The Art Warehouse Is My New Creative Obsession
SAINT JOHN – The cold weather and slippery sidewalks fail to deter patrons of The Art Warehouse on Prince William Street uptown creating art.
Since moving to Saint John last summer, I quickly became a hot chocolate aficionado and always had my ears perked up for spots to curl up an unwind in the city.
When I heard about the opening of a café/bar that would also be an art studio, offering the opportunity to flex one’s creativity while enjoying a hot drink or treat, I made a note to go as soon as it opened.
The front of the café was warm and cheerful with the hot drinks and alcoholic beverages painted on the wall behind the coffee bar with cozy window seats and tables available to sit and chat.
I bought my customary hot chocolate and treated myself to a cookie, enjoying the ambiance and paintings of fellow patrons on the walls before purchasing a small canvas.
The back of the building was set up with three rows of easels for patrons to sit down and try their hand at becoming the next Picasso, with small, medium, large and “pre-loved” canvases at their disposal. A gaggle of teenagers was busy drawing and painting while chatting among themselves.
Painting was very therapeutic to me as a child and I also had good memories of painting many clay pottery pieces at the Clay Café with my friends.
The paintbrushes, tiny glasses of water and huge containers of paint, where you can squeeze dollops of paint like condiments, felt so familiar and I soon let loose on my blank canvas.
The result was a rather abstract square of soothing, blues, greens and flecks of yellow instead of an object of scene. I had a blast mixing colours until they felt right to me and quickly remembered mixing too many colours together result in a brown sludge.
Before leaving, clutching my canvas so it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, I learned from the Warehouse’s owner Hazel Cochran that they have acquired a liquor license. A delicious cocktail to have while painting my next “masterpiece” is more than enough to entice me back (and I have a feeling I will soon run out of wall space in my apartment…).