Maggie Smith Kuhn

Live Event Painting: The Berry Wedding

On January 31st, I loaded up my easel and gear and headed to one of the most beautiful locations in Georgia and my personal favorite wedding venue, Barnsley Gardens Resort. I was hired to paint two watercolors, both the ceremony and the reception. Doing this is insanely difficult and requires a lot of running around, but it’s also a huge adrenaline rush. Plus, this was my bride and groom:

10952094_1019237368091010_6700887706034571620_nThe hard part was going to be refraining from painting them like a living Barbie and Ken duo!

PS all these photos are by the amazing Cindy Harter of Cindy Harter Photography , who besides being insanely talented and very well known in Atlanta is also my mom!! Love you, mama!

As soon as I arrived, I set up in the chapel and got to work. the chapel was a short 3 min drive from the reception area, so I knew as soon as the ceremony was over, I was going to need to pack up everything quickly and hustle to the next location to start the reception painting. Timing is everything!

Here’s the ceremony scene I was painting, full of gorgeous wood paneling and of course, the lovely bride and groom:

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And here’s what I had finished, by the time the ceremony was over:

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I wasn’t done! Yikes! But I had no time to worry about, I packed up anyway while the guests were dispersing, and headed to the reception area, the stunning ruins of Barnsley. Look at them, in all their glory!

10950725_1021514297863317_4520066410140582506_nI set-up in the big tent off the side of the ruins, and finished the ceremony painting asap! Then I started on the reception while guest filed in, drank cocktails and got dinner. Finally, the first dance was happening, and I was painting it all!

 

 

You can barely see me in the background!
You can barely see me in the background!

This was the view that I had, behind the bride and groom dancing.

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I painted through dinner, I painted through dancing, and finally, I turned around both finished watercolors and got possibly my BEST reaction ever from my bride!

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Yay! I love happy clients!! Here is the best professional image I have of the reception painting~

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And here is the crappy phone pic I managed to snap of both paintings. I wish I had a better photo of these, I was really proud of them:

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Another success! I love my job!

 

 

 

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