Speed painting Grammy Winner Melanie Fiona at Us Restaurant & Lounge was definitely a wonderful experience to be a part of. I love painting portraits live and even more than that I love painting portraits live when I am allotted only a certain amount of time. There is something so much fun about having a bunch of people watch you create a painting from start to finish.
Us Restaurant and Lounge hosted an amazing evening with Singer Melanie Fiona as the headliner. I had been excited all week prior to the event because I was asked to paint a painting of this lovely singer live at the show. This I could do! Walking into the event I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew where I was painting and what I was painting but what surprised me was the sheer energy in the room. Entering at 8 pm to set up the restaurant was already filled with over a hundred and fifty guests and they were still pouring in. Passing by the tables and seeing all the wonderful meals got me a little hungry so I had a pre-painting meal of Salmon Wellington cooked to perfection. I started painting around 1030pm, not too long after I could hear some commotion behind me and there she was in the flesh. Melanie Fiona was standing there with a huge smile on her face that was more than just contagious she was amazing. She was so nice and gracious. After a few words back and forth she had to go up on stage and do her thing. It was when she started singer that I was completely blow away. It was definitely a bit surreal painting a picture of this talented musical artist while she is on stage not to far from me singing. I have to say that if you are going to paint a live painting I recommend painting a singer while they are singing! Once she completed her set she made her way back to the painting and shot some pictures in front of it and was good enough to sign it. What really made my day was seeing later that she gave me a shout out on Twitter and Instagram. Now that is cool!