Making masterpieces on Main Street with music, malbec and merlot

By Jon Bodell - Aug 25, 2015 | 0 comments

Look at all those blank canvasses just waiting for you to put paint on them.

A sampling of some of the paintings offered at Cork and Canvas.

The finished masterpiece. It really speaks to you, doesn’t it?

Like many great works of art, Jon’s came from humble beginnings. The owners were nice enough to let him have a beer by his station that he gladly enjoyed once off the clock.

How many times have you heard someone say, “There’s nothing to do around here,” when they’re referring to the great city of Concord?

Probably more than a few.

Melissa Caro has heard it a million times, and she hopes to do something about that with her new paint-and-sip studio, Cork and Canvas, on North Main Street.

The studio, which had its grand opening last Friday night, welcomes people of all skill and experience levels to have some wine or craft beer and an appetizer from the bar while following an instructor’s lead in painting. And don’t worry if you haven’t picked up a paint brush since fourth grade – it’s just like cooking, Caro said.

“You get a recipe, you have all different ingredients and you put in one ingredient at a time, and by the time you’re done cooking, you have this beautiful meal in front of you,” she said.

Caro worked in real estate in New Jersey for 15 years before opening Cork and Canvas. She studied graphic design in school and said doing this gives her a chance to flex her creativity muscle a little more.

She recently opened two studios in Jersey City, and the one in Concord had originally been planned to open in April, but the combination of raising three kids, living in New Jersey, opening two studios and trying to build another pushed the opening back.

But why Concord, of all places? Don’t cows outnumber people here by like, 80 to 1?

“We knew we wanted to come to New Hampshire with our children and run this one,” Caro said,
referring to her husband, Julio – who built the studio with his bare hands – and their three kids, ages 9, 7 and 4.

“We loved the space when we walked in, we really liked Concord – we thought it was a beautiful city – and we heard about the Main Street project, so everything just seemed to fall right into place.”

Hey, looks like the Main Street Project is doing a good job of bringing in new small-business owners to the community.

“They’re making it better for everybody . . . inviting more families to come into Concord,” Caro said.

Getting a spot for one of the events, which will be Thursday through Sunday nights, is easier than finding parking on Main Street right now: go to concordpaintandsip.com, go to the calendar, choose the painting you want to do and click the button to sign up. Admission includes paint, brushes, canvas and a couple of hours of instruction, and costs between $35 and $40 depending on the painting. It’s not a BYOB, but the bar accepts cash or credit.

And it’s not just for adults. She’s done events for kids at her Jersey City studios and plans to do the same here. They’ll be in the daytime and will cost less, and she said age 6 is usually when kids are ready to try it out.

Once you’re there, you’ll see sample paintings all over the walls and a cool bar made by Julio out of old pallets, with two long rows of tables down the middle complete with canvases, brushes and aprons at each seat. Remixes of Taylor Swift and Walk the Moon blend in with chatter and laughter.

The bar offers a selection of red and white wines, as well as some craft beers (Shed and Blue Point, to name a few) and a couple of mainstays (Bud, Bud Light) and classic apps.

Once everyone is settled in and sipping away, the instructor begins with two rules: No self-insulting, and no drinking out of your brush water cup by accident. (Sadly, we kind of broke Rule 2, and it was only about 5 minutes in.)

The instructor goes step by step through each phase of the painting, making it look so easy that even we were keeping up quite admirably. She tells you which of the three brushes provided works best for whichever situation you’re in, and how to blend colors to get what you want. Improvisation is encouraged.

It’s surprising just how easy it is to keep up, and it’s not like you’re doing stick figures – the grand opening painting was a nice sunset scene over a lake, very New Hampshirey.

Once the masterpiece is complete, you sign your work and gather at the front of the studio for a big group picture, which you can then find on Cork and Canvas’s Facebook page and tag yourself if you’d like. Then you go home and hang it on your mantel, or try to sell it for a king’s ransom – you never know.

The bottom line, Caro said, is to have a good time with it.

“It’s a great time for you to unwind and relax and just have fun – that’s our biggest thing, just have fun.”