Painting with a Twist

I’ve heard great things about this place and it truly didn’t disappoint! One of the best weeknights I’ve had in a long time. I’ll definitely be back. Shout out to our instructor, Laura! She made us all feel like Picasso!

My mom came into town and after a little research, I booked us for this BYOB painting class. The other classes I found online looked OK but the painting they featured looked lame! We painted the Austin skyline and our instructor Kelsey was awesome! Her assistant Jonathan was very helpful too! I’ll be doing this again!

Great place to drink a nice glass of wine and let your artistic side come out. It’s has a very great atmosphere and the instructors are very nice and they enjoy guiding you.

Went with friends on my birthday and had a great time! The instructors were very nice & helpful.

I registered ‘Sunset over Texas’ and really enjoyed the whole experience! Venessa is very nice teacher. It feels so good to own my first painting work.:)

We just enjoyed a pleasant, quiet couple of hours painting an ‘I love you’ in the sand (see picture). The woman leading the painting was easy to follow and her assistant was there when you needed him. I needed him for a bunch for napkins. Everything is provided other than any desired drinks/​food. They raffle off a painting from a selection of about 10 for each class; We won! They also offer an SOS class for any participants that might want to do more to their paintings but run out of time. It’s a two hour follow up class offered for free. Great date spot!

Instructor: Andrew Grimes
Assistants: Mary Wendel & Kelsey Kilcrease
The sign up process is extremely simple, it is nice to see the calendar with paintings that are offered during the current and the next month so we can plan accordingly. The webpage is intuitive and easy to use for registration. And once registered they sent good information about what to expect during the event and special instructions of things to do before the event.
This studio offers a great environment to be creative and have a great time. It is full of little details that enrich the experience even more. As you enter the studio there is a nice sculpture shaped as a tree with bottles of wine, which is very appropriate for a BYOD place. They have samples of paintings everywhere (that helps to appreciate those paintings even more and get inspired and excited about going back for more sessions), tips to use the materials and they even have props to take pictures with: a huge arrow that says «I painted this» and paintings that you can place over your face (checkout my Batman pic). It is nice to see all these little things that add to the experience.
The staff welcomes you in a really friendly manner and take care of all your needs during your entire time at the studio. They were always nice and helpful and I never felt rushed or anything like that.
During the session Andrew gave us good instructions of what is expected during each phase and how long we had to complete it (great time management, each phase was long enough to complete the step without feeling rushed). He gave great tips and even showed examples of how the painting should look after each phase.
Mary and Kelsey offered useful tips and they always made their recommendations and suggestions in a really nice manner.
Andrew, Mary and Kelsey always responded with a smile and tried to help out in whatever was needed. You can tell that they care about giving a great and relaxing experience to their customers.
Overall, the staff is awesome, the place is clean and organized, the work area and lighting is more than adequate, even the background music adds to the experience. People was in a great mood and I had a very relaxing time.
As a side note, I have attended sessions with a competitor studio, they don’t offer as many painting options as Painting with a Twist and have to say that it was disappointing to see that they seem to use photocopies of your pet for their Paint your Pet session. I really really liked that the Painting with a Twist team took the time to sketch my pet. The end result is much better as you can’t see the piece of paper over the canvas.

Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. So many good things. We’ll definitely be going back.
First of all, it’s really cool that you can see online what you’ll be painting. When we were walking around this shopping center, we popped our head in and my husband was blown away by the concept of BYOB paint class. I then absolutely knew that it was going to be a Christmas present.
Two days after Christmas, we roll in. I suggest you get there early so you can open your wine and get a little buzz on first, though we were there almost an hour early, but they didn’t mind, they let us in and set up around us and played fun 60s and 70s music.
Once the majority of the folks got there (full house), our awesome instructor and assistant got us started and led us step by step through a couples portrait of an Austin sunrise. I’ll admit, I’ve painted a time or two before, so I didn’t feel out of my element, but looking around the whole class at the end — everyone’s painting looked really good for the most part. If you’re not artistically inclined, they can still get you to produce something you probably will hang on your wall (ours is!).
They had a raffle at the end, took a class picture, and had signs that said «I painted this» to take pictures with. Super fun, super simple, yay wine and paints!

