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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.