Taking a date out for painting lessons is generally not a cost-effective way to get to know someone — or learn a new skill, for that matter — but a Sedona business is looking to change that.

“My wife, Genevieve, took me on a ‘date night’ to a follow-the-leader painting class in the summer of 2012 and, coming from the corporate marketing world, we were both amazed at the fun we had creating freehand art as adults,” Tony Schmitt, of Painting Escapes stated. “As with many Americans, we weren’t raised in artistic families and after grade school, never really did much in the way of creating art.

“We both thought, ‘Wow, this is what people like us really need on a regular basis, a two-hour mental escape.’ Having a cool-looking painting to show off afterward was an added bonus. After our first class, we went back for two more classes over the next couple weeks and within a month signed a lease on a retail space to open our first Painting Escapes location in Plymouth, Mich.”

The experience, according to Schmitt, opened his and his wife’s minds “to many new ways of thinking, including finding ways to work in places where we want to spend more time. We visited Northern Arizona in late 2013 for the first time and, like so many whom we’ve met in this area, Sedona ‘spoke to us.’ During an extended winter stay this year, we decided that Sedona was the perfect place for us and Painting Escapes.”

To read the full story, see the Wednesday, April 15, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.