A Gala Evening: Winter 2008

A challenge was handed to me: paint at a live event (for pay). I had a month or two, to think about my approach. Like anything else, you're never sure how things will turn out. On December 10, however, I was on stage in the Salem Conference Center, at this gala benefit auction for the Boys & Girls Aid Society. Beautifully adorned Christmas trees and accompanying room settings complete with toys and gifts were auctioned off; I was to paint the scene of the gala affair during dinner and the auction, which ended with the auctioning of my finished painting. I had a couple days before to set up and sketch and get a feel for my direction.
With 4-5 quick sketches it fell into place: it would be like my landscapes, with rows of tables (instead of rows of vineyards or crops) surrounded by trees. I took an actual photo too, just to put it into perspective, and did a quick color study that afternoon. Then the evening arrived and I began....
A bad photo of the room; then laying in my "rows" on a 40x40 canvas. Then I filled in tables, trees and "sky". There I am onstage, with about 500 happy diners watching. Lastly I added people, shown in the final painting at the top of this blog. The evening flew by, and before I knew it, my painting was the final Item 15 on the block. I was really pleased with the result, it turned out exactly how I hoped.