Wedding and Reception at Temple Oheb Shalom

Live Painting of Wedding and Reception at Temple Oheb Shalom, painted by Patricia Bennett

Congratulations to the Bride and Groom!

Temple Oheb Shalom is filled with high-quality art, including portraits of their Rabbis.  The most recent portrait of Rabbi Fink is painted by local great Sam Robinson.  The stained glass windows and tree in the Temple are beautiful and naturalistic and they are carefully included in the painting.  Mr. Kenneth Davidson, the Executive Director, was very helpful and friendly.

I arrived around noon.  As the reception and ceremony were one room apart, it was possible for me to paint both.  The mother of the bride helped me to find the perfect spot to paint the ceremony: the second story, centered.  I was not in the way and had a great view.  Next, I found a place in the reception room with a view of the sweetheart table, cake, and dance floor.  The caterers agreed this was a good spot.  So I returned to the ceremony room and began to paint.

As Baltimore is really Smalltimore, I have painted three weddings with Rabbi Fink as Officiator, and one of "my" brides was a guest at this wedding, with her mother and her husband.  This bride is stunningly beautiful and really cool and it was great to see her.  She said that after her dog, the live event painting of her wedding is what she would take if her house were on fire:)

Flowers and Fancies put the flowers and branches on the Chuppah, which really went well with the striking bronze tree sculpture behind it.  They also made gold, sparkling flower arrangements in the reception room.

Rachel Fineberg, Mango Productions, was the Event Planner and she was excellent: really on top of everything and very helpful.  The pianist came to my rescue with an extension cord for my light, and the photographer was very good.  The food was prepared by Temple staff, I believe, and was delicious.

The bride wanted special portraits added of her walking down the aisle with her parents, her husband walking down the aisle with his mom, her three step-parents walking down the aisle, and her dog (I put him under a table).  From my vantage point, it was impossible to get even reference photos of this, and although a fast painter, I could not paint 8 people walking in two minutes.  Also, they had to be placed spatially: this was a studio project.  After the wedding, the bride emailed me photos that the guests took on their iphones.  This work took three weeks.  I'm proud of it.

In this painting, the bride and groom are watching themselves get married!  In reality, that was the sweetheart table in the reception room, and the two rooms are superimposed.