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As Crofton Elementary school students walked round their gym just before Spring Break eyeing the artwork they had done that day, local artist Dean Griffiths looked on appreciatively.

“It’s amazing what students pick up in a very short time,” said Dean, a Cowichan-born and educated artist and illustrator.

In a program sponsored by the school’s PAC, artist Dean spent a day at the school traveling from class to class displaying artwork, including his illustrations in the Maggie books written by Frieda Wishinsky, and teaching a lesson in each classroom. In Mitzi Mitchell’s kindergarten class, for example, he drew a snowman with crayons that was enthusiastically copied by the children. Those snowmen and pictures drawn and coloured by the students in other classes created a lively backdrop to Dean’s afternoon talk to all the students. A final drawing demonstration rounded out the day.

“It’s so nice for the students to be able to see other people’s art,” said Crofton teacher-librarian John Boan-Mitchell, who arranged the artist’s visit.

Art fuels students’ imagination, Dean noted. “With all that creativity, there’s lots of problem-solving skills needed as well.”

“You all have strengths in art,” the working artist told the students. “Keep going with it; keep practicing; and enjoy it.”

After failing Art in grade 10 Dean taught himself to draw from comic books. In 1995 he signed on with Orca Book Publishers in Victoria to illustrate his first children’s book, Sally Fitz-Gibbon’s The Patchwork House. He has been happily illustrating children’s books ever since, he says.

Dean has also taken his art program to Bench, Cobble Hill, Khowhemun and Chemainus Elementary schools.