This web site features the art of Live Event Painter Jeremy Sutton.
The iPad artworks shown on this page represent some of my earliest iPad drawings. They were created directly from life on an iPad without use of photography between 2010 and 2012. With the exception of the Amsterdam portrait, they are all made using a Nomad Brush. I use the long bristle option, which can be purchased by clicking on the right hand link above. The left hand link is the short bristle version. The sketch (above) was created using the ZenBrush app.
My first iPad drawing: a sketched portrait of Jonathan Weeks beside a canal in the center of Amsterdam. I created theportrait using my fingertip on the iPad surface to control the brush in the SketchBookPro app. You can see a video of the drawing process on my online training site PaintboxTV.com.
The paintings you see below were created as part of my digital painting performances (56 in total) in the Tapis Rouge VIP tent at the Cirque du Soleil’s “Totem” show in San Francisco, October – December, 2011. At the bottom of this page are a few examples of drawings I made of some of the Totem Artistes backstage and in the employees cafe. A BIG thank you to all the wonderful people at Cirque du Soleil! You were all such a delight to work with.
The TOTEM show is stupendous!! I highly recommend it.
Please note that the Cirque du Soleil logos, trademarks and performance images are copyright Cirque du Soleil. They are are reproduced in this artistic interpretive form with kind permission for portfolio purposes only. No reproduction or usage of any of these images is permitted.
If you’re interested to see other examples of live action painting performances, then please also see Live Event Painting.
Pigment ink, acrylic gel medium, acrylic paint, metal leaf, Giants World Series ticket and spar varnish on canvas over a fibre glass structure with steel support and base. Large Heart commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation and purchased by VISA. Was located at the Geary/Powell corner of Union Square, San Francisco, from February 10 – September 14th, 2011. The Union Square management estimated that approximately 9 million visitors saw this Heart while it was on the Square. I was commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to paint a Large Heart for the 2011 series of Hearts in San Francisco. This Heart was first publicly displayed at the Heroes & Hearts Luncheon in Union Square, San Francisco, on February 10, 2011, and then installed on the Square. VISA purchased this Heart – thank you VISA. See the StarkInsider video article about the unveiling of the Hearts. An interview with me is featured at 1 minute 22 seconds into the video. Also see John Darakjian’s YouTube video (an “artist’s eye” tour of the Heart).
The Heart is painted with a full color depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge and other contemporary San Francisco scenes (plus a San Francisco Giants World Series ticket)on one side and black and white film noir scenes of San Francisco from classic films on the other side. The color side was based on my painting San Francisco Heart. The films featured on the black and white side include: Cops (1922), San Francisco (1936), Sisters (1938), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Dark Passage (1947), DOA Original (1950) and Vertigo (1958). The depiction of the Maltese Falcon itself was based on the Maltese Falcon sculpture in the historic John’s Grill whose owner, John Konstin, was kind enough to grant me permission to photograph it. Actors featured on the film noir side of the Heart include Humphrey Bogart (Maltese Falcon and Dark Passage), Kim Novak (Vertigo), Buster Keaton (Cops), Edmond O’Brien (DOA), Spencer Tracy (San Francisco), Errol Flynn and Betty Davis (The Sisters). If you visit the Heart in person see how many of them you can spot!
As you scroll further down this page you’ll see a selection of photos of people at the Heart, of the Heart being installed, displayed at the Heroes & Hearts Luncheon, and in various stages of being painted, and, finally, being removed from the Square.
Here are some views of the Heart while it was in my studio during the painting process.
In painting this Heart I combined digital with traditional art media. The design was originally painted digitally using Corel Painter software, a Wacom Intuos4 pen tablet, Macintosh computer and a 30 inch Apple Cinema display. Using an Epson wide format inkjet printer I then printed the front and back images onto a total of 32 feet length of 44 inches wide coated canvas. This canvas digital print was then cut up and wrapped around the huge heart and adhered to it with acrylic gel medium. Transferring a flat painting onto a curved, almost spherical, form provided it’s own set of challenges and appreciation of the skill of clothing designers! I spent many weeks adding acrylic paint over the canvas. The paint was primarily applied thickly with a palette knife, with some brush painting as well. You can feel the impasto texture when you touch the Heart. I also added metal leaf and, as a tribute to the success of the local baseball team, a Giants World Series ticket (the World series was played as I was painting the Heart)! The whole Heart was then coated in multiple layers of spar varnish for uv and water protection.
THE UNVEILING AND INSTALLATION OF THE HEART
The following three photos were taken at the Heroes & Hearts Luncheon on Union Square, February 10th, 2011, by Aubrie Pick for Drew Altizer Photography. This fund-raising luncheon is a major annual event in the San Francisco calendar. It was here that all the Hearts were first unveiled.
…and on September 14th at 3pm:
This video shows the creation of a portrait sketch I made of one of my students who attended my Painter workshop in Amsterdam in 2010. This was one of my earliest iPad sketches. As you’ll see, I used my finger to paint.
Video length: 5 minutes 38 seconds
This portrait is a tribute to the legendary baseball player Henry Benjamin “Hammerin’ Hank” Greenberg who played with the Detroit Tigers and, later in his career, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. During the 1930s Greenberg endured anti-semitic cat-calling from opposing team members and the crowds, reminiscent of the racially charged abuse directed a decade later against Jackie Robinson. Like Robinson, Greenberg’s exemplary skills on the field won over many. In 1934, when Greenberg played on the Jewish New Year and helped clinch the Tigers 2-1 pennant victory against the Red Sox, the Detroit Free Press ran “Happy New Year” on its front page in his honor. Greenberg, in his last year of professional baseball, met Jackie Robinson, who was starting his career in the major leagues, and encouraged him. They shared a common bond overcoming prejudice on and off the ball field. Greenberg was a five times All Star, twice named the American League’s Most Valuable Player and elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956 and into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
This portrait was exhibited at the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California Gala on June 13th, 2010, where it was signed by Shawn Green who received the first Hank Greenberg award that evening. Here are some pictures from the event, plus some details of the painting.
Other baseball legends I have painted include Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson.
On August 28, 2008, I was watching on TV then-Senator Barack Obama giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Invesco Field, Denver, Colorado, as he was nominated to be the first African-American Presidential candidate. I was so moved by what he said that I took photos of my TV screen as he spoke to use as reference for a portrait. This painting is the result.
I created this digital sketch portrait of British IT pioneer, businesswoman and philanthropist, Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, in a talk / demo I gave at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) in 2008. Dame Shirley is a 2018 honoree and recipient of one of the Computer History Museum Fellow Awards. The recording of the 2018 award ceremony, including a video from Dame Shirley, can be seen here.
Viewing my portrait of Giles Henderson, the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, at the time.
July 2008
Homage to my adopted home of San Francisco. This mixed media collage is based on sketches I made, and reference photos I took, of the city at different times and seasons. I captured aspects that were meaningful to me and represent my experience of this special place.
This original one-of-a-kind artwork is available for purchase.
This design was used as inspiration for one side of my Large Heart Classic San Francisco that was displayed in Union Square, San Francisco, in 2011, and is currently in the Visa headquarters a few miles south of San Francisco in Foster City, California.
“Antonio Stradivarius” by Jeremy Sutton
36″ x 100″ (approx.) inkjet print on canvas bonded to dry wall
The painting in Chenery House, San Francisco, next to the swimming pool.
This painting was a commission originally created for art collector Bob Pritikin’s “Violin Room” in the West Wing of his Chenery House mansion in Glenn Park, San Francisco.