Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Wedding Lounge Podcast.
We have another wonderful guest of us this week.
We have Patrick Heisel, who is a live wedding artist.
Hi, Patrick.
Hi, hi.
You're last to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
Thanks for coming on and joining us.
So to start off with for our listeners, who may not know what we mean.
What do we actually mean by a live wedding and event artist?
Yes. So a live wedding artist or event artist is somebody who basically captures a moment
at a wedding or at any event that might be a retirement event or dinner or something
like that and translates, if you like, that moment into an art form.
So it may be a painting, for instance, certainly in my case, or drawing.
And then that's presented to say the couple or the clients.
So it's there to capture a moment.
And I think it has very free features to that.
I think the first thing is, hey, they're capturing a moment.
It might be the kiss or it's exchange of fouls.
Secondly, they're using some kind of canvas or paper to translate that moment,
that vision into an art form.
And then I think the third thing, and it's really important, is that you're there
to also entertain your guests and to, if you like, show them the process
and see that process unfold throughout the day.
So for me, those are the kind of key and unique features of a live wedding artist.
How do you capture that moment?
Is it something that you capture it in your mind and then you paint from that?
Or is it something that you take an image and then you take that image
and during the drinks reception, you're there performing, if you like,
and creating the art for them?
Yeah, so it really starts with a conversation with the clients, with a couple,
about what their vision is in terms of what they would like to capture.
So we're talking about things around, would they like to capture the kiss
or maybe exchange of fouls.
But what an artist brings to the table, if you like, is the sense of poetry,
it's about bringing emotion, bringing joy, celebration.
And every artist has their own unique style.
I have mine, of course.
And what you're trying to do in a particular moment like that is following a conversation
that you will have had with your client about the event, what they'd like to see,
how they'd like to sort of examine cause they like in terms of what they've seen,
perhaps on your website.
My job is to kind of also give that slightly different interpretation of reality.
So bringing out some of the colours that you might not otherwise see in a white dress.
They'll be losing reds bouncing off the light that I will see and I will embellish
and exaggerate a bit into the painting.
There might be other areas where something might be going on that might not be in the scene
that I've captured, say from a photograph, but I'll bring that into play.
It might be a beautiful plant.
It might be a constellation in the sky that one otherwise be there,
but I think needs to be there to give that sort of personal touch.
So you're bringing all of that into play.
It's about emotion, it's about feeling, but it's also about giving that sense of love
and I can see myself within that moment that I will remember for many years to come.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, no, definitely.
I would just sort of you touched upon different things there.
Why do you think most couples book a live artist?
Is it because they want sort of the experience, as you say,
like to entertain the guests on the day?
Or is it more that they want the focus of something, you know, photographs are beautiful.
Some of us have albums, some haven't bought it yet.
Natasha hasn't had her wedding photos printed, but, you know,
you don't necessarily blow up a picture of yourself and shove it on the wall.
The people sometimes choose to have a live artist
so that they can have something to display in their homes after it's sort of.
What do you tend to find your clients remains on a focus for choosing you?
Yeah, there's those things. If you think about, think about, you know, photographs,
sort of there to kind of preserve that moment.
I think it's an art form in itself and photography.
But the power of a painting brings into play poetry,
bringing that preserved moment into a sense of poetry.
Let's face it, on a wedding day, certainly in mind,
it's probably the best time in your life that you're going to look your best.
You spend all this money, you know, looking at your wedding dress,
your makeup, etc. for the guys.
I'm either with with shave with a tattoo.
I've never had a with shave and a hot towel ever before.
Or one wedding day, that was going, that was going, that was going to happen.
Great name.
That's quite, so if you're ever going to have a painting of yourself,
then it just has to be the wedding day.
So I think there's something about the opportunity they are
to have a painting of yourself and to kind of capture that moment.
It's a personal interpretation of that day,
which for me, essentially allows that to be a bit of an earloom
for that particular client.
It's something that a client will feel deeply connected to.
And if you're bringing in quite a bit of artistic licence,
which is what I tend to do, whether it may be bringing in perhaps,
for instance, I had a query this week from a client wanting to capture their
late grandparents into the art form.
Well, I think that's pretty sweet and quite moving.
