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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

A new party opportunity for children has come to Chilton County.

Deanna Lawlis has combined her love of teaching and art to create “The Artsy Bean.” The company brings art supplies to a child’s party for them and their friends to complete a specific painting led by Lawlis.

“Over the last three months, I had noticed that Clanton did not have a paint party,” Lawlis said. “… They are all around us, but there was not one here, and I was like ‘I should consider doing that.’”

The opportunity is appropriate for children 5 to 16 years old. Lawlis said the projects available have different levels of difficulty and are highly customizable to what the customer is wanting. Paintings include textured and non-textured processes. Textured paintings use spackle to create a raised portion on the canvas.

Inspiration for the company name came from thinking about the creative mind.

“A lot of people refer to the brain as the bean,” Lawlis said. “That’s why it is Artsy Bean.”

Some initial apprehension was quelled as Lawlis reminded herself she has been doing all of the needed components to start a paint party business for years.

Lawlis has experience teaching preschool through third grade and several years of doing art with children and commissioned projects.

“I love working with kids,” Lawlis said. “They still imagine really, really big. They have this huge imagination.”

She said art is a good way for children to increase confidence.

Lawlis teaches a monthly class with the City of Clanton Arts Council and a weekly Art with a Purpose class at the Shelby County Arts Council.

The Art with a Purpose class incorporates mindfulness, self-awareness, confidence and “it helps them to understand that they have freewill to make their own choices and make better choices in order to go further in life.”

The Artsy Bean can be contacted at 334-306-6756 or theartsybeanminset@gmail.com.