Open Paint Night

Earlier this month, my friend Jodie and I dropped by a free Open Paint Night in downtown Redwood City at a cute little bicycle themed cafe called Cyclismo Cafe. I found out about it on Facebook and the concept sounded really cool! The event was put on by CATA (Community Advocacy through Art) which creates public art spaces and street art murals throughout Redwood City. Next up, I think they’re going to create a mural on the side of a local Whole Foods store. I love the idea of more street art, adding more flair to our neighborhoods!

At each paint night, they promote a local artist and a local nonprofit. That night, an artist named Cristal Chen (@sweetbloomsco) was being featured. She had her artwork and prints in one corner of the cafe by the window. Super cutesy flowers and plants and some abstract design elements. Sorry it’s a bit hard to see in this picture, you can check out her Insta page for a closer look!

She also designed some large canvases as a color-me-in, so anyone could go up and just paint it. It’s kind of neat for random strangers to just build on each other’s work in an art piece – sort of like the graffiti messages you find on the walls of bathroom stalls. 😛

Cristal also made some kokedama – these little plants that were hanging off the spokes of the bicycles that lined the cafe walls. I never knew such a thing existed! You can spot a tiny one hanging in midair in the picture below.

Some other people doing cool things were from Incredible Edible Peninsula, the featured nonprofit of the night. Apparently, they have planted over 20 fruit trees in a local park for community sharing. Anyone can basically go up and grab a fruit. How awesome is that! A snack in the park if you’re feeling the grumbles in your tummy. In addition, they have garden shares, where people can share the excess fruit/veggies they have grown in their backyards by swapping with what others have grown in their homes. Too bad I have nothing to offer. 🙁

Anyhow, I loved the vibe of the event. It was a great place for people, young or old, to come and create, and learn about some new things happening in the community. The cafe was quite packed, people were sitting on the tables inside and also outside on the patio. Jodie and I managed to find open seats to sit down and paint. Here’s our finished Picassos! 😛 For some reason, I really like painting leaves.

Here are some shots from outside on the patio. This woman was painting a horse and it was so amazing, it blew us away.

If you’re interested in attending a future Open Paint Night, they’re held on the first Thursday of every month (link here).

After we had our fill of artist time, Jodie and I headed over to our favorite Indian restaurant for dinner. On the way, we passed an outdoor movie night in the courthouse square. There was still daylight, so people were staking out a good spot with their lawn chairs in front of the outdoor screen to watch the movie of the night – La La Land! Haven’t seen it yet, but we were hungry, so we kept on moving!

We headed into Broadway Masala. It’s finally reopened again after the remodel, hooray! They even have fancy tablets with photos of the menu dishes on them (see below). We had the butter chicken and a lamb dish, and of course GARLIC NAAN, as well as some chai tea and mango lassi. No pictures of that, we were too busy stuffing our faces. We were so happy and full afterwards.

Overall, it was a great night in downtown Redwood City, seeing people out and about enjoying themselves. I love living in the Bay Area!