Channel your inner Bob Ross at a paint while you drink studio

HeidiTown is about festivals, events and destinations in Colorado, and this post falls under the “events” category. Last month, we were invited to a friend’s birthday party at one of these new drink while you paint studios that are popping up all over the country. Google “paint & drink studios” and you’ll get about 1 million results.

When we got invited to this party, I was not exactly excited. I am a creative person, but I am not an artist. I draw stick people and bubble flowers. The fact that I could drink wine while painting, however, made the idea more bearable.

The concept behind this type of event is to expose people to painting in a relaxed and nonthreatening environment. For the price of admission (usually between $30 and $50) attendees get a blank canvas and the use of the studio’s paint and paint brushes. A teacher stands at the front of the room and walks the group through a painting, step by step. Drinks are available for purchase – wine, beer and even cocktails at some establishments.

Our session was on a busy weekend evening and every chair in the place was full. Our birthday party of six, each a husband/wife team, had three professional artists in the mix, including a successful graphic designer, an art teacher and my husband, a furniture designer.

As someone who draws at a six-year-old level, this made the evening even more daunting, but I ordered a glass of wine, squirted paint on my paper plate palate and got ready to make some art, or something akin to art.

The painting we were to produce on this evening was called Twinkle Tree, and looked like something from a Dr. Seuss book. Once things got underway, and I started working on my second glass of wine, things began looking up, not because I was good at this – I am not – but because it was a blast.

An hour or two later, everyone in the room had completed a painting that looked more or less like Twinkle Tree. Of course, some of the artists in our group had given the tree their own amazing twist – show offs.

I don’t think this is something I’d ever choose to do by myself, but with a group, it’s an entertaining way to spend an evening. The painting that I created won’t ever find its way on to the Antique Roadshow, and in fact, probably won’t even make it on my own wall, but despite my apprehension, it turns out that painting and drinking wine is a lot of fun. I highly recommend this event for your next girls’ night, birthday party or date night.

NOTE: We painted at Studio Vino in Loveland, Colorado. Find them online at StudioVino.biz, or join them on Facebook here.