Thursday, April 4, 2013

Sean O'Keefe, Vice President Of CHATEAU GRAND TRAVERSE, MI. : 3 Winemaker / Owner Of Vineyards Quick Portrait Sketches I Drew After Meeting Jancis Robinson 3/21/13 @ Smithsonian's Natural History Museum

This was quick and spontaneous and lots of fun and I found myself feeling my adrenalin pumping and all systems " go " , and a certain urgency and immediacy about the moment as I stood before two owners and sketched them quickly as there were lots of people around us and no time to spare. That's the way I like it. I have to act quickly and precisely and " go with the flow " of whatever energy that I can harness and hop onto at the moment. There is not time to reflect , just " to do ", and " to do " as effectively and efficiently as I possibly can. To look back and reflect later : time to do and to amass and to take away as much as I possibly can from a situation to share with myself and others at a later time, when I find some time, I snatch it from somewhere else and focus it as I am now to accomplish this. ... ... ... ... Sean O'Keefe, Vice President of CHATEAU GRAND TRAVERSE , Michigan 49686 USA, ... ... Sean O'Keefe is the subject here for me of these pictures that I took of him with his excellent bottle of white Michigan wine 49 that I had him pour for me and that I posed him with as he did this to capture an up-close image of owner and his own creation, wine in this case from the Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan. I see on his card that it says CHATEAU GRAND TRAVERSE has been a family business since 1974. The 49 white was impressive indeed, and I liked very much it's mouth-feel, texture, mid range flavors and the finish as well. I am happy to represent both Sean's family wines in red and white already at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008, Tel : 202-363-4265 , anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwines.com ). ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I had my oil pastels with me that I used to draw these quick portrait sketches : two of Sean as he spoke to others and poured his wine for them. He was not posing for me. He did not have time to do this, I did not ask him to, I never require anyone to pose for me as I quickly do these portrait sketches. In many ways I like this better. There is no need. I like the immediacy and the rawness and the spontaneous quality of what results, less-studied, more simply just reacting to the moment, it's energy and feel , warmth, coldness, whatever it may be. ... ... ... ... ... ... I enjoyed my brief conversation with Sean as I took the pictures of him through his dark green-glass-skinned wine bottle. I learned that he had just had a 3-week-old son born and that his wife had given him 24 hours to be away here in Washington D.C. at this 3-part event with a 1) Jancis Robinson chat with wine-writer Dave McIntyre for the Washington Post newspaper, 2) a buying and book-signing of the collaborative effort between Linda Murphy and Jancis on their newly-released book AMERICAN WINE, and then this, the 3) wine-tasting upstairs in the Rotunda of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum on Thursday evening, March 21st, 2013 , starting at 6:45PM. It was a great event in many ways. I am glad that I attended and finally met Jancis and people like Sean O'Keefe that I enjoyed very much, even though briefly. ... ... ... ... ... ... I will post this now " as is " and return to finish it a bit later. Enjoy this so far and stay-tuned for more. Cheers on April 4th, 2013, Thursday morning .... Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn

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