Art Affair by Art Zensation: Get Creative at Art Jamming!

Express yourself and get creative at a fun art studio in Hong Kong!

With people in and out of the office on summer holidays, the few of us who have been hanging out at Sassy HQ have been a bit frazzled to say the least. Were we ready to all let out our inner Picassos and van Goghs? Heck, yes. It was almost as good as pounding glasses of Chardonnay at happy hour…

Art Affair by Art Zensation, run by Eve and her partner, is a cute little art studio at The Hennessy, in-between Causeway Bay and Wan Chai. After a relaxing Saturday afternoon there with some girlfriends, I decided I had to share this spot with the Sassy Girls so off we went for an evening of paint jamming after work.

It honestly doesn’t matter what your level of artistic skill is, the whole point is to put paint on canvas as an expression of your own personality. Feel free to bring a bottle of vino if that’s more your thing (or if you feel it’ll help you ‘express’ yourself better) – we had planned to, but someone forgot to bring the wine… okay, I forgot to bring the wine. If that’s the case, there’s a supermarket downstairs, another across the road and 7/11’s galore, so you’re all set for drinks and snacks.

The studio is big enough for about 8-10 people to fit comfortably with easels set up down each side. There’s also a little table in the corner which Eve uses when she’s hosting small art classes – think line drawing, mosaic crafting, Japanese clay making, leather making and more.

Eve gave us an option of painting on a canvas bag or on an actual canvas, which we all chose. She also saw first hand just how different each of us are… half the team had brought along ideas of things to paint (inspired by Pinterest!) and the other half of the group were ready to free-hand it.

We got settled with aprons, pencil drawings and palettes, ready to make a big mess on our canvases. It was clear we all had varying abilities… but as I mentioned above, this really doesn’t matter! You can keep it as simple or as complicated as you like.

The other awesome thing is that Eve has plenty of books at her studio if you want to browse them for inspiration. She’s also a superstar when it comes to making suggestions or if you want to ask her questions on painting techniques – which is actually what she did when I asked her how to achieve the vintage look on my scruffy looking Union Jack (hint: it involved a wet sponge, doh!).

All in all, we had a good evening outside of the office and we all got to unleash a spot of creativity while having a good old girly giggle and gossip session – away from the laptops, outside of the meetings. And that’s really what makes art jamming so good: it’s an ideal team-bonding activity that doesn’t involve happy hour or expensive bar bites, and you still get to catch up with friends or colleagues. See some more team building ideas here!

A 3-hour canvas jamming session at Art Affair by Art Zensation is $280, which includes acrylic paints, brushes and a complimentary drink (or you can bring your own!). Or you could book the place out for an event or private party.

Art Affair by Art Zensation, Unit 1103, The Hennessy, 256 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, 6778 9880, [email protected], www.artaffair.com