Raise Your Glass: One-Stroke Wine Painting

Women of all ages came for the recent One-Stroke Painting Class at the Sayville Library.

The project consisted of a set of four wine glasses covered with hand painted grapes accompanied with a hand painted gift bag. Run by sisters Irene Marchese and Donna Potterhave, women came from as far as Selden and Lake Grove.

“It’s easy – we do it step by step,” Irene said. Attendee Eileen Daley of West Sayville said, “It’s my second time doing this. I loved it. I gave it as a gift (the first time) so I wanted to do it again.”

Samples of finished products were given to the students as reference. Irene and Donna went from person to person, squirting paint and showing how to correctly hold the brushes. People started by practicing on wax paper before painting on the actual glasses. Some were more timid than others but as the instructors said, “There’s no right or wrong way if you like it.”

Julie Crawford said it was her first class and the first time she had painted. When asked if it was therapeutic, she said, “When you start sweating, it’s not therapeutic.”

Some people came alone, some with friends and there was a mother-daughter team. When the evening started, you could hear a pin drop, but as the night progressed, people started loosening up. You could hear laughter, mostly people laughing at themselves.

Donna told the crowd, “Practice makes perfect. When I started, I was terrible." When it came to painting the grapes, Irene advised, “If you can play bingo, you can do this.”

After painting for years, Irene turned to teaching.  She’s been leading classes for more than six years. She now prefers teaching to painting. “I love showing them what to do and then watching them do their own thing,” she said.

Irene made certain to give all of the students a sheet with information on how to bake the glasses at home to seal the artwork and what supplies to purchase if they wanted to pursue their one stroke painting.