The Wellness Center hosts weekly grab & go programs on Thursday nights. Photo by Ashlyn Messier.
Last Thursday, the University of Rhode Island Wellness Center held a Grab N Go Paint Night event on Zoom led by senior Abygail Champdelaine.
The Grab N Go Paint Night was a free event, with registration available through the IMLeagues app. Registered participants picked up their required painting materials at the Fascitelli Fitness & Wellness Center the day of the event, which included a paint tray, a canvas, two paint brushes and four different paint colors.
I am not very artistic, so I was nervous that I would not be able to keep up with the rest of the group. Luckily, Champdelaine moved at a slow pace and made sure that everyone was finished with the step she was on before moving on to the next one. Also, because the event was on Zoom, she was able to take advantage of the chat feature. She asked that when we were finished with each step to put it in the chat, so that way she knew when it was a good time to move on. I liked that she did this because it kept everyone together and made everyone feel like they could take their time.
When she first showed us the picture of what we were going to paint, I did not think I would be able to do it. It was a really pretty cactus with flowers blooming from it. One thing that was really helpful was that she had two cameras, one facing her and another that showed just her canvas so we could see up close what she was doing. She broke down each step so it was easy to follow along. We could also customize our painting however we wanted by mixing different colors together.
This was my first time participating in any sort of guided painting event, and it was a really cool experience for me. Even though my cactus did not come out perfectly by any means, it was still a really nice break and it was really fun to try something new.
At the end of the class, everyone showed their work, which was really cute and you got to see what everyone else had created.
There are actually many that take place every week that are put on by the Wellness Center.
“The Wellness Center does a grab and go every single Thursday at [6 p.m.],” said Champdeplaine. “We rotate through what we do. Some weeks it’s this [paint night], other weeks it’s coloring; we do mandalas just a bunch of stress free kind of activities.”
So if you missed this past Grab N Go Paint Night, don’t worry because another will be happening soon. If you aren’t interested in Paint Night, look out for the other grab & go events that the Wellness Center puts on at the URI events webpage. The Grab N Go Paint Night was a great opportunity to try something new and I’d like to try some of the other events the Wellness Center puts on in the future.