It's official...I am NOT Picasso!

As mentioned in a few posts ago, it's time to reveal to you my "BIG" Valentine's plans.  I knew this had to be something good after the post telling all of you dear readers to get creative. 

When Valentine's Day falls on a weekday, Jen and I usually forgoe the usual Valentine's night festivities and leave the hussle to the rest of the world.  Instead we pick the nearest weekend night and plan our own Valentine's frivolity.  So this year it was my turn to put together "The Evening".  We take turns each year.  So I started planning the evening of wine bars, cocktails, food and late night entertainment.  After making all the expected reservations, I came across a Houston website that discussed a fairly new business concept called Pinot's Pallette, a kitchy establishment where non-painter/wine drinkers can go for an evening of professionaly led painting lessons.

Saturday night was already booked by folks who already had knowledge of the place, so I settled on Friday night.  I was instructed to arrive at 6:30 and the class would run until 10:00.  I was also told to bring all the wine and food I wanted and that consumption of the wine during the evening would be part of the fun and encouraged.  This was already sounding like my kind of night! 

Starting with some munchies

Upon arrival we set up our mini picnic of artisan breads, meats of pancetta and procuitto, a sampling of Italian cheeses, hummus with flatbreads, apples and grapes, all coupled with nice bottles of red and white wine.  We munched a bit on the food as the others arrived, very quickly realizing that we were going to be the fun "older" couple in the crowd.  At 7:00 we filled another glass of wine and were shown to our blank white canvas, miscellaneous paints and 3 brushes.

The very nice and quite funny young teacher then started us through the process of turning our blank canvases into works of art.  The artwork for the evening would be called "Wine Bottle with Glasses".  I have no idea where they came up with such an interesting name!

Jen in the ready to go position

Yours truly making sure the wine kept flowing

This doesn't look so tough!



We started with background colors, which seemed very easy.  Background is abstract, non-threatening and can more of a personal vision.  As you can see, the picture on the left has much more masculine broad strokes and the canvas on the right has more of a feminine touch.

Then came the tough part.  The much more precise curvature of the bottle.  Bottles were drawn tall, short, fat, skinny and everything in between.  This is where the going got a little tough.

More wine and we began the work on the glassware with a watery transparent mixture of white.  Not an easy thing to accomplish but both of us seemed pleased with our coloring.  The height and bulkiness of the glasses did cause some anguish.

Next came lots of shading and then the grapes.  Oh the dreaded grapes.  They looked easy, but they were not.  Not too clumpy...not too spread out...not too big...not too small...it went on like this for a while.  Then, we were done.

We drank some more wine, viewed other's paintings and reconciled with ourselves that we had done a pretty decent but amateur job.  No professional painting in our future, but certainly acceptable!  We happily took part in the group photo, cleaned the paint off my butt, cleared our food prep area and headed to the house.

The Group Photo

The Proud Picasso's

The Final Product...ready for a wall in the house!

For the recap, this was a really wonderful Valentine's Date and we had fun together the entire evening.  It reminded me of when we first started dating years ago.  I highly recommend giving this place a try, whether with just your loved one or with a group.  Bring good food, lots of wine and your imagination and you'll have a memorable evening.

http://www.pinotspalette.com/

Thank you Darling Wife for another wonderful Valentine's Day!