An Evening of Painting in Calgary

January 20, 2017 Tyler Preik Comments 6 comments

I spent a few days over Christmas at my sisters place, and she mentioned going to this thing called PaintNite. They take place in restaurants, pubs, or clubs around the city, and all you have to do is show up, everything being provided. I looked into it and it seemed fun, so thought I’d give it a go.

I drove to the Windsor Rose Gastropub in the Southeast of the city, luckily late enough that traffic wasn’t too bad. It seemed to be a quieter night, only 11 of us there, and I was the only guy, but no worries. I walked in, grabbing an apron on the way and signed in with Rachel, the instructor.

Rachel and our painting for the night, ‘Niagara Sunrise’

I found an empty spot at a table and got comfortable for the 15 minutes before we were going to start.

The way all masterpieces start: a blank canvas and some blobs of paint. Also noteworthy, do NOT drink the water in the red cup. It’s only for cleaning your brushes when needed…

As we got going, Rachel walked us through what to do. Which brushes to use for a desired effect (we had 3, each with a funny name she gave to make sure we used the right one), when to clean the brushes, or just dip it into another color to combine them. It was a two-hour event, but the first hour went by quickly, probably from all the concentrating of trying not to screw up and at the same time to keep up with Rachel. She was painting her own as well, and would walk around and show what she had done to give us an idea, also answering any questions we had.

After just over an hour, we had a short break to allow the paint to dry, then continued on and started with smudging in the mist from the waterfall and layering the water with all the colors. Lastly we added in the streaks of sunlight, and Rachel announced we were done. We could stay to touch up or visit if we wished, but a couple people left right away. I stayed a bit longer to talk to Rachel about technique and added in some more details on my own.

As it goes, everyone’s painting came out different, and most seemed happy with what they accomplished. Mine could have used a bit more work, but I didn’t want to stay too long and start messing it up. It was a pretty fun time, and I’ll probably go back at some point, but for now, I have a nice personal painting hanging on my wall.