A few weeks ago, my friend Lacey IMed me.
“I’m thinking of doing a painting class for my birthday–is that weird?”
“NO! That sounds like so much fun.”
Something other than dinner and drinks for a birthday? Sign me up! (To give credit where credit’s due, I think Lacey might have read Casey’s post about the class.)
And so I did sign myself up.
Before I continue, let’s keep in mind my lack of artistic ability. When I was little, I told my parents I wanted to be a writer and illustrator when I grew up.
By the time I was six or so, I realized I was going to have to have someone else illustrate my book. (At that time, I obviously wanted to be a children’s book author, since, what else would a six year old think they could write?) By middle school, I realized that while I was in the A-track academic classes, that wasn’t going to apply to art. Or music. I was going to have to stick to the words.
So walking into this class the other night, nearly 30, I wondered how the hell I was going to paint something I’d be happy to bring home.
We were provided with three brushes, 10 paint colors and the blank canvas.
And Lacey provided us with champagne in a can.
We started with painting the right of the canvas the deep blue, and then moved left with lighter blues.
We then added some white lines for what would eventually become the sun…
…and then I stopped taking pictures, but the instructor guided us through layering the yellow on top, then painting on small orbs that would turn into poppies and adding their stems…
Finished product! Picasso, I am not, but I will hang this on my wall.
Everyone’s finished products.
What’s the most interesting way you’ve ever celebrated a birthday? (Yours or someone else’s.) Do you have any artistic talent, or do you stick to the words, too?
No idea why I chose Frank Sinatra lyrics to name my last post on this…
As I mentioned in my last post, I've really been going through it with headaches.…
(tw for diet culture talk—mostly how it's BS, but how it's affected me, too) This…
I have been thinking about this post for a while—on why diet culture is unhealthy…
I woke up this morning already feeling anxious. (Yay!) My standard iPhone alarm is set…
I read The Midnight Library over the weekend, and I need to talk about it.…
View Comments
That looks so fun! I have to find one in NH ;)
This looks like so much fun!! I've been hearing about these things for a while and would love to do that at some point. And the finished product looks great!
I love this idea. I am a terrible artist though. Maybe a cooking class, wait, I can't cook either. Hmmm, maybe I should stick to Happy Hour. I am good at that and no complaints for the last 16 birthdays. (damn I'm old)
That looks AMAZING! I just signed up for the waitlist of the August 31st class if you want to join :)
Zero artistic talent. But those classes look so fun!
That's awesome! I used to take painting classes as a kid and for a short amount of time I thought I was good. Then I hit a point that I realized my "good" was nowhere near anyone else's "good" my age and somewhere I didn't think I'd advanced enough and painting was no longer fun. I would probably enjoy one of these classes tho...
Very cool to see everyone's variation on the same picture.
I have 0 artistic talent on paper--I prefer to think my artistic talent comes through in the kitchen.
But I always say - I can't even draw a straight line let alone draw a picture!
I want to do one of these classes so bad, they look like so much fun, especially with adult beverages and good friends! :)
Have you tried a pottery class yet? They are lots of fun too.
Not as an adult! They do sound like fun.
That is such a fun idea!! I wonder whether they do those in London. A great birthday I went to recently had us cycling a pedibus around London whilst drinking wine. It was a blast!
My friend and I are signed up for one of these classes in 2 weeks. I am feeling doubtful, since I have no artistic talent, but you made me feel like I might stand a chance of making something somewhat presentable.