I’ve been here twice and have had a great time completing each painting! The first time, I did my own painting of Japanese cherry blossoms and the second time, I completed a couples painting of the congress bridge. The instructors are friendly and the paintings are very easy for anyone to complete. I like how most paintings turn out a little bit different, but they all look great in their own ways! It’s nice that you can bring snacks/​wine to the sessions and gets everyone a bit more relaxed. The instructors occasionally go a bit too fast, but I realize they need to because of the time constraints. They break down the painting into manageable steps that is not intimidating. Depending on where you are placed to sit, it can be hard to see what the instructor was doing. It would be nice if they had some sort of projector or something, so that everyone could see what was going on no matter where in the class they were seated. Overall, painting with the twist is an enjoyable experience and even people with zero painting experience will have fun and most likely like the finished product!

This was a fun girl date night for me and a friend. The painting was fairly simple, but that made it hard to screw up! The schedule is pretty laid back; they let you socialize for a while, then the instructor demonstrates a chunk of the painting. Rinse; repeat. By the end you have a relatively dry, hang-​able painting. You’re allowed to bring snacks and drinks, they provide cups and water and napkins. It was a fun, casual way to spend an evening with a friend.

Go! Bring a friend, (or two!), gather nice cheese, wine, & crackers. Eat these things prior to painting. Make certain your wine is opposite your gunky water glass that you dip your brush in. Listen carefully to your instructor. Be silly & dance to the piped in 70’s music.(at least that was my experience.:)). Do critique the person next to you. Don’t say «Gee, that looks like something my son threw up this morning».(although it probably does.) Enjoy this most childish & creative experience!
Hannah was my instructor. She was wonderful & helpful & she only put me in the corner once :)

I went to Painting with a Twist for the second time last weekend and had a great time, UHgain! This place is so much fun! I like the concept of PWAT a lot — I’m not a natural artist yet I can create lovely paintings during one of their guided painting classes. There are so many cool paintings to choose from — I particularly enjoyed my Van Gogh Austin downtown+bridge painting and really like their other local scene paintings.
The first time I went it was with 2 girlfriends and we had lots of fun chatting and painting, and of course drinking wine. This past weekend I took my husband for a couples class where you make paintings that go together. He’s never painted before and he had a really good time! I love that this place is great for all types of people and artists. They even have fun little paintings that you can stick your head in for pictures.
They take care of everything for you (supplies, canvases, smocks, paints) and even provide things like cups, wine openers and water for your BYOB and treats. The teachers are very patient with people (who can get rowdy closer to the end of class) and really encourage a stress and judgement-​free zone. I’ve been looking around for a place like this in DC for my friend’s bachelorette party and have yet to find anything that looks even half as cool. Can’t wait to go back!

I came here for the «Van Gogh’s to Austin» painting session and had a blast. We didn’t even buy a GroupOn /​Living Social /​Google Offer, which seems to be the de facto way people find their ways into art classes like this studio offers. My biggest complaint is definitely the lack of space in the class area given the wide expanse available at the front of the studio. With everyone cramped together it made moving around limited, which is problematic if you need to get closer to the instructor to see what they’re doing. Being limited to only a single bathroom is troublesome, especially for the longer sessions.
Parking can be a bit tight because of the restaurants nearby that get really busy around dinner time, so plan accordingly. Also arriving 15 minutes ahead of time is probably overkill since the instructors seem to wait until everyone arrives anyways.

This place is a really cool concept and could be a fun activity for friends or as a date night idea. My boyfriend and I headed over to PWAT last night with Pinot Noir in hand, ready to give our creative sides some exposure.
It was a sold out class which meant lots and lots of people were there. While you are encouraged to bring wine and snacks, I think you’d have a really hard time actually eating anything as there is not much table space and people were knocking their easels around trying to keep up with the teacher.
I am artistically challenged but found that the teacher’s step-​by-​step instructions made the whole endeavor less daunting. I liked the class and would go back again, but most likely on a weekend and not on a week night.
I docked the place a star because the teacher was time management challenged. We had extensive breaks (25+ minutes) in which most people were just sitting around. Due to not managing time well during the regular session, the teacher crammed in and raced through the last 10 steps. Incidentally, those last steps were all fine detail work. So if you don’t care about how the painting turns out, you probably won’t have an issue with this. Otherwise, you might be peeved and wonder why you were sitting around for half an hour when you could have been painting. Our class which was supposed to go from 7−10pm ended up lasting until 10:30. This gal turns into a pumpkin around that time, so it was a little too long for me. Like I said, weekend class next time!

