Every year Atlantic Business Magazine recognizes excellence in business leadership with a gala awards ceremony for the top 50 CEOs in the Atlantic provinces.

Last year I was selected to draw portraits of the CEOs as part of their award, presented at the ceremony. Though extraordinarily challenging, the portraits were all completed to the satisfaction of the client on schedule. The experience was incredible, and I felt very fortunate to have participated.

Due to the portraits being such a hit last year I was honored to be invited by ABM to take part once again in their prestigious event.

As excited as I was, I was fully aware of the daunting nature of this task. The stakes were now in fact much higher as I felt compelled to produce work that exceeded my prior performance.

This may have been my greatest challenge to date. There were 10-12 hour days put in at least six and a half days per week for almost a month and a half, but the result was absolutely amazing! ABM loved my work, and have since commissioned illustrations for several columns in their bimonthly magazine. They are a fantastic client for whom I am delighted to work. More on this soon…

I was also invited to the event at the World Trade & Convention Center and had the opportunity to hang out with the talented award recipients. It was nice to meet in person the faces at which I had stared for such a long time. What an incredibly inspiring group of people! The gala, put on by Zed Events, was a truly magnificent evening filled with amazing food & entertainment, and I shall never forget it.

I congratulate all the award winners, in particular the CEO of the year Wadih Fares. His speech nearly brought me to tears, it was hard to believe he improvised it on the spot from the heart.

Once again, a very rewarding experience which has already led to wonderful things!

And man, have I got portraits down pat.

Every year Atlantic Business Magazine selects the top fifty CEO’s in the Atlantic provinces to receive a presentation at an awards gala.

This was one of my first big contracts. I was commissioned through Zed Events to produce pencil portraits of each of the fifty winners as part of their award.

Though time was a little tight I completed all fifty and am proud of them all.

This year’s gala was held at the World Trade and Convention Centre. I was invited to the event and got decked out in my best suit. I finally got to meet the clients from ABM in person and had a great time.

It was really neat rubbing elbows with some of the “big” boys & girls, in particular the award winners. While this was their first time meeting me, I had been staring at every aspect of their faces for hours and hours.

In the end every one was delighted with the portraits. Zed Events is a great company to work with, the CEO’s loved their awards, and I enjoyed dealing with a client like Atlantic Business Magazine, who felt the idea was a big hit.

If you have ideas how portrait artworks could work for you, contact me anytime.

Gatsby’s, under new management, had been doing a lot of work & promotion for the world cup, even being mentioned in Maclean’s magazine. They did not, however, wish to be typecast as a sports bar as they have live music & fine dining as well.

The annual Jazz festival window competition was the ideal opportunity. Having already worked with Gatsby’s & having already won the competition once we were a perfect match.

I put together a window design, and we got a bunch of old records for which I designed labels from my jazz greats portrait series. The result looks fantastic, and with live patio jazz they’ve completely relabeled themselves as much more than a great place to watch the cup!

I was commissioned by one of my clients to paint a window for a contest put on by the jazz festival. I got four other businesses to participate, and put together a mural commemorating the evolution of jazz. The piece works from dixieland to big band, then bebop on to present day. The piece includes portraits of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and the Shuffle Demons respectively.

These are some examples of portraits of interesting faces.

Portraits for which I was commissioned