The Loaded Brush – Take 2

This is our second time trying The Loaded Brush and it was just as fun the second time around! The Loaded Brush is a very cool Portland thing to do. It’s fun, it’s creative, it’s challenging. It’s an art studio that is BYOB and they encourage you to bring an adult beverage and some snacks to enjoy while painting! We brought a bottle of Bogle wine, which ironically was the same wine we brought the last time! And we also brought some salami, Gouda cheese and crackers to snack on.

You also get your pick of nifty “smocks” for while you paint. This time I wore the hula girls shirt. I kind of loved it. I wonder if I can find one in my size?

The class we signed up for this time was the Hawthorne Bridge. Both classes we’ve taken start out with using yellow paint to draw outlines of what the finished product will be. If you screw up with the yellow, it’s not a big deal. If the bridge is too far to the left, you can just draw new yellow lines–it’s all going to be covered up at the end anyways.

The class is so much fun and even if you aren’t artistic, you will walk away with a piece of art that looks at LEAST okay. The instructor is awesome, hilarious and fun, and he teaches the painting step by step, breaking it down into easy parts, and it’s easy to follow along.

The instructor had us turn our paintings upside down to do the base of the bridge. It was a cool trick to change your perspective. It’s really easy to get obsessive with one spot on your painting and then try to “fix it” and you just make it worse!

What I find interesting is how very different everyone’s painting looks. We’re all painting the same thing but variations in color blending, talent and style make every single painting new and different.

I loved seeing what other people did. The hazy, sunset, orange skies were pretty cool looking. Some people had light blue skies, some were dark and stormy, some were purple. I occasionally got up and walked around to see what everyone else was doing. It was fun to see everyone else’s interpretation.

Yes, that is a UFO and a panda bear jumping out of the UFO….See what I mean? Everyone’s vision is a little bit different. 🙂 The finished product:

Ta-da! It was a fun night that got us both out of our funk. I’m looking forward to going back again. If you live in Portland, definitely try it out. It’s a blast! If you go to their website and sign up for the newsletter, they’ll send out offers and deals. I apparently got the last round of the Groupon Deals with this one and they aren’t going to use Groupon anymore. Just FYI.