Painting PeopleArtist-led painting experiences that bring people together.
Guided painting experiences for teams, groups and gatherings. No experience necessary.
FAQs
-
Painting People is a pop-up painting studio for groups - a guided creative experience that travels to your workplace, event or gathering.
We transform workplaces, hotels, studios and gathering spaces into temporary painting studios where people can slow down and make something together. Much of modern life happens quickly and on screens. Meetings are efficient but often fleeting. Painting introduces a different rhythm. With brushes in hand, attention settles. Conversation becomes easier. People begin to look more closely - at the subject, the process and sometimes each other.
No artistic experience is required. Most people arrive convinced they “can’t paint”. With a little guidance, that usually changes. We bring everything needed - canvases, easels, paints and materials - and guide the group through a relaxed painting session. By the end of the event, the room is filled with colour, conversation and a set of unexpected paintings. -
Painting asks for a different kind of attention. In daily life, most conversations happen while people are looking at screens, notes or presentations. Painting shifts that focus. When hands are occupied with brushes and colour, the pace changes. People look more closely, think more slowly and often speak more openly. It is a simple activity, but it creates the conditions for reflection, curiosity and unexpected connection. That shift - from thinking about things to making something together - sits at the heart of Painting People.
-
Painting People works in many different settings. A research group exploring ideas from a new perspective. A leadership cohort stepping away from slides and strategy. Colleagues meeting in person after months on screens. A hotel offering guests a thoughtful creative experience. Friends gathering to mark a milestone. The context changes, but the idea is the same: a shared creative activity that invites people to slow down and engage differently. It is not about artistic ability. It is about what happens when a group gives its attention to something simple, tactile and absorbing.
Painting People sessions are often hosted by:
Leadership and executive programmes
Universities and research groups
Creative teams and organisations
Hotels and cultural institutions
Private groups marking milestones or gatherings
-
How many people can take part?
Sessions usually work best with 10–20 participants, although smaller and larger groups can be accommodated depending on the space and format.
What happens during a session?
Each session is a guided painting experience designed to be relaxed and accessible. At the start, participants are introduced to the materials and the theme for the session. This might be portraiture, still life, landscape, abstraction or a concept connected to the purpose of the gathering. The group then begins painting, with gentle guidance throughout. People work at their own pace, experimenting with colour and observation. Conversation tends to flow naturally while hands are busy. By the end of the session, the space has shifted. Easels are filled with paintings and the group has shared an experience that feels both creative and reflective.
Can sessions be tailored to themes or purpose?
Yes. Some groups explore portraiture or observational painting. Others use painting as a way to reflect on a theme connected to their work, community or event. Sessions can be designed to support creativity, reflection, storytelling, wellbeing or connection.
How long does a session last?
Sessions are typically offered in half-day formats (around 3 hours) or full-day experiences. The format can also be adapted for conferences, retreats or multi-day programmes.
Where can sessions take place?
Painting People travels to you. Sessions can take place in workplaces, hotels, universities, studios, private homes or event spaces - anywhere with enough room to set up easels and tables. We transform the space into a temporary painting studio for the session. Sessions can be hosted across the UK, and internationally by request. Your group simply arrives and begins.
What's included?
Everything needed for the session is provided.
Canvases, paints, brushes and art materials
Easels and aprons
Thoughtful, inclusive facilitation
Full setup and clean-up
Half-day and full-day formats
Do participants need painting experience?
No experience is required. Sessions are designed for beginners as well as people who already enjoy painting. The guidance provided focuses on observation, experimentation and process rather than technical perfection. Most participants are surprised by what they are able to create.
-
If you’re interested in hosting a Painting People session, feel free to get in touch. Most sessions begin with a short conversation about your group, the space available, and the kind of experience you would like to create. From there we can suggest a format and theme for the session.
Hi, I’m Chloé.
I’m a London-based artist designing experiences to help people connect, collaborate, and think differently together.
During a stint in Los Angeles, I co-founded Roofless Painters and hosted pop-ups in galleries, hotels, meeting rooms, and empty swimming pools, collaborating with organisations including Netflix, WeWork, The Getty, and Four Seasons.
Over time, I became less interested in the outcome on the canvas, and more interested in what happened around it — the way creativity could bring people into the present moment and change how they related to each other. When I returned to London, that became Painting People. Today, I create thoughtful painting experiences for companies, teams and private groups — experiences designed to bring people together in a more open, creative and human way.
I paint most days myself, not for perfection or outcome, but because it keeps me present. These experiences enable us to step away from noise and screens for a while, and make something together.
A conversation with Chloé
-
Painting People is a pop-up painting studio for groups where we all paint together and make something with our hands.
Most people who come along haven't painted since school. They tell me they're terrible at art, they can't draw a straight line, or they simply aren't creative.
That's music to my ears.
I'm not trying to create an environment where people paint perfect pictures. I create the space in which people can slow down, look differently and make something that is entirely their own.
I never tell anyone how to paint.
I create the circumstances in which they can become the artist.
-
Of course they leave with an original oil painting.
But that's rarely what stays with them.
People remember how time slowed down. The conversations they had. The surprise of making something they never imagined they were capable of. They remember looking properly for the first time in a long time.
The painting becomes a record of paying attention.
A reminder of time spent fully present.
-
Painting asks us to notice things that normally pass us by.
The shape of a shadow. The structure beneath a landscape. The colours inside what we casually call "red". The changing light. The edge of a face.
For a few uninterrupted hours there are no phones, no screens and nowhere else to be.
People begin to see differently.
The paintings are simply evidence that they did.
-
I don't argue.
I respect that that's how they feel.
Instead, I subtly create the opportunity in which they become someone who has just made a painting.
By the end of the session they've understood the materials, found their own way of looking and discovered that there isn't one right way to paint.
Every painting is different because every person is different.
There's something of you in everything you make. You can't avoid it.
-
Because we spend so much of our lives consuming things.
Images, information, other people’s ideas. We’re scrolling, watching, responding, moving on.
Painting asks something completely different of us.
You have to stop. Process your own thoughts. Really look at something. Make a decision. Mix a colour. Make a mark. Change your mind. Try again.
For a few hours, you’re not consuming anything. You’re making something.
I think we need more of that.
-
I think creativity has become something many people believe belongs to somebody else.
I don't believe that.
I think it belongs to anyone willing to pay attention.
Painting is simply one of the most generous ways I know of helping people do that.
Whether we're in a lavender field, a hotel, a museum, a boardroom or around a kitchen table, the context changes but the idea stays the same.
People slow down.
They look more closely.
They make something with their own hands.
And for a little while, the world becomes richer than it was before.
-
Because people increasingly want to engage with places, not simply pass through them.
Painting gives them a reason to stop, look properly, talk to each other and experience their surroundings differently.
It can be light and sociable, or surprisingly thoughtful and absorbing. People take from it what they want.
For hotels, cultural spaces and brands, that creates something more than an activity. It deepens the experience of being there.
And people remember that.
