Painting a Crooked Tree under a Boffo Brown sun high in the Raspberry Ale sky while drinking a Crooked Tree at Dark Horse Brewing.
Beer and Brushes
We headed out to Dark Horse Brewing last week for the first Beer and Brushes event. You may be wondering what in the hell is Beer and Brushes. Don’t worry, the folks at Dark Horse aren’t handing you a paint can, a brush, and a beer and having you paint the general store.
EastEnd Studio & Gallery in Marshall teamed up with Dark Horse to bring the Beer and Brushes event to life. EastEnd Studio supplied the canvas, paint, brushes, and instruction. Dark Horse provided space in the beer garden and a beer.
Painting the Crooked Tree under the Boffo Brown sun high in the Raspberry ale sky
The painting adventure starts with beer and an empty canvas.
Our goal was to paint this little gem. It is a compilation of themes from the various Dark Horse beer labels which included Crooked Tree, Boffo Brown and Raspberry Ale.
Our fearless leader for this painting adventure was Kat Whaley. She oriented us to the tools of the trade and got us started on the Raspberry ale background.
Next step was drying. There were a couple of blow dryers, however, most of us opped to either wave the picture or take a plate and fan it. Any and all methods worked well, but you have to think that anyone walking by was wondering what in the hell are they doing over there?
With the background fairly dry, we set our to tackle the Crooked Tree. We made the basic crooked tree shape with chalk and then broke out the green and yellow paints to create the trunk. The outlines were done in dark green and black. We then added in a billowy canopy of leaves and touched that up with branches.
It is at this point that some of Kat’s instruction about stepping back and not “overworking” the painting hit home. You could worry this poor tree to death! Luckily we took her advice to heart and didn’t get too crazy with swirling yellow and green into our trees.
We all made art!
The final phase was adding in the Boffo Brown sun and our masterpieces were complete. Not only did we get to paint and enjoy Dark Horse beer, but there were prizes. An impartial Dark Horse judge (I think it was the mythical Joe Riley) picked this fabulous rule-breaking painting to win a $50 gift certificate.
A tour of everyone’s work showed that there were plenty of talented people in attendance. This is just a sample, you can see more pictures in the gallery.
Beer and Brushes was a big hit with us. The only problem with the event is that you are so focused on painting that you forget to get another beer. I’m thinking the next Beer and Brushes should have kegs at each table.
Stay in Touch
Have you taken the plunge into beer drinking and painting? Share your story with us by leaving a comment or send us a message. Be sure to stop by the gallery to see more pictures from the event.
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