The Canvas Art Bar & Bistro: Portland's First Creative Space to Fuel Your Body, Mind and Spirit

We meet to consume: our preferred way to socialize is over a meal or a drink. Blind dates meet for an intro round at hip bars; girlfriends do fine dining together; colleagues network over lunch. With all this meeting and greeting going on, what if our meetings were more inspired? What if we met to create?

This is the question that has always intrigued Ashley Bernatchez. After years in an ad agency managing clients and accounts, and then as a freelance copywriter, she found a calm space in all the chaos by creating homemade card collages. “It’s nice to work with your hands, to make something creative.” Energized by this free, creative work, Bernatchez also realized that art can be isolating. But, she began playing around with arts/crafts group ideas before landing on the concept of a hip, social environment where people meet for casual arts creation. Upon moving to Portland (she's an east coast transplant), and newly inspired by Stumptown's ubiquitous DIY spirit and vibrant art scene, she decided to take the plunge with her beau Jacob Amos to create The Canvas Art Bar & Bistro—Portland's first creative space to fuel your body, mind and spirit.

The Space

The Canvas is housed in the old Norm Thompson building (circa 1900) on Northwest Upshur Street, and shares a roof with a few other businesses. During four months prior to opening, construction was finalized by the building owner. Aesthetic work was primarily accomplished by Bernatchez, Amos and willing friends and family members during the final month.

It’s an open yet cozy space, with plenty of room to move, eat, drink, socialize AND create. The original cement floors are intact and showcase the stenciled numbers and letters left over from inventory from days gone by. Amos, a former brick mason, created the bar structure from bricks salvaged from the building with a top of beautifully rough hewn wood. Paper spools hang from a few pillars and walls. Charcoal and graphite pencils, erasers, idea boxes, and those funky wooden human form bend-it models share space on the bar and table tops about the room.

During my quiet afternoon visit, a few people stopped in for coffee or a microbrew. Two women were busy on their laptops in the front window seats, while another was sketching something on a large sheet of paper. “Our peak times have been lunch, and it seems to be the local biz crew stopping by. We are a bit off the beaten path,” reports Bernatchez. “Both our openings were high traffic nights, and along with continued special events [like costume model sketching sessions], we plan to offer live music every Friday night.”

The Art

One wall is devoted to the “People’s Art Exhibit” which showcases work created at The Canvas. There’s also a giant collage made of 100 5”x5” squares painted by attendees of the friends and family special opening. “Everyone’s an artist,” quips Bernatchez, “and we want to get more people into doing art. Even if they just pop in for lunch, or a drink after work, we hope they are inspired by the setting.”

Tools and Supplies

The Canvas offers a variety of mediums and canvases so you can create your masterpiece or simply play around on a rainy afternoon. The Mixed Media package ($3) provides use of markers, papers, scissors, adhesives and punches so you can create a collage while sipping a cuppa. The Oil Pastels package ($4) presents water-soluble pastels for colorific opportunities to create. The eco-friendly Acrylic Paint package ($5) lets you sample an array of colorants and a base to go wild while enjoying a sandwich. Canvas and paper choices ($1 to $8) vary from cards to large sheets.

There’s a small retail space devoted to eco-friendly, sustainably manufactured supplies like non-toxic paints, recycled papers, brushes, and children’s art materials to use in-house or take home. “We are passionate about the earth, and while we’re not at all trying to compete with a big box art supplier, we hope to develop good relationships with our customers so they choose their art supplies from us,” notes Bernatchez.

Libations and More

To fuel your creative efforts, The Canvas offers fresh light fare in the way of sandwiches, soups, salads, rotating draft beer selections, wine, juices, tea, soda and coffee. There are weekly lunch specials and a fun happy hour menu Monday through Friday.

Tired of the same old Friday night outing? Why not venture towards the creative? Unleash your inner artist with old pals and new at The Canvas Art Bar & Bistro.

Monday thru Thursday, 11-10 p.m.; Friday thru Saturday, 11-12 a.m.; Closed Sunday

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