A Silly Season Summary

As the silly season draws to a close, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the happy whirlwind that the last few months have been. It’s been celebration central in our Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne studios, with everyone looking to gather with their loved ones, let their hair down, and celebrate the year that was. It’s our busiest time of year for private events, with work teams getting together for their Christmas parties to celebrate their year of achievements. There’s a certain effervescence in the air at this time; our sessions have been fizzing with festivity and the promise of holidays and a sparkly new year just around the corner. 

Our team of artist elves have been working in overdrive, running back-to-back sessions and sharing the Christmas spirit through our paintings and interactions with guests. We’ve queued Christmas songs, dressed up in festive attire, and painted Santas, sleighs, and snowmen on the walls. It’s been a truly joyous time across all cities. As we take a moment to celebrate 2022 we’d also like to thank you, reader, for your continued support of Cork & Chroma.

Cork & Chroma turned 9

Amongst the many Christmas celebrations we hosted over November and December, we also celebrated Cork & Chroma’s ninth birthday! Nine years: time sure flies when you’re having fun. We celebrated this milestone by festooning our five studios in streamers and balloons, and offering our guests who came to paint over our birthday weekend custom-made Cork & Chroma cupcakes! Who doesn’t love a little extra colour and pizzazz (and a surprise sugar hit) while you paint up a storm? It’s not every day you turn 9. We wouldn’t have made this milestone without your support of Cork & Chroma, so thank you as always for being here. We can’t wait for next year: the big 1-0! Strap in, there’s so much more fun to come.

Festive Murals

If you’ve sauntered by one of our studios in the last month, you may have noticed our snazzy Christmas murals, designed and painted by our team of artists in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. Each studio features a unique festive design: there’s a Picasso-inspired reindeer, a jolly Santa, a snowy Starry Night scene with a jaunty festive flame tree… and more, so much more! These murals have added an extra layer of fun and flair this silly season: some even include a canvas-sized painted frame, where guests can pose with their finished masterpiece at the end of their painting session. In fact, these frames have offered an excellent source of entertainment for our artists, too: when friendly by-passers come to the window to check out what we’re doing, the artist can simply hold their in-progress painting up to the frame! This was the first year we painted Christmas murals on our studio windows, but it almost definitely won’t be the last. It felt so naughty and nice to paint straight onto the glass: that’s just another reason why we love our water-based acrylics – they wash right off slippery surfaces.

Christmas-ified paintings 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, that’s a paragliding Santa being towed by a reindeer riding a jet-ski. If you’ve attended one of our sessions over the last few months, chances are you’ve probably seen a little festive addition on your Cork & Chroma artist’s painting. Reindeer rowing Grecian sailboats, an Octopus family hanging a starfish on a swaying underwater tree, Santa fishing from the end of a pier, an elf watching hot air balloons from a drifting iceberg… the imagination of our artists truly knows no limits. We get immense joy from sharing the Christmas spirit with each other and our guests! This year, we invited guests to help us spread the joy by tagging #corkandchromachristmas on their social media accounts. We saw all kinds of fabulous, festive painting additions materialise on our guests’ canvases, and it was a wonder to behold. If you visit any one of our studios, you’ll find the walls adorned with our Christmas-ified Cork & Chroma painting collection.

New Offerings

We have recently partnered with Sydney-based Somatic Sexologist, Alice Child, to bring you what you never knew you wanted: a saucy session called ‘Bits n Pieces – Uncorked‘ that combines sex education and body positivity with painting. This unique experience celebrates bodies and genitalia in all their beautiful diversity, and has been an absolute hit for our hens parties! Get creative and express yourself as you learn more about our bodies and what brings them pleasure. This is the sex ed we never got at school!

Yasss, queen – this December we welcome a brand new Drag Queen to our Sydney studios: enter Jackie Daniels! This bearded beauty is an artist and comedian, ready to delight with her dazzling drag performance and fabulous anecdotes. We’ve got events coming up in 2023 with Jackie Daniels in Sydney, and the ever-extraordinary Bebe Gunn in Brisbane: check them out here!

It’s been a wonderfully wild finish to the year, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank you for a sensational silly season and for choosing to celebrate it with us! Wishing a very Merry Christmas to you all.

Paint and sip — that’s us for sure. But did you know? We’re so much more! 

Paint from our book, paint from a box, paint with your kit, paint in your jocks. 

Paint in cool merch. Paint with your team. Paint with your hens. Paint from our stream. 

All the options, no restraints. All you need to do is paint.