Paint Nite. Have you heard of it? I have wanted to do it for a long time. But it was not in my budget. It is about $50 for two hours of painting. But the idea is to have a glass of wine or something and a little snack while painting so it would be . . . . like I said . . . not in my budget. I kept seeing friends post pictures of their paintings and I kept wanting to go. I have a friend or two who have done it multiple times. Then I received an e-mail from Groupon. The Groupon deal is for $25.00. Much more affordable . . . but I still hadn’t done it. Then along comes my birthday. I have a group of friends who always get together for each other’s birthdays. We have been doing it since we were eighteen years old. Well, one of the group moved too far away so not all four of us always make it, but sometimes we do if she is in town. But anyway . . . . the remaining three of us are always trying to find stuff to do and I thought a Paint Nite would be fun. But one problem is, it is Paint NITE as in NIGHT. And one of us three, lives too far to be out that late on a school night. But one of my friends still decided to give me a Groupon for Paint Nite for my birthday. I was so excited. I finally got to go to a Paint Nite.
Upon first hearing about Paint Nite I didn’t realize you can pick the night you go based on the painting that is going to be done that night. I don’t know if it was different when it first started, but I know when I first heard about it, I was told that you just paint whatever . . . could be there was some miscommunication. So when I actually looked into it and saw you could pick via painting I was excited. You can also pick based on artist, date, or location. So it is really nice.
I, of course, picked a blue painting. It had pink it in, but I would suffer the pink . . . because it was blue with FLOWERS. Now one reason I wanted to do it is because I wanted to paint. But another reason I wanted to do it is because there are things that I won’t do unless I can do them a certain way. But sometimes I do things that I consider practice at letting go and just embracing whatever it is I am doing. This was my plan for painting. I had faith in the process, but I didn’t think I would paint all that good. And I didn’t. My painting is not one that they would put on the website or even their Facebook page to advertise Paint Nite. But it is partially on purpose and partially not.
The painting is done in steps so at one point it was close to what the final project is supposed to look like. But I decided that I didn’t care for the pink and I wanted more blue so I covered most of the pink. So THAT is one aspect of it that was purposeful. The fact that my flowers are not white was semi-purposeful . . . but not really. I purposefully painted my bottom layers thick because I like the texture of thick paint in paintings. But with only two hours to paint you have to paint thin so the paint can dry and you can paint the other layers. So — ding, ding, ding! I learned something. So, in order to try to cover the bottom layer I used a lot of white . . . .which also translated to thick lines (petals) and so my flowers are more like star fish. But I learned. And my painting is blue and that is pretty much all I wanted. I let go any idea that it was going to be perfect or even good.
I had a great time. It was not so much about the painting as it was about the company and doing something together. Now I am on the lookout for another “blue painting”. The thing is, is they have to be on a night I am available and in my area. So . . . I am still looking.
I am booked to do a painting with a friend in the future, but the painting was her pick and is not blue. And with that one . . . I really have to let go of the idea of my painting looking anything like that painting. Ha! I am going for the company. It is going to be super fun!
Have you heard of Paint Nite? Have you done a Paint Nite? Will you share a photo of you painting with us?
strawberries because I just didn’t want to stick my fingers in the champagne because I was planning on drinking it later. Only with the first jar. Once one jar was empty of strawberries I poured the liquid in it and then just plucked the strawberries out with my fingers of the remaining jars. I set the strawberries on a paper towel to dry. I patted them “dry”. They DID NOT dry. The chocolate did not really want to stick to the strawberry.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 