Paint-by-numbers: Who knew how much fun you can have?

I’ve had some fun painting. Lacking any real talent, but wanting to hang out with friends, a few of us did some painting. We each wanted to say “I painted it myself!”

Come on. It looks like fun, doesn’t it?

First we had breakfast at a Minneapolis diner, Hot Plate, which features PBN (paint by number) masterpieces on their walls. We knew we could do fantastic, realistic paintings with acrylics, too.

I chose the paintings for all of us by beauty and by price. I got last dibs. Here is a lovely hand model showing us her technique.

PBNs take a long time. They don’t look like they would, but they do. And one of us even had to use special painting techniques to finish her piece. Can you tell which one is hers?

I’ve had fun. I even wrote the quiz you’ll find below. Take it and then go to Paint by Numbers House and look around. Then it’s off to this Pinterest paint-by-number site. Now go buy your own kit!

Which happened first?

Color TV was invented.
Seat belts for cars were introduced .
Disneyland opened.
Paint by number kits were first marketed.

The kits were invented, developed and marketed by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of what U.S. city?

Chicago
Detroit
Cleveland
Phoenix

Following the death of Max Klein in 1993, his daughter, Jacquelyn Schiffman, donated the Palmer Paint Co. archives to which museum?

Smithsonian Museum of American History
National Museum of American History
Chicago History Museum
Figge Art Museum

There is an online Paint By Number Museum at www.paintbynumbermuseum.com. Does it include those works done on velvet?

Yes, of course!
No, unfortunately.

What famous American artist used Paint by Numbers as inspiration for his or her painting ?

Andy Warhol
Francesco Clemente
Jasper Johns
Roy Lichtenstein

Richard Hess's incomplete paint-by-number portrait of which president was created for the June 1967 issue of Esquire but was never used. It was, however, eventually exhibited at the Louvre.

John F. Kennedy
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Richard Nixon
Lyndon B. Johnson

Presidential appointment secretary Thomas Edwin Stephens mounted a gallery of paint-by-number and amateur paintings by administration officials and acquaintances for which administration?

Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon
Lyndon B. Johnson