Pittsburgh nightlife has a new contender to the usual bar hopping, sports game viewing and clubbing. Now yinzers can become attuned with their artsy side with Colors and Bottles, a painting class, cocktail hour and social session, all combined into one evening.

Colors and Bottles is dedicated to promoting local artists and venues and making sure people in Pittsburgh are having a great time, even though the company is actually based in Columbus, Ohio.

“I’ve always liked Pittsburgh. There’s just so much there. It’s such an artsy city,” Jenna Cool, the vice president of Event Operations, said in a telephone interview last Wednesday.

Memories of visiting the Strip District as a child made Cool consider Pittsburgh when Colors and Bottles recently decided to expand its business to other major cities.

Colors and Bottles came into Pittsburgh in June but has been a hit with the locals since it started, according to Mary Story, one of the company’s event coordinators.

The classes, which are three hours long, are usually capped at an attendance of 20 to 25 students but, according to Story, some of the Pittsburgh venues book fast, so it is a good idea to purchase a ticket in advance.

Venues for the classes are typically bars, wineries or restaurants. The BeerHive in the Strip District, Del’s Bar and Ristorante on Liberty Avenue and James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy on the North Shore are a few that regularly hold Colors and Bottles classes.

Interested painters must pre-register online and pay the class fee, which is typically $35 and includes all the art supplies right down to the brushes. At each event, a local artist teaches the class how to recreate their original artwork, but accuracy is not the most important goal.   

Cool stressed that Colors and Bottles is not about judging each other’s artistic ability, but rather the group having a good time and getting to know each other.

“The whole goal of Colors and Bottles is that we want to bring art to the not-so-artistic people,” Cool said.

Despite the focus on fun, Pittsburgh artist Tara Zalewsky-Nease said the final products of the students often genuinely impress her, even though many have never lifted a paintbrush before in their life.

“They can come back with something they were able to do and are pretty proud of it,” Zalewsky-Nease said over the phone on Thursday.

At the end of the class, students get to take their artwork home with them.

Creating this type of laid back, approachable class was the goal of Colors and Bottles founder Jessica Burley when she pioneered the company in January of this year.

“I love to pretend I can paint and I truly believe art is therapeutic. I always wanted to take painting classes in college but was too intimidated,” Burley was quoted as saying in a Colors and Bottles press release.

Burley, who was originally a federal investigator and a veteran commissioned officer of the United States Public Health Service, started the business from scratch with a few thousand dollars lent to her by a friend.

After successful events in her hometown last January, Burley worked hard with her team to launch the business in other major cities across the country.

Now Colors and Bottles is serving up art and cocktails with classes in six cities and five states, as well as any private events booked by the company.

Story’s hope for the future of Pittsburgh’s classes is that they will continue to expand and eventually cater to children and the elderly.

“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Story said.