Local businesses bring hot, new product to area consumers

The social scene is changing in Carson City and elsewhere.

These days a night out is looking less like club or bar hopping and more like painting ... with a cocktail.

Think Van Gogh and DaVinci; not Behr and Valspar.

Spawned in 2012 on the East Coast, the paint-and-sip concept has caught fire in dozens of cities across the United States and worldwide.

It's a creative idea that quickly became a hot trend and now is a marketable phenomenon sweeping even Northern Nevada nightlife like a broad brush across canvas.

Several painting party-inspired venues have popped up in Reno within the last few years, and two more here in Carson City.

Mona Lisa and Wine owner Diana Basche said she sees paint-and-sip as establishing its own stand-alone market now, rather than a trend that is destined to fizzle out over time the way the "paint your own pottery" business model had done.

"It's a new industry," she said. "When I did the research for my liquor license, I put together a whole presentation for the Carson City board and they were overwhelmed by it."

Basche's research included several newspaper articles as well as a market analysis that demonstrated paint-and-sip to be an international business model; not a risky new venture.

With a professional background in consumer product marketing, Basche has a bead on what sells and what doesn't. When it comes to nightlife, she said, uniqueness of the activity counts almost as much as the fun factor.

"People are looking for something different to do," Basche said. "We've been doing the same fun things for years. This is different, it's fun and people feel really good."

Van Gogh and Vino owner Teresa Sexton agrees, adding that entertainment is really the key to paint-and-sip's swift success.

"People want to come here and have fun, and be entertained," she said. "I want them to leave here with something they can feel really proud of."

Sexton, whose disc-jockey background has made her well suited to entertain, said a person's desire for recreation stems from a physiological need for relaxation.

Artistic activities like painting, she said, help to stimulate areas of the brain that tend to get overshadowed by the daily grind and the concrete habits that fill up our day.

"It enables you to use that other side of brain," Sexton said. "I think it's something they want, but they also need it. It's like going to the gym for our minds."

There is also a relaxation element to paint-and-sip that appeals to people, she said.

"It's kind of a form of meditation and you go into another world in a way," Sexton said. "I call it going into the zone. It's a time to get away from all the other stuff in life."

For Basche, presentation of the activity is the all-important ingredient that can make or break a paint-and-sip business.

"The most important part of this side of the business is in the teaching," she said. "I walk them through it. Many people freak out, saying they can't paint."

A trained instructor, Basche said creating a fun environment makes the experience whole and worthwhile, fulfilling the desire for entertainment.

"I'm not teaching them art theory or how to make the perfect line," she said. "It's all about 'wow I did this and this is fun.' We create paintings in a way that anybody can paint them."

Basche said she styled Mona Lisa and Wine, located in the Raley's shopping center off South Carson Street, as a boutique in order to create a better social environment.

Basche and Sexton both said paint-and-sip sessions seem to naturally cultivate positive social interactions between friends and strangers alike.

A significant part of the fun is simply being together and sharing in the same experience as others, they said.

"It's not about what they paint. It's about being together," Basche said.

Sexton said she sees paint-and-sip as a good way of reconnecting the human need for real, live social interaction.

"We spend so much time staring on our phones and computers, we are losing touch with each other," Sexton said.

In a paint-and-sip session, guests are seated in close proximity to one another in a line of easels and canvases down long tables.

Mona Lisa and Wine seats up to 30 guests in a tidy 900 square-foot space, while Van Gogh and Vino seats as many as 45 guests in about 1,400 square feet of working space.

The idea is to stimulate real eye-to-eye and hand-to-hand interpersonal communication, which actually helps lower defenses and makes people feel more at ease, Basche and Sexton agreed.

"Everybody starts off feeling nervous and vulnerable. Then they're surprised," Basche said. "So then everybody forgets their vulnerabilities and feels good about what they've created."

Sexton said there is anxiety about trying something new for the very first time, but nobody is alone with these feelings.

"There are so many people who come in here who have never put paint to a canvas," she said.

Then they come back again.

"I have a lot of repeat customers, and I've watched so many of them grow in their painting," Sexton said. "They keep coming back, because it's fun, it's very social."

Basche said she sees similar behavior from her clients, too. They start out tentative, but can get quickly absorbed in the fun and entertainment.

"People walk in for the first time and are always cautious of others and unsure of themselves, saying 'I can't paint anything,' " Basche said.

So she and her staff work hard to help break the ice.

"From the start, we get them laughing with themsleves and their neighbors," she said. "It's like having an adventure with a friend, and when you do it, it's a high-five moment."

By the end of the session, Basche said a customer's outlook is completely different from when they first walked in the door.

"They feel good about themselves," she said. "It's not really about the painting. It's about 'I did this and I had fun.' "

And anyone worried about mistaking their wine glasses for water cups -- used for water-based acrylic paints -- don't be. It happens frequently, Basche and Sexton said.

"In every class, which is true, somebody takes their brush and puts it in their cocktail instead of their water. Everybody laughs," Basche said. "When that happens, we'll get you another drink at no charge."

On occasion a client will even mistake their paint water for their beverage, Basche said.

"Every third class somebody drinks the paint water," she said. "When that happens we just laugh because it's gross, but it won't hurt you."

Both Basche and Sexton took to the paint-and-sip concept immediately after trying it themselves for the first time.

"I went to one in Reno and I was hooked," Sexton said. "I decided I needed to do this."

Basche said it just made sense for her to open her own paint-and-sip business after a corporate career working long hours.

"I had done this in another state, and I thought this was so cool," she said. "This is perfect. It gives me a lot of flexibility. Every night is like having a party."

But the fun isn't only for adults. Both businesses are open to children, and they feature refreshments appropriate for youth and adults.

"I love having kids here," Basche said. "We do tons of children's parties."

In addition to holding open sessions, both businesses also book private parties. Birthdays, wedding-themed parties and showers, as well as corporate and team events can all be accommodated at either Mona Lisa and Wine or Van Gogh and Vino.

Neither Basche nor Sexton feel their businesses are riding a trendy wave. It's a movement that grew from the very start and is still getting bigger.

Sexton, whose studio-style business is located next door to Red's Old 395 Grill off South Carson Street, said 85 percent of people are coming back after their first visit, and some have come back as many as 25 times.

Return business is a strong indicator that the industry and its providers have found a new, unique niche in which to put their roots.

"I think this is going to stay. This as a social concept is going to work," Basche said. "It may change a bit in format and how it's done, but it's going to stay around."

For more information about the paint-and-sip businesses in Carson City, visit Mona Lisa and Wine's web site here and Van Gogh and Vino's web site here.