Painting with Instructions

This past weekend I went to Pinot’s Palette. It is a chill way to spend an evening and you leave with a painting and the knowledge that you have created . . . something. I have gone several times to various iterations of Pinot’s Palette and have always enjoyed myself. However, I have had a love/hate relationship with my paintings. There are some that I like to look at. Others are dumb and truly, actually ugly.

Here is my painting from this weekend!

The most interesting thing about going to places like this is that even though we are all there to paint the same painting, we have the same colors, and are following the same instructions, the paintings come out very different from each other based on the painter. Here is an example from when my husband and I went. Mine is on the left, my husband’s is on the right. They are the same but different.

I have recently started questioning whether these count as ART. Because we are not trying to capture the essence of a real subject, these pictures can come out pretty flat. I enjoy these classes, but I am not inspired by them or inspired by what I create in them. They are not moving in anyway. But does ART necessarily need to be moving to count? Does it require a certain amount of technique, or use of color, or some GRAND IDEA to count? Or can art just be some shit to do on a Saturday night?

I remember after a particularly hellish bout of law school finals, I NEEDED to do something creative. So I went to Pinot’s Palette and here is the result.

I kind of hate this painting. However, I felt better after painting this than I had in weeks. So, maybe these flat, but fun paintings do count as ART. Maybe not good art or bougie art, but art nonetheless.