About Us

Sip your favorite beverages and munch on your favorite nibbles while you paint a masterpiece!

The Painted Cork is a family-owned business, and it is the first official "Paint and Sip" style Art studio to break ground in California in 2010!

Join us on the westside of Santa Cruz for art, crafting, and "Paint & Sip" or "Paint Night" style painting classes! The Painted Cork Arts and Crafts studio is a fun and unique space with a lively social atmosphere! Beverages and food are welcome in the classes! All materials and 2-3 hours of professional instruction are included! Our professional artist will guide you through creating the day's themed painting or art project. We will teach you everything you need to know to complete your artwork! Sign up for a public class from our schedule or book a private event with us for your next birthday, girls' night out, team-building event, or family gathering!

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we had to give up our studio spaces in Sacramento and Folsom, but don't worry Folsom and Sac!! We re-opened a Santa Cruz location and will soon look for a new studio in the Sacramento region!  We offer onsite public events at our new Santa Cruz location, other venues, and private parties at guest homes!  We are also still holding private virtual parties where you can celebrate with friends and colleagues worldwide!  Here is a direct link to our category of Classes and Events!  And here is a direct link to our Private Party options! We also offer a selection of "Paint at Home" options. Such as Virtual Painting Lessons and Home Painting Kits with written lesson plans!  You can choose between a Paint your Pet kit, a classic canvas kit, or a Bottle Painting Kit! Here is the direct link to our "Paint at Home" options!

We take pride in our guest’s paintings and want you to walk away with something beautiful!

You are PERFECT for our classes if you think you can't even draw a stick figure! During the class, one of our professional artists will instruct the entire class through step-by-step painting instruction and show the entire group how to paint the selected painting of the day or night. Most of our paintings even come with a preliminary sketch on the canvas! We show you which brush to pick up, which colors to mix, and how to apply them to the canvas.

And have no fear: our house has no painting “rules”! Our guests have complete freedom to create their paintings any way they like and to make them their own! Let your creativity run wild! Change colors, add elements, or even the entire painting if you like! Everyone has a “style” of painting regardless if they’ve never even painted before! Whatever you like, go for it; paint with your fingers if you like! It’s your painting and should be built how you want.

Here’s How It’s Done

• Go to our website
• Click on the “Classes and Events” tab to view our calendar
• Register online for your class
• Show up 20-25 minutes early to pick out your seats and relax
• Get ready to get your creative juices flowing!

 

 

What To Expect When You Join a Class

When you arrive at your class 20-30 minutes early, you will then check-in. You can then pick out your seat and get comfortable! We try to reserve seats for parties of 6 or more ahead of time, so please let us know when you register for the class by adding into the comments box that you are a large group and exactly how many guests will be at your party. 

 

The Process

Upon taking your seat, you will notice that we have taken the time and effort to draw a preliminary sketch onto your canvas prior to the class. This drawing is what many artists use to place elements appropriately into the canvas before the painting process so that they don’t have to draw aimlessly with their paintbrushes. We have our professional artists come in 2 hours before every class to ensure the drawings can be done in time and help build your painting for success. If you do not want the drawing, you are more than welcome to request a blank canvas! Our artist will begin the class by reviewing what to expect from the process and then show the class a step-by-step process of building the painting. We take breaks during the classes to allow the paint to dry and allow our guests to step away from their paintings and fill their cups. We play music throughout our classes, and we do take requests! When the painting process is complete, our artist will show you how to sign your masterpiece, and you are finished! The acrylic paint dries very quickly; within minutes, your painting will be dry and ready to take home.

The Painted Cork Founder ~ Kimberly Godinho

Kimberly Godinho is The Painted Cork Art Studios' proud founder, owner, and operator! She was born in Los Gatos, but because her parents divorced when she was very young, she attended school and was raised in the numerous neighboring towns of Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Hollister, and Morgan Hill. As a result, she loves to say she's from "Santa Los Gil-Mo-Ho"! Kimberly founded her company with a vision in her heart, a BFA in hand, and over 30 years of teaching and painting expertise. She established The Painted Cork Art Studio at 801 Sutter St in Folsom's historic "Old Town" in 2010. She opened The Painted Cork's second location at 1624 J Street in Midtown Sacramento in June 2013. And she opened in Santa Cruz in 2018! Unfortunately the pandemic in 2020 forced her to close her studio locations and take her business on the road. However, she just opened a brand new space on the westside of Santa Cruz in a giant warehouse on Delaware Ave!

Kimberly Godinho is a California artist and art instructor with a bachelor's degree in fine art from the Ringling School of Art and Design, which she received with honors in 1999. She also received various awards and scholarships while at RSAD, including the New York Studio Residency Program, where she lived and worked as a professional artist in New York City during her Junior year. Kimberly is an accomplished artist who works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastels, colored pencils, stone carving, wood and plaster sculpture, and printmaking. She has sold her artwork and held shows in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, and Maryland. She has also completed scores of commissioned projects as a portrait artist, muralist, and children's book illustrator, in addition to teaching art to children and adults for over 30 years. Her favorite class to teach is Paint Your Pet, which she created in 2010 and continues to teach in the Santa Cruz studio.

Kimberly enjoys spending time in her garden and at her Aptos home with her husband Michael, 16-year-old son Michael, two labs named Sugar and Bruno, and her three cats named Oreo, Pickles, and Bocephus when she is not working on her new studio, teaching in-person classes or online classes, or creating home painting kits.

To view Kimberly Godinho’s series of Early American Coin Paintings, click on this link: Coin Paintings by Kimberly Godinho

To view Kimberly's other artwork under her alter ego Kimberly Kalifornia, click on this link: Journals by Kimberly Kalifornia

Kimberly has painted the entire swirled interior of all three studio locations, along with a 30-foot exterior mural on the building of the Sacramento location.

 

The Painted Cork FOLSOM ~ Before and after

The Painted Cork SACRAMENTO ~ Before and after

 

The Painted Cork SACRAMENTO ~ 30 foot Mural (Before and after)

 

The OLD Painted Cork SANTA CRUZ Soquel Ave ~ Before and after

The NEW Painted Cork SANTA CRUZ Delaware Ave!