You don’t need to know the first thing about art to start painting. Gareth Lewis Shelton, co-founder of PopUp Painting, tells Sleuth’s Saba Chima how easy it can be to experience the joys of creativity.
Photo Credit: https://www.instagram.com/popuppainting/
1. Tell us about PopUp Painting—what it’s about, how and when it was founded?
PopUp Painting was something that we launched back in April 2013. It’s founded by people who have no background in art whatsoever. Our Managing Director and one of our founders, Venessa, comes from a health service management background. Myself, I’ve got no art background; at the time, I was about to start a master’s in political economy. And our third director, he comes from an aeronautical engineering [background]. We were introduced to the concept of ‘sit and paint’, which is really popular in America and has been since about 2008. And then someone recommended that maybe we should try to do something like this in London—so we thought it sounded like an interesting and exciting thing and that it was worth trying. In February 2013, we flew out to Boston, Massachusetts, to have a go at one of these in America to see whether we liked it and whether we thought it’s a good, you know, product. And to our surprise we really enjoyed it, and we spoke to people who were there—and most of them again weren’t artists, they were people with all sorts of backgrounds who were just looking for something different to do. We then launched in the April of that year, and we describe our mission as ‘bringing art out of our gallery, into the places that people want to meet on an everyday basis’. And I think that is really key, you know, […] some people see art as quite a stuffy thing, and we don’t think it is and shouldn’t be seen as that. And, I think bringing it to a place where people can have a drink and socialise […] gets rid of one of the barriers for people. Most of the people who come to our events are young professionals, they’re about 80% women, and they’re mainly just looking for something a bit different to do, so they’re not looking for a serious art class--they’re just looking for an experience, something to dip their toes into.
2. What do your events entail, and what can a first-time attendee expect the day to be like?
So they can expect as they come in to be greeted by our very friendly team. [There will always be] at least two people working on one event. One person sort of focuses on guiding [participants] through the painting [which is] the artist. And one person is there to sort of make sure everyone’s having a good time, and [to help out] with any practical problems. So once they come in, they will see rows of purple tablecloths with easels and canvases on them. And hopefully what they should experience for the rest of the evening is a high energy environment, and there will be music playing in the background in the theme with the painting. For example, if we were doing a ‘Starry Night’ painting, we might have songs about stars and sunflowers relating to Van Gogh. They will then be introduced to the event and told not to take it too seriously, and if they want to do something completely different to the painting at the front, they’re absolutely welcome to do that. The artists will then guide people in […] two forty-minute slots through the painting. When we were in the world before social distancing, what was really nice was that people [during] the break would orbit around the room and they would speak to others and say stuff like, ‘OMG, you’ve done a really lovely painting’, and that was a really social thing. It’s more difficult now because of the social distancing, but that’s a really nice element of the event. It creates a very positive social environment.
3. How do you organise these events?
So over the last few years, we’ve gradually built up the number of events that we were doing. So we have regular ongoing relationships with about 30 venues at a time. We’re mainly in London, so that’s where the bulk of our activity is. We’re also in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and York. In all these different places, we’ve got different arrangements in different [locations] of that venue. So, for some we might come to every other week. Some we might come to once every month. So, we’ve got a real network of partner venues. But in addition, we’re also opening up our own place at the end of this month (June). It’s going to be called the ‘London art bar’ [which means] we’ll be able to do more of our own events in-house whilst continuing PopUp as well.
4. How many people have signed up for events this year so far?
For this year so far, I cannot give you a figure because we’ve mainly been doing our events online, but the positive thing is that in May (this year), after we were allowed to return, we managed to sell 80% of our total capacity—and that is the figure I’ve got close to hand in my memory. So in total, in the past eight years, we’ve painted with over 50,000 people, so hopefully, we’ll continue that trend.
5. Where do you display paintings by participants?
For the most part of it, and the really nice thing [about it] is that painters take their work home, so our paintings are all over the country hung in peoples living rooms. But other than that, we mainly share photos of art on our social media, which is @popuppainting. But we’ll also, once we open up our own place, add more art and decorations [there].