Others have asked for their children, young children,
to be captured into the portrait.
So those things are quite personal to them.
And I think it's just classy.
I think it's just beautiful to have, you know,
your self, your couple being painted real time in front of your guests.
It's a beautiful art form.
That's primarily why I think couples employ a live-winning artist
out there at their weddings.
And you typically work with watercolour as a medium.
Yes, yes.
But what other alternatives are there out there?
What can couples look for when they're looking for a live artist?
Yes.
So if we're talking about mediums, certainly my medium is watercolour.
I like watercolour because it's light and vibrant.
I love the way the water moves over the play part.
It's quite romantic, yes.
It's very romantic.
Yes, yes.
And you can get some really happy accidents with watercolour.
And kind of that's the sweet spot when you're painting with watercolour.
And it comes in a lovely beautiful glass frame ready to go up on the wall.
So that's my preferred medium.
But of course you can make it acrylic.
Slightly much darker colours, styles can be slightly more blocky
or much more elegant in terms of its look.
But really what you're looking for, I would suggest couples look for,
is the style of painting.
So any live-winning artist worth this will have dreams of their work.
All over plastered on the Instagram page or their website.
And you've got to look at that and think, what connects with me?
What do I like to see?
And I visualise that pain on my wall.
Is that something that I would like to see?
And that's where the sort of difference is coming to play.
You should also say, with watercolour, we work from strictly from light to dark.
So you'll always see me doing a sketch then going from light to dark
and it has to be in that order.
We can't paste a light colour on top of a dark colour.
It has to be in that order.
So it's a four days work.
With our critic, you can finally get a bit of a head start.
Even before the ceremony has begun, some live-winning artists will attend a ceremony
and start doing the background scene first.
And then they can introduce the couple much later.
It's much more forgiving and it allows that to happen.
So that plays into kind of logistics and timings.
Or what medium you might choose for your event.
And do couples typically choose to have a moment from their ceremony?
Or can it be from, I mean, obviously it's a day's work.
It needs to be from something earlier on in the day.
Is there other moments they can choose to have captured?
They can, they can.
The ceremony is the most popular because it's the earliest.
And obviously we're capturing the case exchange of vowels.
That's what most couples do like.
I have done that much later moments, perhaps a dinner or instance.
Or just I guess mingling in the lawn with the couple and having a chat.
It's the kind of capture of that moment.
But one thing to bear in mind that later you're trying to capture that moment.
The less time you have to paint.
So I'm always trying to encourage couples.
Look, we want to try and show something by the end of the night.
And near completion, well, let's try and go for something much earlier in the day.
Then as opposed to much later, I've tried the much later bit.
And I have to say sometimes I've had to kind of decline requests because the paint time is so much more reduced.
Or for that reason.
So when couples are choosing a live live artist for their wedding.
Obviously they need to think about what style is actually painting they want.
And then also the logistics of how that would work on their day.
That's right, but that's something I will walk them through and talk to them about.
So it sort of starts off with an initial query about venue and date.
And then we'll go and talk about logistics.
And from that, what I tend to do is send them a question here,
which will bring some of that detail out.
That would inform the agenda or a short meeting that we'll have.
We can explore their painting vision, but also the logistics for the day and how that might work.
And then of course, this is normally booked quite some time in advance of the wedding days.
So four weeks before I'll relook at the notes that we've made.
And then I'll set out a very brief outline of how all work on the day.
We talked about just in case anything's changed since the time that we had the initial conversation.
But the idea is to make it very simple and very straightforward as possible.
That's the key.
Do you practice in advance?
And do you request an image of the couple to kind of get a sense of their features or the venue or anything like that?
Or is it you go in lined almost?
Yeah.
Sometimes, I'm very really asked for a picture of the couple I have to say or the venue.
The venue is something I can find out myself.
And as I said, I'm there to try and make things very simple.
So I'm not going to be giving reams of homework to my clients to say certainly pictures.
Obviously, that's something I can certainly do myself as a good artist.
You know, I should be able to certainly turn up and be able to paint someone I see.
So I'm really, really to see how a photograph beforehand and is sufficient time in the day to kind of make that assessment.
What I certainly do up for are things that we may not be on the day.
