painting this venue is editing— every detail can barely be observed, much less rendered in likeness, in a few hours. I’m learning to simplify, becoming more impressionistic, and still keep the essentials necessary to record a memory of a place and an evening.

At benefit auctions, items rarely sell for more than their stated value. This is because donated items are often products available to the public at market price— a case of wine, a vacation package, etc. But I paint only one painting during the cocktail hour and silent auction each year. Several patrons noticed themselves depicted in the painting, and others had reasons to want to remember this particular event in a singular way.

Mine was the last item in the live auction, and bidding for the 30” x 40” painting started at $1500. In a flurry of raised paddles, the asking bid quickly passed the stated value of $3750 (For a complete list of my fees for event paintings, go here). The drama then slowed, and drew itself out as other patient bidders replaced the early contenders. There was spontaneous applause each time the price passed another thousand dollars, and sustained applause as the gavel came down at $7250.

I’m looking forward to doing this again next year.

Northwest Corks and Crush Auction, with Ingrid Bergman's Ferrari

2010-07-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

Northwest Corks and Crush was just like any other wine auction, except for the classic cars on display. It was like having a benefit auction in a car museum. The cars weren’t for sale, but were a great conversation starter for this crowd. I don’t think I’d ever painted a car before. The luxury for me was that they sat still long enough.

Given the freedom to choose my vantage, I set up my easel behind the rarest car I’m likely to ever see. This 1954 Ferrari 375 MMbelongs to Northwest philanthropists John and Mary Shirley, but is nicknamed for its earlier glamorous owner, Ingrid Bergman. Its estimated $20M value doesn’t just come from the touch of celebrity; it played a significant role in the history of the design of Ferraris. It was a single seat race car when Bergman’s husband, director Alberto Rossellini, bought it to drive on the streets of Rome, where it incurred some minor body damage. Rossellini returned it to the factory, asking them to make it into a coupé suitable for both him and his wife. The resulting design by Carrozzeria Scaglietti was the paradigm for perhaps the next twenty years of luxury performance road machines.

The north light that flooded into the arena throughout the afternoon and into the evening gave halos to the figures that passed in front of me. Painting these backlit patrons, I felt like I was back in art class with William Cummings, whose work I hadn’t thought had influenced me so much.

The winning bidder and his colleagues were painted in to the scene immediately after the auction.

In the above photo, the familiar auctioneer behind me is Jeff Randall. Photo by Heather Curbow. Used by permission of Team Photogenic.

Voila! Wedding Show, Woodmark Hotel, Yacht Club and Spa, Carillon Point, Kirkland, Washington, March 28, 2010

2010-04-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

In one respect, it can be harder to compose a painting at these shows than at a wedding. That is, there’s no client and no prioritized group of people who need to be in the painting. In many trade shows, I end up painting from a booth in a long row of other vendors, and I struggle to find an important focal point to be main visual interest in the picture. Fortunately, this show was divided into several more or less intimate rooms. This one was called the Winter Room, and had a great central display that, pictorially, defines what we were doing there: selling to brides.

I rarely paint service people in commissioned pieces, and if I do, I limit it to one and keep it subdued. But this is a demo painting, and it seemed to me that service is what the business is all about. Having made that decision, I loved the ethnic variation of the workers; the face of an African, an Indonesian.

Painting the harpist was a joy. But had I known there was a string trio coming later, I would have scooted the harpist over to make room to paint them all in.

Heart Ball, Tacoma, Washington, February 20, 2010

2010-04-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

This American Heart Association fundraiser was held in the spacious Tacoma convention Center, where the theme of the lobby art recalls the city’s timber roots. What looks like a brown X in the left side of the picture is an installation of heavy beams, salvaged from pioneer era buildings that used to occupy the site.

When I began painting, the room was filled with daylight, its panorama extending from the skyline to Mount Rainier. As with the painting in Benaroya Hall last October, the great challenge was for me to anticipate what the room would look like after dark, yet capture as much of the architectural setting as possible before the guests arrived. This is literally a reversal of light and dark. In the afternoon, the atrium walls were dark lines across a bright sky; by evening they became silver bars across blackened reflections. It was necessary to draw the window frames to establish the perspective of the room, but as the light changed, they had to be redrawn with the opposite colors.

Then why don’t I just use a pencil? I draw directly with oil paint, because it can be wiped off and changed much easier than erasing pencil, and because anything that doesn’t need changing is already finished without additional coloring.

