Author: jeremysutton

This design was created for Jesse Miner’s 15th anniversary Hey Mister Jesse album that he published on bandcamp. Follow Jesse on @heymisterjesse on all social platforms.

This painting depicts Flamenco dancer La Emi performing at the historic Scottish Rite Temple, Santa Fe (a beautiful building modeled after the Alhambra in Spain). The source photograph was taken by me as part of my 2012 workshop titled “Painting the Passion of Flamenco” that I taught through the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. In the background you see two accompanying musicians, Chuscales (right) and Joaquin Gallegos (Left), and La Emi’s dance partner Juan.

I created this painting as a demonstration project during a PainterLab session, January, 2021, using ‪Corel‬ ‪Painter 2021‬ on an MacBook Pro with a ‎Wacom‬ Intuos Pro M. The main brush I used in Painter was the Heavy Texture Knife, an example of a Thick Paint brush. You can see how the painting evolved in the PainterLab recording posted on PaintboxTV.com.

My series of Flamenco-inspired artworks includes:
Duet in Red
Intertwined
Flamenco Flare!
Flamenco Fiesta at El Farol
Flamenco Jam

Stacy, pigment ink on canvas

This collage portrait is a tribute to Stacy. The portrait contains a collage of 14 images reflecting Stacy’s life including her calligraphy, a code language she created for a school project, an image of her as a child, a crystal orchid given to her by her husband when she received her double lung transplant, a bride, her and husband as newlyweds, her in Spain on her honeymoon, a Lifetime Achievement Award she received from an entertainment industry association, her favorite gummy bear candy, her favorite Minion movie character, her career at NBCUniversal, her favorite Hollywood Bowl concert venue, a globe representing her love of travel, and her favorite restaurant Nouveau Cafe Blanc.

 


Details of the artwork

This sketch of the London skyline with a Christmas touch (notice Father Christmas and his sleigh in the top right corner) was created especially for the 57th Annual Christmas Virtual Celebration & Fundraiser of the British American Business Council Northern California. I used an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app to create the artwork. The video shown below was played during the celebration and guests were invited to email me a list of the iconic London landmarks they could spot within the artwork. The first to respond received a prize (congratulations Maya!)

Spoiler Alert: if you want to try this yourself don’t read the next paragraph!

The landmarks featured in this sketch include, roughly moving from left to right: The SSE Arena, Wembley (formerly The Wembley Stadium); BT Tower (formerly the Post Office Tower); The Palace of Westminster; Big Ben; Westminster bridge; The London Eye (formerly The Millennium Wheel); Nelson’s Column; St. Paul’s Cathedral; The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge; Tower of London; Tower Bridge; The Shard; The Onion (City Hall); The Gherkin; The Walkie Talkie; and The O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome).

Golden Gate Bridge at Dawn, October 15th, 2020

The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, 1.7 miles wide, crossing the gap known as the Golden Gate long before the bridge was a twinkle in chief engineer’s Joseph Strauss’s eyes!

Also see the large painting, Golden Gate Bridge at 75, for its 75th Anniversary.

This sketch of the Atlanta, GA, based Quill the Duo was created live over Zoom (from 3,000 miles away!) while the duo, Elizabeth Grimes and Steph Hughes, played songs from their new Christmas EP at their live-streamed release celebration. Their EP includes the title track “Hard Times : Tidings of Comfort”. I used an iPad pro, Apple Pencil and the Procreate app. This event came out of a chance meeting in Atlanta Hartfield Airport when I was changing planes en-route to an event and heard Elizabeth playing keyboards and singing. We kept in touch and she and Steph kindly invited me to be part of their special celebration.

Here’s the Zoom performance (39 minutes, starts with Elizabeth’s gracious introduction):

Here’s a time-lapse replay of my sketch:

Thanks, Jeremy Hughes, for tech support!

“A Visit from St. Nicholas”, more commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas” and “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837. Events producer and vocalist Natasha Miller (founder of Entire Productions) asked me to create an original animated artwork (I call this a “Paintermation”) to illustrate the live recording (originally made in 2007) of Natasha’s father, Martin Miller, making his debut appearance with a reading of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”, over an improvised musical background by pianist Josh Nelson and drummer Tim Bulkley. This recording is from Natasha’s album The Season. This video is also published on YouTube.

This video was included in Natasha’s live streamed Holiday Concert on December 23rd, 2020 (Click here for the full playlist from the concert as shared on YouTube.).

The words of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”:

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Music, voice and art in this video © 2007 – 2020 All Rights Reserved

Thank you, Nathan Dias, for inviting me to share a little live digital drawing demo on the online version of Cat’s Corner SF, a weekly Lindy Hop dance event featuring dance classes, socializing and live music. In this demo I share the parallels I experience between drawing and dancing. I started with a sketch based on a clip of Lindy Hop legends Norma Miller and Frankie Manning social dancing in the 1980s and then I did a quick sketch of the featured band, Nick Rossi and His Swing Four, as they played live from Mr. Tipple’s. Both artworks are shown below as well as in the video above. Enjoy! My artworks are available on ArtMasks and as prints.

Norma and Frankie

Nick Rossi and His Swing Four at Mr. Tipple’s

Behind all my art is drawing – the expression of what I see in rapid, loose marks that flow directly from intense observation. I started drawing the figure from life at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, in 1979. The short gestural “warm-up” poses are frequently the most dynamic and I always loved the challenge of capturing the essence of what I saw in a few quick marks on the paper.

Amanda, 2020

Amanda and Jon, 2020

Amanda, 2020

Maria, 2020

2020

Nicole, 2020

Jenny, 2020

This family portrait captures a 20th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. It was created from life (socially distanced) using an iPadPro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app. Thank you Rick Herns Productions for inviting me to capture this wonderful celebration and congratulations to the celebrants! This image is AR extended using the Artivive app. The pianist you see playing in the background (upper left of the painting) is Joel Nelson. The background of the painting started with textural elements from the client’s home and also includes their daughters artwork in the upper right corner.

36″ x 24″ framed canvas AR-extended print in the client’s home
 

 

My iPad Pro on a custom stand with large display showing the artwork in progress.