Happy Our Art

It was fun. I went with a group for a birthday party. We laughed a lot. It is what you make of it. They walk you through the steps which makes it easy. We thought everyone’s paintings looked great. They were all similar but each with their own unique perspective. I would go again.

Summary: Really cool concept; not great execution
Recommendation: This is something probably worth trying once but no more than once
I friend recommended this, so when I saw the Groupon for it a few months ago, I couldn’t resist.
The classes are $ 35 each which is very, very good for what you get. The $ 35 covers the instruction, canvas, paint, and use of an apron and brushes.
You pick the class you want online by the painting you want to try. There’s not a lot to choose from in terms of painting selection. A lot of the paintings look really amateur. If you’re going just for the experience, great, but it’s hard to find something you might really want to hang on your wall. Once you register, they’ll send you an email confirmation and place an authorization (hold) on your credit card. They’ll only charge the card if you don’t cancel (you can do this up to 24 hours before the class starts) or if you tell them you want to use that before you arrive.
My boyfriend and I signed up for one to paint martini glasses. We brought wine and snacks which was nice to have throughout the class. Our class may have been unusual, but it was very, very quiet. The instructor didn’t solicit questions, and the groups weren’t talking much. We felt like we had to whisper when talking to each other. Overall, the atmosphere was fairly oppressive.
As far as the instruction goes, we had a different experience than the other reviewer. The instructor would say something like, «Draw three triangles» or «Blend the two colors» without giving very much direction as to how. We’re not artists at all (I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since I was in sixth grade), so we really had to watch what she was doing to figure out how to follow the vague directions. This isn’t a big deal if you’re at the same place in your painting as she was and could follow exactly what she was doing, but it made us feel rushed.
At the end, we used some puffy paint to put finishing touches on the paintings and more direction here would’ve been very helpful. She basically said, «And after your painting is dry, you can use puffy paints here to add whatever details you like.» The puffy paints were difficult to use if you’ve never used them before because they can come out unevenly.
At the end, even the instructor’s painting didn’t look very much like the original.
Okay, so a lot of that sounds pretty negative. I should say that the concept itself is terribly creative, the price is very good, and with a better instructor, this would’ve been a wonderful experience. We still had a lot of fun being artists for an evening, but I wouldn’t do it again.

What a cool concept! I tried Happy Our Art after a friend told me about it opening in the Oakwood Plaza. It sounded kind of weird to me at first, but decided to give it a try while I was visiting once. Basically you choose a day (or rather, a painting) that you want to paint. Each class has a certain painting and everyone paints that led by an instructor. The best part is, you get to drink! It’s BYOB and they have wine and bottle openers there for you! You get aprons to wear over your clothes for the painting.
I am not a painter. Let’s get that straight. I never took an art class, never wanted to, and I dodged my high school art requirement by doing an independent study with the drama teacher… I am not an artist of any kind, so I chose a painting that appeared pretty easy. Turns out most of the paintings, no matter how intricate they may look, are easy! The instructors show you all these little tricks and what not when painting on canvas and how to use certain colors, that I actually felt like an artist for once. I paid $ 35 for my session, but it lasted well over 3 hours (I was kind of slow.) and you get to take home a beautiful painting to hang on your wall! I’m pretty sure $ 35 is the max they go, so that’s a pretty good deal.
They have children’s classes too, with fun childish paintings (as opposed to wine glasses or landscapes) so it’s something families can do as well (sans the byob of course!). You can move at your own pace and they won’t rush you even if you go over the time slot that was supposed to be allotted. If you finish early, you can leave early with your painting. Definitely cool and I want to go back and try to paint harder looking pictures from the calendar of classes!