Let’s turn your wedding into a masterpiece!
Live wedding painting transforms your favorite wedding-day moment into a timeless original oil painting, all while your guests watch your story come to life on canvas throughout your celebration.
Give Your Guests Something to Talk About
Why add live wedding painting to your wedding day?
Weddings go by fast, but live painting gives your guests something unforgettable to experience throughout the evening. The performance creates a talking point for guests who are just meeting for the first time, provides entertainment during lulls in the timeline, and gives your guests a reason to stay until the end of the night.
But more importantly, a live painting captures something a photograph cannot — it encapsulates what your best day ever felt like. The lighting, the atmosphere, the emotion, all combined together to tell your story in a way you will cherish for forever.
How it works:
-
In the months before your wedding, we’ll spend time together chatting about your priorities for the painting, colors in your home and in your wedding design, the emotions you hope to capture forever, and more. Then I’ll plan a composition and color palette to bring your unique story to life.
-
On your wedding day, I’ll arrive early to take reference photos and begin structuring the painting before guests arrive. As your guests enter into the ceremony, they’ll realize the moment is being captured in real time. The painting will be in the early stages at this point, the perfect time for them to become invested in the process.
Then, while your guests are at cocktail hour, I’ll move the live painting to the reception so that as they enter for dinner they’ll be wowed by how much it has progressed. Throughout the evening they can come by to ask questions and marvel at how quickly the painting has come together. By the end of the night the first layer will be complete, and to the guests will think the painting is finished.
-
In order to provide you with the highest quality piece of artwork, your painting will then return to the studio. It is here that I’ll continue building layers of color, texture, and detail until I feel the piece fully tells your story and captures the lighting and ambiance of your day. Once fully dry, your finished painting will be sealed with archival varnish and carefully packaged to be shipped to your home.
So, What’s Included?
Your wedding painting is so much more than a performance, it’s something you will keep and pass on for generations to come. Each painting receives several additional layers in-studio following the wedding, so that the final result is a masterpiece full of life, color, and detail.
I use only the highest quality materials for each live wedding painting. Artist-grade canvases are carefully primed prior to the performance, to ensure they can cleanly capture the finest of details. On your wedding day and throughout the refinement process, professional-grade oil paints and archival mediums are used to ensure your painting has the highest pigment ratio for vibrant life-like color.
-
Each live wedding painting is intentionally designed to keep your guests engaged throughout the evening. With a process structured specifically to draw in onlookers, I spend 7 to 9 hours on site creating your painting — usually in key areas where the performance will have the most impact on your guests.
-
Your live painting experience comes with two detailed customization phone calls, where we’ll chat about what matters most to you and build a painting tailor made for you. We’ll chat about your wedding color palette as well as color schemes in your home, to ensure your painting best captures your personal style and pairs well with your decor.
-
During our customization process I’ll guide you through choosing the most visually compelling composition for your painting.
Together we’ll determine whether a landscape or vertically oriented canvas best suits your vision. Each wedding painting is designed to capture two full figures in the pose of your choosing, complimented by a landscape scene from your wedding day (or from your imagination).
Your painting can be designed to blend two or more moments from your day, in order to best capture the story you would like to tell.
Please note that in order to create a strong painting that keeps the focus on the couple, I do not include wedding guests or ceremony chairs in painting compositions. Pets and up to four additional figures can be added by request, however additional fees will apply.
-
Your live painting performance includes 40+ additional hours of in-studio painting time to refine your artwork and ensure the final result is gallery-worthy.
Carefully packaged and shipped to your home, your completed painting will come varnished with an archival seal and ready to frame or hang.*
You’ll also receive any content filmed on your wedding day, along with process videos and behind the scenes shots of your painting as it progresses.
*In-state shipping or local pickup is included for California residents. Additional shipping fees may apply for out-of-state deliveries.
I believe that…
wedding paintings should be unique to each couple, magically capturing their story and wedding’s ambiance in a way that will transport the viewer back to the moment for generations to come.
