Artist preserves LA's party scene in paint

LOS ANGELES - Preserving a party through paint! Mary Harris does live painting at red carpet galas and events, like a pre-Grammy party, capturing the crowd and atmosphere. She calls what she does 'paint the party!'

What they're saying:

Harris says "it's really a moment capsulating the people, place and time."

As for the people, she says they "are able to come up to me. I add them in as landscape."

Harris is a fine artist whose talent has been passed down through generations of women in the family.

She notes "my mother is a painter, so is my great-grandmother and my father's mother is also a painter." She has a picture of South African activist and former first lady Winnie Mandela receiving art from her mother, Barbara Harris.

The backstory:

 At 17 years old, Mary's art hung in the state capital in New Jersey, where she grew up. By high school she'd mastered portraits. At five years old she did her first, but actually took to paint at three years old.

Harris came to Los Angeles at 20 and now makes her living as an artist.

In November, she did a 'paint the party' job for Coca Cola and Wingstop. She describes it as a "six-foot by 10-foot for the Wingstop corporate office."  

Other companies turn the art into commemorative posters for their guests.

Harris also speaks on helping people learn to collect and invest in art, especially in the Black community.