Portrait of a Child

Portrait of a Child, 24x24, in progress, Patricia Bennett

She is a very active, creative child, and she loves the outdoors.
I'm going to add more color and adjust her hair a little less gold.

Painting at the Baltimore Country Club Black Tie

Baltimore Country Club Black Tie Ball, painted by Patricia Bennett

Below is the painting which the guests saw at the end of the night.  I cleaned up the chandeliers and added a figure, otherwise there is little difference.

Baltimore Country Club Black Tie, December 7, 2013, painted by Patricia Bennett

and a copy, commissioned by one of the attendees:

Baltimore Country Club copy, painted by Patricia Bennett

The copy took me a month to paint.  I had to use rulers to be accurate.  It was extremely challenging.  The copy took more than ten times longer to paint than the original.  I left the added figure out, because the painting was better without it, and I further cleaned up the chandeliers.  I also used a ruler to draw the perspective lines, although they were pretty accurate.

Process:

I arrived at the Club around 1pm, and spoke to the General Manager about where they wanted me to paint.  There are two main rooms: the Dining Room, and the Dancing Room (those are my names for them).  The Event Coordinator had suggested I set up in the Dining Room, however, the GM preferred the Dancing Room, as there would be a large fire, the Christmas tree was there, and people would be dancing.  

I found a corner out of the way, yet visible to guests so they could see the painting.  I wanted to see the bar, and the tree and the fire.  I realized that I needed to compress the room spatially in order to show a nice size for the tree, so I left out an archway or two.  That was the hardest part.  I am so literal that it confuses me to not paint what I see.  I also compressed the bar in order to fit in the remaining archways.  Then I painted and painted until 7pm, when the event began.  As I painted, the bar was set up, then the lights were dimmed, and the band arrived.  The fire was started, and a large pile of firewood stacked.  The sun went down, and candles were lit.

First was cocktails, and then dinner, which was in the other room, and then dancing.  During the dinner, I cleaned up the chandeliers and other fixtures.  I took no breaks, because there wasn't time.  When I got tired one of the servers brought me a giant cup of coffee.  At midnight I packed up and took the painting with me.

Patricia Bennett's painting In Baltimore Style Magazine, December 2013

http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/fashion_article/feelin_lucky/

Suzin Boddiford, Style fashion editor, invited me to be at the photoshoot.  It was really cool and I feel quite lucky.

The painting next to the model is mine, it wasn't really there because it didn't exist yet.  During this photoshoot, I painted the model as she posed.  I had a few seconds to paint her in.  I also painted the photographer in, Nemo Neimann, as he held a very heavy camera and photographed her.  Afterwards, I sent my painting image to Nemo and he photoshopped it into the empty frame that they had sitting next to the model.  

I especially like the reflection that Nemo put on the floor in front of the painting to make it extra real.  

It was very exciting to be at the photoshoot.  I have never seen one before, and the Belvedere Hotel location was splendid.  

Style Magazine Superstition Photoshoot at the Belvedere, 24x36, Patricia Bennett

Please note the cute black cat running across the floor.  The cat was very shy and kept running away.

Painting at the Four Seasons, Baltimore

The Four Seasons Lobby, Baltimore, 18x24, Patricia Bennett

I'm finishing up my painting of the Four Seasons, Baltimore Lobby.  I was there today, Sunday December 1, until 2:30pm.

The Public Relations department at the Four Seasons took photos of me and put them on their Instagram account.

Four Seasons Baltimore Instagram