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The 17th annual "Celebrating Art Made Easy" student exhibit starts today at the Pleasanton Senior Center with paintings done on location or in a studio experimenting with collage and special techniques.

Among the exhibits will be artwork by Janna Dean, a retired teacher, who decided to improve her skills by taking a watercolor class from noted Pleasanton artist Charlotte Severin.

When she was about to retire, her colleagues asked her what she'd do with her time after teaching in an elementary school in Pleasanton for so many years.

"I said the first thing I'm going to do is take a watercolor class from Charlotte Severin," Dean recalled.

As a teacher, she'd watched Severin mesmerize a room full of children with her art lessons.

"Charlotte was in a multipurpose room with all ages and you could have heard a pin drop," Dean recalled. "That's how much children love art."

As a retirement present, Dean received a gift certificate for classes as well as painting supplies and now she is one of the students displaying their works at the Senior Center exhibit, which runs from tomorrow through Friday.

A public reception also will be held tomorrow from 7-8:30 p.m. at the center, which is located at 5353 Sunol Blvd. in Pleasanton.

"The paintings have been done on location or in the studio experimenting with collage and special techniques," Severin said.

The art students focused on the Seward Johnson sculptures that were on display in downtown Pleasanton for three months last year.

Other students in the exhibit are Stephen Bakkarie, Bonnie Bartlett, Jean Bell, Ann Beven-Thomas, Vilma Buhre, Claudia Curran, Cindy Deagen, Kathleen Elm, June Ferreri, Elizabeth Greist, Cindy Juarez, Daniella Karo, Herman Leider, Kathleen Lortz, Bernadino Navanni, Louise McLellan, Toni Purcell, Ana Marie Rodriguez, Maureen Shevlin, Donald Skutca, Kathleen Turner-Meyer and Carole Williams.

The exhibit will be open for viewing from 1-4 p.m. tomorrow; from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Friday.

--Dolores Fox Ciardelli

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