Determined to keep art in the community, Easel Street owner Mary Tipton said she wanted her business to be a place where people enjoy learning to paint, regardless of their skill levels.

When her mother-in-law, Dora Tipton, retired after 40 years of teaching private art lessons in the building, Tipton decided to make the studio space on Sycamore Street in downtown Tomball open to the public in October 2014.

“We opened it up to keep art in the community for everybody, not just for artists, but for anybody [who] likes to be creative,” Tipton said. “It’s small and intimate, and we can have small groups where people can actually have one-on-one interaction.”

The painting studio has over 100 painting projects for customers to choose from, with more added in seasonally, Tipton said. Once a painting is selected, customers paint step-by-step with one of Easel Street’s three in-house art instructors to create a piece to take home.

“You get to paint whatever you want to paint,” she said. “You don’t come in and we’re painting just one thing with one color and you have to stick with that color.”

Easel Street is open by appointment only so groups of all sizes can sign up for a personalized session, rather than joining a large class that is painting the same piece, Tipton said.

“We schedule our hours around our customers,” she said. “When you want to come in, just set up a reservation. We have folks [who] come during the day or on the weekends. We are available at any time that’s convenient for when they want to come paint.”

Tipton said the studio’s flexible hours policy allows the business to host many different types of groups ranging from bachelorette parties and date nights to corporate team-building events and children’s birthday parties.

Customers can also work with instructors before their appointment times to create customized paintings that incorporate personalized touches, such as sorority symbols, names and team colors.

Easel Street also offers an in-house bar with beer and wine for adults as well as juice, soft drinks and tea for children. Tipton said customers can also bring in or order catered food for parties.

Tipton said what she enjoys most about the business is when people with little painting experience create a piece of art they did not know they were capable of.

“What I love is that people can come in thinking, ‘I can’t paint, I can barely draw stick figures,’” Tipton said. “But once they’re done here, they walk out with a gorgeous painting that they’re really proud of.”

205 N. Sycamore St., Tomball 832-761-7161 www.easelstreettomball.com Hours: by appointment only