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| - 4 stars for the painting party itself
2 stars for the venue
For the past year, we've seen these painting parties popping up everywhere and finally got a chance to try one out. It also helped that they were having a Groupon promotion too.
Vegas Painting Parties has events at various restaurants. You can preview their calendar to see what location works best for you and what painting you'll be doing too. (Their usual spots are Havana Grill, Nacho Daddy, Republic Kitchen and Bar, Violas Tavern, and Streets of New York.)
This past Saturday evening, we headed to Nacho Daddy for their Red Umbrella painting party. They use the private room in the back, so you can come early and order food and drinks. Your dinner will arrive as you're painting, so that's a nice perk.
There were many things happening that made this venue not the most ideal spot for painting. First off, it's pretty crowded. Other guests commented that they had been to other painting parties where they just had more space. I bumped into the Husband a few times while painting and he almost knocked over his water cup. And my poor easel kept sliding and bumping into the person's canvas directly across from me. The wait staff had to squeeze through to drop off any food for the painters. The next problem was the air condition, or lack of. With about 30 people in the room, it was getting hot in there and the restaurant staff really couldn't do anything about turning up the air condition. It wasn't until after I suggested leaving the doors open to the main restaurant did we finally get some much needed cooler air into the room. The third and probably worst problem was the lighting. We were seated by the windows and initially opened the blinds to get some natural light. As the sun set, you found our whole row using our cell phone flashlights to paint. It looked ridiculous and it just was. We asked the restaurant staff about lighting and the two fixtures behind us that resembled lamps were decorative. Most of our phones died before the end of class.
The class itself was fun and Diane was our instructor. She was thorough and really did everything step by step. It was a bit hard to see her at times because of where I was seated. She did go around with her painting so you could see up close what she did, but the poor lighting didn't help here.
The paintbrushes were okay. There was a lot of highlighting in this particular painting and it was impossible to get our paintbrushes thin enough to make a fine line. At the end of the night, I realized that my thin paintbrush was actually bigger than some of the others. So, something to also pay attention for.
At the end of the class, they gave away a free painting party class good for two people. So that was a nice ending. They also made a point of taking pictures throughout the night and at the end with your final product (if you so desired) so they could post on their facebook site. This three hour class was utilized to the end, and so I wonder how those two hour painting parties work. (Someone else mentioned that this particular piece was more complicated than others she's seen, so maybe that's how.)
Would we do this again? Sure! It's normally $35 per person, which appears to be the standard going rate around Vegas. I wouldn't do it at this venue again though, maybe a daytime one would be alright. We're already signed up for another one this week at another company.
Erica is the owner and I communicated with her through phone and text. I wasn't able to use my Groupon before it expired and she was flexible with extending the date which I thought was awesome. I was able to book our actual date through text so that made it easy too. Their classes do fill up, so you definitely need to check their calendar for updates.
Suggestion: If you do decide to go to Nacho Daddy for the evening painting class, be sure to get there early and sit in the middle, directly underneath the main light fixture. This will change your experience completely.
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