Next month during a government gala dinner event, I will be speed painting ‘live’ Deputy PM, Julia Gillard.  After the painting I will call her to the stage and have her sign the artwork.

So my question to you is.. what music should I play?  Here are some songs that I came up with..  Please take the survey and you can help me with the show!

So please help me out and vote on your most appropriate song.   If you have any other suggestions for songs (without being nasty or politically motivated), please let me know.  Oh, and here’s a picture of Julia.

During my shows I am painting more and more CEO’s and sporting stars.

Here is a photo from a recent Geelong Football Club (AFL) event last weekend down at Skilled Stadium, Geelong.  It was painted during the live auction in about 4-5 minutes.  Maybe you know who it is?

Clients who hire me are increasingly auctioning my artwork towards their favourite charity.  It’s a win-win situation.

Some speed painting auction results from last week:

Townsville Entertainment Centre (Cowboys/Broncos gala dinner) raised just under $8k

A speed painting of a spine on Saturday night at Tempus 2 winery (Hunter Valley, NSW) raised just under $4k for one  painting!  (it was a ferocious auction - spinal surgeons trying to out bid each other - the successful bidder was a New Zealand surgeon who is placing the speed painting on his surgery wall).

Some photos and videos to follow - I’m just ducking out to Melbourne and Adelaide for events this week……

Last weekend I was in Adelaide for a big footy club gala dinner and I painted mainly sporting icons.

Here is one of the speed paintings of the legendary Don Bradman from the show.  I’m pretty happy with how this one came out - speed painted in about 5 minutes.

On Friday night, I performed at a ‘roast’ for Dr Shepherd, former AMA President.

It was a glitsy night with a celebrity mix of social commentators, politicians and doctors.  My spot on stage followed an introduction from John Mangos (popular TV newsman), Allan Jones (social commentator and talkback host), Dr Brendan Nelson (former Federal Opposition Leader) and Dr John D’Arcy (well known TV doctor).

It can be a daunting task following such well known people, but I speed painted two great portraits in about 10 minutes (Bono took 3 mins - Dr Shepherd took 7 mins) which sold for $11,500

Next week I am travelling up to QLD, headlining the Gympie Show.  Here is some text from their website:

Each and every year the members and employees of the Gympie District Show Society strive to put on one of the largest regional Shows in Queensland.  From all over Australia people come to exhibit and experience everything great within the Gympie District and beyond. There is always a diverse range of entertainment for all ages to enjoy and an overwhelming amount of things to encounter.  (read further: http://www.gympieshow.org.au)

So I was thinking I really should speed paint a country music star.  Not being familiar with this genre of music - does anybody have any ideas?  The only person I know is Keith Urban but I was thinking of that guy with the cowboy hat?  If you have any ideas, please let me know!  email: info@bradblaze.com.au

Did 2 shows over the weekend and both went absolutely awesome. Some shows just seem to ‘click’ right into place and this was the weekend..

The first show was up at Hamilton Island and it was a ripper.  The second was at a 200 people wedding here in Sydney, where along with my normal show I painted a 6 foot Celine Dion! Anyway, I just received an email from the event organiser:

“Your show was fantastic, the feedback from the dealers was wonderful. We raised approximately $7500 for the Alana and Madeline Foundation from auctioning your work, so thank you very much for that. The picture of Steve’s car brought on a very entertaining bidding war.

We do have some great photos from the night, especially of Steve Richards fantastic air guitar moves. I havent received the disk with the images from Hamilton Island yet, but when I do I will forward some
through to you.”

Another great weekend down, next weekend I am in Melbourne which I’m looking forward to…

for the weekend… This weekend I’m off to Hamilton Island to perform for a Dunlop dealer conference.

Now I’ve just received a photograph of the V8 car they want speed painted during the conference.

WHAT A CO-INCIDENCE!! The picture they provided is of Steven ‘Richo’ Richards No. 6 Ford Falcon (sponsored by Orrcon). Last year

I did a show for Orrcon and was lucky enough to do a HOT LAP IN THIS VERY CAR around Phillip Island, Melbourne.

I did the hot lap with V8 driver Dean Canto and let me tell you, there is nothing more thrilling than hitting 270kmph down the straight. I’ll try and paint about that speed this weekend.

Just returned from the USA where I performed at The American Academy of Dermatolgy 67th Annual Conference in San Francisco.

During the 3 day conference I performed 12 shows as I went through my speed painting reportoire inside a specially built “Art of Treatment” theatre inside of the Astellas stand. They have super fast acting treatment and hence the link to me the super fast speed painter.

I also added a few American favourites to my speed painting reportoire - Barrack Obama, Einstein (well he lived there anyway) and Bruce Springsteen. Also painted live in under five minutes were Pink, Elvis, Bono, Gene Simmons, Mohummed Ali, Marilyn Munroe, Audrey Hepburn, Alice Cooper and a few audience volunteers.

It certainly provided some very different entertainment at a conference.

If you have ever seen one of my shows you will realise it’s NOT just about the speed paintings. In fact, during my show there is nothing more I enjoy doing than interacting with the audience - whether I have them dancing, singing, answering questions or putting them in other unusual situations.

It’s all off the cuff and unscripted so some funny things can happen - and believe me they do.. but that’s for another blog post..

In the meantime, here is some amateur footage taken at an event at Star City Casino Sydney last year at a legal conference. What made this funny is that the poor gentleman who was my volunteer had been on stage with me the previous two times dancing his heart out (following the paintings) and had failed to win the prize. So it was always my intention to get him up again and give him the prize, until I inadvertently chose an Irish guy from the audience…