The Brad Blaze “Wow Factor” Blog!

Speed Painting from last night’s Labor Party function - performed infront of 400 Labor party parliamentarians, supporters and the deputy Prime Minister.

Well it’s been a busy month with events all over the place.  Also busy is the change of leadership for Australia with our new Prime Minister… Julia Gillard

For those that have voted in my poll from my previous post, thank you and yes I will be painting the Prime Minister of Australia live and in the flesh in just over a week’s time.

There is still time to vote for the music I play during the painting (see below for a very close poll!).  Other suggestions that have been thrown around include: “I see Red” and the theme tune from Kath and Kim..  See get voting before I close this off next Wednesday..

Photo from last week’s paper..  That’s the problem with outdoor events.. you can control everything except the weather..

We all know someone who has suffered from cancer.  For me personally, late last year we lost a family member from bowel cancer.  I don’t need to explain how traumatising it is.

Lifehouse at RPA, the Chris O’Brien Cancer Centre a $300 million new facility will commence capital works this year.  In the meantime, “A Night on the Green” a gala fundraising dinner (www.nightonthegreen.com) on June 5th will raise funds for the completion of the centre.

I have donated this painting of the late Professor Chris O’Brien.  He was such a remarkable man, there is a great story on him here.  Anyway, back to the painting, it is pretty huge - six foot in height actually.

It is going to auction on the night of June 5th, with 100% of the proceeds to Lifehouse, the Chris O’Brien Cancer Centre.   I am hoping that whoever purchases it will donate it back to the centre to hang on the wall, but we shall see..

Once again the website: http://www.nightonthegreen.com

Photography by Jason Cole, Cole Studios (www.colestudios.com.au)

I am excited to be performing at some public events coming up:

PMA Australia 2010 Digital Life Expo/Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre, 4-6 June.
I’ll be speed painting during the day and also painting three massive murals over the course of the event exclusively at the Canon stand.

Royal Perth Show, 25 Sept - 2 Oct 2010.
Last year the quickchange act, Soul Mystique wowed the crowds with their quickchange act. This year, as the headline act for the Perth Show, I am hoping to do the same with a bunch of huge canvases and about a 100 litres of paint.

I’ve also got my first corporate show in Hong Kong coming up, which should be exciting.

Some photos from a performance I did for 600 sponsors and fans from the Melbourne Storm last week.

The great aspect about my shows, which few (if any!) other entertainment shows can replicate, is something tangible is produced from the performance.   Something of value.

During the past year, I’ve been donating and encouraging all my corporate clients to auction off my artwork for charity where it is appropriate.  It feels great to entertain an audience and also make money for some special causes.

Which is why I was delighted last week at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, where a corporate client auctioned off some of the paintings from the show and raised $14,000.   It is certainly not the most we’ve raised from my paintings, but this was a corporate show (not a fundraiser),  so to come away with such a good result was fantastic.

I haven’t posted any footage from a show in sometime, I’ve just been too busy.

Here is some footage from Friday night at the Mortgage Finance Awards.

It’s always fun involving audience on stage, in fact they become the stars of the show.  You should see how I involve the females in the audience!  (well, you’ll have to come along to a show).

Last week I did two shows at AIME (Asia-Pacific Incentives Meetings Expo).  The first had approximately 300 people in the room and the second had around 700 people in the auditorium audience.

Both events went extremely well, the audience interaction was fantastic, the vibe was great and if I may say so, the paintings looked good as well.  It’s really amazing when together with the audience we can get so much energy in the room - given both events were before midday!  If you happened to be there, I’m sure you would agree.

The events were held by Saxton Speakers Bureau.  Please enquire with Saxton if you like what you saw at these events!