Painting and Wine in Downtown San Diego

I’ve always wanted to take a painting class and what better than to do it by drinking wine!

If you check on GroupOn, they have plenty of deals in San Diego for painting and wine classes. Some places allow you to bring your own bottle of wine—BYOB—and some places there’s a corkage fee. We decided to go with Painting and Vino’s GroupOn deal. When you look at the actual list of classes that are offered, they post a little description of the time and day, where it’ll be held, and a picture of the art you’ll be painting. It’s nice that there’s a variety of paintings to choose from to make your choice.

My coworkers and I went to 98 Bottles in Little Italy. The painting class was set up in their back room and it was spacious. The art piece we were going to copy was Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh. We were give different sets of paint brushes and our own blank canvas to paint on.

Getting started, we were running a little late, but we made it just in time before the instructor started. The Painting and Vino staff were kind enough to save us a spot for 4 people. They tell you to come early because it’s first come, first serve and we ran into some traffic leaving my place! So definitely try your best to get there on time, not like us. The instructor told us step-by-step instructions to follow and they had their own blank canvas to paint along with everyone.

First, we covered the whole canvas with a light blue paint. That was the easy part, then came the hard parts. I felt that I didn’t have enough time to get the painting down the way I wanted it to be and she would move onto the next step. So I had to try to keep in mind what the next step was. It was the silhouette of the buildings that took time, and blending the sky! I do have to say, I think my sky turned out pretty nicely. Towards the end, I started to rush and I kept adding a stroke of paint here and there, but it worked out! I would have liked a little bit more time, but the classes end a certain time. I also tried to add in the San Diego skyline to add my own flare to it.

In the end, I had fun taking the class and I would do it all again. There’s something relaxing about painting, but that could just be the wine too. Embrace the artist in you!

What was your experience like taking a painting and wine class? What did you end up painting and did you put it up in your home?