In our humble opinions, wine & creativity kind of just… go together. You know, like meat and potatoes. Or vodka and orange juice. Or, say, Laverne & Shirley. And luckily for us in Pittsburgh, there is an awesome venue that *also* realizes this and lets you go to town: Paint Monkey.
We first got to check out Paint Monkey last year at a Yelp event shortly after they opened. The deal at Paint Monkey is this: you sign up for a class, bring your own booze and snacks, then show up and paint. Your canvas will be outlined with the painting du jour, you’ll get a palette of colors to choose from, and you’ll have instruction and assistance from the pros as needed.
One of the most coveted classes to get tickets for is Paint Your Pet night.
A week or so before the class, you email in a picture of your pet. It can be any pet at all, although the night we went, it was all dogs.
I chose the picture of Piper on the left, and Michael painted the picture of Lucy on the right.
We found some appropriate wine for the event, and we were ready to paint!
Here’s the sketch of Piper to start with.
And the sketch of Lucy. I was so impressed at how they captured both of the girls’ expressions so well!
The first step was to choose a background color and fill that in. I gave the painting of Piper to my parents, who have a green living room, so this is what I chose.
We are planning to hang Lucy’s painting in the living room, so Michael chose a nice blue to match our walls.
Next, we started filling in the darker colors. Since Piper is an Elderbeast, I had a lot of different shading to work with. Our instructor showed me how to make the different shades of grey for the different parts of her fur.
And don’t be intimidated by having to paint the difficult parts, like the eyes! You’ll get plenty of help to make sure they are just how you want them!
All the while you are painting, there are some great tunes playing on random. Old school Janet Jackson, Prince, stuff from the 70s, you name it. Great atmosphere!
Took a bit of time, but Michael really nailed the red shade of Lucy’s fur!
One of the toughest parts of painting Piper’s picture was the detail on her birthday hat. (The picture was from her 11th birthday party 2 years ago.) But the little imperfections are what make the paintings so unique. You just have to go with it and embrace your inner artist!
As everyone was finishing up, we all started chatting and looking at each others’ paintings. I loved talking dogs with everyone!
Once your painting is complete, you take it to the front to get your picture taken with it in the frame.
This gives everyone another chance to see the other paintings from the night. So much fun!
After we got home, we just *had* to have the girls get their pictures taken with their paintings!
Miss Piper is not very good at sitting still (or being ladylike) in photos, but eventually, I got the shot!
Miss Lucy, on the other hand, is an old pro at posing for photos. She was so proud to be fame-us in a painting!
Paint Monkey is a blast for any event, but the personal importance of Paint Your Pet night puts it on a different level. We absolutely recommend that you check it out, but sign up as early as you can – the spots will go quickly! You can click here to see the list of available classes and register for the one that suits your fancy at their calendar.
*shudders with relief*
Oh Thank Jeebus! I thought you were actually going to Paint Your Dog.
Oh, that doesn’t happen until closer to Easter… pastel Lucy!! 🙂