These live event paintings are constantly changing until the evening is over. I routinely wipe off figures and fixtures to replace them with new people who’ve entered the room. But if I followed the academic method of drawing first with pencil or charcoal, then applying a fixative and coloring afterward in oils, I would not be able to change the initial drawing as the party moves and morphs. Not only would I be unable to erase the fixed pencil lines, once the painting began I would not be able to go back and add more pencil lines. My direct technique allows me to decide at the last minute to add your flower girl, as she is suddenly chased through the scene by the ring barer, and then gone.

Hainline Holiday Party, Alexis Hotel, Seattle, Washington, December 11, 2009

2010-01-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

Any holiday party is worth a painting, I think, but this was a special one for this company. Their founder was retiring, and his associates commissioned a painting as a parting gift. The cozy ballroom at the Alexis was perfect for the family-like intimacy of these coworkers. And it was a short walk from my studio!

Orthodontics Excellence, Newcastle, Washington, November 12, 2009

2010-01-15T15:17:00.001-08:00

I always love a party, even if it’s in an orthodontist’s office in a suburban strip mall. Jesse and Travis, the talented duo at True Colors Events, handily conjured a night club atmosphere in a space already funkier than your average doctor’s office. With catering by SAM Taste, this was definitely the way to do a marketing fete for referring dentists. The hosts were as colorful in person as they look in paint, illustrating the international diversity of the Eastside: Chinese, East Indian, Israeli. As a caricaturist, portraitist or event painter, my first and last interest in art is the people in the picture.

Zinzanniversary! Painting at Teatro Zinzanni’s 10th Anniversary Celebration November 1, 2009

2009-11-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

For their anniversary, Teatro Zinzanni held an auction in their Spiegel Tent to benefit the Zinzanni Institute of Circus Arts, with performances by Ann Wilson of Heart, El Vez, Francine Reed, and the great cast that regularly serves up Love, Chaos and Dinner at this wild and wacky place. (The Tom Douglas designed five course meal is as good as the show.) I painted the cocktail hour and silent auction in the lounge. The gentleman in the hat bought the painting.

Urban Unveiled at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, October 15, 2009

2009-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Urban Unveiled is a high-end wedding show created by über wedding planners Jesse Brix and Travis McBurney of True Colors Events. With a limited number of exclusive vendors and a fabulous couture fashion show in the grand hall at Benaroya, the home of the Seattle Symphony, this show had more of a party atmosphere than the feel of some marketing event. This painting now belongs to Jesse and Travis, who appear in the lower left. A few steps toward the center is their lovely friend, the couture designer Luly Yang. It was a delight to meet Ms. Yang (who just opened a new boutique in Beijing), and have her stand in front of me for five minutes to put her into this painting.

Fisher-Sirota Wedding, Seawane Country Club, Hewlett Harbor, New York, September 12, 2009

2009-09-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

I love New York. I really, truly love New York. But I didn’t get to go into the city; I stayed near JFK airport, and had my canvas and citrus thinner delivered to my hotel from an art store in Manhattan.

As my Trinidadian livery driver carried me east out onto Long Island, the neighborhoods gentrified almost from one block to the next. Rows of working class houses gave way to lawns and comfortable homes, then mansions with water access to Hewlett Bay.

Tucked away behind these shrub-lined gardens, the Seawane Country Club could pass for another stately home. But its magnificent ballroom looks out over the greens and fairways that stretch down to the bay. A salt breeze wafted in over the patio, decked this day with a chuppah, or marriage canopy, and white flowers. A larger white tent covered the guests from the predicted rain.

Inside, tables were set and the band tested their sound system while I mixed paint and prepared to depict the room. After cocktails were served in an adjacent room, a white curtain was swept aside, the band got funky, and the dance floor filled with celebrants before dinner.

And what a band it was. They played everything from klezmer to jazz and funk. They finished the evening with 80s rock.

As for my part, I knocked this painting out in four hours.

Update: Prices and Travel Fees

2009-08-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

I’m delighted that I’m getting requests to paint weddings in beautiful and exciting places. I’ve recently been contacted by brides and grooms in San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, and Rhode Island. I’ll be doing my first New York wedding next month.

As even the most lavish weddings have to carefully manage costs, the second question I’m asked is always about price. (The first is “do you travel to ______?”) To be fair to my local clients, I charge for travel costs separate from the price of the painting. Painting prices are as follows:

2009 Prices

24 x 30 $2000

24 x 36 $2300

24 x 40 $2650

30 x 40 $3750

36 x 48 $5000

48 x 60 $6000

48 x 72 $7500

For out of state clients in North America, I charge for air fare and lodging, and car rental if necessary. There is an additional fee of $1000, which covers two working days of travel time. If you would like me to travel out of the country, I’ll need to know more about your specific location before I can quote a final price.

