A Portrait Conversation Keynote at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA

This portrait was created as part of a Portrait Conversation keynote for a fundraiser for the Simpson Foundation that took place in the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the keynote myself and David, one of the residents of Simpson House, sat on stage and discussed his life and some of his inspiring stories. As I drew out the stories in our conversation I also drew his portrait on the iPad, projected in real time on a large screen above the stage. The audience enjoyed experiencing a portrait of David emerge in both words and paint at the same time!

Live Painting at the Sun Princess Name Reveal

This painting was created live at the Name Reveal Event for Princess Cruises latest cruise ship, the Sun Princess. Before the name was revealed I live painted a scene of the view from the deck of the cruise ship showing Greek islands and the Agean on the left and an Alaskan scene on the right. Then for the reveal I painted a sunrise happening, starting with night and transforming into the early morning light, with the Sun Princess depicted on the right.

The actual reveal was so beautiful: a dancer was suspended below a balloon and danced in the air with the setting sun directly behind her as the fabulous electric string quartet Spinphony Strings played The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”.

My paintings, virtual murals, were displayed in real time on a 60′ x 20′ floating barge display system moored at the terminal. The audience could enjoy seeing the brush strokes as they built up into the completed artworks.

This is the replay of the first artwork I made:

Here are some photos from the event:

And the artworks:

Big thank you to the whole team, talent and staff involved in this fabulous event!

Reception Party for Annual Meeting, Charleston, South Carolina

This video shares the time lapse replay of my live painting at the Municipal Association of South Carolina (MASC) 2022 Annual Meeting reception in Charleston, SC. The artwork depicts some of the iconic historic architecture and sights of Charleston, as well as of some other beautiful cities and towns in South Carolina. I also depicted some of the guests attending the reception.

The artwork was created live based on direct observation using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app. It was shared on a large display screen for all guests to enjoy watching the live art evolve throughout the evening.

Huge thanks to Ken and his amazing MASC team as well as the great staff of The Charleston Place!

Sunset VVIP Dinner Virtual Mural in the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston

This painting, a virtual mural, was created live at a private VVIP dinner in the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston. It depicts the scene and captures the atmosphere. The artwork was displayed in real time as it was created on a large screen visible throughout the magnificent event space. The room had dramatic floor-to-ceiling glass windows on two sides through which we were all treated to an amazing colorful sunset view looking out over the beautiful Boston Seaport.

Here are some photos from the event:

Big thank you to the staff of the ICA and the team at this event. Great working with you all!

Portraits at Pride Parade Watching Party

This video captures the celebratory atmosphere painting live digital portraits at the Afterpay 2022 Pride Parade Watching Party in San Francisco. Afterpay is part of the company Block.

All the portrait subjects received digital files of their portraits that they could immediately share on their social media. Here are some of the portraits and a few photos from the event.

With big thanks to Liz and the her wonderful colleagues at Afterpay! Thank you also to Nina Bris, Peggy G and the others whose photographs and videos are shared in my montage video.

Meeting Planners Congress
Party at San Francisco City Hall

This is my live painting of the scene at the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress (WEC) 2022 Closing Party at the San Francisco City Hall. The party theme was California Dreamin’ – celebrating the best of Northern, Southern and Central California vibes. The artwork was created live based on direct observation using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app. It was shared on a large display screen for all guests to enjoy watching the live art evolve throughout the evening.

Huge thanks to Kerri and Eddie and their colleagues at Innovative Entertainment!

Nuclear Energy Themed Virtual Mural in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

This painting was created live for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) at their Nuclear Energy Assembly Special Event, Art Imitates Energy, which was held in The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C..

The painting, a virtual mural displayed in real time as it was created on a 12′ x 6′ LED screen visible throughout the magnificent courtyard, was an interactive creative project based around the theme of the many and varied peaceful uses of nuclear energy. I started at the atomic level and invited guests to choose their favorite colors for the colors of the electrons circulating around the Uranium atoms I depicted. Thankfully each Uranium atom has 92 electrons so I didn’t run out of them!

I then added motifs, sometimes assisted by guests with ideas and suggestions, that ranged from nuclear reactor buildings (such as the cooling towers, reactor building, turbine building) and components (the turbine and fuel), the fission reaction and nuclear plant workflow schematics; to the transfer of energy through power lines; Washington, D.C., lit up at night; medical applications of nuclear from whole body scanners to radio-isotope scans and radioimmunotherapy (RIT); all the way into space with NASA’s proposed spacecraft enabled by nuclear thermal propulsion.

Here are some photos from the event:

Big thank you to the staff and organizations of the Nuclear Energy Institute (@nuclearenergy), Skylark Creative Group (@skylarkcreativegrp) and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (@smithsoniannpg). Great working with you!

Photo credits to Kate Nelson and Daniel Longfellow. Video credit Kate Nelson. Artwork painted on an iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and the Procreate app.

Painting the Washington Nationals Philanthropies’ Award Presentation

This painting was created live at the Washington Nationals Philanthropies’ Night 4Good that took place in the MGM National Harbor to celebrate the true meaning of the Nationals Philanthropies, a charitable arm of the Washington Nationals baseball team that gives back to the local community. The event featured the presentation of the annual Power of Baseball award to Theodore N. Lerner, Founding Managing Principal Owner of the Washington Nationals.

Congratulations to Mr. Lerner on his award and lifetime achievements. As he noted in his acceptance speech and as I then added to this painting: “on field excellence with off the field impact.”

Here are some photos from the event:

Big thank you to the staff and organizations of the Washington Nationals Philanthropies (@Nats4Good), The Dufour Collaborative (@dufourcollaborative), Skylark Creative Group (@skylarkcreativegrp) and the MGM National Harbor (@mgmnationalharbor). Great working with you!

Photo and video credit to Kate Nelson. Artwork painted on an iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and the Procreate app.

Painting a VIP Fiesta at SFMOMA

This painting was created live at a VIP Fiesta reception hosted by the company Appgate at SFMOMA.

Framed canvas fine art prints of this, and other artworks by me, are available – for more information please visit my Prints page.

Here are some photos from the event:

With thanks to the fabulous Appgate team and staff at SFMOMA.

“Key to Success” – Virtual Wellness Break Painting

This painting was created live during a 15 minute virtual “Wellness Break” for an online conference. I used an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app and shared the entire process with the over 400 event guests in attendance of my session. The artwork theme concept was “Key to Success”.

A small sampling of the enthusiastic and appreciative guest comments included: “This is such a wonderful and soothing session.” “Thank you for giving us this relaxing view into your artistic process. Wonderful and perfect break!” “Thanks for sharing, this is awesome!” “Thank you!! Wow!” “Love it! need this!” “Amazing, thank you! Beautiful!” “WOW! Amazing! Thanks for sharing:)” “So enjoyable!” “Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us!”