By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com

When Cleburne High art students agreed to take on a Keep Cleburne Beautiful project that involved creating giant Christmas cards for the courthouse lawn, imposing mountains had to be climbed.

There were the academic challenges of incorporating elements such as line, shape, form, space, color, value and texture and principles of rhythm and movement, balance, proportion, variety, emphasis, harmony and unity into the art curriculum.

And students faced the mental challenge of creating on a deadline.

They had the physical challenge of learning to apply exterior latex paint on plywood, a much different surface than canvas.

All in all, the artists created a pair of 8 by 8 foot displays. Art appreciators can judge the artistic effort for themselves during the holidays.

The idea for the plywood Christmas cards was born of great minds, retired Cleburne ISD art teacher Ann Clark Daniel, and Keep Cleburne Beautiful member Teresa Richardson.

Keep Cleburne Beautiful, the Downtown Cleburne Association, Save Old Cleburne, Whistle Stop and numerous volunteers have been busy in recent months preparing decorations for the downtown area and Hulen Park.

This year’s theme is “Treasured Traditions of Christmas.”

“Teresa, who is a friend of mine, asked me to come to a Keep Cleburne Beautiful committee meeting,” Daniel said. “She said they needed advice on decorating the courthouse square and wanted an artistic point of view. I went to the meeting, and everyone was throwing out ideas. The county had already begun the decorating process with reindeer and wreaths.

“After discussing different options, we began looking around the square. We went to one corner where there is an emergency generator. Somebody said, ‘We don’t have much room in that corner.’ I said, ‘What about some large Christmas cards?’

“Years ago, when Whistle Stop Christmas was first established, Rebecca Roe approached me and my eighth-grade art students about doing Christmas cards, which we did. The committee liked the idea of the large cards. I approached the high school art teachers [Jana Trimble and Dawn Krebs] to ask if they’d be interested. They said yes. They could incorporate it into their curriculum. And the students in the National Art Honor Society could get service club hours.”

The students brainstormed ideas, filtered them through Trimble and Krebs, and forwarded them to Daniel, who began compiling a list of necessary supplies — unusual supplies for young easel artists.

First was 4 by 8 foot plywood pieces and exterior paint.

“The teachers had worked to come up with formulas for mixing exterior paints,” Daniel said. “They had to be very specific to mix properly. Walmart helped with that. To paint directly on plywood, the paint had to be exterior latex.”

One challenge was purely artistic.

“You start with a small image and learn to blow it up properly to place it on the card to make sure everything is going to fit,” Daniel said. “Because of the paint, the palette was very limited — seven colors plus white. From those, all the colors had to be mixed. The students had to problem-solve in how to mix colors and get them to balance. They had to make things look three-dimensional if that was part of the process. All the elements of art and principles of design had to be incorporated.

“It was a little hectic because Jana worked with students during class, and Dawn worked with them after school. Also, some students worked on one card, and some worked on both cards. All were upper-level art students.”

The artists were Carlos Chavez, Bryant Reyes, Kari Smith, Rebecca Preston, Scotty Diduch, Kimberly McCoy, Tesza Latson, Mercedes Spann, Alex Swisher, Rachel Allen, Hillary Hagen, and Anna and Bridget Chandler.

Peers ended up teaching peers.

“They taught each other different techniques,” Daniel said. “Some had experience in doing greenery and could show those who didn’t how to use a fan brush to create greenery or trees. In one card, the trees had to be very green and bright in the foreground and a grayish or bluish color in the distance.”

Even the original plywood proved tricky.

“The plywood that the city furnished us was rough,” Daniel said. “Our building trades teacher graciously traded us a better grade of plywood. After it was sanded down, it made a nice, smooth surface. Each sheet of plywood was 4 by 8 feet. The very large surface created another problem in that it’s rare for students to paint on anything that big.”

The city is expected to re-use the oversized cards next year. Perhaps next year’s art students will create more.

“It might be that the students can create some plywood figures to go adjacent to the old bank building downtown,” Daniel said. “There used to be shrubbery there. Now, there’s nothing. This is just a starting point. Hopefully, people will look and say, ‘This is beautiful,’ and everyone will want to get involved in the beautification process.”