“Do I dabble in art? I do... I’m an oil painter,” said Givens, an artist who started as a 5-year-old drawing comic strips and by about 11 was doing portraits. Givens, Santa Paula Community Bank vice president/commercial loan officer, said, “When this idea came to me I said ‘Why not have the kids do art... and the parents will come’” to area merchants, where the art contest entries will be available, and perhaps take the opportunity to do a bit of holiday shopping.As of Monday, the first day of signing up merchants, Givens said he had 18 who will participate in the contest. In fact, “I ran out” of the initial run of colorful, bilingual contest flyers supplied by Dianne Davis of Do Right’s Plant Nursery, and Givens will have to replenish the supply for the up to 30 area businesses he expects to participate.Johnson said entries would be judged in three categories: K-2nd Grade, 3rd-5th Grade and 6th-8th Grade. Entries will be displayed - space permitting - during the holiday community celebration. Entries and fully completed entry forms must be returned to any participating merchant by the end of the business day Monday, December 7.“We’re really looking forward to it,” especially, said Johnson, to see what children see in their mind’s eye and use to create what “Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays” means to them. Judging will be done by those affiliated with the new Santa Paula Art Museum, due to open February 2010.Although Givens said it remains to be seen what kind of response the contest brings, he knows one child who would definitely try for an art prize if they could: “If I were a kid would I enter? Oh, yeah!”
‘Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays’ first-ever kids’ art contest!
November 27, 2009
Santa Paula News
Kids with artistic talent and a seasonal imagination will be coloring, drawing, and even sprinkling with glitter their own creations to enter in the Downtown Merchants Association “Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays” art contest.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesKids with artistic talent and a seasonal imagination will be coloring, drawing, and even sprinkling with glitter their own creations to enter in the Downtown Merchants Association “Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays” art contest. Co-sponsored by the City of Santa Paula, the contest for kindergarten through 8th grade students is being held in conjunction with the “Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays” downtown celebration, to be held from 3 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 12.The celebration will also include the traditional Holiday Cookie Contest and the new, one entry per family Gingerbread House competition, as well as musical entertainment. And don’t forget that visit from Santa Claus.The downtown holiday art contest “was a great idea of Dan Givens to bring families to the downtown,” said SPDTMA President Debbie Johnson. Not only will it bring families to the Central Business District to receive entry forms from participating merchants - they’ll be easy to spot with the brightly colored contest flyer displayed in the window - but it will also bring them back for the awarding of prizes at the Santa Paula California Oil Museum, Holiday Ground Zero for this year’s celebration.“Santa Paula is already known for its many talented artists,” Johnson said, which made holding the kids’ competition only natural. “Kids can use crayons, pencil, colored pencil, watercolors, glitter, any medium or material” for the work depicting the “Santa Paula: Home for the Holidays” theme.
