Paint Night With Lana Gunn Turns Coastal Rhode Island Into a Canvas (postponed)

NOTE: This event was postponed due to the nor’easter.

Paint Night With Lana Gunn Turns Coastal Rhode Island Into a Canvas Saturday, Sept. 26, as a Westerly artist whose work is inspired by shorelines, dunes, and quiet natural spaces leads a 90-minute painting workshop at Coastal Town Collective.

The 6 to 7:30 p.m. class is designed as a guided paint night rather than an open studio session. Gunn will lead participants through creating a coastal landscape, with all painting supplies included in registration. No shopping list, brushes, or half-used tubes of paint need to come from home.

And the subject is particularly appropriate for the artist teaching it.

Lana Gunn Paints the Coast as a Place to Slow Down

Gunn’s work is rooted heavily in nature, particularly the landscapes and seascapes of coastal Rhode Island.

Her paintings often begin with things encountered on walks: coastal paths, rocky shorelines, wildflowers, dunes and water. She describes her approach as blending soft realism with impressionistic color, using gentle blues, creams, blushes and sunlit greens to create landscapes that feel recognizable without functioning like photographic reproductions.

There’s a purpose behind that softness.

Gunn describes her paintings as an attempt to capture the stillness people can experience in nature, particularly those moments when the noise of everything else seems to drop away.

For Saturday’s class, participants get to try that process themselves.

An Artist Who Also Learned How to Teach Art

There’s another piece of Gunn’s background that matters for a paint night.

She isn’t simply an artist demonstrating her own technique.

Gunn is a 2019 graduate of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and later earned a Master of Arts in Art + Design Education from Rhode Island School of Design.

Her work has included drawing and painting plants, animals, landscapes and the human figure, but education has remained part of her practice.

Earlier paint nights with Gunn have emphasized creativity and expression rather than trying to reproduce an instructor’s painting with mechanical precision. Her teaching has focused on guiding participants through the process while leaving room for individual choices.

That distinction can make an art workshop considerably less intimidating for someone who hasn’t held a paintbrush since school.

The goal isn’t to discover whether you can paint exactly like Lana Gunn.

It’s to discover what your version of the landscape looks like.

Why Coastal Landscapes Are a Good Place to Begin

Landscape painting offers beginners an unusually forgiving way into art.

A face can look noticeably wrong if an eye moves half an inch.

A shoreline doesn’t have that problem.

Clouds can change shape. Waves don’t have to match. Grass can lean in different directions. Colors can become warmer or cooler depending on the painter.

Even two people following the same instructor can finish with paintings that feel completely different.

Gunn’s own combination of realism and impressionistic color provides plenty of room for that variation.

The recognizable structure of a coast gives painters something to follow, while water, sky, vegetation and changing light allow them to experiment with color and brushwork.

And when the 90 minutes are finished, the painting goes home with its creator.

Coastal Town Collective Was Built for Exactly This Kind of Night

The setting is part of the story, too.

Coastal Town Collective occupies 2 Broad Street in downtown Westerly and describes itself as both an artists’ shop and creative space.

Rather than operating strictly as a gallery, the Collective brings work from multiple local makers into one storefront while also hosting hands-on workshops.

Its shelves and displays have featured locally produced artwork, woodworking, candles, jewelry, soap and other artisan goods. Gunn’s artwork has also been among the work carried by the shop.

The Collective has increasingly used workshops to make the relationship between shopper and maker more participatory.

Recent programming has included sea-glass canvas workshops and small painting projects alongside the work available for purchase.

Saturday takes that idea further.

Instead of buying a coastal painting from a local artist, participants spend an evening with one learning how to create their own.

Part of a Growing Downtown Arts Community

The location also places the workshop inside Westerly’s increasingly interconnected arts scene.

Coastal Town Collective participates in the Westerly Arts Crawl, the monthly downtown event connecting galleries, working studios, shops, restaurants and other businesses displaying art.

That network stretches through a compact downtown where visual art, theater and live music increasingly overlap.

For a small workshop, that’s useful context.

Paint Night isn’t taking place in an isolated classroom.

It’s happening inside a store devoted to regional makers, in a downtown where artists are increasingly sharing walls, storefronts and audiences.

For 90 minutes Saturday evening, one of those storefronts becomes the studio.

And nobody needs to arrive already knowing how to paint the ocean.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

Details

Event: Paint Night With Lana Gunn Art
Date: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026
Time: 6–7:30 p.m.
Length: 90 minutes
Location: Coastal Town Collective
Address: 2 Broad St., Westerly, RI 02891
Instructor: Lana Gunn
Project: Guided painting of a coastal landscape
Supplies: All painting supplies are included
Registration: Required
Ticket Price: Approximately $50 including listed Eventbrite fees
Refunds: Available up to seven days before the event
Venue: Local artist shop and creative workshop space in downtown Westerly

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.