Live Event Portrait Artists in 2016

Remember seeing that funny poster in your mechanic’s waiting room that says, “If you watch, it costs 20% more”?  Engagement punishment like that does not exist in the world of portrait artists who work in front of live audiences. Feel free to watch most Live Event Portrait Artists and chat them up!

What is a Live Event Portrait Painter?

Since the earliest days of kings and queens, someone has been appointed to work out their image in a painting, drawing or sculpture.

From wikipedia: “The oldest known portrait in the world comes from Czech Republic. It shows a woman(s) face and was made from mammoth ivory and is about 26,000 years old… (Others) are the funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt’s Fayum district.”

One of the world’s most favorite painters, Gustav Klimt, is said to have taken four years to complete his well-known, gold enveloped portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

Sometimes, portrait painters come along with the ability to accurately see and capture an image right away. And if they don’t mind the obvious distraction of having a roving audience behind them, they manage to create a final portrait in front of a crowd, within a standard sitting time. Standard is from 1-3 hours. Unlike a Klimt with a richly themed background, of course, these works are traditionally smaller with greater emphasis on foreground composition than background detail.

A 2015 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution related the details of one live event painter whose work went worldwide. It described the artist’s main objective was to “create a work of art at an event while the guests watch… weddings, parties and more.”  Welcome to the movement towards portrait art as a spectator sport!

Another major online news feed relates that live event painters’ sketches make for a very hip party favor for weddings and other trending events.

Roswell live event portrait artists who appeared in 2016

For the second year in a row, the Voila Crewe fundraiser group in the greater Roswell/Atlanta area offered patrons a chance to watch and enjoy the creation of fine art.

To support the main fundraiser for the ALS Emory clinic, a silent auction allowed collectors to bid on the art pieces created by the Roswell Live Event Portrait Artists at the fundraising event . . . with no penalties for verbally engaging the artists!

Live Event Portrait Artists for Voila Crewe Fundraiser 2016

Ann M Bailey

Timothy Beacham

Karen Bradshaw

Nancy Lewis

History of the Roswell Live Event Portrait Artists Group

This small group of painters had been working alongside each other for years. Students and friends of the late portraitist James B. Schell, the group had painted together as the River Lake Painters and Abernathy Studio Painters for up to 2 decades, in some cases.

In 2015, the Voila Fundraising Committee sponsored the Georgia Organ Transplant Donors fund, and asked the Roswell Live Event Portrait Artists to Participate. The event was a huge success. Early that Saturday evening, the crew of artists gathered at the Roswell Country Club, just before the doors opened, to set up. As guests arrived, they began their 16×20 canvases of the sensitive, red-haired model Eden Rice.

Eden has been a favored beauty model for the late Nelson Shanks, and she posed in pearl-laden white, with her long, lavish auburn locks wrapped to one side. The crowd was ecstatic to witness the creative process first hand, and all five paintings sold at silent auction above the asking price.

2016 promised to be even bigger.

Unusual art offering?

• The art offered to friends and patrons of the sponsored charity on 2/6/2016 was five different portraits, painted by five artists, of a hired, theme-costumed model captured, start to finish, during 3 hours of the event.
• Patrons bid in silent-auction style on the five wet-paint, original oil paintings.
• What is most intriguing is that collectors and bystanders were milling around behind the live event portrait artists as they created their portraits.

Live event painting continues to intrigue

In February 2016, five artists painted Tessa, a tall, Greek-heritage model dressed in Mardis Gras attire. Patrons were able to bid in silent auction on the alla prima works completed during the gala event. All paintings sold!

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