Live Event Paintings

I paint oil paintings, live, at wedding receptions and events, anywhere in the world. Click my profile to find my email, or call (206) 382-7413.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

The New York Times featured an article about live event painters today in the Sunday Styles section. I am quoted a couple of times in the article, and am one of eight artists featured in a slide show of our work in the online edition. I congratulate my fellow event painters, and look forward to all our fortunes rising with this publicity.

Friday, November 9, 2012

McClelland- Miller Wedding, Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth, Texas


McClelland-Miller Wedding (detail; click to view full image) November 3, 2012

This was my first trip to Texas. When I called my wife after checking into the hotel, she said I already had an accent. Texas can grow on you that quickly.
Since nothing is small in Texas, this was one of the largest weddings I’ve done, with nearly 500 guests. The soaring, white pavilion at the Fort Worth Zoo was the site of both the wedding and the reception. After a faith-filled service with a gospel choir, guests adjourned to an adjacent pavilion for cocktails while the main space was transformed from chapel to magnificent dining hall. Both spaces were filled with thousands of roses and hydrangea, punctuated with phalaenopsis. 
A band of extraordinary vocal force and suave instrumentality played as the guests came in and found their seats. But the flower girl and ring bearer, twin toddlers belonging to the brides’ brother, found the dance floor first.
As I never know how long children will last at a party, I didn’t waste any time painting them. They appear just to the right of the bride, playing on the stairs to the bridal party’s raised dining stage.
This was a dancing crowd, and the lounge end of the party accommodated enormous participation. White leather couches flanked the dance floor, with the most Texan of all possible coffee tables: diamond plate aluminum truck bed tool boxes. As the spectrum lighting changed the room from purple to magenta and back again, the tool boxes shone like mirrors.
The tall, elegant bride and her all-American groom are seen here surrounded by their friends on the dance floor. The gracious, tuxedoed father of the bride gives his toast.