Budding artist draws on vast travel experience

She's been around the world, spending time in exotic tropical places and studying art in some of the world's most recognizable museums. She's had her paintings displayed around the country. And, oh yeah, she's only 10 years old.

Kaitlin Henry's art reflects her world travels, and her influences as a young girl who spent much of her childhood in the tropics. Big flowers, vibrant colors and a warmth that just radiates off the canvas is one way people have described her paintings. Her first showing in the Valley is part of a children's art show at Mead's Coffeehouse this weekend (see Page B14 for more information).

"When she was three, we spent a lot of time in the tropics, and that really influences her paintings now, even though she doesn't really remember being there," said her mother, Anne Henry.

Anne and her husband Erik, along with their four children, have traveled the world because Erik Henry is a pilot for Northwest Airlines. Kaitlin said her personal favorite spots in the world are tropical places they have been, like Hawaii, Guam and Micronesia. Because of her extensive travels, Kaitlin has spent time in museums all around the world, studying art by looking at what the masters have done.

"My backpack always has to have paper and something to draw with in it," she said. "I prefer color pencils."

While at a Pablo Picasso museum in Paris, Kaitlin will literally spend hours looking at two or three paintings, sketching them in her sketchbook. She likes to be totally alone during her time at the museums, but her mother said that isn't possible because, after all, Kaitlin is only 10.

"I usually stay back and shadow her, but let her have the time with the paintings doing what she does," Anne Henry said. "We believe that whatever the kids enjoy, let them enjoy it and let them express themselves through it. That's what Kaitlin does through her art."

Growing up, Kaitlin didn't spend a day in a preschool or nursery school environment, but she did spend a lot of time in jungles, in museums in Florence, Amsterdam and Paris. Her homeschool education includes lessons about art, literature and history, as well as conventional subjects like math, which, Kaitlin is quick to point out, isn't her favorite subject.

She and her siblings studied ancient Rome for one lesson. With dad being a pilot, a field trip to Rome ensued, one in which the kids did all the planning based on their lessons. It's opportunities like that that have made Kaitlin the poised person she is at the young age of 10.

"All kids are artists, but as adults, we have to give them the freedom to express themselves," Anne Henry said. "Art is as simple as expression, and everybody has that in them."