As is common in the wedding industry, I need a non refundable deposit of 50% to reserve your date. If you contract this year for a date next year, you get this year’s price.

YouTube vid: 25 Event Paintings

2009-07-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

This new YouTube video has a short narrative about how I got started doing wedding paintings, and showcases more than two dozen paintings over the last five years.

New Video: Tutta Bella Painting

2009-06-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

I blogged about this event earlier, but the YouTube video is new.

Thanks to the Tarantellas, who let me use their recording of Godfather's Tarantella. They appear in the lower left of the painting, and are regulars at Tutta Bella, which serves authentic neapolitan pizza the way its done in Italy.

Time Lapse Photography, Lake Las Vegas Wedding

2009-06-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Time lapse photography of me painting a wedding at Lake Las Vegas, courtesy of Jason Roberts at Digs Studio, LasVegas. The first video shows me painting the landscape background before the wedding, which took place on the beach at Reflection Bay. The second video is in the ballroom for the reception that evening— two paintings in one day! Thanks to Digs for excellent work, and for letting me share this.

Sam Day Timelapse 1 from Digs Studio- Jason Roberts on Vimeo.

Sam Day Time Lapse 2 from Digs Studio- Jason Roberts on Vimeo.

Painting a Lake Las Vegas Wedding

2009-06-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

Vegas is the epicenter for destination weddings. Most of those happen on or near The Strip, but this one was on a beautiful choral sand beach in a golf resort southeast of town, just a stone’s throw from Lake Mead.

The bride had carefully orchestrated a fantasy wedding, and the planners at Green Orchid Events made sure it all happened with precision and grace. There were so many elements in the event, a little editing had to determine what would end up in the painting. Could I paint fast enough when the bride and bridesmaids arrived on the yacht, and paraded around Reflection Bay to the waiting groomsmen? What about the gondola that picked up the couple after the ceremony? Neither vessel made it to into my composition. But I got the gospel choir and one of the ribbon dancers.

The landscape was the easy part. Just as when I’m painting an event in a room, I showed up early enough to have the background done before the guests arrived.

This was a first for me. Not only was it the first time I painted a wedding ceremony, but also the first time I painted two canvases at the same event. It was an afternoon wedding, and the whole evening was ahead of us. So as the couple embarked on their gondola cruise and the guests migrated into the clubhouse for cocktails, I moved my easel into the ballroom to paint the reception.

The photography and cinema professionals at Digs have beautiful pix on their blog.

Six Foot Painting at Tutta Bella - Wallingford

2009-05-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

On April 26, 2009, my client rented out the restaurant Tutta Bella in Wallingford, Seattle, Washington, for a 60^th birthday bash. This was my greatest challenge to date, because of the enormous size. At six feet wide and four feet high, the canvas is nearly eight times the size of my regular 24” x 30” event paintings. But I had to complete the painting in the same amount of time— a four hour party, plus three hours of set up.

I actually spent days preparing. I stretched the canvas myself, because I’m rarely pleased with off-the shelf products this size. I also built a special carrying case to transport the painting when wet.

I arrived at 8 am to set up for an 11:30 event. After about an hour of set up and mixing paint, I began painting the background.

I was trying to include about a 150 degree view, so I had to visually bend the architecture like a fisheye lens. As with all these paintings, lot of quick brush work has to be done in the beginning. Even very thin washes still take a lot of paint at this size. Everything is umber and ochre at first. Areas I want lighter are altered by lifting out paint with citrus thinner. Detail is added later in thicker layers.

After lunch, core family members stayed til nearly 4 pm. The clients' grandchildren stood for their portraits in the foreground.

Music to paint by! Richard Sclafani and Peter Cicero, of the italian folk duo the Tarantellas, serenaded the finishing touches.

The excellent planning was orchestrated by Jesse Brix and Travis McBurney of True Colors Events. The event was photographed by the talented staff at Imigri, and all the photos I have of me at this event are copyrighted by them.

Video: Time Lapse of 5th Avenue Theater Painting

2009-05-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

On April 18, 2009 I made my 5th Avenue debut at their annual gala auction. My painting from that evening will be reproduced in promotional materials for next years’ gala, and the painting will be sold at that auction (2010)—while I’m painting the image for the 2011 auction. It’s nice to be asked to start a tradition!
Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater hosts Broadway musicals, often featuring world premieres, such as the upcoming Catch Me if You Can.