So for instance, I've had clients who have asked for their pits to feature into their paintings.
I'll definitely need a picture of that.
Or as I said, I gave you the early example of the client who wanted their late grandparents featured.
So those are certainly photographs and that I request to see before the hand.
But essentially, you turn up on the date.
I turn up early, says my composition.
Where things are going to be we're talking with photographer, etc.
And then you start the sketch process once I've seen the couple.
So as a live artist who obviously turns up on the day to venue, there's numerous guests.
There's a lot going on on a wedding day.
Well, there are any challenges that you've experienced when you've been painting someone's wedding.
I mean, I can think of whether being one of them because we both specialise in marquee wedding.
So a lot of the celebration and ceremonies have outside.
Are there any other challenges that you faced as a live wedding and event artist?
I think firstly, the first challenge of any live wedding artist is in trying to ensure that you are bringing it into play the vision that the client has expressed to you.
So it's all obviously in discussion.
And it only becomes real once we've started to put things down on paper.
And sometimes you have that point, make very quickly decisions about what you put in and what you leave out.
So, and what you think the client might like.
So I always encourage clients to calm over partway through the day and have a look at the sketch and see that they kind of have happy with it.
And then they can't move on, but there's an element of trust that has to be said with regards to employing a live wedding artist.
The reference, the second thing is a reference photo.
So as you know, we paint from a reference photo from the day that we take of that moment.
We use that throughout the day, obviously, and back at the studio, getting that shot is absolutely crucial.
I don't relax, I have to say any event until I've got that moment shot.
And that can be quite challenging.
So for instance, if you take, for example, the case last like three seconds, you've got to make sure you're at that right spot.
You're not in the way of the photographers also wanting to achieve that shot as well.
And you've got to kind of come away with that reference piece that you can then use to, to, to, to page.
And it needs to be that moment in time as well, doesn't it?
It needs to be a not state, it needs to be the natural moment that the couples are feeling.
And I mean, I guess you could recreate it.
And then you having watched it initially can sense the emotion that comes out of that, that moment, but that's quite a key.
Yeah, key thing, isn't it?
Absolutely, it really, it really is. And my, my backup, I mean, you, you, you have to have backups in this business.
But what, what if I didn't get the shot, if somebody was in the way all for, for instance?
So what I tend to ask my couple is, is that can we, or indeed the photographer after that moment, if I haven't quite got the shot on one,
it's never happened before, but if it did, then we'll try to recreate that after the ceremony when they're taking the general pictures.
And then the job of the artist is then to, okay, I've got that shot, transport that into the scene that we had earlier.
We've already artistic license. That's what we bring to the table and make it perfect.
That's beauty of artistic license, though, isn't it?
And beauty of the fact you are painting it, you can paint those feelings in, rather than if a photographer misses something.
Like when we had our episode a few weeks ago, I had a photographer who missed the entrance with the bride and her father to the church.
You can't get that moment back. It's classic, it's done. Whereas for you, you can, I mean, witness that moment, might not have captured the right shot.
You can go back, capture the shot, that's still to the emotion that was in that actual line.
I'm not saying the last thing, I think the challenge is around heat time. So a good watercolour, fresh watercolour can take up to eight to 10 hours.
Now, I don't have that amount of time during a wedding. If you take into account set up and all the rest of it.
So normally I'm able to produce the bride, the couple, that showable and will be near finish.
But certainly background and other elements will remain probably what needs to work back at the studio.
So invariably, I really, and I have shamefully had to decline any form of a meal or wedding breakfast just takes up time.
I'm usually in the back of my car for like 10 minutes to get in a quick sandwich.
The best time for me to paint it, it has to be said, it's during the wedding breakfast. I get that moment to myself where I'm actually getting in my moment, planning it.
And once the guests have finished the wedding and they come, they can see more kind of a seamless paint and so I can interact.
And it's much more comfortable paint. So that's really important paint time and preserving paint time. So the earlier the moment, the better.
I'm usually the first to arrive in the last to leave such as the time you need to make sure that you create something beautiful by the end of the evening or into the night.
I was going to say sort of what hours are you there on a wedding day. I've not had a wedding with the life.
