They came from varied professions, such as doctor, real estate brokers, and sales manager. Yet for one night, a group of 16 all had the same goal: aspiring artist.
On Feb. 23, a collage of village residents and non-residents, dressed in aprons, spent two hours at the Glencoe Public Library attempting to produce a replica of Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 classic “Starry Night” painting.
“What we are trying to do is get people to use their hands and get away from electronic (media) where you can actually do something and create something of your own,” said Sunshine McCarthy, an art instructor with Pinot’s Palette, a studio chain that coordinated the event.
The students in Glencoe were tasked with creating their own version of the impressionist’s iconic work.
“It is an easily recognizable painting,” McCarthy said. “Most people know what it looks like and they know what to expect.”
For the library, the art class served as an opportunity to showcase different types of programming.
“We are experimenting with encouraging creativity in the community,” library spokeswoman Grace Hayek said. “We are trying to make the library to have more things for more people.”
As varied musical selections – from Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” – played, the participants, forewarned that it could be a messy evening, gathered at their easels with acrylic paints in shades of blue, yellow, white, orange, teal and gold.
McCarthy guided participants on how to paint the background first with swirling clouds, then stars and rolling hills, with a tree coming last.
“A lot of people are afraid they are going to do badly, so it is confidence” (they need), McCarthy said. “Once they realize they can do it, they are more likely to have fun.”
That was just the right atmosphere for James Noel of Highland Park, who remembered painting during his medical residency.
“It is a very complicated piece, but doing it this way – step by step – it makes it a little more pleasurable than looking at the canvas and trying to do it on your own,” Noel said.
The event was a way for students to have some fun, in particular for four friends who came together.
“I love that I can follow something and I don’t have to make it up on my own,” said Glencoe’s Ashlee Thompson, one of the quartet. “I can’t wait to do it again.”
Noel was happy with his rendering, and with the experience.
“Now that painting is over, I forgot how therapeutic painting really is,” he said. “It is like reading a book. It takes you out of your own world and you escape reality, and so for that moment, everything stands still. It is just the canvas and you, and whatever is in front of you.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
