A Brush With Beer

Chris Kent is a unique kind of a guy — he can tell you all about the perspective and symmetry of a piece of art, while also educating you on the “hoppiness” and mouthfeel of your favorite craft beer.

All with said beer in hand. (Now that’s talent.)

Chris is the “Head Dude” at Craft & Arts, an arty, lager-filled experience that he likes to describe as, “not your average paint night.”

Craft & Arts pops up at local craft breweries all over Orange County to provide a twist on the paint-night experience. As you sip on a locally crafted, tasty beer, you get to create your own piece of art. Win/win!

I grabbed a willing friend and joined Chris at Costa Mesa’s Gunwhale Ales for an unforgettable beer-and-paint evening. As if a night out at a brewery weren’t fun enough – brushes with my brew made it even better!

“Not Your Average Paint Night,” with Craft & Arts at Gunwhale Ales in Costa Mesa.

Chris starts out the evening by encouraging us to taste and observe our beer, while he offers valuable information about what to look for. He’s a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, which means he’s been officially trained in tasting and evaluating beer. He’s also an artist and a teacher. So basically, he’s living his best life.

He started Craft & Arts in 2017, with his first event at Chapman Crafted in Orange. The reaction was positive and encouraging, and Chris started visiting other local breweries to host more events. He did his first paint night at Gunwhale in August, 2018, and now hosts regular paint nights at five local breweries around OC.

When I ask him how he came up with the idea of a craft beer and paint night, Chris explains, “So much goes into crafting a beer. With just four main ingredients, there are so many styles and varieties that result. What did the brewer do to make a certain beer the way that it is? So making beer is like making art. We have a few tools and materials to work with, but we create so much cool stuff!”

Chris brings all of the supplies you need — so you literally just show up. Grab a beer, choose a seat, and meet your neighbors.

Chris takes it from there. He’s super knowledgeable and entertaining. He walks through some basic art principles, and provides an array of examples to inspire your artistry.

Then, we dive in. There’s a giddy excitement in the air as we all choose what colors, tools and materials we want to work with for the night. We’re all starting with the same rectangular piece of wood as our canvas, but as everyone gets started, it’s clear that Chris called it — these are all going to be incredibly different expressions of art.

Unlike other paint nights I’ve been to, we’re not all painting the same subject. And there’s no teacher telling us what to paint next. It’s completely and totally up to us. Guidelines and instructions are provided, but whether or not you follow them is up to you.

Chris likes to think of this as expression. “Every time you order a beer, you’re expressing yourself,” he says with a grin. “I like this experience to be more about expression, about process over product.”

One person at my table is creating a Warhol-esque ode to a video game controller. Someone a few seats away tears up tiny pieces from the magazines Chris has provided to craft an elaborate paper mosaic. Another beer-loving artist is using the stencils to layer a message over a colorful collage. Me? I’m gob-smacked by the metallic duct tape I discovered on Chris’s materials table, and I get stuck just mooning over the mandala patterned stencils.

I eventually just go for it. I find some images I love from the magazine pile, and begin to tear in and stick them to my board. I choose some colors that are calling to me, and add them in to the mix too.

As the evening progresses, we are all working diligently on our pieces and Chris is making his way around the table, offering suggestions and words of encouragement at every turn. He makes sure to spend some time with each person, lending a tip or even just chatting about the beer they’re drinking while they’re creating.

I ask Chris what he wishes he could tell everyone out there who hasn’t tried one of his paint nights yet. “Stop telling yourself you suck at art!” he shouts gleefully. “Try pushing your creative boundaries a bit.”

And we do. Chris encourages us to get up and walk around to see what our fellow artists are up to. Wow! Each piece is incredibly different. It’s a gorgeous mess of color and shapes, strewn between glasses of beer and scribbled tasting notes.

Before I know it, Chris is letting us know our time is almost up. It flew by! My friend and I are so engrossed in our creations, we don’t want to put our brushes down. Or our beers.

Alas, the hour is growing late and we find ourselves happily exhausted. We’ve made new friends, we’ve had some delicious beer, and we’ve made some killer art. That’s a pretty stellar way to spend an evening, and I already want to come back and do it all over again. ♥

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You can find Chris Kent at Craft & Arts at local breweries around Orange County, including Gunwhale Ales in Costa Mesa. For an update schedule of events, follow Craft & Arts on Instagram @_craftandarts

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