Hundreds of kids have painting down to an art

Bayou Bend festival connects children with Texas heritage

Hundreds of budding artists and their parents took a step back in time Sunday — or at least away from the mall and the TV set — at the fifth annual Children’s Texas Art Festival.

From the banjo-picking and accordion-squeezing out front, to the pottery-making and water color impressionism inside, the decibel level was high but the mood happy at the Kilroy Center at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.

By 2 p.m., a quarter of the way through the four-hour event, more than 500 had showed up, said Joey Milillo, programs manager for Bayou Bend at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He predicted attendance could top 1,200 by late afternoon.

“This is the busiest since the first year,” he said, adding that Sunday was the first time the Children’s Texas Art Festival has been held in January.

Initially it was in September, which turned out to be too hot. Moved to May, it was too wet. Perhaps January will become just right, Milillo said.

The official description of festivities was “how Texas artists interpret their heritage through work and pass it down to the next generation.”

This maybe was a tad lofty for

the action unfolding at the paint table.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to eat that, darling,” said one of the volunteers as 16-month-old Xochitl Tapia plopped a sponge paintbrush in her mouth.

Her older brother Joseph, 4, chose to apply his paint to paper. A self-portrait, he explained, with a large black dot in the middle of a blue circle to represent a happy face.

“He loves painting and art,” said Salvador Tapia, who had brought his kids into Houston from Katy. “We always go to the flea market or the mall. This is something different.”

A few children over, Holt Baird, 7, had completed his stab at Texas realism with a smiling armadillo under an orange sun. Tucked in the corner, near the cactus, was a coiled rattlesnake.

“We might frame it,” said proud dad Drew Baird.

There was no shortage of parental pride as the grown-ups hovered, snapped smartphone cameras and offered plenty of advice and encouragement.

“Do whatever you see,” said Meghan Senkel, as her 6-year-old daughter, Lilian, set to work on her interpretation of a Texas sunset. Copies of fine art prints were scattered across the table for inspiration.

First came the pink, then the streaks of purple. Black dots were added and brushed over to represent the darkening sky.

Senkel cooed at the layering of colors.

“You want to draw a tree?” she asked her daughter. “No.” “OK. You express yourself however you want,” Senkel said.

First rule of painting and parenting: Never crowd an artist at work.