Paint Night in Federal Way

About a month ago mom got an idea for those paint nights you keep on seeing others do on Facebook.  There are several in the area, we did ours through Wine and Canvas-Seattle.  We tried to find the one closet south to us.  It was Grandma's birthday so we wanted to take her out to do something fun and this was right up her alley.  She painted on her own at home.  We got a hold of my aunt and asked her if she wanted to do this with us.  She said sure but she couldn't do it on the day we wanted to.  So we looked for another painting of the one we liked.  That one was in March on a Monday.  We asked Grandma if she had any appointments and she said no.  We asked Angela if she could go on that day and she said yes.  I asked my boss if I could leave around 4 and she said sure.  I had Grandma drive to the dentist office and that's where I went after work.  Mostly to change and to get everyone because we were driving my car.

Of course we didn't get out of there until after 4:30 and I expected traffic on I-5.  When we finally got to I-5 there wasn't any traffic at all.  I was really surprised.  We got to Billy McHale's in Federal way in about an hour.  So because it was dinner time, we ordered food and it hit the spot.  We all ordered burgers.

We had about a half hour to eat it before we had to be in the other room, checked in and in front of our canvas.  Since there were six of us we had to grab some spots before they were all gone.  The event was sold out.  Mom texted Angela and I texted Trish to see if they were on their way yet.  It was getting closer to paint time.

Trish and Amy arrived just as we finished our food and Trish got her some wine.  We moved into the other room, checked in and found a pod of six spots four our group.  Angela arrived shortly after.  We put our canvases on our easels and put our stylish aprons on.  We looked fabulous.

I used the bathroom one last time before we started.  I didn't know if it had a "half time" or "intermission" without missing any of the directions.  We began several minutes later.  On my blank canvas we were to paint the horizon line and then came our mountain.  Everyone took a different perspective on their mountains.  It was fun to see what everyone did.

I learned a lot about water based acrylics that night too.  Your paint brushes must always be in the water cup and use as much water as you can with your paints because it makes the paint last longer and your paint will dry faster.  After the mountain, we worked on the wind swirls and then the moon and stars.  We learned another technique to save paint.  I can't remember what she said but it involves painting long dashes and short dashes and then letting the dry and then adding white to give it the wave, swirl look.

Next we filled in our sky with a dark blue color and used some yellows and white around the moon and stars.  I had to wait for the sky to dry so I could blend in the areas better.  Then we picked up the one paint brush we haven't used yet and dipped it into the water and then our blues, blacks and purples to swipe the bottom for our water.  Then we added our Space Needle line and some buildings on the edge of our harbor.

We added harbor lights, reflections and finished our Space Needle.  For fun I added a 12th Man flag to the top of my needle and we signed our names at the bottom.  Here is our finished products.

I would definitely do this again.  It was something different than my normal hobbies that I like to do.  I really need to finish my acrylic painting I started in 10th grade.  Maybe some day.  Haha.  Everyone had a great time except for Grandma, I asked her if she had fun and she said I wouldn't call it fun.  Well then what would you call it?  Haha.  I think she did enjoy herself so did Trish and Amy.  I'm glad they got to come out and paint with us.

We got home late and we all had to work the next day but it was worth it.

Next Adventure: Another Trip to Eatonville