Last spring, I took the opportunity to attend a class in the Medford, Oregon area called “Sip and Paint.” A dear friend of mine, Mary, and I made our reservations in advance and dove head first into this cool class. All the painting supplies and a canvas are provided. You get to sit down, enjoy a nice glass of wine, listen to awesome music and the instructors tell you what and how to do everything! Along with a room full of happy, nervous people, you paint your own actual acrylic painting.
This whole concept of making art, specifically painting, while listening to music and enjoying a glass of wine with others in a bright fun creative setting, is pretty ingenious. Shaking a little bit while you nervously touch the brush to the paint and then to the canvas is a huge rush… well for me it was at least. After that first moment, I believe it is addicting!
Mary and I were very pleased with our works! Until recently, the main outlets for my creative energy have always been sewing, beading, quilting or crochet. When my kids were tiny, I first attempted to take a painting class… watercolors to be exact. My Great Aunt was an accomplished paint artist and she told me immediately, “Oh no, that is the most difficult type of painting. Try acrylics first.” Well, as with so many things in my life, not only did I think to myself, “Heck, I LOVE the way watercolors look and who cares if it is the hardest type of painting to learn,” but also, I sadly never finished that class… Afterall, I was a busy young mommy, raising kids, gardening, canning and learning to cook and sew. I did manage to begin my collection painting books though…
In my closets today, I have bins full of art supplies. Bins full of paints, brushes, tissue papers, painting and craft books, beads, rubber stamps, scrapbooking supplies, and I also have bins full of yarn, fabric and sewing supplies. These bins contain some of my most amazing treasures…. These bins contain my valuable meditative and creative outlet opportunities. They are always there within reach, whispering to me… but only when my mind will allow me to go off and play and explore these magical bins do I ever open them up. Yeah, I am constantly dealing with that control thing.
At our Sip and Paint class, we all created paintings similar to the photo of MY treasure, Purple Night, above. I am happy to say I LOVE my painting with the four funny top-notch birds on a branch representing my sweet TOP NOTCH amazing kids.
I encourage everyone to make time to explore and play with your art supplies and create beautiful things. Your Soul will thank you. Facebook has these classes near Medford called “Sip and Paint” and then there are also classes in Redding called “Canvas and Cocktails.” More and more of these types of painting classes are popping up every day, everywhere! I plan to go again, often as possible, and I really want to explore a lot of different types of art instruction in the near future…
Whatever you do, take time to create, play and have FUN! –MFain, Editor