Back in February, a friend and I attended the Sip-N-Paint. I’d just finished a big project — like, about ten minutes before the event — and so I met her down there for some painting.

She and I both had the same idea of painting the sky. Hers, though, was significantly more interesting, which I noticed very quickly. She’d draw out patterns for galaxies, and star constellations, and a big Police Public Call Box flying around in the center. I was moving much more slow, and I’d only just decided to let dry a big expanse of light blue.

My plan was to layer clouds over the blue by blotting white paint with a napkin. This worked….alright. But it wasn’t very distinctive or interesting, so I added a rainbow, but what I didn’t know was that I didn’t know how to paint a rainbow. I put forth my best effort.

And in a last-ditch attempt to make my sky more interesting, I put felt stickers all over it. There were little felt stickers littering the tables, with letters, numbers, and symbols on them, so I grabbed a couple dollars signs ($) and went crazy. The stickers, being white felt, didn’t show up at all.

But it got a laugh out of my friend, which was alright. All I have to do is ask spectators to look at my boring white sky painting a little closer, for the secret, felt-soft, textured money clouds.

My favorite rose events are the ones that involve some sort of painting. I find that art is a great form of expression. It is a creative outlet that welcomes anyone to practice it. Art can really be done by anyone, which is what is so amazing about it. I have been missing painting ever since I came to college. However, these rose activities allowed me to find a great way to break away from my studying and have a couple of minutes to myself to relax. These relaxing events are perfect for someone who studies at Cornell. I ended up spending my time creating a giraffe because I thought it would be a happy painting to brighten up my room.

This week, I attended a Sip and paint where I drank tea, which I normally don’t do, and painted a landscape painting of a mandala-like figure that sat in front of a purplish background. To this, I added white dots around the edges of the mandala that made it look like the intensity was concentrated at certain parts of the painting. The piece was something that was outside my comfort zone because it required that I keep a steady hand so that my lines were smooth. The piece also had minor details that required me to periodically switch between thicker and thinner brushes. I enjoyed the Sip and Paint because I was able to relax and work on something that I could exert all of my stress and emotions into and, in the end, be proud of by result.

* I was not able to get a photo of the paining*

During the Sip-N-Pain event, I was able to relax and destress by painting my personal name tag with my friends. I really enjoyed talking my friends and paint something that I like. My friends loved my painting and I had a lot of fun looking at other students’ paintings. I truly enjoy Rose arts and crafts events.

Sip-n-paint was a really enjoyable experience for the weekend. I am not a very good painter, but I managed to sit down with some other scholars and spend about half an hour painting a cartoonyish landscape. I saw a lot of people trying to watch Bob Ross videos and replicate some of his works. While these definitely would’ve helped, I figured I’d try to wing it. Ultimately I managed to make something that kindergarten me could’ve likely competed with, but I had a lot of fun just sitting, relaxing, and painting.

I have decided to come out to this event because I wanted to unwind from studying and do something wholesome. I always liked the idea of painting and wanted to get into it but I never had the chance to so I thought this event was a great opportunity. I consider myself as someone who does not have creativity so I decided to just pull up a reasonable picture that I can copy. Honestly, I found out how difficult it is to blend colors and I rate the picture I drew a 4.0/10 on a good day. But, the outcome is not that important. I am glad that I got to relax and paint without thinking about my responsibilities.

I hope to get into painting and actually follow through with them and I think it is a good opportunity for me to spend quality time with my friends.

I started without knowing what I was going to paint. I first drew a rectangle and then I started getting ideas that ended up being an instagram picture or a bear! This is actually a replica of my instagram post with me in the same background, outfit, and sunglasses but I couldn’t draw a human because I am a bad drawer. This painting was really effortless, mind emptying (in a nice way) and relaxing! I loved the tea brewing smell and company of good friends. Before I started painting, I was worried about the prelims in couple days and assignments due later that day. But as I started to paint, I was filled with good memories from my trip to Europe with my families and friends. I miss these events a lot. It’s a little boring staying home all day. I hope to see everyone in fall again. It will be nice to paint again with all of you!

 I decided to go to the sip and paint event as a form of relaxation on Saturday because I was stressed after taking two prelims that week. I enjoyed that the event allowed for you to create whatever you desired since there were no guidelines to follow. I didn’t know what to draw and I couldn’t find any inspiration so I decided to just mix paints so I could start off with my background. After mixing and playing around with some paint I expected to get a brown neutral color. However, it ended up turning into a color that was more pinkish than brownish. Then I decided to be simple and draw random cactuses on top of it. I ended up liking my painting even though it was a quite simple painting. After the event I showed the painting to one of my friends and he said it reminded him of the pink cactus jack so that is what I decided to name my painting. 

I especially liked this event because there were really no guidelines, except pick up a brush and colors of your choice and begin painting! In our society with such a rigorous course schedule and daily routine, it is rare to have the ability to really cherish and utilize our creative as humans. I really appreciated that I had a chance to explore my imagination and relax while creating my own art that had no rules or restrictions. Definitely will attend other similar events!

