Lagos Living|I Painted For The First Time

Hi y’all welcome to a new week. As the title of this post suggests, I painted. It’s something for me to be excited about because it was my first time ever painting.

I’m going to start with a little story. The last time I did anything related to this was in Primary school. Yes, you read right, Primary school. I went to a Secondary school where we had to choose between MUSIC and ART. Back then, I always went with easy so of course I chose music. I would see what the art students were getting up to and admire from a distance. Music wasn’t easy as well but there weren’t as many practicals as art. The last things I remember doing with regards to painting are the palm print and leaf print class exercises in primary school.

This year, I had been coming across different paint classes done in restaurants and I thought it was cool. Then someone in my circle attended one and I asked if I could come with next time. He went and got tickets for my brother and his wife too so it was a party of first timers. I didn’t know what to expect, all I knew was I was ready to learn and be proud of myself.

The day came and I wasn’t feeling well but I just had to go. I mean this is something I had been looking forward to for a while. If I had a bucket list it will be on it and I was looking forward to crossing it off. I tried to rest a bit during the day and then off we went in the evening. It turned out there were a lot of first timers when we got there so we felt right at home.

The paint class was organized by Art n Lounge at Ocean Basket Restaurant. It’s done often to bring people together to paint and have a free drink. When all seats were taken, we were given aprons and the real business of the day started. There was a painting on display we were supposed to replicate. I looked at it and thought well, this can’t be that hard. Let me just say that painters do a whole lot of work, we need to appreciate painters more. I was guilty of this but I now know better. It was a lot harder than I thought.

How To Slay in Polka Dot

The first step was drawing the slippers then we went ahead to paint the sand then the ocean and then we painted the slippers.

We were taught how to mix colours, how to use paint brushes, how to visualize and how to be patient mostly. We all laughed at each other’s work and ate, drank and had a good time in the process. It actually took a longer time than I thought it would. I remember my brother saying at a point “my hand is aching” lol. The great thing is that even though we were tired, everyone still worked. Nobody quit or stopped, we all saw our tasks through. Our instructor was also very sweet. She was patient, encouraged everyone and made us see what we couldn’t see. I remember her saying to me “it doesn’t have to be perfect”. We were all worried our paintings looked nothing like the original 😂

The best part of the class was in the end. Taking group photos, admiring everyone’s work and getting to take the painting home.

At work on Monday, my colleague asked me how the experience was and I told her a paint class is a good date idea. You get to know if the person is patient, playful, able to work in a team, gives up easily, cares about seeing things through, cares about what others are doing wrong, takes disappointments calmly and a whole lot of other things. Make sure the person is not a pro though. This aside, painting is a good way to relax and unwind.

I had an amazing time and I will definitely go painting again. I will really like to take my sisters painting when they are in town. It’s something we all need to experience together. You can find Art n Lounge on instagram @artnlounge.

Thanks for reading.

Have you ever painted? What was your experience like? Have you ever thought of painting? 

Mariam Shittu