Elaine Beaty took out her cellphone to pull up an image of her oil painting of Lake Minnetonka. The scene blends reality and fantasy — a mountain can be seen in the distance.

Beaty passed around her phone to fellow members of the Hopkins Art Social Club at the Mainstreet Bar and Grill on the evening of Sept. 22. The group meets monthly at the bar/restaurant.

The nine clubgoers who showed up last week made tentative plans to visit the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. Previously, a small group has gone to the Walker Art Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Sometimes their informal outings are unrelated to art. A couple of weekends ago, some members attended a "stone soup" party, with everyone contributing ingredients to the communal pot of soup.

Making connections is what the group is all about. The Hopkins Center for the Arts started the group four years ago as a way to serve its members and the larger community, said John Caron, a painter who teaches classes at the facility. He served on an advisory committee to the center that sought to take its mission beyond its walls.

The group provides encouragement to local artists and art lovers. It is open to anyone and no dues are collected, though many of those who join belong to the Hopkins Center for the Arts, according to Jo Clare Hartsig, its membership engagement coordinator. She said the group's members discuss what they're up to, and sometimes they bring in work samples. It's a chance to socialize, but it's also productive. People will talk about artistic events coming up, like an art crawl, or a "great place to buy certain supplies," Hartsig said.

The social club fills a void, akin to old-fashioned salons. "We recognize a lot of their work is done in isolation. People might be painting in their attic or wherever," Hartsig said.

Painting by John Caron

Tapping the creative side

The club's members come from all walks of life and range in age, with some in their "encore" careers — Ginny Wild on Monday night said, "I call it my renaissance" — and others just starting out. Their art backgrounds also vary, with professional artists, beginners and others who just like to soak in art whenever they can.

The group is very informal. It has met in a different restaurant/bar just about each year. Attendance fluctuates from month to month. A handful of people might show up, or as many as 20.

"Nobody gets marked absent," said Alan Stone, who used to be in the grocery business. He accompanies his wife, Lou Ann, to the gatherings.

Stone has been impressed by the work he's seen come out of the group, including his wife's. Lou Ann, who sat next to him on Monday night, always fiddled around with art projects, but she's only recently begun to focus on it, thanks largely to the center, she said.

Members spur each other on. Sometimes they even organize among themselves to do art. For example, a dozen or so of the clubgoers pooled their money to pay for models to pose for them during open studio time at the center. Caron acts as the "convener or host" for those sessions, which spans eight weeks.

This month, the group will carve pumpkins, so it won't meet at the pub. In November, the center is hosting an event called Pints and Paint at LTD Brewery Co., which builds on the club's momentum. Artist Heather Renaux, who is leading the painting workshop at the brewery, was introduced to the center through the club.

Beaty has always been interested in art, but it was hard to make time for it after she started a family. When her husband died in 2009, she decided to return to the hobby. She signed up for a class at the center called "Drawing by Observation," led by Jim Clark, another clubgoer. "I loved it, so I continued to take it. Then I branched out to oil, pastels and clay," she said.

Beaty also learned from Clark about the art social club. She's met fellow students in the club. Occasionally, they've even taken classes together. Right now, she's doing drawing and oil classes at the center three times a week. "Pursuing painting is a happy way to spend time with my creative side and freedom to do whatever I want on the canvas," said Beaty.

Anna Pratt is a Minneapolis freelance writer. She can be reached at annaprattjournalist@gmail.com.