With a glass of sangria in hand, apron tied tight and an easel, paint and brushes set up in front of me, I’m ready to paint a horse. A picture of a horse – specifically, an abstract horse.

Why? Because that’s the image of the night.

Where? At Pinot’s Palette in Toronto, Ontario along Dundas Street West in the up-and-coming ‘The Junction’ district.

This Pinot’s Palette is the first  Canadian outlet of a ‘sip and paint’ franchise spreading across the U.S. offering adults (and sometimes kids) the opportunity to give painting a try without weeks of learning technique or studying art. There’s no illusion you’ll create a masterpiece if you’ve hardly painted before, but the fun is in giving it a try.

Unlike other paint nights sprouting up in cities near you, this company has a permanent location (street-front in this case) and offers classes almost every evening and weekends. Each class provides a different image the entire room paints, and an instructor at the front walks the room through the process, step by step.

No two paintings turn out the same. And rarely are the inspiration images of horses.

Tonight, though, a handful of us are using a dash-like technique (or dots as I misunderstood) to create an ‘abstract’ horse image using blue, teal, orange and yellow colours.

The results? Well, mine looks moderately like the sample painting, though I’ve learned from past experience to attempt to paint the essence of the sample, rather than recreated it precisely. One, that’s not going to happen. Two, it’s art … right?

If you’re interested in painting a more accurate likeness of your horse, most Pinot’s Palettes offer a ‘paint your pet’ night. Send in photos of your fur friend prior to the class, and when you come in an instructor will help you fill in the outline. I plan to give it a try for dogtrotting.net. So far, the office manager told me, they haven’t gotten any requests to paint horse in Toronto, but ‘that would be interesting to do,’ she says.

Want to give horse painting a try?

Teach yourself with a variety of guide books such as The Art of Painting and Drawing Horses on Amazon.com OR The Art of Painting and Drawing Horses on Amazon.ca (affiliate links)