Your event
Tell me the date, the venue and the occasion, and we bring your idea to life together!
Live painting at festivals: a painter on the stage
Giulia Dal Bon paints on stage while the music plays, guided by what she hears. A stage slot, a canvas filling in front of the crowd, a finished work at the end of the set. Trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, she tours sixteen European countries. Fee from 400 €, technical rider supplied, free quote within 48 hours.
Contact Giulia
Tell me your idea, and I will be glad to reply.
Fee, contract and touring
| Concerts, festivals, companies and parties | |
|---|---|
| Live performance, for as long as you like | from 400 € |
| Watercolour portraits of the guests, during the evening | from 500 € |
| The piano and painting show | on request |
| Another length, another venue | bespoke quote |
For a wedding, the canvas painted during the reception starts at 950 €.
Free quote within 48 hours
How it works
When you contact me about a festival, here is what happens next.
The quote
I send you a free quote within 48 hours.
Before the day
We choose the format and the subject, and I prepare the composition if needed.
On the day
I paint in front of the audience, and the signed painting is yours the same day.
What live painting brings to a line-up
A painter walks on stage with the music and works in full view during the set: the crowd follows what it hears and what appears on the canvas, and at the end of the piece or the set the work is turned towards the room. It is a second stage, a silent one, which gives the audience a reason to stay and something to photograph. Giulia Dal Bon paints with a brush, in acrylic, standing and in motion, and she has already painted at music events, in theatres and during piano concerts.
The stages where it works best are those where the music leaves room for the eye: acoustic stages, piano, jazz, classical, songwriting, calm electronic sets, opening slots, late-afternoon programmes. Off stage, a dedicated area in the middle of the site works just as well, while the crowd moves between two concerts. The length of a stage slot is decided with you; across a day, Giulia takes two slots, or holds an open area through the afternoon where the audience comes and goes, and each slot produces a distinct canvas. A programme over several days is built slot by slot, and the length chosen appears in the quote.
What becomes of the canvas is written into the contract from the start: the festival keeps it as a trace of the edition and hangs it the following year, it goes to auction for a charity, it joins the dressing room of the artist on the bill, or it sells that same evening to someone in the crowd. A canvas painted during a concert carries the date and the music of that night.
If the organiser is after a theatrical effect, Giulia can paint the canvas upside down and turn it round only at the end: the audience follows her hand and the music, and the subject appears all at once as the canvas is flipped. It is a finale the room photographs, and it is planned at the quote stage.
The technical rider
On stage, Giulia asks for a two-by-two-metre area, flat and stable, a power socket nearby, and a light aimed at the canvas for an evening slot, so the painting stays readable from the crowd. She brings her easel, canvases in the agreed size, acrylics, brushes and a floor sheet; a corner of backstage to prepare the materials is enough. Easel and canvas arrive assembled, she is in place before the doors open and follows the running order, including when the stage is busy and she has to be set up well before her slot.
Filming is welcome: Giulia agrees to the festival filming and publishing the work as it happens, with her name credited, and the time-lapse of a canvas filling up in one minute is a format that programmers use in their post-edition communication. Image conditions, set-up and strike times and the running of the slots are written in the technical rider attached to the quote.
The festivals and the stages
Giulia travels to the festivals and stages of Europe. On the French Riviera and in Provence: Jazz à Juan in Juan-les-Pins, the oldest jazz festival in Europe, the Nice Jazz Fest on place Masséna and at the Théâtre de Verdure, Les Plages Électroniques on the sand in Cannes, the Menton Music Festival on the parvis of the Saint-Michel basilica, the Chorégies d’Orange in the Roman theatre, founded in 1869, and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
In Italy: the Arena di Verona, the Lucca Summer Festival on piazza Napoleone, Umbria Jazz in Perugia, Fiera Milano Live in Rho, Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle. She also travels to stages in Monaco, Genoa, Turin, Milan, Marseille, Barcelona, Brussels and Amsterdam. From €400, free quote within 48 hours.
Your questions, before booking
Do you also come to small villages?
Yes. The towns named on this site are simply the ones that have a page, and Giulia paints everywhere else just as gladly: a hamlet in Piedmont, a village in the Var, a farmhouse in Tuscany, an estate an hour from the nearest airport. Give the name of the place and the date: the answer comes within 48 hours, and travel is agreed together in the quote.
How do I book live painting for a festival?
Tell Giulia Dal Bon the date, the venue and the occasion, and she brings your idea to life with you. She offers you a free quote within 48 hours. Before the day, you choose the size and the subject together, and she prepares the composition if needed. On the day, she paints in front of the audience, and the signed painting is yours that same day. Live painting for a festival starts at 400 €.
Where has Giulia already painted live?
On stages, in theatres, at weddings and at company evenings: she has painted live hundreds of times, dozens of them with the piano and painting show she performs as a duo. Two of those dates are public: at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, for Play Green, she painted alongside the illustrator Francesco Barcella, on a reclaimed wooden panel supplied by the Di Nuovo craftsmen. And on 6 July 2017, in Camaiore, for the fourteenth Festival Gaber, she painted under the Arco di Via Vittorio Emanuele beside the guitarist Gianni Martini. Both evenings are documented by Lyra Teatro and by the press, and the links are on the Press page.
What is the fee for live painting at a festival?
From 400 € for a stage slot. From 1 800 € for a long set or two slots in the same day. From 500 € for portraits of the audience on an open area. The piano and painting show is quoted on request. Canvas, stretcher, colours, brushes and easel are included. Travel and hospitality are agreed together and written into the quote, sent within 48 hours.
What does the fee cover?
The full materials, the preparation beforehand, set-up, the performance itself and the strike. Giulia arrives with canvases in the agreed size, her acrylics and her easel. Agreed together on top: transport, accommodation when the date is far, and catering on site, handled as for any booked artist. Everything is quoted line by line.
Can she be booked across several dates?
Yes. Giulia tours sixteen European countries and speaks Italian, French, English and Spanish, which counts at an international festival. A run of dates is built together: the fee accounts for the number of slots and the shared logistics. Send the dates you have in mind and the venues, and she answers within 48 hours with a proposal for the whole run.
How do you book a slot?
Send her three things: the dates of the edition, the place, and the type of stage. She answers within 48 hours with a detailed quote, the technical rider, the proposed slot length and the canvas size. You confirm when you want. For summer editions, June, July and September slots go first: write early and hold the date.
Is Giulia available for the coming season?
Yes. Programming is settled six to twelve months ahead. Write with your dates, even approximate ones: Giulia replies within 48 hours with her availability and a quote. If a slot is already taken, she says so straight away and offers the dates around it. She tours in sixteen countries and can line up several dates in the same region.