Students from kindergarten through eighth grade are immersed in art at The Healdsburg School. Their one-of-a-kind art projects will be auctioned off in the school’s annual Bravissimo fundraiser.

But first, on Jan 27, the students will show their work at a two-hour artists’ reception, “All the Art,” to be held at the Murphy-Goode Tasting Room in Healdsburg.

The art will be available for buy-out prices that evening, though the work will hang for a week at the tasting room.

Artist and jeweler Pade Vavra and Camron Frey, a THS parent, worked together to create a large spin art turntable to create unique designs with first graders. The students poured controlled amounts of paints onto gessoed canvas then the round piece was spun using centrifugal force in the creation of these colorful abstract pieces. (See attached videos)

According to Vavra, the students will make two spin art pieces for the fundraiser. The works are inspired by the work of Damien Hirst.

In the evergreen grove, second grade students worked with local artist Jessica Martin, a sculptor and painter.

Thursday, Martin took the students on a Russian River walk at Memorial Beach and Friday, the students were working on their interpretations of the walk. They are creating a coffee table guidebook to the Russian River.

Martin got involved with the project through parent and event coordinator Linda Farwell.

“I’ve known her for a long time,” said Martin. “I love this [working with the children].

“I’ve taught art classes to kids often.”

Each student will create two pages—a map and a painting of their perspective of the walk. The pages will be glued together, then hand stitched to create a unique manuscript.

Though copies will be made for sale, only the highest bidder will be able to own the book.

Other artists involved with the creation of art with the students are Tim Gordy, Linda Schroeder, Carole Wantanabe, John Reed, Dan Young, Sargam Griffin and Sandra Novia, whose work with the kindergarteners is inspired by Jackson Pollock.

The students learned about artists, technique, color and discussed commercial and personal work. One class worked on digital photography and manipulation of their artwork.

They want to “show the community and families what they’ve [the students] have done,” said Madeline Pereira, a mother helping coordinate the art part of the fundraiser.

The main fundraising event is Bravissimo 2012 that will be held at the John Ash Vintner’s Inn on Feb. 11.

THS, an independent school, has a strong music and art curriculum, said Dennis Agnos, director of development at the school. In addition, they teach all students both Spanish and Mandarin (Chinese).

“We start as early as October for the February event,” said Agnos.