When I started live painting, my main goal was to introduce texture and traditional fine art techniques to the Southern California wedding painting industry. Now, more than ever, I aim to give couples a little piece of magic - a way to always experience the unique feeling that was and forever will be their special day.
As one of the only Impressionist live painters in the industry, I’m proud to offer my brides & grooms colors and compositions that give them the opportunity to bring their very own fairytale to life on canvas.
Meet the Materials
-
![Oil paints and palette of live painting for weddings in Southern California]()
The Color
PROFESSIONAL GRADE OIL PAINTS
I use professional artist-grade oil paints for their rich pigment, beautiful depth, and long-term durability. They give me the flexibility to build both soft atmospheric areas and more detailed finishing work.
They set the tone for everything we do. -
![Live Painter at Wedding Southern California Glass Palette]()
The Palette
GREY GLASS PALETTE
I mix my colors on a grey glass palette, which helps me judge color and value more accurately than on a bright white surface. It is especially useful when venue lighting changes throughout the day and evening, and is easy to scrape paint off when I’m cleaning up or changing colors.
-
![Live painter at wedding in Temecula Southern California Easel Setup]()
The Workspace
FRENCH EASEL
My wooden folding French easel is the star of my performance painting. It’s designed to fold easily for travel and can adjust to hold almost any canvas size. It gives me a sturdy, organized workspace while still being easy to move between wedding locations and bring with me to destination weddings. -
![Live Painter at Wedding in Southern California Artist Painting Mediums]()
The Chemistry
FAST-DRYING MEDIUMS
Oil paint on it’s own can take days to dry to the touch and weeks to cure. For areas that need to set more quickly during a live event, I use fast-drying mediums like Walnut Alkyd and Liquin. They help speed up drying time without giving up the look and feel of traditional oil paint. -
![Live painter for wedding in california paint brushes]()
The Tools
NATURAL & SYNTHETIC HAIR PAINT BRUSHES
I work with a wide range of brushes, from larger shapes for backgrounds to incredibly fine detail brushes. Some are nearly needle-point thin, allowing me to refine tiny features and delicate finishing touches. Each brush serves a different purpose and creates a different effect. Sometimes I even use palette knives, which allow me to spread oil paint across the canvas like butter for a thick & textured effect.
-
![Live Painter at Wedding Easel and Canvas in San Diego]()
The Surface
STRETCHED COTTON CANVAS
Each painting begins on a professionally stretched canvas coated with gesso, a primer that seals the canvas and creates a better surface for paint. I lightly sand it smooth so I can achieve finer details, wet the back to tighten the surface, then tone the canvas with acrylic paint and medium to give the painting a warm, unified base before I begin. -
![live oil painter at wedding in orange county gamvar varnish]()
The Gloss
GAMVAR VARNISH
Once the painting is dry and fully cured, I dust it to remove any particles before it is sealed with a protective layer called Gamvar Varnish. This clear protective coat is applied to oil paintings as a final step, and can be removed in future restorations without damaging the painting beneath. It helps protect the surface from the elements, while bringing back the richness, depth, and even sheen to the darkest colors.
About the Setup
My wedding painting setup is one of the things I’m most proud of as a live painter. I’ve put a lot of thought and ingenuity into creating the best mobile live painting workspace possible.
Throughout my years as a live wedding painter, my easel has gradually accumulated more and more adaptations — each designed to bring ease and speed to the live painting performance.
-
My live painting setup measures 5×5 ft and includes a collapsible wooden French easel and a jute rug. The rug helps ease the minds of venues worried about their floor’s integrity (although oil paint is a relatively tidy medium). It also serves as a guide for curious guests to watch from a safe distance without risking brushing up against the wet painting.
-
I keep all of my paints, mediums, lighting, tools, and signage in a rolling case that is easy to pack up and move from ceremony to reception.
-
I’ve fitted my easel with magnets and clip on accessories that help me attach signage, lighting, and cameras. These features are designed to keep the setup looking tidy and elegant, while maximizing wedding guest interaction and experience.
Luminous textured oil paintings designed to capture the magic of your day
