By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

The previous tenants have finished moving out of the second floor space in the Solar Market building in Arundel, and Sprouts Studio owner Juliette Coldreck has begun to move in. 

Since she was a child, Coldreck, 35, of Kennebunkport, was encouraged to create art, and now she is encouraging area children to explore their artistic side at her new studio.

A graduate of Lesley University with a degree in art therapy and minor concentrations in Native American studies and family dynamics, Coldreck said she has worked with special needs children, as well as taught art classes at Rivertree Center for the Arts in Kennebunk during the past three years.  After many phone calls from parents and the opportunity to rent the space in the Solar Market building, Coldreck decided to establish her own studio and six week class sessions will start Oct. 14. 

“I’ve modified the classes from what I taught previously and will offer three different classes,” Coldreck said. “A lot of art programs for children become craft based, but I want to expose them to different materials they wouldn’t normally have at home.”

There will be two “First Art” sessions available for children 2 and-a-half years old and older along with their parents or caregiver, to introduce them to art materials, Coldreck said. She said the class will be 45 minutes long, but will allow children to move from project to project in a free-flowing environment.

“Pre-school Art” and “World Art” are classes available for children 3 years old and older working on more focused projects, Coldreck said. She said “Pre-school Art” combines popular children’s books and familiar artists as inspiration for the projects, while “World Art” focuses on different world cultures and the art they create through various mediums. 

“I encourage parents to stay with the little ones in ‘First Art,’ especially if they haven’t been left alone, but I leave it up to the parents in the other two classes,” Coldreck said. “There is also a sitting area for parents if they just want to stay and watch, and a play area if there are other children with the parents not participating.”

While she does not stop parents from staying with their older children, she said they tend to seem timid with them around, but come out of their shells once their parents leave. 

Examples of projects include studying the tribes of Maine and teaching Native American art, working on animal masks based on cultural studies, as well as working with materials from nature such as birch bark bowls. She said her teaching style is very loose. She always has a back-up plan and is able to multi-task very well. 

“I love seeing kids excited by something they’ve created, when they feel like they’ve mastered something,” Coldreck said. 

She said she uses her background in art therapy when working with the children by focusing more on the process and how the creation of art is therapeutic, rather than the outcome of the final product.

“The vein I followed is the process because it is the method I believe to be therapeutic,” Coldreck said. “When we were working on self portraits with a group, one girl started with a self portrait of her in her mommy’s tummy. Then she started to realize if she was in mom’s stomach, she wouldn’t see anything because it would be dark, so she went over the entire painting in black.” 

Coldreck said when she presented the “self portrait” to the mother, she was not sure what to think about the painting, but when Coldreck explained the how the child realized what it would be like inside the mother stomach, the mother appreciated the process and understood the product. 

Coldreck said she also emphasizes there are no mistakes in art.

“When you make a ‘mistake,’ sometimes it turns out better,” she said. “Things can always be reworked.”

Coldreck said she taught a lot of home schooled children previously and encourages home school children in groups of four or more to contact her for group classes as well. She said if enough people are interested to create a class, she can work with their current curriculum to develop art projects to follow what the children are studying. Coldreck said she is also willing to create a class for a group of children with special needs.  

Classes are limited to six children up to 5 years old, run in six-week sessions and are offered from 9:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for $82 or $85 per session. Coldreck said she hopes to eventually start after school programs for older children. To sign up for a class call 251-1057 or visit www.sproutsstudio.com. Sprouts Studio is located at 25 Limerick Road in Arundel.