The Battle For Thanksgiving Part 2: Paint Wars

The day after the Brussel Sprouts the night before is always a little, um, delicate so Komal and I had a nice easy morning, watching telly and re-admiring the handiwork on our respective gingerbread creations.  You've got to wonder if anyone has ever actually tried to eat one?  Is it physically possible to eat something that rock solid?  (perhaps if you gum it, granny-style, first?)  

Despite the sloth, I'd had to get up pretty early to take the cat to the vet (he'll be the subject of his own blog post soon, so I won't steal Izzie's thunder) so the morning stretched out in that mildly hungover, still-full-but-go-on-then-I'll-have-some-stuffing-for-breakfast state that you happily justify with the universal panacea of "well, sod it, we're on holiday!".  I can't remember what we watched as it all blurred into one in the end, but Komal roused herself enough by 4pm to go and get a massage and I had to head back to the vet to pick up one rather disgruntled Siamese.

After that, it was time for the main event of the day and the focus of today's Thanksgiving battle - Paint Wars!!  No - not getting all armored up, TWD Glenn-style, for paint balling but something i've been wanting to do for AGES - a wine and painting class!!

Its quite the trend at the moment (its probably been that way for a while but, hey, I'm a slow adopter) and there are loads of places locally that run the classes (with lots of deals from Living Social, Groupon etc etc).  The deal is you turn up at an art studio (or sometimes another public venue like a pub or bar), you bring some wine, and you paint!  Yes, ME - painting!!

You already know what you will be (attempting to) paint as all the different pictures are shown on the event calendar, so you just scroll through, find one you like, book your spot, turn up, open the wine and voila!  Game on.  The classes last 2-3 hours each, depending on the complexity of the painting - ours lasted the full 3 hrs as it had so many lines in it (as you'll soon see below).  The two guys teaching the class were great - explaining each step very clearly so that - amazingly - everyone pretty much ended up with something that bared a decent resemblance to the demo canvas!  

The three hours was pretty intense as it required complete concentration (so I don't know how you could do the class and drink too much wine - you'd be buggered!) and weirdly enough, the stress levels started to creep up incrementally as I got towards the end of the class as my painting was starting to look pretty good, so the consequences then of fucking it up got greater and greater!!  But I managed to hold it together so that I was actually really really happy with my finished piccie - I enjoyed it so much, I've booked another class for this Saturday!

Komal's painting looked great too (she's a veteran of these wine & painting classes, doing one a month in NYC) - although I have to say I think I probably took the win here as I painted my "O" and she didn't - however, I will leave it to you, dear blog watchers, to adjudicate on this one.  Who do you think took the Battle For Thanksgiving Part 2 - Paint Wars??

The studio, poised to witness my artistic greatness

Festive fireplace lounge area to sit, relax and
mentally prepare

Painting is underway.  First step, drawing outlines
onto the blank canvas with pencil.  All
FREEHAND, may I point out....

First bit of coloring in.  Please note - and appreciate -
the truly awesome blending in the "A" square.

Starting to take shape now….

This is where the stress levels started to kick
in ("don't fuck it up, don't fuck it up…")

Almost finished… just one last finishing touch….

Signed "SITC '14" - an instant masterpiece classic

Proof it looked just like the demo one - impressive, huh??

VOTE NOW!!  The one on the left or the one on the right?

Proud artists!!