Grammy Award-winning classical pianist, Emanuel Ax celebrated his 70th birthday this past weekend. I was so happy to receive a commission to create a watercolor portrait of him by his management team to commemorate the occasion!

As it happens, just as I was beginning the portrait a few weeks ago, Ax was in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles. I attended one evening and even had the opportunity to meet him backstage afterwards, where hopefully I didn’t make him feel too uncomfortable as I stared intently at his face – looking for subtle details – as we were shaking hands.

And it was nice to have an abundance of recorded music by Ax available to create a soundtrack to my work each day.