When I first started painting, there was no muse to go off of, so I let the brush guide me. Eventually, I realized I wanted to paint something that represented me. With this and given that the month was February, I drew a black woman in a yellow leotard with a crown on her head and gold lines surrounding her head. Drawing this made me feel empowered as I was able to showcase what powerful black beauty and brains are during Black History Month. In this painting, I felt as though the crown shows power, her being herself was enough beauty, and her brains were shown by the gold lines surrounding her head.

I’ll take any chance I have to create a Bob Ross painting! When I arrived, I didn’t know what I wanted to make so I defaulted on making the first Bob Ross tutorial that popped up when I googled it. I think I’ve made the “Island in the Wilderness” one before but it was only till after I started that I realized. Another person who was also painting also recognized as having created it before. It is the first video that pops up so it makes sense for it to be widely recognizable.

I read a NYT article about where all the Bob Ross paintings are. People obviously want to own his work because he has wide appeal, but you can’t actually buy any of his paintings. All of them are stored and catalogued by a family who was close with him. There are also apparently three different versions of each painting, one before, during and after the episode.

I couldn’t get my painting to look exactly like what he created because it was acrylic on think paper instead of on canvas so a lot of the details didn’t come through, but it was a relaxing way to spend time!

Last Saturday I was able to go paint in between my studying. It was such as great way to spend my time! I had been stressed for so long and being to focus on painting and what color to use was such a relieving experience. I loved it so much that I have gotten another canvas and paints to actually paint again later on in the semester when stress starts building up again. Being in a hard science major barely gives me time to explore creativity in the form of art or music so events like these provide a great de-stressing experience that allows me to use my skills in these areas and see whether I could improve them in the form of a hobby. I would definitely enjoy another event like this one!

I had the opportunity to join other Rose Scholars at a painting event, where I was able to make a piece for my room. I have never actually been good at drawing, and therefore, avoided doing it. A few of my friends wanted to go, so I decided to join them. I had an amazing time stroking away. I painted some polka dots and called it my work of art. This event was not made for us to display our best artistic ability, but to do something to relax and meet up with friends. I would enjoy going to more events like this.

This past Saturday, I attended the Sip-n-Paint Event. It was so fun to be able to sit down and paint on a Saturday afternoon while chatting with friends. With so many assignments coming up and the semester’s stress starting to pick up, it was really relaxing to focus only on my painting for an hour or so. I especially enjoyed seeing what everyone else decided to paint. There were a lot of different ideas that people had for their paintings. Some decided to paint inspirational quotes while others painted scenes from Cornell. I loved asking everyone what they decided to paint. I thought it was really cool how we all received the same materials, a canvas and paint, and everyone’s painting was beautiful and unique. I painted a wintry scene with snow covered trees that was inspired by our recent snow storms. If I didn’t have homework that I needed to complete, I would have sat in Rose Commons all afternoon painting and sipping tea.

Similar to the paper-cutting event, the painting event was a nice time to sit down and relax on a Saturday afternoon.
Usually, I spend Saturdays studying in the library, so this was a refreshing change-of-pace. Painting can be a very cathartic activity, and given prelims and lab reports, last week was quite stressful. As a result, slowing down to just sit, paint, chat with friends, and drink tea was a great way to decompress. I always enjoy the Rose activities like this one, so I am looking forward to many more to come. In the future, I think it would be fun to paint mugs or some other pottery.

I was looking forward to this event the entire week leading up to it. Although I am not very good at it, I love painting. It is so relaxing and a great creative outlet. You can do whatever you want with painting. You can make something very intricate or something very plain. Either way it comes out as your own piece of art. One of my friends painted her canvas a gradient of red and then put “Go Big Red” on it in white letters. My other friend painted a snowy landscape with a lavender sky. Her trees were very impressive. I wanted to paint one of those paintings of a mysterious figure with a bright colored umbrella on a dreary path. My painting skills are not at that level, however. I figured my best option was to sketch out what I wanted, paint over the sketches, and hope for the best. I decided the path was going to be by the clock-tower. I wanted the figure to be me on campus, kind of. I tried to mix the browns and black to get my hair color. The hour or so that I spent painting was the best and most relaxing. I had been stressing about all that I had to do and after that hour I felt calmer and more focused. I wish there was paint and sip every weekend honestly.

This week I attended the “Sip-N-Paint” event on Saturday. I felt that it was a really good opportunity to relax and unwind after a particularly stressful week at Cornell. I’m a terrible painter, but I still had fun letting my “imagination” run wild. I use the word imagination loosely, since I don’t really consider myself a creative person. A lot of my works of art draw inspiration from different aesthetics that I find appealing.

Nevertheless, after I figured out what I wanted to make, I found myself at peace and enjoying the activity. The space was really open for you to do whatever you felt that you had to do. If you wanted to keep to yourself and paint in silence, that was certainly an option. If you wanted to socialize, you were free to do that as well. It’s often events like these that make me really thankful for being a part of this program, because otherwise, I might not have had the motivation to attend.