6. Have events at PopUp Painting pushed participants to consider art as a profession?
[The experience at PopUp Painting] is for unwinding. All the sorts of people that we’ve met over the years, though they might not be career artists have become really dedicated to it. There are a few people that I have met, and you know, you see them after a couple of years after they first came in, and [they share how they’ve improved] and show a couple of piece that they’ve painted. Almost everyone that comes in is there to have a good time, but there are some people that absolutely fall in love with painting, and that is really sweet to see.
7. Can you describe some of your virtual events?
Virtual events followed a very similar format to the in-person ones. [We had] a room full of people—on Zoom—and we tried to keep it as social as possible. They had their microphones [and] cameras on, they’d chit chat throughout the event, and the artists would be spotlighted on Zoom. You know how sometimes it’s on speaker view [like that] the artists would be spotlighted throughout the event. And again, the artists with high energy and as sociable as possible would guide people through a painting through two forty-minute slots. At the end, what we’d do, so in-person, we always used to take group photos which was a nice thing to end the night on. And what we do on Zoom now is that, people hold their canvases up to their cameras, and we take a screenshot of the group photo.
8. How is PopUp Painting suitable for people of all age groups and skillsets?
For the most part, our events are aimed at adults as we are in bars and restaurants—they are not children’s events. And they are definitely for people of all experience levels because, you know if you’ve never done it before then great, our artists will talk you through things as much as possible [as] they’ve got time to go round and give you one-on-one help. In terms of ages, though, we typically have people who are [between] 25-50 who come with their partners, with their friends, with their parents. But we do; do a couple of children’s events which are sort of usually by special request as private events.
9. Is there a fee to attend these events?
So, when lockdown first happened in April/ May last year, we did a series of free sessions on YouTube as well as social media [like] Insta live, and they were about an hour long. We did that for a few weeks, and then we moved to a paid online class which was more intimate with [about] ten people coming to each one, so it was a real mix. I think during lockdown, there was a real hype in April and May for free [online] things. But as lockdown started to ease last year, we began moving away from the big free sessions and did stronger paid ones, instead.
10. What inspired the PopUp Painting slogan—'Unleash your creativity?’
I think it’s essentially what we do. A big part of it is that all of us who run the company or are in the company, we do already believe that people are already creative. People are creative in their day-to-day lives all the time. So you might be a doctor using your creativity to [make] a diagnosis; you might be a lawyer using your creativity to come up with a compelling way to approach a case, for instance. So people are creative all the time, and even in their social lives, they are creative. We really believe that people already are creative, but they might not appreciate it. So we offer them an opportunity to unleash and express that creativity in a different way with paint.
11. On your website, you offer help with organising charity events for non-profit organisations—can you name any charities you’ve worked with?
We’ve worked with a number of different charities, and we have slightly different approaches for them. So in some cases, it will be a charity that will come to us, and they’ll be putting together an event. [For example] Mission Mexico’s cause I think is girls in Mexico and the infrastructure and to support their education there. And they come along to us, and we’ve run a few events for them now. We’ve also [organised] a fundraiser for them [and] their donors. In other cases, we might be approached by someone who wants to personally put [together] a fundraiser for a charity. So we’ll support them in doing that, but in addition we also for instance as it’s pride month at the moment, what we’re putting together for the end of this month on 30th June, [is] a quiz night in our new space for a trust. You know we do try to be charitable and take part in civil society where we can.
12. When will the next PopUp Painting event take place in London?
So our next event will probably take place on Wednesday or Thursday this week (week of 7th June). We have events every single Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then alternate days as well.
13. Do you think painting is a form of therapy, and if so can you share any tips?
That’s a really good question, lots of people we work with do art therapy. I think painting can be relaxing, I think it can be calming for people, but I’m not sure if I would say painting is [exactly] art therapy. But [people do tend to give their feedback and say stuff like] ‘I really focused on this painting and my mind didn’t wander off onto work or anything like that.’ So I think it’s relaxing.
14. Any last words for our readers?
I think a lot of people doubt that they are creative, or they worry about doing paintings for the first time. But I think a really good way to look at it is, it’s something different and enjoyable, and you don’t have to be really good at something to enjoy it. It is okay not to be good at everything.