My name is Merritt Wilson. I’m 21 years old and have autism. I’m an artist, aspiring chef, film director and screen writer. This one is my first one that I drew of Andre Rieu. This one is a poster for the concert in Los Angeles next month.

Thank you {Sally} for calling me last week about my artwork of Andre Rieu. I would like to welcome Andre Rieu to Los Angeles and see him in person.

I drew some drawings of Andre Rieu and His orchestra members in a tribute to the Disney Animated films. Los Angeles is the home of the Disney Studios and Disneyland.

• The first one is a landscape drawing of René Henket playing the long royal fanfare trumpets. 
  The background I drew depicts a scene from Sleeping Beauty (1959) with the castle in the background and the hills in both the foreground. Two birds, an owl and a bluebird are perching on his trumpet. I painted it in the same style of the backgrounds in film.
   
• The next painting depicts Manoe Konings, who is the clarinet player in the orchestra sitting on a throne with a background from Cinderella (1950)
       Andre Rieu said in an interview that she reminds him of a fairy-tale princess. That inspired me to draw a portrait of her sitting in a throne with the castle on the left and the château on the right in the background.
   
• Next I created Andre Rieu playing his violin in a forest with some characters from Bambi (1942).
       I drew this one twice. A butterfly has landed on the scroll part of his violin. I wanted that to be a tribute to  the film and to Andre Rieu himself. I heard that he collects live butterflies and keeps them in a green house at his mansion in the Netherlands.  
       In both the first and second drawings Bambi and Faline are playing together by a river and in a flower bed. In the first one Thumper is watching Andre playing his violin. In the second one Flower, Friend Owl and Thumper watch Andre Rieu play while the Stag stands on a rock high above the trees, watching him in the background.
   
• Finally there is a drawing of the singer Carla Maffioletti with some characters from Pinocchio (1940).
       I loved her act when she pretended to be a doll when she sang and that inspired me to draw her and make her look like a marionette.   It depicts her singing on a stage with Figaro and Cleo watching the show in the foreground.  Pinocchio himself is waiting for his cue to come down the stairs in the background as in a tribute to the film.
   
• There are more paintings & drawings on my Featured Fans page.

These are my drawings of Andre Rieu and his Johan Strauss Orchestra that I want to give to them. I want to wow them as their music wowed me. The medium I use is water color paint and pencils.

I’m looking to seeing him in concert. I would love to meet him in person, as we have talked about. He will love these drawings. I hope they would like to hang them on the walls.

Sincerely,
Merritt Wilson

I sent the painting below to André.