Kids welcome Wyland

“I always do what I say. Sometimes it just takes awhile.”

So said artist Wyland at the Boys & Girls Clubs last week, after conducting an art class that he had been promising the clubs for 10 years.

Along with teaching kids to paint, Wyland donated the painting he made as an example to the Clubs, in addition to art books and other materials.

The artist is known for his natural ability to engage youth.

“Painting keeps you young,” said Wyland, who celebrated his 50th birthday last year.

Wyland will be spending much of the next several years abroad, painting Whaling Walls and other works in the United Kingdom, Germany, Abu Dhabi, South Africa and China — the latter in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, where he hopes to paint three miles of murals alongside the Great Wall of China with kids from 204 countries.

The murals celebrate sea life and the ocean environment.

Beijing is working on making its games “green,” which is important to Wyland, he said.

“We need an environmental renaissance,” he said. “Water connects all people.”

He feels that his talents will help to bring an international spotlight to the world’s current state.

“Art is such an important medium for change in the world,” Wyland said.

After completing 100 Whaling Walls, which he creates free of charge, Wyland said he will begin on creating 100 sculptures in 25 years.

Along with the last few of his famous Whaling Walls, the next few years will find Wyland hard at work on textbooks and other educational tools.

Last week found him in Laguna, where he spends a third of the year when not residing in Hawaii or Florida.

At the club with his mother, Darlene, Wyland taught the kids how he mixes color, suggested brush strokes and talked about his pets and past achievements.

One of the kids mentioned they saw him on TV’s “Animal Planet;” the rest talked to each other excitedly about the show.

“That was awesome!” Wyland said of his appearance. He walked around the room, commenting on kids’ creations and asking them to chant “Happy Earth Day!”

“Who wants me to stop talking and start painting?” Wyland asked the kids.

All of their hands shot into the air.

Walking past a giant handmade welcome banner, Wyland began by painting a wide swath of dark blue along the bottom of his canvas, which the kids energetically copied to the best of their abilities.

“You messed up? You can’t mess up,” Wyland told one perplexed youth. “Put a rock there. There are no mistakes in art.”

He then added some green and white to his canvas, to give the illusion of water shining through from the surface above.

“Paint your own vision of the water,” he told the kids. “You don’t have to copy me.”

He told the kids at first that they would be painting a male sea turtle, but changed his canvas midstroke, adding a female sea turtle.

“This is the Boys and Girls Club, right?” he asked. Parents, staff and students cheered.

“Females are cuter, what can I say? Sorry, guys, it’s true,” Wyland told the incredulous young male art students.

Club member Alexa Hubbell chose to paint her own version of the sea turtles they were working on, adding a heart to her turtle’s eye — which delighted Wyland.

“Be your spunky self,” he told her. “It sounds silly, but be the turtle. That’s how you do your best stuff.”

He continued working on his painting, quickly adding details to the turtles’ bodies while some students still labored on their oceans.

“Pretend you’re van Gogh,” he told them. “Just leave the ear.”

Many students ended up with more abstract pieces; others were highly representational.

“This reminds me of my days at the art festival,” Wyland said; he formerly exhibited at the Sawdust.

At the beginning of the exercise, Wyland said he would give silver whale pins to the artists of his three favorite pieces.

By the end, though, he was perplexed as to whom to choose — after a few moments’ pondering, he announced that he would send pins to all the students.

After yelling, “Save the turtles!” kids ran up for autographs and presented Wyland with handpainted cards, a plastic heart and other symbols of their gratitude.

Later, he met a boy at the club whose mother had named him Wyland in honor of the artist.

The adult Wyland said the name has also caught on in Japan.

“I’ve got a big family,” he said, adding that he has spoken to over 1 million youth.

“With kids involved, you can change the world.”