Skydiving, Wine and Painting

Wine and Paint Party

Lets Party!

The other day a student asked me what I thought of Wine and Painting parties. He figured they were big competition with my studio and wondered if I'd ever considered hosting them myself.
 
If I wanted to experience skydiving but not invest in lessons and equipment, I'd sign up for a tandem skydiving session. You know, the kind where you jump strapped to an experienced diver, they pull the cord, guide your landing and film you screaming all the way down? Totally a fun experience yes? I would think so :-)

The wine and painting party offers are much the same concept. People who want the experience of being creative but don't have that inner craving to really explore the arts or even make it a hobby, get together and play. Gotta love it!

The parties buy in bulk, use very cheap acrylics, brushes and paper plate palettes because it's uber easy for them to clean up. And when brushes get trashed (which using acrylics tend to do to a brush), it's less expensive to toss them than to pay employees to clean and condition them after each session.

Plus if you've no experience painting, you have no idea that you are trying to work with a bad brush (you think it's your fault you can't paint – it's not btw – it's the brush, not you).

Liz with her Completed Laborado Painting

They offer super simple, very basic paintings to copy so that it's easy for anyone. They want their clients to feel successful just as I do - a good business practice yes?

And of course the wine helps make the artwork look way better. At least that is what my student told me when he enrolled in my classes last month. He said it was fun. There was a lot of laughter, food and wine. He was so joyful about it that I wanted to see their painting. That's when he told me that he and his wife left their paintings at the place because they didn't "turn out so good."


But hey... because they'd had so much fun, they wanted to continue learning. They also wanted to make art that they felt proud enough of to bring home and hang on the wall.

I've been approached by several companies to provide the same. I walked my mind through starting up a new business because yes, doing wine and painting parties would be a totally new direction (and a major investment of time, money and my weekends), and I decided that it was not my cuppa coffee.

I so much prefer to lovingly guide my students to find their creative spark and fan it into a beautiful, bright flame of happiness.

And you know what? I will probably attend one of those parties just for the fun of it. I won't let on who I am because I won't be the one teaching (it's a respect thing). Most likely I'll be in the far corner happily creating my own painting, not following any of the rules and of course, I'll sneak in my own brushes.

Happy painting everyone!