Tim gets hands on (and hands in) with art at No Brushes Allowed

By Tim Goodwin - Mar 10, 2015 | 0 comments

The spray station, complete with lots of splatter.

Jenna, daughter of owner Anita Wolcott, does a little showing off when making her colorful frame.

Tim certainly looks to be having a lot of fun – maybe too much – getting his hands all painty.

So we have to admit that Sophia Sturgis, 3, had much better luck using the pool noodle than Tim.

Look how proud he is.

Tim begins working on his canvas masterpiece with help from a potato masher.

On most days, my artistic ability falls somewhere between one and two on a scale to whatever number you’d like to choose. Maybe it could reach a three if sketching trees happens to be on the activity checklist, although some may say that’s a bit of a stretch.

But when I made my way to No Brushes Allowed in the Concord Community Arts Center this weekend, it’s as if I found a place where I belong when it comes to the artistic world. There are very little rules and you can make as big a mess as possible. It’s actually encouraged. You can even drive a monster truck through paint and roll it on your canvas – albeit of the Matchbox variety.

The only thing you can’t do is use a paint brush, hence the name of the recently opened business. Owner Anita Wolcott always did these kind of messy projects with her three children, and one day she decided it would make a great business. So of course I had to check it out.

There are five stations in the basement room of the former Rumford School and at every single one there’s the potential to get quite messy. I would suggest wearing some old clothes, but either way it washes out.

On the docket this fine day was painting a small picture frame with a cut piece of pool noodle (picture not included), creating a canvas masterpiece with the use of toys, along with paint panels, the spray station and one consisting of glue and glitter. I began by creating a frame that may or may not be allowed in my house. The different color circles were cool and vibrant, but the point was to get messy. So I ditched the noodle and went straight to using my fingers. Not only did it create a cool design, but added some colors that were definitely not on my lunch room tray pallet when I started. Who knew brown could be so fashionable?

The panel station is quite simple and very entertaining. Wolcott puts a pile of paint on a piece of Plexiglass that has been spray painted black on the bottom. And that’s it. You can put fingers or your entire hand in it and go to town. You can practice writing your name, make shapes or just a cool design. Unfortunately the Plexiglass stays there, but you can always snap a quick picture to remember your handy work. Mine looked like some ancient symbol you’d find an a cave wall or something, which of course is what I was going for.

But the toys canvas is what I was really looking forward to trying. I started with tiger paw prints, moved on to the potato masher and Koosh ball before finishing up with a fork. The initial toys set the foundation for what the fork finished up. Imagine if I had a knife and spoon too, it would have been a piece that could hang in any local gallery, although I’m not sure if I could deal with the emotional stress of parting with it, since it may have bumped me up a little on the artistic scale.

I never made it to the spray station, where you literally take a spray bottle filled with paint and squirt it on a piece of paper, or the glitter stop, but I’ve got to save something for next time. There’s only so much creativity that can happen in one sitting.

And while it’s geared toward kids, adults are welcome to try it out. Wolcott is even toying with the idea of an adult night.

No Brushes Allowed is open on the weekends and also does birthday parties. So for the most up to date info, we suggest checking out their Facebook page at facebook.com/nobrushes
allowed.