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McKinney 4-year-old paints with a purpose
Submitted Photo.
McKinney resident and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children patient Quentin Franz, age 4, unleashed his creative talents at the Christopher Martin Painting Day event.
By Katie Knickerbocker, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Dallas artist teams up with Scottish Rite patients to raise money
Four-year-old Quinten Franz loves art, according to his mom Kathy, so splashing colors of paint on a canvas with Dallas artist Christopher Martin in his studio a couple of months ago came pretty naturally.
“Kids don’t need a lot of direction when it comes to putting paint down,” Martin said, but the project they worked on wasn’t just something to take home and hang on a refrigerator. Martin teams up with Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and a handful of their patients once a year to create a painting to be auctioned off at the hospitals annual fundraising banquet. It just so happened that Quinten, a McKinney resident with tuberous sclerosis, was one of the special kiddos asked to help paint this year’s masterpiece.
TSRHC spokesperson Becky Britt said the hospital organized the “Paint Day” back in July and this is the eighth year Martin has volunteered to help create a painting. This year’s project had a French theme and will be auctioned off in October, at the 14th annual Treasure Street fundraising event and last year’s painting went for $20,000. She said they had nine patients that participated this year by taking turns putting different strokes on the canvas.
“Christopher has a way of guiding them but what they do is really up to them,” Britt said. “It's really neat to see how it goes from something that doesn’t really look like a masterpiece to something that ends up beautiful.”
Martin said he starts the children out with a blank canvas and they pick the basic colors they want to use. Then he separates the kids into small groups and lets them brainstorm ideas for the painting.
“This year we talked about what comes to mind when it comes to France, and then began by putting basic shapes and forms on the canvas,” Martin said. “The kids are kind of paired up into teams so it’s not total chaos.”
After about three hours of work from the kids, Martin takes the painting and works extensively with it to create a finished piece that still has the essence of the children’s original work.
“Usually I’ll spend at least three full days working on it afterwards,” Martin said. “It really depends on the piece. It can take a long time but I just work on it until it's right.”
Martin has been painting professionally for 15 years and said he loves working with charities. He does similar projects with March of Dimes, The Make a Wish Foundation, and Cook County Hospital and said it’s always a special experience.
“There are so many children out there suffering from really debilitating diseases and conditions,” Martin said. “I've got a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old at home and after working with groups like this it puts a perspective on how difficult and heartbreaking it is for these kids to being going through these things. It’s a very humbling experience.”
The auction will take place Thursday, October 22, at Highland Park Village in Dallas.
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