The Firehouse Arts Center kicked off their after school art classes last Tuesday with 10 eager-to-learn youngsters who love to use their imagination to create different masterpieces.

Lynn Davis is teaching the course and said it is great to have 10 students; it allows her to have one on one time with each child and help them individualize whatever they are creating.

Davis began by teaching them about charcoal drawings last week and helped them focus on Picassos Tuesday. Each child picked their own Picasso portrait and painted it with the colors they visualized.

Davis said this is only one of the many projects they will be doing based on artists and their styles.

In the coming weeks the kids will have the opportunity to do a large scale painting based on Andy Warhol’s endangered species, a clay-molding project and a watercolor painting.

Elizabeth Adams, 10, is one of the kids participating in the after school classes and is most excited about recreating Warhol’s pieces.

“It’s fun to paint, so I think the endangered species one will be my favorite,” she said.

Adams also enjoyed the charcoal project, saying it was something she always wanted to do, but never got to try at school.

She explained that at school they never get to paint portraits or canvases quite so large, so this was new and fun.

Preston Day, 9, is also a student in the class and enjoyed Tuesday’s project.

“I’ve only ever painted in Pre-K and Kindergarten, so painting is my favorite part,” he said.

Day said he didn’t know much about Picasso before Tuesday’s class, but learned he painted a lot of portraits in “random lines.”

Davis has been impressed with the kids’ work so far and learned that many of these children have had success at art in school, winning awards or having their project hung up.

The class ends on Oct. 16 and is held on Tuesday afternoons in the upstairs Leverett Art Classroom from 4:15- 6 p.m.