Budding Artists Show Their Colors

The soothing music may have been the reason, or maybe it was their own creativity.

But something kept a handpicked group of 18 Adams Elementary fifth- and sixth-graders quiet Tuesday afternoon. Everyone drew. And erased. And thoughtfully sketched out designs for their watercolors.

Heather Frank penciled in a hawk in flight with a sure hand.

Eddie Ramey wasted little time on his sketch, but laid down a brave purple wash - the beginnings of the background for his version of Monet’s Water Lilies, hung in the front of the classroom. Purple done, he turned to a volunteer. “I need some green,” he said.

Audra Krislock dappled a tulip pink and her cat, Muffin, a brownish gray, both framed inside a window.

A meticulously drawn motor boat topped a purple-blue sea on Joey Sanders’ desktop.

The kids, all chosen for their interest in art, had spent an hour that morning with visiting watercolor artist Stan Miller.

Teacher Marta Reiner brings Miller and other artists into Adams to broaden the kids’ sense of possibilities.

Miller spent the morning painting a simple landscape and coaxing the students out of disconnected stares into rapt concentration. He used a combination of skill, one-liners and explanation.

“How many of you take piano lessons yet?” A few hands shot up. “How much do you practice? Forty-five minutes? Half an hour?” he asked.

“Now, if you practiced drawing half an hour a day, every day from now until you are grown up, you would be a better artist than I am,” he said.

Working from a photograph - upside down - he created a watercolor landscape featuring a church at dusk - upside down. Why upside down? So as to concentrate on the lines and shapes, Miller explained.

A hairdryer became a tool for drying one part of his painting before applying the next layer of color. The same large brush that applied a wash of blue for clouds delicately imprinted a few spindly, dark trees.

At the end of an hour, the little landscape was ready for a spray of fixative, a mat and a frame. And when Miller asked the kids how many of them wanted to make a living as an artist, almost every hand flew into the air.

“Don’t plan on being rich,” he warned. But it’s satisfying to earn your living with something as enjoyable as artwork, he added. And finally, looking for a way to really connect with those young minds:

“When you’re an artist, you can stay up as late as you want to. You can stay up and watch David Letterman.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo