Saturday, January 30, 2016

Paint Nite

This past Christmas, my nieces gave my sister and I tickets to a Paint Nite -  where you go and do a painting in a couple of hours!  Do you have them where you live?  They are all the rage here lately - they are usually held in restaurants - and you order drinks and appetizers while you work if you want to,  they play kind of loud music encouraging a party atmosphere while you learn to paint the featured piece.  So we finally picked a night that was good for us all and where they were doing something we liked the look of.  
Here we are at a local Bertucci's Restaurant, Friday night.   It was really fun - and each of our paintings came out a little different but all worthy of hanging!
Here's the class - we are in the front right enjoying our glasses of wine!
The painting we did was called Icy Birch.  Here is Kerri, our instructor showing us how to paint the background. 
Niece Katie and my sister Marcia standing, me and niece Christie sitting
 We were given a canvas, an apron to wear, 3 different size paint brushes to use and a paper plate with white, dark blue and black paint squirted on it.   Here we were adding areas of dark blue, and then lighter blue. (lighting not too bright in our corner!)
Then we mixed a spot of black with white and added gray patches. (I almost covered all the blue - so I added some more back in later!)
Next was to draw in the black lines of the tree - and Kerri showed us how to paint knots around the area the branches met the trunk and we added 'snow frost' to the branches.
Marcia and Katie with their masterpieces!
Christie concentrating on her painting
There was a photographer there who ran the music and took photos all night -  here we are happy painters!
And here it is, temporarily, hanging above my computer -
so I can look at it and say - "wow"!
 It's not a perfect piece by any means, but to walk in with no prior painting experience to speak of, and to walk out in two hours with something that actually looks like a snow covered tree - was pretty amazing and a fun night out with family!  


12 comments:

Christie said...

I love your description of the whole night. Your tree came out great! I really like how you did the trunk and knots. That was tricky for me. It was fun!

Joanne said...

Wow, I would love to do that!! Your painting came out so beautifully, so pretty with the background and details. Will have to check to see if they do this around here, this would be great fun.

Pamellia said...

Looks like you had a fantastic time Julia. Your painting turned out just gorgeous! Love it! hugs :)

Jenny Marples said...

Brilliant! What a great idea! The only danger for me would be dipping a paint brush in the wine glass - lol! I love how your painting came out! No one would know it's a first time you've made such a fabulous job of it. Jenny x

Samra said...

Outstanding work Julia!!! There are event like that where I live and one of my friends wanted to take me to one of those for my birthday but we could not agree on what painting to chose :( since each night has a specific painting to work on... But you have one amazing work of art now:)

Vicki Dutcher said...

What a fun gift and great night out. Your painting looks quite fabulous too! Just another niche for you to excel at :)

Brenda Brown said...

Great idea and finshed products. Looks like you had a fabulous time and of course the wine always helps it along. We don't have them here (that I've seen anyway) but have heard about them - good to see some fabulous results.
happy Sunday.
hugs Brenda xxx

Redanne said...

Wow Julia, I am so impressed with your painting, it is fantastic and it is lovely to see it hanging over your computer. Some of my relatives in Canada did the same thing recently, they painted a Christmas tree on a moonlit night, I know they were worried but the results were fantastic, just like yours (they had the party at home though, with 12 friends). This is such a great way to get people interested in painting! Hugs, Anne xx

Deb said...

How interesting, I've never heard of this before. Beautiful painting Julia! Deb xo

Loll said...

WOW is right! Great job Julia. Looks like it was a lot of fun for everyone. And you all ended up with masterpieces. We don't have anything like that here, but what a great idea!! xx

Words and Pictures said...

What an adventure - and what a great result - I bet you're tempted to carry on with the painting now!
Alison xx

Juliz Design Post said...

Looks like a fun night with lots of creativity and what a great way to get an introduction to painting. Your canvas looks great on the wall.
Hugs, Julie x