Thanks to ProMotion Arts for the video. http://www.ProMotionArts.com
http://www.5thavenue.org/

December Art Walk

2008-12-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

Galleries in Pioneer Square, Seattle, have long held the openings of new shows on the first Thursday of each month. The First Thursday Art Walk ties the galleries together with crafts for sale in Occidental Park, open studios in buildings where artists rent studios, and occasional street performers. This month I decided to pay the $10 to the City and set up my easel in the park. It was a chilly evening, there were roving carolers, and the crowd was light. But there was this delightful group of high school art students from Auburn, which is nigh to Tacoma. They gathered around and craned their necks as I scribbled as many of them into the painting as possible before they were summoned back to the school bus.

On Painting Architecture

2008-11-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

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The first order of business, before painting the guests, is to paint the room in which they congregate. I’ve always been drawn to painting people, and though I love architecture, the thought of painting it as subject matter would have bored me stiff when I was younger. But weddings tend to be set in grand places, and brides and grooms place their memories in these great places. And as I’ve learned to scribble these settings quickly, I’ve come to appreciate architectural painters. As I have an eye for faces, those who are good at buildings have an eye for perspective. I forget about it. Sure, I studied it in school, learned to draw it with a tee square and triangle, even remember doing that homework on the bus. I don’t particularly remember the particulars now, though. And in these paintings, I’m bending the rules as far as I can see without making it look deliberately distorted. The scope of a painting is often more than 180 degrees. Some lines, then, get bent like a fish-eye lens. But I don’t distort the figures, at least not in a wide-angle lens way.
The painting shown here was done in the Northern Lights Dome Room at Seattle’s recently restored Arctic Hotel. It is a magnificent ceiling of stained glass and gilded molding, and presented a delicious challenge as the evening dimmed.

Under the Big Top

2008-11-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, November 9, Junior Achievement of Washington held an auction at Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle, raising over $300k to help teach kids about financial responsibility and financial success. I enjoy donating to events like this, because in addition to supporting a cause, auctions are great networking opportunities. This venue was especially fun, because I just fit right in with circus performers.

The couple who purchased this painting are depicted at the end of the long table, in the far right half of the painting.

Painting an Auction

2008-11-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

This sunday I'll be painting an auction for Junior Achievement at Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle.
The auction runs from 10:30am – 2:30pm, November 9th, 2008. Of course, I'll be there hours before, setting up my easel, and commencing to paint the spectacular setting. Teatro Zinzani bills itself as selling Love, Chaos, and Dinner, in a setting that is half cirque and half cabaret, with a five course meal by Seattle genius chef Tom Douglas. The winning bidder for my painting gets their table and guests painted front and center in my composition, which is sure to be a colorful evocation of Talouse-Latrec at the Moulin Rouge.

Prices, Terms, Travel Policies

2008-10-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

As soon as I began painting weddings, I found that I’m not charging enough. I have heard of a few people who do this, often at several times what I charge. So I’m gradually adjusting the price, a little bit each year. Posted below are this year’s prices, and the new prices for 2009. As is common in the wedding industry, a non-refundable deposit of 50% is due upon signing a contract to reserve a date. 2009 weddings that are booked before January 1st will be given 2008 prices. Travel fees are discussed below the chart.

2008 Prices 2009 Prices

24 x 30 $1850 24 x 30 $2000
24 x 36 $2200 24 x 36 $2300
24 x 40 $2500 24 x 40 $2650
30 x 40 $3500 30 x 40 $3750
36 x 48 $4500 36 x 48 $5000
48 x 60 $5500 48 x 60 $6000

Of course, for any travel requiring an overnight stay, I’ll need to be reimbursed for lodging and airfare. I’ll drive as far as Vancouver, BC, Portland, OR, or Spokane, WA, without asking for gas money.
There are certain logistical hurdles associated with air travel. I can fly with my oil paints (they’re just vegetable oils), but they won’t let me carry solvents on board. So I need a day on the ground in your fair city to procure a few art supplies, or they sometimes they can be shipped to my hotel. Hence, an out of town gig generally books three days on my calendar. I need to charge a fee (currently $500) for those days that I could be booking if I were working locally. So for most North American gigs, I would charge the price of the painting, plus two travel days, plus airfare and lodging.
For Europe, make that six days. Here’s why. At the end of an event, I’m only ninety-five percent done with the painting. I usually take the painting back to my studio and touch up the bride and groom, then ship them the painting. I can do this touch-up at the destination, if I stay and wait 48 hours for the paint to dry enough for me to paint another layer on it. So a client would be paying for (1) travel day + (1) prep day + the painting (no extra travel fee for the day of the event) + (2) days drying time + (1) day painting and preparing painting for delivery +(1) day travel back to the states.
Those two days waiting for paint to dry need not be wasted. I’d be happy to spend them painting additional alle prima paintings of the city or resort of your nuptial memories! Prices for these will be appropriate to size, but can be steeply discounted as part of a negotiated package.

