This web site features the art of Live Event Painter Jeremy Sutton.
Roberta Donnay at The Backroom, 2021
This was drawn the first time I met Jim, a musician specializing in the Indian instrument called the tabla. The light was catching his face at an outside parklet of a San Francisco Marina district restaurant.
Benjamin was one of the musicians who played at my recent Spring Open Studios. He sat down at the mini-grand in my studio and just let the music flow out him.
Paul sat in my studio (I was showing him my Piano Indigo painting) when I noticed the strong rim lighting and quickly made this sketch to capture the lighting.
Jerry visited my studio. He’s blind and he touched the surface of my large Piano Indigo painting before it shipped to a client. I shared with him what was on the canvas as he followed the keyboard and forms of the composition.
All four portraits were created directly from life using the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and Procreate app.
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
~ Jackie Robinson
Recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal
This portrait is dedicated to the memory of the legendary and pioneering baseball player, Jackie Robinson, who started playing in the American Negro Leagues, and then became, when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946 (and playing a successful season in their farm club the Montreal Royals), the first black to play in the Major Leagues since the 19th century, ending decades of discrimination against blacks in baseball. Robinson valiantly and courageously withstood taunting and racism from players and spectators alike, in the end proving himself on the field and becoming one of the outstanding baseball players of all time.
This painting is based on a photograph of Robinson that appeared in the New York Times of 1949 when he was awarded the honor of being the Most Valuable National League Player.
This portrait was displayed as part of the 2005 Art of Baseball show at the George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco.
This page is dedicated to the courage, determination and passion with which Robinson lived. He is an inspiring example to us all. You can find out more about Robinson from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. A print of this portrait was given to Robinson’s widow, Rachel, and is in the art collection of the Foundation.
On May 11th, 2021, I installed a stretched gallery-wrapped 48″ x 60″ latex ink print on canvas of this portrait of Jackie Robinson at the San Francisco non-profit SF SAFE, an organization that provides crime prevention and public safety services in close conjunction with the San Francisco Police Department. Here are some photos of the day it was installed, along with some of the wonderful SF SAFE team, including Ms. Melanie, Ms. Julianna and Mr. Furlishous Wyatt Jr.:
Other baseball legends I have painted include Willie H. Mays Jr., Barry Bonds, Madison Bumgarner and Hank Greenberg.
This portrait of Juno enjoying some outside time in the garden was created on a MacBook Pro using Corel Painter 2021 with a Wacom Intuos Pro pen tablet. It started as a demo sample to show texture painting techniques in my Painter workshop and then I continued working on it afterwards.
Juno’s reaction to her own portrait is quite something!
Dutch Windmill and Tulips, 2021
GGP150 – Sketch 9
Music Concourse, 2020
GGP150 – Sketch 8
SkyStar, 2020
GGP150 – Sketch 7
Sutro Tower from the de Young, 2020
GGP150 – Sketch 6
Stowe Lake, 2020
GGP150 – Sketch 5
Murphy Windmill, 2020
GGP150 – Sketch 4
The Murphy Windmill was completed in 1908 and, along with the Dutch Windmill to it’s north, was instrumental in helping drain the sand dunes, transforming them into a green oasis, and irrigating the eastern section of the park (by filling the reservoir on Strawberry Hill). They were operational until 1935. In their heyday the two windmills pumped up to 1.5 million gallons of water a day! Designed by Bay Area architect J.C.H. Stut, based on Dutch designs, the Murphy Windmill was the largest windmill of its kind in the world, standing 95′ tall, with a sail span of 140′.
On this page I share examples of an on-going series of plein air iPad sketches being created in honor of the San Francisco Golden Gate Park’s 150th Anniversary. Each sketch is created from direct observation using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app. My goal is to complete 150 sketches in total and have them exhibited as a series in the park.
The sketch above shows some of the blooms of the Golden Gate Park Rose Garden being enjoyed by various human visitors and a dog. This delightful patch of color was originally created in 1961 as a testing site for trial varieties of the San Francisco chapter of the American Rose Society.
