One Nashville artist has been taking a page out of the musicians' playbook. Heidi Schwartz is part painter, part entertainer.
"It's definitely becoming a wave," she said. "There's a lot of wedding painters."
She started out as an aspiring singer, but Schwartz soon realized her career was taking a turn.
"'Yeah, yeah, you have a great voice, but I really like your paintings.' And then a month later, I got a call asking me to paint live at a dinner," she said.
The pressure to create a work of artwork on deadline took some getting used to.
"Because [clients] wanted me to do a painting in two hours," she said.
She finished the painting, and now, Schwartz has been setting up her easel in the middle of weddings, corporate events, dinners, and grand openings, completing her work while people watch.
"You get into a zone and then you just focus. I have a time limit. It's kinda like 'emergency art.' You don't have much time to think. It's very, like, instinct," she said.
As it turns out, watching paint dry is extremely entertaining. Now Schwartz has made her career by traveling the world, capturing memories on canvas.
"It's part performance, but it's part memento," she said.
To learn more about live-event painting or to see more of her work, click here.
