The art store tucked down a less-traveled corridor in my hometown mall was one of my favorite places to frequent as a girl. Walking between aisles full of paint brushes in every size and shape, and along rows with different types and colors of paint, made it seem like anything I could imagine was possible, with the right tools and some practice. Like many of us, I don’t feed that creative side enough anymore, so when an opportunity to paint, sip, and enjoy good company arose, I took it.—Kristie Smeltzer
What
Painting a vibrant sunset at a Blue Ridge Brushes paint and sip event.
Why
To spend quality time being creative with my niece.
How it went
We are making a painting shindig like this a tradition.
Our “Sunset Lake” event took place at the Blue Ridge Brushes studio, a convenient, cozy, Market Street space. Owner/instructor Catelyn Myers greeted us warmly. My niece and I chose seats opposite each other (so we wouldn’t see each other’s paintings until the big reveal) at a table set up with canvases on easels, brushes on paper towels, and paper-plate palettes dotted with bright colors for each participant.
Once everyone arrived, Myers led us step-by-step from her canvas at the front of the room. She gave clear, easy-to-follow directions and tips for success. We began with a thick, bright pink horizon where the future lake would meet black mountains yet to come. Then we added a deep orange stripe above and blended where the colors met. Literally rinse and repeat with yellow, white, then blue.
“Make sure you clean the yellow out of your brush,” Myers reminded us before adding the blue, “so you don’t end up with a green sky. That happens when there’s a tornado, right?”
Next, we flipped our canvasses and repeated the process to create the sky’s reflection for our lake. Throughout the steps, Myers encouraged us, and reminded us that our paintings would be different—as unique as we wanted if we chose to go our own way. Background complete, we dipped our biggest brush into black and readied to create mountains. Confession time: Painting the clean-edged brushstroke for our mountains’ base felt like the most anxious bit so far. After that small exercise of bravery, Myers guided us to dot where our mountains’ highs and lows would be, to ensure nothing ended up being too same-same. With our mountains’ ridges defined, we filled in the rest of them with black.
Another step was to add an elegant branch reaching over the mountains from a tree that mostly lived off the canvas’ edge in the foreground. This also felt anxiety-inducing, but Myers modeled several methods to get cleanly defined, thin lines using our smallest brush. Soon a bough stretched across our canvasses bedecked with branches holding little leaf clusters. We added a white orb sun descending behind the mountains and a small flock of V-shaped birds (how many do you need for a flock?) flying into the distance. The final steps were to add silhouetted edges of foliage in the foreground and the colorful indication of tiny waves on the lake. We signed our work and the project was complete.
As we wrapped up, we got our first full glimpses of each other’s work. My niece’s painting and mine were subtly different but definitely kin, and our lovely paintings are tangible reminders of the fun we had together.
Everyone enjoyed a creative activity without the burdens of setup, cleanup, or needing to have all the supplies. Inherently those details made the experience feel childlike in its joyfulness. Y’all, one artist even added a Nessie to her lake!
