by Robin Milligan
For many people, making art is something they stopped doing somewhere between childhood and adulthood. Life gets busy, people become self-conscious, and creativity slowly gets pushed aside. Newport artist Clare Clark is on a mission to change that.
Clare is the founder of Muse, the rebrand and evolution of her long-running Paint & Party events, now focused on what she calls “joyful art experiences.” For the past 10 years, she has hosted public paint events throughout the Newport area at bars, restaurants, community centers, and private homes. Creating spaces where people can gather, relax, and make art without worrying about whether they are “good” at it.
What Clare noticed over the years was that people were often looking for more than a painting class.
“They weren’t just coming to paint,” Clare said. “They were coming to laugh, socialize, and step outside of their routines.”
That realization became the foundation for Muse and its guiding idea: art for the joy of it.
Clare Clark’s background teaching art in public schools helped shape the direction of the project. Watching both children and adults create showed her how differently people approach art as they get older. Children tend to jump in without hesitation, experimenting freely and enjoying the process. Adults often arrive carrying past judgement and self-doubt, apologizing before they even begin.
Muse is designed to break through some of that pressure.
Clare Clark
At Clare’s events, people are encouraged to play with texture, layering, and spontaneous mark making rather than focusing on perfection. Paint-covered bubble wrap, scraping tools, scribbling, layered canvases, music, laughter, and tables full of people trying something outside their comfort zone have become familiar scenes over the years. The unconventional tools are part of that process. According to Clare, those simple, creative exercises can help people relax and stop overthinking.
“At Muse events, the point is not to leave with a perfect painting,” Clare explained. “It is to relax enough to enjoy creating something in the first place.”
Many participants arrive nervous about making mistakes or convinced they are not “artistic.” Clare says that usually changes quickly once people settle in and begin working. Conversations start flowing across tables. People loosen up, laugh, experiment, and surprise themselves.
For some people, it becomes less about painting and more about giving themselves permission to slow down for a couple of hours. Permission to play.
Clare guides participants through the process but leaves plenty of room for individuality and experimentation. The atmosphere is intentionally relaxed. This is when the magic happens.
In a small town, gatherings like these often become more than art classes. Friends reconnect, coworkers unwind after work, couples try something new together, and neighbors who may not otherwise cross paths end up sharing a table and conversation.
Clare’s own artwork reflects many of the same ideas she brings into her events. Her pieces are layered and textured, focused more on movement, feeling, and expression than rigid realism. She describes creating art as a way of reconnecting with the carefree feeling of childhood, when making something was natural and freer from judgment.
That connection to creativity is what inspired her to begin sharing the experience with others in the first place.
While the original Paint & Party events focused mostly on mobile gatherings, Muse is continuing to expand. In addition to public and private paint parties, Clare now offers smaller restorative studio sessions as well as creative team building experiences for businesses and organizations.
The Muse studio is located at 808 Greggs Road in Newport and allows for a quieter, more intimate setting than some of the larger public events. Studio sessions focus less on entertainment and more on slowing down and engaging with the creative process itself.
The business workshops are another growing part of the project. Rather than traditional team building exercises, the sessions use collaborative art making to encourage communication, creativity, and connection in a more relaxed environment.
Muse paint party participant. P Clare Clark. hotos courtesy Clare Clark.
For Clare, the larger goal has always been simple: helping people reconnect with creativity in a way that feels welcoming instead of intimidating.
A lot of adults quietly believe they are not creative because they stopped making art somewhere along the way. Muse pushes back against that idea. Participants do not need experience, formal training, or artistic talent to take part. The focus is on curiosity, experimentation, and enjoying the experience of making something with your own hands.
This approach seems to resonate with people looking for something different from their normal routines. In a world where so much time is spent online or rushing from one responsibility to another, sitting around a table, painting with other people, can feel surprisingly refreshing.
For a couple of hours, people get to stop worrying about whether they are doing things “right” and simply create.
Over the past decade, Clare has watched strangers become friends at her events, nervous first-time painters discover confidence, and people leave feeling lighter than when they arrived. That sense of connection and ease is what she hopes Muse brings to everyone who walks through the doors.
For more information about Muse, upcoming events, and studio sessions, check out the Muse website, muse4joy. com, call 509-671-0898, or email to [email protected].
Robin Milligan is an artist and entrepreneur living in Spokane. She curates art shows, runs an IT company, and teaches ceramics and painting from her home studio. When not working, Robin spends her time with her three children exploring nature, rockhounding, making art, and swimming.
