I just discovered the most amazing thing this past weekend.  A paint your pet class.

Now, I have been to a couple of these painting studios that are the new trend lately….you know – bring your own wine, a couple of friends and the whole class paints the same random picture of the day thing.  Well, this class was different.  We had to submit a photo of our pet a few days prior to the class and of course everyone was painting their own pet.  Here is my photo I submitted of my dog, Willy (you might remember him from the superman costume):

When we showed up at the class, they had our photos enlarged on the canvases in black and white for us to paint over. Sweet!  So much better than the pressure of starting with a blank white canvas!  We started with a background color of our choice and a little general instruction to get us started.  I brought my brother along with me, who was painting his cat.

Now, I have an art degree…but I have never painted a dog!   There were two instructors to help, thank goodness and they each took time coming around and helping each person out with their individual paintings.  I was pretty nervous when I got to the stage when my photo was all covered with paint.  You can see my brother working on his cat’s belly shadows.  He has a fat cat!

After a little under three hours, we were all done!  We were both so pleasantly surprised at how great our paintings came out!  I must admit I had a lot of trouble with Willy’s eye/nose area and the instructor helped me with that and some finishing touches of the painting.  Ultimately, they were there to help you take home a great painting of your pet.  I will be so proud to hang this up in my house!  I told my husband he might have to take the TV down from above the fireplace so I can hang it there.  HA!

There was one girl in our class there painting a photo of her best friend’s dog as a surprise for her best friend’s birthday.  What a great gift idea!  Everyone’s paintings in the class turned out great.  We had so much fun too.  And now, I want to go back and paint my other two dogs!

This class was at Wine and Design in Charlotte, NC – they have other locations on the east coast too.  Lots of these painting (and “wine”) studios are popping up all over.  Check for one in your town!

As you can see….my brother decided to make his cat a super cat.  HA!