Painting With A Twist

My co-worker's daughters, niece and one of their friend's invited me to tag along with them to a new art adventure at a place called Painting With A Twist;  https://www.paintingwithatwist.com/fairport/.  I've been wanting to check out this place but haven't had the opportunity until now.  Basically you go to this art place and everyone is given a canvas and all other needed art supplies.  You have an instructor who gives you step by step instructions on creating a specific art painting (whatever design is being created that day). You can also do private parties and choose which painting design you all want to create (from over 4,000 designs).  Another neat aspect of this place is that people can bring their own food and drinks to enjoy while there.

While my co-worker wasn't there she had made us all up a picnic basket with 2 bottles of wine, cheese and crackers, grapes, pita chips and artichoke cheese parmesan dip and strawberries with a twist (she used paintbrushes as the skewer).

I took part in the Rochester City nightscape.  It looked pretty challenging and I wondered how they were going to teach it to mostly people with no trained artistic skills.  I thought it would be cool to have a scene of Rochester in case I ever move.

So here's the skinny. It was a three hour class but ended up being 4 hours because the painting was soooo intense and had a lot of layering.  We were given two brief breaks throughout in which we had to blow dry are pieces.  There was 40 people there creating the same painting.  Our instructor was talented, had a great sense of humor and did a great job making everyone feel comfortable with whatever they created.  I personally felt stressed while creating. It was fast paced and not meant for those of us that are perfectionistic.  I fell behind the steps a couple of times but caught up eventually.  I felt very rushed towards the end which is when you put in all of the details (and that was the fun part that brought the painting together).  Because I felt rushed I botched up the main city bridge and am not happy with the outcome. Oh, in addition, I HATED the brushes we were given to the small detailed work. They were not small enough. I want a thinner edge and you just couldn't get it with the brushes that were provided.

Overall it was a positive new art adventure but I wasn't overly thrilled with my final product. It's okay but I'm not sure I'll be hanging it up.  Not only was it a stressful process for me but it was exhausting. I had to come home and rake some dead leaves to stretch because I was stiff from sitting that long and then I had to take a nap. I would recommend this art adventure to others but would suggest choosing an easier more basic painting to create.

Enjoy the pics!