No, I've got one next year. I'm really excited about it. So yeah, you are literally there all day obviously doing your prep beforehand and then painting long into the cocktails and the dance floor.
Just going to add to that. Yeah, I mean, I can, you know, I leave very, very early hours of the morning depending on where the location is.
Normally to two hours before so that's in the morning. And the key thing I always say to my, my, my, my, my couples is that you want your guests to see a lot of wedding artists in action.
So before yesterday, you need to show me to begin at the point at which guess walking and see something quite interesting. So that's the point which all starts and then obviously all the way into the evening and into into into the night.
I don't have a kind of cut off because I do have to make sure I travel back safely and I'm not only tired, you know, on the road and that.
So there are breaks during the day, but I invariably try to finish around half past nine and keep the painting on show up to maybe 10 o'clock or show that they're out.
And then I'll take it back home and finish it back out of studio. Yeah.
What is one of the most memorable weddings you've painted?
Okay, so I could say some of the thematic weddings of, you know, there was a wedding theme of dinosaurs.
That wouldn't be honest. The wedding that gives me goose bumps, bricks at the back of my head, even if you've asked that question, is the live wedding event that went wrong quite simply.
It's my first one. I don't know if you're interested in this.
Yeah, you want to give another.
You get you get at the place for my counseling afterwards. I have to say because I still I still get I still get beads of where of sweat every time I think about it.
And it's interesting to kind of just say how I kind of got into the business very brief because it's one of those things just like couples.
You see a lot of wedding artists on Instagram and that's where I first saw this unfold and I saw this artist in his beautiful surroundings in the summer.
I'm failing. It's beautiful painting in front of this to a round of applause.
And I looked at that in my sort of South London cottony accent, I thought to myself, I'll have some of that.
I can do that. That's just got to be me. I've been painting for 10 years. I'm a good artist.
You know, it's so easy. Just looking at it and you know that that's what rules do. They on Instagram.
You know, no one knows the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, but I thought to myself, I'm going to have a go at this.
And so I mainly advertise my services. I client in contact with me.
And I was booked. Now I have to say everything that could have gone wrong went wrong on that particular day.
It started later than it should have. So, and I'll probably pull out some of the learning outcomes as I'm telling you this, because many people.
Artists generally might want to get into this business and might want to understand a little bit about kind of the tips and things to be mindful.
So the first thing is that the paint time, as I mentioned earlier, that was reduced because the start time.
I started much later. We're talking an hour or so then the actual time it was supposed to start. I can't believe it.
That's how you're controlled.
Right. Quiet. And I'm thinking this is now my anxiety levels are beginning to rise slightly once that had happened.
Of course, I didn't speak to anybody. I didn't speak to the photographer.
I just turned up with my iPhone. And of course, the vehicle would have used the right time. It was in the church.
They always say, anyone with a phone, could you make sure you turn it off? We've got a photographer here.
Please refrain from taking any pictures. But then of course, I then stand up. And with my iPhone, trying to take this shot of the couple, the kids.
Now, the photographer didn't know who I was. So he just saw me as an irritant, trying to get this shot. So I managed to get a shot.
But it was blurry. And it had the photographer in the, in the, in the actual reference. It should. Can you believe it?
Yeah. So, of course, I, you know, the show's got to go on. I didn't, I feel, I didn't think for a moment I could maybe use any pictures afterwards from the bride and the groom.
Because time was short. It was moving on. I now had to start the sketch process outside in front of guests.
It was standing behind me, looking at me, sketching this scene of the bride and remember a blurry with a photographer in front of them.
You know, it was, it was absolutely comical. So I thought, I'm going to take a break here. I just, I started to tremble. My hands started to shake.
I had to kind of just get out of that scene. I had to, I had to, I went to my car, phone my wife. She can't be down a little bit. She said, why can't you just get the, it's your taking a car then.
And that's not in the wedding breakfast. It's moving on is at moments now. What am I going to do? She said, but carry on your own artists. You can do this. You've got this, you know, I've tried to disappear.
So I got back and the handshake started to lighten up a little bit. But there were beads of sweat all over my face. I couldn't see what I was doing properly.
I'm very grateful. I was probably a bit odd because I kept looking at them because I, the picture I had was almost useless.
