Sip and Paint in Amsterdam: An Honest Guide for 2026

Sip and paint has quietly become one of the easiest nights out in Amsterdam. You book a seat, someone pours you a drink, an artist walks you through a painting, and two hours later you go home with something you made. No experience, no commitment, no talent required.

There are now a dozen or so places doing it across the city, and they are not all the same. We are the biggest creative workshop company in the Netherlands, so we have a view — but this is an honest guide to what the format involves, what it costs, and which places suit which kind of evening, ours included.

What actually happens at a sip and paint

Almost every sip and paint in Amsterdam follows the same shape. You arrive to a table that is already set up — canvas, paints, brushes, an apron. A drink is poured. An artist takes the room through the painting step by step, then comes round table by table while everyone works at their own pace. Two hours later you leave with the canvas.

The part that surprises people is how little skill is involved. The instruction is built for people who last held a brush at school, and nobody is marking your work. The reason it works as a social evening is that your hands are busy, which makes the conversation easier, not harder.

What a sip and paint costs in Amsterdam

Expect roughly €40 to €70 for a two-hour session, with materials and usually one drink included. The cheaper end tends to be plain acrylic on canvas. The higher end is either a more involved technique — sculptural texture, clay, a lamp you build — or something with food attached, like a brunch edition.

Recurring classes are priced differently. Studios that run weekly courses sell packages, and the per-session price falls the more you buy — usually somewhere between €23 and €45 a class depending on the studio and the size of the pack.

Where to go for sip and paint in Amsterdam

ARTparty

The biggest creative workshop company in the Netherlands, and the only one on this list with a studio of its own. Six years, three cities, and a 70-person room on the fourth floor of the World Fashion Centre in Amsterdam West — which is why the same space can hold a quiet table for two on a Thursday and a company of seventy on a Friday.

Sessions are two hours, run in English, and include a welcome drink and all materials, from €45. Sip and paint is the starting point rather than the whole programme: we also run air clay, sculptural texture art, and a 3D moon lamp evening with a light built into the piece. There is a Sunday brunch edition with a brunch board and a mimosa, and private bookings take groups of up to 70.

Rembrandt van Wine

A sip-and-paint chain with locations in Amsterdam, Almere and Utrecht. They also run Paint in the Dark, a version done under UV light. Worth checking if the UV angle appeals.

Lisart Painting Studio

A small studio on the Damrak focused on oil painting, with canvas, mediums and brushes included. A good choice if you want to work in oil specifically rather than acrylic, and if you prefer a quieter room.

Smidtje

Sip and paint on a boat, painting the canals while moving along them. Worth knowing about if you want the Amsterdam postcard version and are bringing visitors.

st-Art Amsterdam

Less of an evening out and more of a school. They sell class packages — a single trial session, then packs of 6, 12 or 20 — and you work on your own project across them. Choose this if what you actually want is to learn to paint rather than to have a night out.

Which one suits which evening

• A date: somewhere small and quiet. Avoid the big group sessions.

• A birthday or hen party: look for a place that takes private bookings, so the room is yours.

• Coming alone: pick a drop-in session rather than a course, and check the event is held in English.

• Actually learning to paint: a package of classes, not a one-off workshop.

• Bringing visitors: the canal boat version, obviously.

Do you need to be able to paint?

No. This is the single most common question and the answer is always the same. Every studio in this list runs sessions designed for complete beginners, and most people in any given room have never done it before. The instruction assumes nothing.

Beyond paint: clay, texture art and moon lamps

Sip and paint is the entry point, but the more interesting sessions in Amsterdam have moved past canvas. Air clay lets you hand-build a vase or a dish with no wheel and no firing, so you take it home the same evening. Texture art uses palette knives and heavy modelling paste for the sculptural, three-dimensional look you see in design shops. And moon lamp workshops build a textured sphere with a light inside it — the most-booked evening we run.

If you have already done a sip and paint and found it slightly too easy, these are where to go next.

Sip and paint in Rotterdam and Den Haag

Sip and paint has spread well beyond the capital. There are regular sessions in Rotterdam and Den Haag, and most operators run in more than one city, so it is worth checking whether the studio you like has a date closer to you.

Our own Rotterdam sessions run at Foodhallen Rotterdam, and Den Haag at O'Casey's on the Noordeinde.

Booking a sip and paint this week

Sessions in Amsterdam typically sell out a few days ahead rather than weeks, so there is usually something available this week if you look. You can see our upcoming dates here: artparties.nl/upcoming-events