Keziah Kelsey’s love of animals is what got her to attend a Longview Museum of Fine Arts class for the first time Wednesday, she said.

“I wanted to see what it looked like because I love drawing animals,” the 9-year-old said. “I love animals- all kinds, except for poisonous snakes.”

She was busy coloring a kookaburra, a bird native to Australia, after just completing the outline of the bird. 

Keziah is one of the students enrolled in “Walk on the Wild Side!,” one of numerous classes offered by the Longview Museum of Fine Arts as part of its Youth Education & Summer Art Program.

The summer classes kicked off last week and will run until August 3.

The classes for various age groups are offered at various times throughout the summer months.

“Walk on the Wild Side!,” which is set to end tomorrow, is described as a class in which students “explore creative approaches to unleash their inner artists by creating their own spirit animals by studying line, pattern, color, and inspiration with collage and drawing.”

Before starting their craft, Keziah and the other students learned about animals native to Australia and how native Aboriginals depicted animals through art. Instructor Mark Nesmith explained to students Aboriginal animal paintings are unique in the way the interior is typically decorated with horizontal or vertical lines, while the exterior is outlined with a series of dots. 

After the lesson, each child picked the animal they wanted to draw from options that included a kangaroo, dolphin, koala bear, echidna and more.

Keziah chose the Kookaburra because she likes birds and also because her cat recently caught a cardinal, she said with a laugh.

Josiah Davis, 7, sat next to her and was also busy at work on a Kookabura. He said he planned to color his blue and was considering what other color to add to it. 

He said he chose the animal because “I love birds and I want to fly with my dreams.”

Nearby, friends Cheyanne Bradley, 9, and Hannah McDonald, 10, were coloring in a kangaroo and turtle respectively. According to Cheyanne, the two friends attended the program last year as well.

While Cheyannae planned to make a rainbow kangaroo, Hannah was sticking to using two shades of green for her turtle. She said she enjoyed attending the program because she gets to draw- an activity she considers calming.

Nesmith walked among the students giving pointers and answering questions. Hailing from Beaumont, he’s the museum’s visiting artist for the summer. He teaches several of the summer classes and helps coordinate the rest of the ones he doesn’t teach, among other things, he said.

Since working with the children, he said he’s had a blast and that attendance appears to be steadily increasing.

“Words has been getting out, I think they’ve been spreading the idea ’cause we’ve had a lot more kids this week than last week so enrollment’s been going up,” he said.

According to Nesmith, roughly 150 to 160 children are currently signed up for the summer program, a number he hopes to see reach 200.

Ideas and knowledge from various disciplines are incorporated into the classes, which offers a good way to make connections to other topics, he said. For instance, students have learned about patterns, which is discussed in math class, aspects of color that relate to science along with the transparency of watercolor painting. 

“So it’s a fun, creative way of also getting some knowledge in too,” Nesmith said. “And it’s great for me ’cause these guys are rejuvenating. They come in, they’re smiling, ready to get into it so you can’t have a bad time.”