Painter Goes to Musical Extremes

"Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited ends just as Jean Francois Detaille does. Green, pink and yellow paint cover his giant black canvas in abstract splotches that appear to be the work of an untrained child. It's a safe bet that anyone, given the same five minutes, could do equal or better.

Then Detaille flips the canvas upside down. Most of the 1,000 shocked attendees of the American Immigration Council's annual awards dinner spring to their feet, wildly applauding a perfect rendition of the Statue of Liberty.

Detaille, 49, markets himself as an extreme artist. All of his paintings are completed before the 10-minute mark, frequently using unconventional means. Sometimes he uses a broom. Sometimes he inverts his body as well as his canvas. Sometimes he sets the rope he hangs from on fire.

"You cannot watch somebody paint a picture for two hours and think that it's entertaining," the Belgium native says.

Detaille, who always paints to music, is set to substitute a live orchestra for his personal boombox on Saturday, when he shares the Henderson Pavilion stage with the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

"The intensity of having a big orchestra behind, instead of a CD, is going to be really special," Detaille says. "I'm very excited."

Detaille's unusual abilities were apparent back in the late '70s, when they both impressed and annoyed his teachers at Brussels' Academie des Beaux Arts.

"Most of the students would take the four hours of the class to do a drawing," he says. "I was always done in 15 minutes. The teacher would move the subject and say, 'There, you're not done anymore.' "

Detaille's internationally renown speed-painting earned him a spot in "MADhattan," the street-performance variety show that opened along with New York-New York in 1997. It wasn't long, however, before Detaille realized that speed wasn't enough for the gig.

"Since you're in Vegas, you have to be bigger than life," he says. "So I started doing crazy routines."

Painting upside down was one of them.

"MADhattan" closed after nearly a year. But Detaille remained in town, earning a handsome living -- and a unique reputation -- working about 100 public and private events per year.

"I'm known as the wacko guy," Detaille says. "It's all right. It doesn't matter."

Pairing Detaille with the Philharmonic was suggested by executives at the Henderson Pavilion, according to Philharmonic music director David Itkin.

"We thought it was a fun and very different idea," Itkin says. "We all knew who he was."

As Itkin and associate conductor Richard McGee lead their orchestra through classical standards such as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" -- and pop nuggets from John Williams and the Beatles -- Detaille will complete four or five paintings.

Technical issues with the Pavilion prevent Detaille from hanging upside down. Still, Itkin says it will be "a riot," even as he admits to a nagging concern: "We're a little nervous about him keeping the paint away from the orchestra. We're hoping for a splash-free environment."

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.