At Painting with a Twist in Southdowns, Valentine\u2019s Day isn\u2019t a subtle celebration. It\u2019s loud, colorful and smells strongly of acrylic paint.<\/p>\n
On a Thursday evening, a week before Valentine\u2019s Day, the studio is lively with guests and their coolers\u2014yes, coolers\u2014 of wine as they slowly slip into stained aprons and take their seats in front of blank canvases.<\/p>\n With Valentine\u2019s week approaching, the BYOB studio is leaning all the way in. It\u2019s hosting a lineup of themed events from couples classes with joint canvases to singles nights. Tonight\u2019s event is a paint and sing karaoke party. Soft music plays as guests trickle in and conversations flow. Most attendees are women, including a larger group celebrating an early Galentine\u2019s outing, along with a few couples enjoying a date night.<\/p>\n Onyx Stuart, an LSU sophomore and art student, takes center stage as she introduces herself as the instructor for the evening and gets started with the first few paint strokes, everyone else following along. Stuart said she\u2019s been an artist since childhood but an instructor at Painting with a Twist since December of 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a good time, I have a good time,\u201d Stuart said about her teaching style. The art doesn\u2019t need to be perfect in a setting like this.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s a loud, energetic environment, she said that painting relaxes her. She finds comfort in its repetition and that it\u2019s soothing for her. Between steps, she pauses to check on guests, offering subtle suggestions and enthusiastic praise.<\/p>\n Other instructors float around the room, making sure everything runs smoothly. Savannah Shirley, who just started a few days prior, is preparing for her first class that weekend. Although she said she\u2019s confident with her artistic abilities, leading a class is still nerve racking.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an entertainer first, artist second,\u201d Shirley said.<\/p>\n Shirley said each group is unique \u2014 some start out awkward and loosen up as the painting progresses, others are excited from the get-go. You never know what type of group you\u2019ll get, but the unpredictability is part of the fun.<\/p>\n Stuart is lively as she interacts with the group, making jokes and complimenting their work. However, there\u2019s more focus on what\u2019s happening at the front of the room as karaoke starts up. One woman leaves her chair while her friends clap and yell to sing \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Men\u201d \u2014 no lyrics in sight to guide her. She knew every word.<\/p>\n The cheers and shouts of song suggestions fill the room, the \u201ctwist\u201d evidently making its way through the systems of the guests.<\/p>\n As the night progresses, an image of a glass jar filled with pink hydrangeas fills everyone\u2019s canvases \u2014 each similar, yet all uniquely their own. Some are fluffy and clear, others are more abstract.<\/p>\n By the time the final brush strokes are complete, the energy in the studio shifts into a buzz of excitement as guests take pictures in front of the photo wall and compliment each other\u2019s work. The stranger that sat next to them at the beginning, now their friend.<\/p>\n So, if you think dinner dates are overrated and prefer a hands-on experience, this is the perfect plan to celebrate the love in your life. With Valentine\u2019s Day-themed classes all throughout February, including six on Feb. 14, you\u2019ll leave with a keepsake for your home that you can brag about all year long.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At Painting with a Twist in Southdowns, Valentine\u2019s Day isn\u2019t a subtle celebration. It\u2019s loud, colorful and smells strongly of acrylic paint. On a Thursday evening, a week before Valentine\u2019s Day, the studio is lively with guests and their coolers\u2014yes, coolers\u2014 of wine as they slowly slip into stained aprons and take their seats in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2277147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2277146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Paint-your-heart-out-this-Valentines-Day-at-Painting-with.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2277146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277148,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277146\/revisions\/2277148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2277146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2277146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2277146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lsureveille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_9450-e1770760252639-225x300.jpg\")