So I was also like, it's staring at them to try and try and draw them all to this, to this canvas. And I'm going to me, I never, this has never happened to me before.
Because of the anxiety, the pressure, my hand just ceased. I've, you know, it's, it's like if you're typing for a long time, and your hands, it was a claw, it was a claw, it couldn't, I couldn't move it.
And I just thought, this has never happened to me before what's, what's going on. So every, you know, when you look at my reals, you'll see that there's a fan on everyone, every, every event I go to, there's a fan stood on top of my easel to deal with that.
But when I showed the painting to the couple, they were gracious and they were lovely, certainly said, honestly, lovely, but I could see on their face, it wasn't right. It wasn't, it just, it wasn't the wow that I was looking for.
And that's what I look for in every painting I produce.
So I took it back home, I read it, I managed to get a proper picture of the couple, I said that, you know, to them. And I just simply charged them as if it was a commission as opposed to me being there as a, as a live-winning artist.
But, you know, it's through that sort of failure, and this is the learning outcome that leads, I think, to success. And it says, you know, and I'm following that I had written a 200 page checklist about all the things that I needed to do and follow through before going to any event.
And that has been successful ever since I've never had a situation like that ever before, but I have to say if you're talking about a memorable event, it was certainly that one for me, which will never happen again.
I mean, everyone starts somewhere and the important thing is is that you learn from it as well, you know, it's when people make the learnings and the failure. Yeah, exactly. If you're just, you know, you obviously learn from it, you've honed your processes, you know, that you need to have a fan, start sketching, you know, you've got all of these things you introduce yourself.
So, you made it right for the couple anyway afterwards, they had the experience of you there on the day and then you just had a different photo that drove towards Patrick, how, how did you get into painting?
Like, obviously, we've just heard a bit about how you got into painting at weddings, but where did the love of art and painting come from?
First back background. So, I'm a generation, it's guy. And what I mean by that is I read a lot of comments when I was little. That was that was the only few ever looked at the comments back in the vein in 1980s.
They were just beautiful art forms, even to this day. And I used to draw a lot. I wasn't particularly good at reading, I'm slightly dyslexic. And so I was drawn to art and expressing my way myself through through art.
And I always, always drew well. I always did art when I was at school, but, you know, I, I was always a traditional family. You were always said, well, they're always concerned about that being a career.
And so I moved into a different direction travel. I began to serve in the project manager and so on.
So I kind of left that I was getting, you know, the pace of life was just getting very busy, but probably about 10 years ago, I then fought myself. I'm going to pick this up again.
I saw this was the sort of social media now coming through and I'm beginning to see others deducing some beautiful pieces of art and I was drawn to watercolor.
So I started to get trained in medium. I'm going contact with some of the masters in watercolor who were arranging training courses and so on and made sure that I was on those and just sort of developed my art over time, finding my style.
Also, a number of portraits and landscapes and entering competitions, following, following that about quite a military stuff as well and police art as well, which I'm quite fond of and buildings as well.
But as I said, I then came across this real Instagram, which I could do. I said, I left some of that. Yeah, I guess I got into live wedding art.
I wish I'd found it much earlier. I have to say it's such a beautiful thing to do something you love in an environment where people are happy.
There's so much joy and love in the air and you're engaging with people and trying to inspire them to pick up a paintbrush, hopefully after what they've seen and that's that's kind of what I hope to achieve when I'm at these events.
So how long have you been a wedding artist, live wedding painter?
Two and a half years, so I'm relatively new to the industry, but it is a relatively new concept, isn't it? So it's so new. We don't even have our own heading when you try and advertise yourself on a wedding, on a website like each or something like that.
You know, I come under entertainment. So don't quite like, but box the only heading that I can find that that's close to live wedding art.
So yeah, so two and a half, two and a half years now I've been doing this.
And what sort of area do you cover with your live artistry? Can you travel across the UK or do you primarily base your work sort of and have clients around the south east?
Yeah, not really south of Birmingham is generally my catchment area. Anything further than that, then what has to then think about accommodation costs.
I get feeling booked up quickly, so one wedding in the North can take up two days, so that's our weekends and sometimes I can fit two weddings within that time.