We went to a class just last night. What a great idea this is and it’s fun to do with friends. However, I would say that having 45 people in one class is way too much! There was very little to no one-​on-​one help, the table space was very cramped and the instructor went way too fast as she took us through the painting. It was a bit hard to keep up (and not just by me).
I may try again but here’s hoping the next class is not so full. I would suggest no more than 30 people at a time. I also will bring my own brushes because the ones provided had way too much paint on them and wouldn’t clean off well… even with clean water. They share a parking lot with Trudy’s so parking sucks. Plan to get there early to ind a parking spot.

I signed up for a class as soon as I found out this place existed. Painting classes where you can bring your own alcohol? Is this real life?
I went with a friend and we painted an Austin version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I was pretty excited because that’s my favorite painting, but also a little trepidatious because what if I seriously eff up my painting? Queue remarks from everyone in the class stating, «I’m not an artist,» «My painting looks nothing like the teacher’s,» and «I am seriously fcking this up.»
Sometimes I thought we went a little quickly, but that was mostly because I am a perfectionist and it took me a little while to get through some of the steps. (If I had been painting it correctly, it wouldn’t have taken me so long.) I still finished my painting on time, though, and was actually pretty impressed with myself. My painting has more influences from pointillism than it does post-​Impressionism, but I still thought it was pretty kick-​ass.
While there, I saw so many paintings that I want to recreate. Paint your pet? Holy cow, sign me up! That’s just what I need is more pictures of my cats, but, hey! This time they’ll be painted! And the Breakfast at Tiffany’s painting? I’m sure my Audrey Hepburn will look a little worse for wear, but how cool would that be?
This is a fun activity to do alone, with friends, or as a date. Don’t worry about your painting looking perfect — go in and have fun and your painting will look awesome. The steps are easy to follow and as long as you don’t get too caught up in the whole «I’m not an artist» mentality, you’re sure to have a blast.

This place is a blast! I usually go here with a friend or two, share some wine (BYOB), munchies, learn to paint, marvel at everyone’s artistic talent… or not. Note that this place shares a parking lot with Trudy’s, so parking is nuts. Plan on getting here early just to find a parking spot.
One cool thing about this class is that if you really hate your painting or didn’t have time to quite finish it, they have an SOS session once a month where you can return and work on your painting some more with excellent guidance from the instructors (at no additional charge). On my first visit, I forgot to paint one of the sides. Oops! That’s now remedied.
If you want to take the coolest class they offer, sign up for the «paint your pet» class. Sign up early because it fills up fast every time it’s offered. I have made two amazing paintings of my dogs, past and present. You will surprise yourself with your talent… and have fun in the process… CHEERS!

Ok, so I drank way too much cheap wine.
And I hula hooped in the corner.
Took pictures with mustaches and bachelorette themed picture frames.
And I asked lots of questions about painting, and working with tipsy people
And I bonded with my girlfriends
Took great pride in my super easy picture
Posted like ten photos of said picture onto facebook
And had a really lovely good time.
I will be here again. For reals. Now I just need more wall space to hang my (obviously brilliant) creations.

Painting With a Twist is amazing. One of my friend’s mentioned this place to me, and as soon as he explained the concept I was like «I HAVE TO TRY THIS NOW.»
So I checked our their website, viewed the calendar, what do you know, couples painting in a few days! The congress bridge at sunset with bats? Of COURSE my boyfriend wants to go to a paint class with me!
We roll up to the place about 15 minutes early, they already had our seats picked out for us, we crack open a bottle of wine and make new friends. Our instructor was awesome, even though it was a «couples» class, most people there were single (and ready to mingle). I would probably come here by myself. Or with a huge group of friends. Or my boyfriend. Stranger I meet on the street. You get the idea.
The price isn’t that bad considering you get to bring an original piece of artwork (made by you!) home. And I can’t wait to hang mine, so that when people walk into my apartment they can be like «Oh! Where did you get that MARVELOUS painting?»
And I can reply, «Why, I painted it. No big deal.»

My friends and I went to the Paint Your Pet class last night, and I cannot stop raving about it to everyone within earshot. I’m not even remotely artistic normally, but I still ended up with this amazing portrait of my beloved cat. (My husband was extremely impressed. My cat was nonplussed.) Even though the wine that I brought was undrinkable (long story), the class was still so much fun. David, our instructor, was kind, patient, and infinitely helpful. I never in a million years would’ve signed up for this without the peer pressure of my friends, but now I can’t wait to go back!