The sketch above shows (somewhat obscured by trees) the Golden Gate Park Bandstand, also known as the Music Stand, which sits at the west end of the Music Concourse. That band stand has a lot of memories for me since it is where the iconic Lindy in the Park started back in 1996. The band stand is currently undergoing some renovation with a temporary green fencing around it and new light pillars with speakers now juxtaposed against the original old structure, which dates all the way back (with a few rebuilds along the way) to 1883, just twelve years after the founding of the park.
Series progress: 4 completed / 146 to go…
Park Central Olds
2014, 24″x 36″
Pigment ink and acrylic on canvas
This painting depicts a 1938 Oldsmobile parked outside the classic historic Park Central Hotel at 640 Ocean Drive in South Beach, Miami. The hotel was designed in 1939 by Henry Hohauser, one of the foremost architects of the art deco movement, and is widely regarded as a shining example of his work – a jewel in the crown of Miami Beach hotels. The painting is based on a series of photos I took when walking along South Beach early one morning. I was inspired by quality of light, the color and shapes of the buildings, the style and character of the car, the reflections in the windows, the majesty of the palm trees and their shadows on the building.
This painting is part of my Miami Beach Art Deco Series which currently comprises:
Avalon Olds
Beacon Bel-Air
Breakwater Chevy
Majestic Kaiser
Ocean Surf Caddy
Park Central Olds
March 2014
Blake & Apollo, 2021
30×24, pigment ink on canvas
This portrait is dedicated to the memory of Blake’s beautiful and special Great Dane, Apollo, who sadly passed away shortly after I took the original reference photographs for this painting. My primary painting tools for this were: Corel Painter 2021, MacBook Pro and the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Creative Pen Tablet. I used Thick Paint brushes in Painter which provide luscious impasto brush strokes.
Alpha Rhythm Kings at Mr. Tipple’s, February 24th, 2021
16×30, pigment ink on canvas
Alpha Rhythm Kings at Main Street Kitchen
Alpha Rhythm Kings Duo at Mr. Tipple’s, October 28th, 2020
Alpha Rhythm Kings at Mr. Tipple’s, June 25th, 2020
The full band were featured guests on the Entire Variety show produced by Entire Productions. This live performance was created as a demonstration of unique creative cross-disciplinary entertainment, Parallel Play, for virtual conferences and events.
In this video you see the whole time-lapse replay of my painting
This painting, as I mentioned above, was also created live at an earlier live streaming performance of the Alpha Rhythm Kings Duo — band leader, trumpet and vocals Robert Dehlinger, accompanied by Richard Nelson Hall on piano — also playing at Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio. I also used an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app.
In this video you see the time-lapse replay of my painting plus you hear the premiere performance of Rob’s unique version of the Duke Ellington classic “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, with specially modified lyrics to fit the social distancing of the coronavirus pandemic!
Also see my painting of Rob at Club Deluxe.
Tango Reflexión, 2021
16×30, pigment ink print on canvas, with Augmented Reality (AR) extension powered by the AR app Artivive
This painting was created for my good friend, musician, composer, teacher, performer, Sascha Jacobsen, and his group Los Tangueros del Oeste to use on their forthcoming CD. I used stills from the video (below) as reference. The musicians in the video are: Sascha Jacobsen, bass; Javier Santiago, piano; Adrian Jost, bandoneon; Ishtar Hernandez, violin; and Carlos Caminos, guitar. The dancers are Maxi Copello & Raquel Makow. The video is directed by Daniel Peters and shot in The Dome. The music featured in this video is Reflexión by Sascha Jacobsen. The final painting includes additional depictions of Pablo Estigarribia, piano; Manuel Berterreix, vocals; and Daniel Riera, DJ/Beat Maker; none of whom were in the reference video. I used an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app to create this artwork.
Mum and Me on Zoom, 2021
20×30, pigment ink print on canvas, with AR extension powered by Artivive
This portrait of my mother was painted from life in a series of real-time sittings over Zoom. Due to the time difference between her location (London) and mine (San Francisco), such that my morning is her evening, we started our sessions at 7am Pacific to catch the late afternoon light coming through her net curtains in her front room in North London. I used an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app.
This video below shares the time-lapse replay of the creative process plus some of our conversation.