Presence portraits

Blind drawing means drawing without looking at the paper. This means that I am looking quite intensely at the person sitting in front of me. To many this is a surprisingly intimate and intense experience of feeling seen. The results are lively, unpolished portraits that might feel more like the person, than look like them.

As a live event painter I bring everything I need in order to give your guests a memorable experience. As I draw the portraits I will exhibit them on a rack, which will then also become a conversation piece, and create interaction between your guests.

Why I think it is important to feel seen

Feeling seen is such an undervalued experience. When people need support, we often struggle to know what to do, what to say or how to help. But often, we might just need the presence of someone who is there and makes us feel seen. Just being recognized for the person we are, there and then. Nothing necessarily anything being said or done, just being present.

It’s way harder to do this than it sounds. We tend to want to fix things, and to make bad feelings go away. When we practice presence we also practice connection, we’re building trust and helping each other with acceptance.

Providing the experience of feeling seen through blind drawn portraits of people at events, gives a sense of belonging and connection, which I hope to share with you.

"Iris drew the most beautiful portraits of all our guests, and at the same time gave us all an experience we won't soon forget. It was a special, intense and fantastic experience for both ourselves and for all our guests, which made the atmosphere at our wedding magical."‍

- Sophia Steinicke

Presence portraits at your event - how does it work?

HOW‍

I come to your event, set up a station and draw your guests as they come by my table. I draw with both hands, without looking at the paper. I hang the drawings to dry, and when your guests go home they take their portrait with them as a memory of your event!

HOW LONG

One portrait takes about two minutes, and I can draw around 15-20 an hour if there is a continuous flow. I usually draw up to 60 guests in 3 hours.

YOUR EVENT

Could be a wedding, birthday, company party, conference, festival or something else. We will make it work and make it fit with other activities on the day. I will arrive well in advance to set up, and stay to tidy up after. I will take short breaks as needed. ‍You provide a setup where I can work, including: a table (with a smooth surface) and two chairs. I bring everything else.

‍MATERIALS‍

I will bring high quality materials to work on. I work with watercolor and dry pastels on paper sized 50 x 35 cm, slightly larger than A3, 300 g quality.

HOW MUCH

This is hard to answer generally, as all events are different and there’s a big difference in the number of guests. It’s not because it’s a secret, just because the events I go to have everything from 5 to 1000’s of guests.

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