Student artwork stolen from Newport Beach gallery

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT BEACH -- Claire Kohne’s searching eyes scanned the blank,

beige walls of the art gallery.

The 11-year-old girl saw nothing but shiny nails, which were now

sticking out crooked, baring their ugly heads at her.

The sticking point: Two of those nails were missing her paintings.

They were ripped from the walls along with eight others Saturday --

stolen from Sher’s Art Gallery on 29th Street, where Claire has been

learning art from owner Sher Swaim for three years.

“It took me three years to do those two paintings,” said a devastated

Claire on Tuesday. “I was shocked, and I was in tears. I just want my

paintings back.”

The works -- including students’ paintings and ceramic sculptures --

were featured in a show the gallery began March 10. The burglars broke

two ceramics and stole two, Swaim said. She estimates the loss at

$10,000.

Of the 10 paintings stolen, seven were done by children. For many of

those children, it was their first artistic endeavor. For some, the works

were expressions of their innermost feelings captured for the first time

on canvas.

One of Claire’s paintings was a surrealistic acrylic picture of a

dream she had of a man in a submarine fighting sea creatures. The other

was a copy of Paul Cezanne’s “Still Life with a Basket of Apples.”

Swaim showed the glossy picture that Claire had copied for her still

life. On it were oils and colors left over from the palette Claire used

while working on her piece.

Costa Mesa resident Ariel Jacobs lost her vibrant abstract, which was

about 4 feet by 4 feet in size. Jacobs, 18, was inspired by broken eggs

jiggling in a large vat -- an image she was used to seeing at the soup

kitchen where she served breakfast.

“It had a gray background with yellow, orange and red tones,” she said

about her painting. “I probably spent about 70 hours on that.”

Swaim said the incident broke her heart. It happened the morning of

her 49th birthday and marked the first time her gallery has been

burglarized.

“I had a cancerous tumor removed from my leg last month,” she said.

“This hurts me more than the cancer.”

The kids put their hearts into their art, Swaim said.

“Some of those paintings looked like they were done by adults,” she

said. “It was so special to them.”

Jacobs knows that special feeling.

“It’s your first oil painting, you know,” she said. “You may not like

it, but it’s irreplaceable for you. [For] these kids, it’s the first

thing they’ve done out of their heads, used their imagination as artists.

It’s a great feeling that’s gone forever.”

The hurt is no less for an adult, said Sharon Dion of Corona del Mar,

who lost three paintings, including a portrait of her daughter, Jackie.

“It’s so emotional because that piece was personal for me,” she said.

“I was going to give it to my daughter. What could it mean to the person

who took it?”

For Lacy Bryant, 14, the emotions swing from shock and sadness to

anger. She lost her painting, which was a Monet copy.

“It was the picture of a park after rain -- clouds in the sky, trees,

people walking,” she said.

The work, her first oil, gave her courage and confidence to pursue

art, she said.

“It’s so wrong,” she said. “How dare a person take away something that

means so much to me and my family?”

Swaim asked her students to go through the tough job of putting a

price on their works to collect insurance.

“At least the money will reimburse their parents for the cost they’ve

incurred,” she said. “But I’d rather get the paintings back than cut

checks. The paintings belong with the kids.”