Bottles N Brushes Expands Into West Ashley

WEST ASHLEY — You don't have to be an artist to create a masterpiece, and you can have a lot of fun while doing it.

The professional artists at are now holding classes of as many as 60 people through the process of making a painting five nights a week at the company's brand new West Ashley location at 1017 Wappoo Road.

"We felt like our target market was here," Bottles N Brushes CEO Alyssa Maute said. "We do a ton of stuff for kids and there are a lot of them in West Ashley, and for adults our target market is middle-aged women."

The store won Summerville Patch's .

Bottles N Brushes is a cross between an art class, a working studio and beer and wine mixer. Adults can sign up for two- or three-hour classes Tuesdays through Saturdays during which a local artist will lead them, step by step, through the process of creating a painting. Each class features a specific painting everyone will be recreating that evening.

"You don't have to know anything about art," Maute said. "(The artists) do break it down into simple shapes and lines. It's not very technique oriented, it's about having a good time with friends. As long as you can follow instructions and copy, you can leave here with a masterpiece."

Classes are $35 for a two-hour session and $45 for a three-hour session. The price includes all the supplies that will be needed during the class. The only thing that costs extra is the beer and wine in Bottles N Brushes stocked bar. Customers are free to bring their own beer and wine to enjoy during the class as well, Maute said.

Two-hour kids classes are also available on Sunday afternoons at a cost of $25 per student.

Bottles N Brushes started in Summerville at 120 N. Main St. Maute said the studio got so many customers from the West Ashley area that opening a second location here made perfect sense.

The Wappoo Road studio, which until recently had been home to Triumphant Alterations, is larger than the one in Summerville allowing larger class sizes, and has enough room to provide a small office from which to run the business.

"It's been really nice to expand into something a little bit bigger," she said. "I really liked the location on Wappoo, it has great traffic as a major cut through between (highways) 17 and 61. We were able to do a lot with the space."

The studio is open to the public 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Classes run 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. or 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Customers can reserve space in an upcoming class at the studio during that time, purchase gift certificates, T-shirts or paintings made during classes by the staff artists leading the lessons. The studio is also available for private parties when not scheduled for classes or children's art camps, Maute said.

Students can also sign up for classes online through the Bottles N Brushes website, though prepayment for online registration is required via Paypal. Class reservations can also be made over the phone with payment expected when students arrive for the class.

During the summer Bottles N Brushes will host four week-long kids art camps. The cost of the camps is $225 with $100 of that required as a deposit. The camps will run 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Families with multiple children will receive discounted rates for additional children. Camps are divided into two age groups; ages 4-6 and ages 7-12.

Each week the camps will be focused on one of two themes: Palmetto State of Mind - focusing on South Carolina imagery; and Under the Sea - focusing on aquatic life and imagery. Campers will create three or four individual paintings, make five or six pieces of hand-built pottery and complete five other craft projects.