Students' painting of saints presented to parish

Courtesy photo/ St. Vincent de Paul School

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SALT LAKE CITY — Saint Vincent de Paul Parish School has a long tradition of supporting an “Artist in Residence” program to teach students about the types of materials and techniques used to create different art mediums. Students work with an artist to create a work of art in the medium the artist chooses. The media can include painting, glass art, woodcarvings, dance, leather art and ceramics.

During the last school year, with the encouragement of St. Vincent de Paul Principal Gary Green; the parish pastor, Father John Norman; and Paula Smithson, an art teacher who also is the mother of a child enrolled in St. Vincent de Paul School, students in the middle school began drawings of 24 saints. Once the drawings were transferred to canvas, students in grades four through eight helped paint the outlines of the people and create the background. The painting was finished during the summer and presented to Fr. Norman and the parish community at Mass after the new school year began. The project now hangs in the parish’s Benvegnu Center, and the school has provided a legend that identifies the saints in the painting.

Courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul School