Students beat summer boredom with art
They dropped the remote, disconnected the Nintendo, and made their way to the Southern Foreshore to create their own artistic realities. Today’s show on the grounds of Belize City’s House of Culture is the result of a program to motivate students during their summer holiday.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Their interests and talents were varied. The styles gave hints of impressionism and realism but the theme focused on nature. As they soaked up the sun at the back of the House of Culture, they painted boats, trees and most anything that passed before their eyes.
Robert Howes, Student
“Well I do some oil, Crayon painting and so on. This one took about three days for me to finished.
Jose Sanchez
“What kind of scenery did you decide to paint?”
Robert Howes
“The sun and the sea and other animals. I like the animals because they are wild things.
Jose Sanchez
“Why did you decide to take this course?”
Robert Howes
“The holiday is boring and there is nowhere to go to have fun.”
While Howes is thankful for an alternative to what could have been just another dull day, another student discovered what may have been a future career.
Jose Sanchez
“Why did you come here to do art?”
Josue Soler, Student
“Because I wanted to learn how to paint and be and artist.”
Jose Sanchez
“What kind of work have you been doing?”
Josue Soler
“I was drawing the sea king and the sea and some islands. That’s what I wanted to draw, that’s the only thing I draw.
Jose Sanchez
“So if you weren’t here doing this program, what would you be doing?”
Josue Soler
“At another summer class at YMCA. In the evening, that’s what I do.”
The task of harnessing the kid’s enthusiasm fell to their teacher, Pamela Braun.
Pamela Braun, Artist
“We have this for about a month. This represents a month’s worth of work and we worked with an oil medium and we studied from nature. We copy nature, which is quite interesting because it changes just as rapidly as you look at it changes, so it’s quite a challenge. We mostly worked outside by the seaside and as you can see, they’re quite accomplished paintings.”
“We set it up for the classes to be on Mondays and Fridays so we would have some kind of a continuum and as you can see, it’s quite a bit of work that they’ve done, not only in drawing, but in painting. We don’t always have the opportunity to teach them to paint with the oil because it requires the turpentine and more materials. But they really learned well, the paintings are a result of that.”
The exhibition at the House of Culture will stay up until Friday. Reporting for News Five, I am Jose Sanchez.
Braun, who teaches at A.C.C., says that if you are interested in having your children enrolled in an art course, there will be another session slated for August. You can contact the House of Culture at 73050 for more details.