Caricatures

2008-10-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I worked a wedding in the old fashioned way. Using india ink and a sable brush, I drew about 150 caricatures. My first caricature gig was in 1987 or 88, as a student at the Art Institute of Seattle. But my first published caricature was of Ronald Reagan, during his 1980 campaign, for the Lewiston Morning Tribune, in Lewiston Idaho. I was a freshman in high school. I’ve since illustrated funny head pix for publications of larger circulation, such as Reader’s Digest.
I still love doing this at events. It’s great wrist practice to draw so many faces, and I am genuinely intrigued by every one of them. Weddings are especially fun, because so many of the sitters share common facial features, being related by family and all.

$500 for the first three hours, $125/hr thereafter.

Octoberfest Wedding

2008-10-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

It was Octoberfest in the Bavarian village of Leavenworth. Of course, if it were a real Bavarian village, it would be in Bavaria. But the town markets itself as such to draw tourists, and the replication is convincing— gingerbread houses, lederhosen, beer. The town fathers’ mimicry is suitable to the alpine shelf on which the town sits, on the east side of Washington’s Cascade Range, her jagged Enchantments thrusting up behind.
Just south of town, on the banks of Icicle Creek, not many miles from its glacial source, is Sleeping Lady Lodge. The Icicle Creek Music Festival makes its home here in the summer, and it’s a snowshoeing and cross-country skiing heaven in winter.
We were there half way in between. It rained. Being from Seattle, the bride and groom were undeterred, and were married outside by the creek. I set up my easel in the Salmon Gallery, and did what I love to do.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this wedding was the two dozen (or so) children, nieces and nephews of the couple, children of friends, and the beautiful daughter of the bride. I found myself surrounded by inquisitive preteens, a rock star for a moment.
“I hope he likes kids,” the staff murmured to each other. I do. I wanted to paint them all.
For some clients, inclusion of any face I see at the party is a sensitive issue. I do my best to include parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen, anyone specially requested. But I cannot promise to get everyone, and I discourage requests for changes back at the studio. Clients need to understand that spontaneity is what gives these paintings such energy, and post-celebratory alterations jeopardize the “look and feel” that is natural to alle prima painting. Nevertheless, I am at their service, and with caveat, would not decline an insistent customer.
The clients of this painting were, again, among my favorites. I had worked with the groom in the advertising industry, drawing storyboards for clients such as HBO. I’m crossing my fingers that they’ll hire me to paint their daughter’s wedding, in about fifteen years!

Painting my First Wedding

2008-10-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Every time I paint at a wedding, dozens of on-looking guests will tell me the same thing: “I’ve never heard of this! What a great idea!” And as often as time allows, I tell this story.

It wasn’t my idea. In late 2004, a groom called me and said he had an idea for a gift for his bride. Their wedding was coming up that very weekend, and he wanted an artist to come to the reception and paint the scene, live. He was certain that his wife would find it romantic, and his guests would be entertained by watching. He was so assured of the excellence of this idea that he persisted in making seventy-five phone calls in search of a willing artist. One of those calls was to an art professor at the University of Washington, who assured him he would not find anyone who could fill such a demanding request. [The emphases are his.]

I took that as a dare.
My preparation, I believe, was in fifteen years of doing caricatures at events. Using ink and a brush, I have knocked out as many as 400 caricatures in a day— more than one a minute once I’m in the groove. But my experience with paint was more limited. Feeling unable to guarantee the results, but eager to try, I charged him only $500. I spent $350 of it on a portable easel, canvas, and a travel set of oils.

I determined that oil paints would be most appropriate, because they dry slowly enough for errors to be simply wiped off and repainted. The smell of turpentine was a concern. But I bought an “odorless” solvent, which was much easier on the guests, and I now use a citrus thinner which actually smells quite nice.

There was a very steep learning curve at this first gig, such as the need for me to bring my own illumination, and a small rug to use as a drop cloth. But I also learned that I can be tidy enough to paint in a tux, and even talk to guests at the same time.

And I learned that people really do love this idea. Especially brides.