Color Her Friendly: Local artist blends wine & instruction

Posted 10/24/14

We weren’t sure what to think when we got a short letter from a fledgling business that opened like this:

“My name is Tiffany Tennell and I have just opened a new paint and wine …

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Color Her Friendly: Local artist blends wine & instruction

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We weren’t sure what to think when we got a short letter from a fledgling business that opened like this:

“My name is Tiffany Tennell and I have just opened a new paint and wine studio in West Warwick.”

She quickly explained that it was not a place where you buy paint and wine, although that would be a good idea as well, if you are one of those people who buy a couple of cases of beer and several gallons of paint and invite your friends over to get plastered and slathered with the hope of painting your house at the same time but have the sort of friends who are too sophisticated to work for beer but may be tempted by a nice bottle of pinot noir or a flinty white burgundy with a crisp finish.

“A paint and wine studio is a fun and entertaining group painting class full of co-workers and friends that serves wine and beer during class,” she said.

She explained that local art teachers come in and walk you through doing your own version of a painting that’s been chosen for the night. She tells us that the concept is booming all over the country. A quick Google search revealed that it is found all over the place but there is only one other place in Pawtucket that has taken up the business model. Tiffany told us she would be “extremely grateful” if the Warwick Beacon would publish a story about her studio.

Without committing to a story, yours truly decided to check it out. I called Tiffany and was told she was doing a painting party the next day but it was for children. I was welcome to attend but she didn’t think it would convey the concept for adults. She told me there would be classes that Friday and Saturday night and I decided to try it on Saturday. She warned me that the concept was new and walk-ins were scarce and she couldn’t guarantee that there would be any would-be artists on either night.

She was telling the truth. When I came in to the studio, located in a strip mall on Cowesett Avenue, there was only one other person there other than Tiffany. It was Evelyn Rappoport who lives in the neighborhood on the Warwick side of Quaker Lane. An 80-year-old who looks 20 years younger, Evelyn nonetheless had the peculiar combination of sparkle and weight in her glance that bespoke a broad range of life experiences and a conversation with her quickly confirmed the impression. Tiffany and Evelyn were getting along so well when I arrived that I thought Evelyn must be one of her “regulars” at the studio. I was surprised to learn that it was Evelyn’s first visit to the studio as well and the casual intimacy that they seemed to share was the product of their personalities. With what I came to learn was a characteristic frankness, Evelyn demanded to know who I was and where I came from. With my bona fides established, I quickly learned that Evelyn was from Roxbury, a section of Boston I lived in until I was 13 years old.

“I’m from Grove Hall, Blue Hill Avenue,” she said.

Contrary to what you would imagine, Grove Hall was not a building; it is a section of Roxbury at the cusp of Dorchester that got its name from a long gone mansion that once dominated the crossroads there. It prospered as a trolley suburb of Boston for many years that saw waves of Irish, Jewish and Latino immigrants move in. It was still a respectable place to live when Evelyn was growing up and was in decline by the time my family moved out of Roxbury in the late 1950s.

Needless to say, Evelyn and I became fast friends and reminisced about parts of Boston that were lost to urban renewal around the same time we moved out. We tried to include Tiffany in the conversation but she could not have understood our affection for the Old Howard Theatre in Scollay Square, one of the first victims of Boston’s Government Center. The square was ground zero for sailors on leave and native boys looking for a sexy adventure. I was surprised when Evelyn boasted that she, a nice Jewish girl from Grove Hall, had been to the Old Howard.

“They had a burley [burlesque] show with strippers who had these tassels on their chest that they would swirl around,” she explained to Tiffany, with a little body language thrown in.

But then we both realized that we were excluding Tiffany and we steered the conversation back to the wine and turpentine, well, actually, water, because the studio uses acrylic paints.

Evelyn had already painted in the background for the branch of cherry blossoms on her canvas and was touching it up as Tiffany gave me more background on the concept.

“Myself or one of our art teachers ‘walk’ the students through the basics of painting the picture while they enjoy a glass of wine or beer,” said Tiffany. “The lessons last about two hours and the students only get two drinks, so we don’t really have a problem with people getting drunk. We won’t serve anyone who shows up intoxicated.”

The women went back to work on their canvases while I wondered how a girl from Roxbury Memorial High School ended up in Warwick.

“I used to come down and visit my cousins and I met my husband Harold, who was a friend of my cousin’s boyfriend. We went out, went to Roger Williams Park. I was 19; he was 20. We got married. He was in the service and we lived in Bangor, Maine before we moved down here. We had hard times and good times with good memories along with them.”

Tiffany said the alcohol is more to create a party atmosphere and not a party. In fact, she said it took her awhile to explain the idea to the West Warwick Town Council. The idea of needing a license was one of the first hurdles in opening the Perfect Paint Party studio. The fact that she only offered two drinks of beer or wine as part of the price of a lesson made the council feel comfortable enough to allow her to open without a liquor license.

“The down side of that is that I have to buy the wine and beer retail, but that’s such a minor thing,” she said. “We usually offer chardonnay or red wine, beer, Coke, Sprite or Hawaiian Punch.”

As the evening went on, it became obvious that Evelyn’s painting wasn’t going to go straight off the easel into a prestigious gallery, but neither was Tiffany’s. The idea is to offer people a friendly, casual atmosphere to express themselves and it certainly was doing that. Even though she was the only student that night, Evelyn was happy to be there.

“If I wasn’t here, I’d be home with my cat, or with my neighbor, talking about someone else,” she said.

Evelyn said she always wanted to paint but raising a family and working kept her from doing it. Her husband passed away and her children all grew up.

“Now, this is my time and I’m doing what I want to do,” she said.

Perfect Paint Party provided everything Evelyn needed to paint: A 16x20 canvas, brushes, paint and apron. She seemed tentative about it but Tiffany was very encouraging and convinced Evelyn that it was going to be fun no matter how the picture turned out. I agreed. I wasn’t painting but I was thoroughly enjoying my newfound friends, even as I sipped on nothing more than bottled water.

Tiffany suggests that you arrive 15 or 20 minutes before 7 p.m., to get your beverage and be assigned your easel and supplies. She says you can dress any way you want to, but “I wouldn’t wear my best.”

As for Evelyn, she found another way to spend a Saturday night. And Tiffany, who is recently here from Las Vegas with her husband from Burrillville, she found a new friend in Evelyn, who truth be told, is a lot of fun to be friends with. Her attitude has a lot to do with that.

“I have had people I loved around me all my life,” she explained. “I’m happy wherever I am.”

For more information, go to www.perfectpaintparty.com or call 615-5419. The two-hour lessons are $40 and include art supplies, instruction, camaraderie and, of course, the beverages.

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