No matter if you’re an experienced artist who can work up a masterpiece with a few strokes of a paintbrush, enjoy dabbling on a canvas as a hobby, or have no artistic experience at all, it’s easy to express yourself at Paint Nite. This new concept blends two timeless pastimes: artistic painting and drinking cocktails, as a way to draw patrons into local pubs with the opportunity to be creative and socialize. Paint Nites, which are two hour step-by-step painting classes with a nice glass of whatever-you’d-like, are held daily around the country, each with 25 people in attendance.

Since I’m drawn to anything artistic, Paint Nite caught my attention, so I signed up for the spring blossoms painting this past Thursday night at a wine bar. It was a fun, cheery way to welcome the spring. Since the classes fill up ahead of time, I signed up about a month in advance, when there were only a few seats left.

Theresa Christensen was the lead artist of the night. She had us women and one man (my boyfriend, Tim) dip our paintbrushes into the cup of water and run it across our canvases. After it dried, we used some blue to create a circle, which would eventually become our sun, and then cover the rest of the canvas in blue.

After everyone blued up their blank slates, we took a 10 minute break to let our paintings dry. Upon returning, we were ready for our tree trunks, which required our smaller paintbrush and some black paint. Making the tree trunk and branches was easier than I thought it would be, since I remember messing up my trees in my art classes back in high school. We followed Theresa’s instructions, making the bottom of the trunk thick, and made it thinner as it stretched into the sun — the same went for our branches.

Next up was getting creative with the blossoms, which called for purple. We mixed red and blue together, and added in some white to make different shades of purple, or pink. And then we just dabbed about on our canvases in purples, red, white, and some yellow, with the lighter colors on top and the darker colors on the bottom.

Once happy, our masterpieces were complete. Everyone’s came out different. Some had lots of flowers, like mine, some had few flowers, some had big flowers while others had small flowers. Everyone had their own unique style, especially Tim, who went off on his own path after a while, although his came out quite fantastic and vivid if I do say so myself. At the end of the class, Theresa took pictures of everyone with their paintings to upload to the Paint Nite Facebook page, and was available to chat with before we all went out separate ways with our works of art.

Overall, I had a great time — it was kind of therapeutic. I also got a thank you email the following morning, which came with a discount for my next Paint Nite. If I can somehow manage to sign up for the sea turtle or the love birds paintings (which are gorgeous!) before those classes fill up, I’ll definitely be going back. If not, I’ll pick out another pretty painting and go back anyway! I highly recommend Paint Nite — it was something different and a fun way to express myself and meet new people.