Arte Bar’s Wine and Painting

“Wine makes all things possible” -George R.R. Martin

Wine and painting night

Arte Bar, located in the Eixample neighborhood, only a 10-minute walk from the Sagrada Familia, is a popular art studio offering painting classes almost every day of the week. For under €40 the class includes three hours of instruction, canvas, brushes, paint, a light snack and unlimited wine and water.

Arte Bar has a wide variety of themes to choose from. There’s a calendar on their website that makes it easy to choose the picture you want to paint. The theme of the class I attended was about space.

No experience needed

If you’re like me and not an experienced artist in any way, fear not! Before the class the instructors explained that no artistic skills or experience is required. If anything, the workshops are made for that specifically. This definitely helped to calm my nerves as I am a major perfectionist.

Relax and disconnect

Another great way to calm your nerves… the wine! I’m not a huge drinker so I almost didn’t get a glass, but what’s a wine and painting night without the wine?

I personally have a habit of getting too serious about creative activities, which takes the fun out of doing them in the first place. But something about painting with a glass of wine in your hand makes it hard to take yourself too seriously. It was a great reminder that you’re just there to unplug and have a good time!

High quality art instruction

I assumed that all of our paintings would turn out very similar to the example, but I was wrong. The instructor walked us through the painting techniques step-by-step and was more than willing to help in any way he could. He really encouraged us to have artistic freedom, relax and have fun creating what we wanted. They give a nice amount of time to complete each step. Some of our steps included creating our planets, painting our backgrounds, adding in various galaxies and stars, etc.

They also play music while you paint so you can really lose yourself in what you’re doing. You can go at whatever pace you’d like.  So there’s no problem if the instructor teaches the next step and you aren’t there yet.

The class was very intimate- only eight of us- and halfway through the night we stopped for a quick snack break and a chance to check out everyone’s progress. I thought that was going to be intimidating but everyone was really nice, and it was interesting to see all the different interpretations of what we were making (you can even steal a few ideas for yourself…).

Fly solo or with a group of friends

I attended the class on my own, which was a lot of fun because I could paint in my own little world without distraction. There was also a group of friends in the same class. They brought their own bottle of wine and seemed to have a blast.

All-in-all, I definitely recommend the Arte Bar! It’s a nice way to unwind and have fun doing something creative. I found that pretty soon after we started, I stopped caring about how my painting would turn out. It was such a fun experience, I knew I would end up enjoying the process even more than what I created.

By Caroline Abernethy

Find more art activities in Barcelona >>

About the Author

Caroline Abernethy is studying Theatre and Art History at  Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, AZ. During her time in Barcelona she is exploring the local art scene and sharing her experiences with FrikiFish readers.