Vino Van Gogh

"Cover the canvas at the first go, then work at it until you see nothing more to add." Camille Pissarro

Okay, so I barely passed art class in junior high, high school, and college... but I still have a love for it and a really bad want to be good at it.  I can't draw... my pottery turn's out lopsided... I can't cut a straight line, or even color within the lines.  Everyone in my life knows about my famous "gargoyle."  I gave my sister in law a UFO I made, that she thought was a turtle.  I had many a teacher, step back, and say, "What are you trying to do?!"  And sadly, I have never won a game of Pictionary with out cheating.  

But still,  I could not wait to wrangle up some friends and try this.  Vino Van Gogh!  Basically the thought behind it is to bring people together to local restaurants where Vino Van Gogh rents out a room, has you sign up, and then you show up.  They encourage you to purchase food and drink to support the restaurant, and VVG provides the canvas, the paint/brushes, the apron, and the teacher instruction.    

We met at Lucky Monk in Hoffman Estates, to draw Cherry Blossoms.  This is the real painting.  Well the not the real painting, but you know, the copy of the real one.

Here is my class. 

The teacher draws along with you so that you can copy exactly what she is doing.  They make it super easy to do and anyone can do it.

Here's my friend Jen.... putting a side touch on.

Lesson learned:  Next time, eat dinner before participating.  I told the waitress to keep the wine coming and ended up needing some food... it was too hard to paint and eat an actual meal so these pretzels were the best option.

Concentrating.

Here's my teacher holding up Meredith's portrait from far way to show her she doesn't really need anymore cherry blossoms.  I kept calling her over to help me critique too.  "Do you think I need anymore cherry blossoms? TEACHER: "No, look how nice it looks now."  She walks away and I add 12 more.... 

My final product.

Here I am with the girls and their final products.  We all had so much fun.  The schedule only comes out a month in advance, so we are all deciding on a time to do it again.  I look forward to the next one!!!