Abby and Ben, Melrose Market Studios, Seattle

Yawitz Wedding, Melrose Market Studios, Seattle, oil painting, 24 x 30

When I painted the holiday Jubilee at the WAC, I captured in the crowd a woman in a black and white chevron skirt. It was a bold print, and stood out clearly in the room, and in the painting. Someone recognized her in my scribbling, found her in another room at the party, and told her she was in my painting. She immediately came to see.

So, just a few months later, I painted her wedding.

Abby and Ben’s reception was at Melrose Market Studios, a renovated former grocery in a red brick and Douglas fir timbered 1927 building. This is classic Seattle.

It was a cozy family style affair, complete with darling blonde flower girls, dressed in white.

Flower girls and their mother, Yawitz Wedding (detail)

A Soldier’s Wedding at Newcastle Country Club

-->

Svore-Broemmel Wedding, Newcastle Country Club, Washington, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, by Sam Day

I’ve done several wedding paintings at this venue, a tournament-caliber golf course and county club. Perched on a hilltop roughly a thousand feet above Puget Sound, the clubhouse has peerless views of Seattle, Lake Washington, Bellevue, and other suburbs. It’s a grand view, even on a windy, rainy winter night. The lights of the cities below glitter through the storm clouds as they rise up the hills.

Detail, Svore-Broemmel Wedding Painting by Sam Day

The lap of the 44,000 square foot clubhouse is called Prestwick Terrace, which is, of course, a terrace designed to showcase this magnificent view. And on that terrace is a capacious and permanent event tent, graciously pumped full of heat for this holiday fête.

 The décor was decidedly winter, with a towering Christmas tree and white lights.

The groom was a graduate of West Point, and a decorated Army Ranger. He wore his dress blues, and cut the cake with his saber. Although I pride myself on painting couples from life, this time I took a picture—a close up— of the decorations his chest, so I could represent them correctly. His equally accomplished bride had one request— the addition of her West Highland Terrier, who was not present. It was a small thing to ask, and a thing I’ve done before.

Other figures appear cryptic, but recognizable, and individuals were delighted to find that they had “made [it into] the painting.”

Wedding Proposal at Sam Day Studio, August 29, 2013

Sometimes the simplest jobs are the sweetest. This client brought his girlfriend in to the studio to have their caricatures done, and when they left, she was his fiancé. It was all prearranged, of course, and it happened just as planned. After drawing their faces, the last thing I drew was his body down on one knee, and then his hand presenting the ring, which he pulled out of his pocket just as her face showed that she suddenly understood what was happening.