Paint Nite

The people are friends or colleagues. They gather at a bar  for a couple of drinks, then don aprons and approach their assigned easels, paint brush in hand. It’s paint night at the bar in Orlando and the young blond master artist smiles and begins her instructions.

Over the next two and a half hours, the artists – most who have never painted a picture in their lives – will re-produce a selected painting using 5 acrylic paints. They’ll go home with their art, hopefully happy painters. The motto for Paint Nite is: Drink Creatively – No Experience Required.

Paint Nite is a new thing in Orlando. It began in Boston and has been catching on across the country as an ‘alcohol ad-on.’ Our daughter Megan happened to see an ad on Craig’s List for artists and applied. The timing was perfect. Her galley show was underway and the same day she was contacted about her application, she was interviewed by FOX-35 about her art work. Needless to say, she was hired and became Orlando’s first Paint Nite master artists.  Eventually, she could be working five nights a week as the company expands.

The synchronicity here is that days before finding this job that fits so well with her background and downtown Orlando lifestyle, she had undergone an extensive interview and swim test to get a job at Sea World. She thought she had it. After all, they had hired her a year earlier, but because of speeding tickets she was dismissed before she even began. The job would’ve entailed driving a golf cart on rare occasions. While corporate policy prevailed, they told her to apply again. This time she was only one of two applicants who completed the swim test successfully. She thought she was in, and was very disappointed when she didn’t get the job.

But if she had been hired for the part-time minimum wage job at Sea World, she wouldn’t have seen  the ad for Paint Nite master artist. Now she is earning approximately four times the salary paid by Sea World and is her own boss. Meanwhile, she continues with her downtown dog-walking business, which is expanding.

So it’s an example of a big disappointment turning into something very special and rewarding. Good going, Megan!

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Here’s the painting Megan will be teaching others to paint:

To practice teaching people how to paint the painting below, we held a practice session this weekend. Here’re some photos from that. Two of Megan’s friend, Bill and Stephanie, were there and so was Maddie, our 10-year-old neighbor, and me. What fun it was!