I've got to come and take that into account, but what I've, what I tend to do, what I've done is I've built up almost a small portfolio of other artists that can deliver from those areas.
Or indeed, if I'm not available, then others I'll share those details with with the clients to make sure that they can try and find somebody sort of good quality that can deliver what they need to like on their on their wedding day.
I love that. Generally, yeah, I think it's really important. We're here to help, you know, that's what we do as well, you know, is that real community over competition?
Yeah, I think, you know, at the end of the day it's about the client getting exactly and they've come to you because they obviously like your style and for them to be able to find someone else similar if you're not able to do it is such a wonderful thing to be to share with someone else.
Yeah, I'd so recommend that and so one of the things I'd like to do is set up a Facebook group. There's one already there or a live wedding artist, but it covers everywhere around the world.
That's really more focused on the UK, where a lot of wedding artists can sort of join such a group and just just share some tips and and the cheating recommendations as well.
I think talking to each other is really important and certainly that's one of the things I feel to do when I got into this business.
I said I looked at Instagram real thought I could do it and it was a failure when what I should have been doing was talking to the other live wedding artists about this process and what to look out for and they're willing to give this advice.
Yeah, I find the wedding industry is very very kind, we're quite willing to share information, you know, we're all there to do a job for the for the couple and we want to do our best we can.
And it goes a long way if you're if someone shows you kindness, you should other people kindness and you know, you remember people who don't help and you're the team there.
They want you are essentially your as a team that's there.
You're the couples cheerlead that's essentially we're the ones that pull together a wedding day and make it happen and we're the ones who who pull all that together.
So you need to work as a team and everyone pulls their weight in that team and that's so important.
So where can people get hold of you, Patrick?
Have you got website, Instagram?
Where can I listen to find out more about Patrick Heisel?
- Thanks for asking.
So if you'd like to see all my work and examples
of my work and also Reels, I've produced a lot of Reels
to give my clients a good understanding
about what's all happened during the day.
Then you can find on Instagram,
I keep a massive blog on all my work there.
On P Heisel Art, okay, so it's P Heisel, H-E-I-C-L-Art.
That's my profile name.
And you'll find all my work there.
And also on stories, I communicate Bayley
about things going on and updates on the wedding scene.
But if you've got further information, detailed information,
then I have a website, it's www.heheiselart.com.
And you'll find all my information there, my terms,
pricing, there's FAQs, there's a questionnaire,
I spoke about earlier, everything's on there.
So that's certainly the go-to place
if you'd like more information.
- Thank you.
We'll pop all those in the show notes as well.
So people can find those quite easily.
- Right.
- We like to end our episodes with a tip for our listeners.
So we'd like to ask you, Patrick,
what would you want to be for our listeners?
- I would say, what currently?
Because why I say it, particularly for live-wedding artists,
you're choosing a live-wedding artist for this style.
There's a sense of uniqueness about them and personality.
And you'll probably won't find no other.
It's not like someone you can sort of book
at the closest moment to your wedding.
Certainly do your research and book
a live-wedding artist early on.
Because they're then very difficult.
The closer you get to your wedding date,
it's very difficult to then find someone else.
You may have similar style or similar approach
to what you're looking for.
We're very few in numbers.
It has to be said.
And I think it's actually picking up.
But I certainly say, you know, the research,
look at the stuff on the website,
what they're showing, look at the reviews,
certainly book early.
I only asked for 10% deposit.
Which just helps with, I think, the cast flow
allows couples to book early on without breaking the bank.
And they'll know that that's fucking insecure.
So that'll be certainly my one tip.
And my other tip will be, you know,
employee wedding planner.
Get the stress out of the whole process.
You know, give it to someone else to do.
You know, we can get behind that tip.
Yeah.
Thank you.
So there we go.
Yes.
Well, thank you so much for coming
on to the podcast.
It's been brilliant having you on.
It's been a great laugh.
And we've learnt so much.
And I loved your honesty about your most memorable event
being your first one.
Yeah, exactly.
Next week, we are going to be talking
about decision fatigue, one of those moments
that I think happens to you every single couple
on your planning journey.
So join us then.
Thank you very much.
I'll see you later.
Bye.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]