One of the Lake Region’s newest enterprises is giving residents the opportunity to cut loose and have fun in what it calls the Splatter Lab.
Darlene and Charles Gilhousen opened the Dirty Palette on South Lawrence Boulevard in February.
Soon after, they launched the Splatter Lab, where guests don protective gear—raincoats, booties, and goggles—and are let loose with canvases and six cups of vibrant paint.
Charles Gilhousen said the experience is tailored to the customer’s choice of music, played at a volume they prefer. He recalled a Valentine’s Day session with a couple in their late 60s and early 70s who blasted heavy metal while creating their masterpieces.
“It’s about fun and stress relief,” Charles said. “We had two nine-year-olds who were running around in the studio doing some painting and stuff, and they came over and started looking at the couple through the window, and then they started interacting. They were throwing paint on the windows and everything else. They had a blast.”
In addition to the Splatter Lab, the Dirty Palette offers classes and walk-in opportunities in ceramics, canvas painting, resin overlay and other art.
Darlene Gilhousen said the studio also offers classes in stoneware and hand-building with clay.
While I interviewed Charles about the Splatter Lab, two people were working on glass fusion projects, in which pieces of glass are fused to make a single work of art.
Roger Maggert and Kim Pierce said they’ve made the trip from Jacksonville several times to visit the South Lawrence Street art studio.
Pierce, the produce manager at the Middleburg Publix, said her son lives in the Lake Region.
Maggert added that during one stop in Keystone Heights, the pair were walking out of Keystone Gifts and Guns when they spotted the studio across the street.
He added that they walked across the boulevard, signed up for a class, and have been returning to the studio ever since.
