The best part of the job for Smudge Studios co-owners Heather Middleton and Jaclyn Goldberg is teaching children and adults how to get dirty.

Smudge Studios, which offers children's art summer camps, art workshops, adult art classes and a range of other art activities, revolves around having fun, Middleton said. And at the studio, sometimes the fun comes from not-so-clean activities such as throwing paint at a canvas in a Jackson Pollock–inspired splatter room.

"We just want everyone to have a really great time here," Middleton said.

Middleton and Goldberg were school teachers before opening Smudge Studios. The business partners traveled throughout the nation looking at art schools and studios and decided their concept could work in Austin.

"It felt like Austin was lacking in creative art space for kids and adults," Middleton said.

Smudge Studios, which opened in May, is housed in a newly renovated cottage from the '30s.

Middleton said the studio is designed to be unpretentious and encourage people to follow their own muses.

"It's a studio where everyone feels like they can come to and not feel intimated," Middleton said. "Our biggest thing is that art shouldn't be scary; everybody can do it."