Social painting grows popular at bars, art studios

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Fox and Hound pub in downtown
Philadelphia boasts all the fixings of a standard sports bar: huge TVs,
numerous beers on draft and a menu filled with burgers, wings and
nachos.
So what are all the easels and canvases for?
Welcome
to Paint Nite, an opportunity to tap your inner van Gogh. Just order a
drink, put on a smock and lighten up a bit as a friendly instructor
takes you step-by-step through the brush strokes of a landscape, still
life or skyline.
But be sure to reserve your spot ahead of time.
The two-hour event, like more than a dozen others held weekly in
Philadelphia, often sells out.
The experience known as social
painting is seeing explosive growth in cities across the country as
people seek to imbibe and relax while rediscovering their creative side.
"It’s
been crazy," said Laura Romaine, assistant manager of Painting with a
Twist, another paint-and-sip business in the city. "They’re like banging
down the door to come in here and paint."
Not an artist? Join the
club. The crowds include couples on dates, co-ed group outings,
bachelorette parties and the simply curious. Many can’t remember their
last encounter with a palette.
Yet something clearly resonates.
Painting with a Twist opened its BYOB studio in Philadelphia’s funky
South Street area in October and already is looking for a second
location downtown, Romaine said.
The Louisiana-based firm, which
offers lessons as well as private painting parties, had 126 franchises
nationwide as of last year — more than double its total in 2011,
officials said.
And Paint Nite, which started with one event at a
Boston bar in March 2012, has grown in two years to 55,000 people
attending 1,100 events per month in the U.S. and Canada, co-founder Sean
McGrail said.
The company has been adding 10 cities a month and
just started its first overseas operation in Sydney, Australia, he said.
Next up: Johannesburg and Buenos Aires.
Paint Nite has also
allowed artists like Andrea Vann, 26, to quit unrewarding day jobs and
focus full time on their passion. The business operates on a
revenue-share model with its licensees, and the hosting pubs and
restaurants get extra patrons out of the deal.
Vann, who served
drinks in bars for years, now teaches her craft there and creates new
artwork on the side. As one of two Philadelphia licensees, she also runs
the financial end of her operation, which has included hiring help to
keep up with demand.
"When I saw this job, I couldn’t believe it because it seemed way too good to be true," Vann
said.
On
one recent night at Fox and Hound, Vann humorously walked a group of 40
through the creation of "Heavenly Stream," an ethereal depiction of a
forest in autumn.
First, she made the budding Renoirs pledge not
to whine about how badly they paint or how they screwed up the size of
the tree trunk. And, she warned, don’t even think about asking her to
fix a "mistake."
There are no mistakes at Paint Nite. Well, except
for the occasional brush in a beer glass, which often sits next to the
plastic water cup used to rinse bristles.
Allyson Meng, who works
in customer service for a transportation company, said she took the art
excursion because she wanted to "step outside my boundaries."
"It was a challenge for me, but I really did enjoy it," Meng said. "I don’t have an
artistic bone in my body."
Some said they came to shake up their night life — to "drink creatively," as the Paint Nite
motto says.
Yet
Romaine suggested that perhaps participants are attracted to the idea
of doing something tactile, making an object they can touch and take
home.
"People don’t do a lot of things with their hands anymore," she said. "We’re all on
screens all day."
___
Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson
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