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First Posted: 6/5/2013

It’s another way of looking at an almost iconic piece of art.

In the community mural inspired by Henri Matisse’s “The Goldfish,” the colors will be reversed – the water will be orange and the fish shades of blue and green. Instead of goldfish, they are meant to represent brook trout.

This mural is, after all, meant to call attention to the upcoming RiverFest along the Susquehanna River June 21 through 23. The color reversal was the inspiration of lawyer and painter Jan Lokuta.

Lokuta, of Milford, is again directing the painting, which began Saturday. The second painting session for children 3 years and older begins at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Barnes & Noble Wilkes-King’s Bookstore just off Public Square. It’s scheduled to go until 2 p.m., but the bookstore’s manager, John Chaump, said it might wrap up by about noon.

“Jan Lokuta, is the artist; he comes and does it free of charge,” Chaump said. “He brings two panels, and he usually does freehand sketch ahead of time.”

The children who show up will paint the sketches.

“He’ll help them paint and show them what to do,” Chaump said.

The bookstore hosts the mural paintings in the front of the store where it normally would hold its story time in that time slot.

“This time we’re also going be going to RiverFest to set up story time on June 22 from noon to 2,” Chaump said.

Lokuta admits the turnout for the first mural-painting session last weekend wasn’t so great, “but I had a lot of very enthusiastic children and some enthusiastic adults.”

Usually, there are more the second week, he said, including some who attended the first Saturday. The finished mural, measuring 8 feet by 2 feet, will stay at Barnes & Noble, which also houses three panels done in past years, two of them done at Riverfest.

The community-mural project has been part of an ongoing partnership between the Riverfront Parks Committee and Barnes & Noble.

“This is the fifth year we’ve done the kids art project in the weeks leading up to RiverFest,” Lokuta said. “This is really meant to get people interested, really get children interested in getting out to see what can be seen on the river.”

Lokuta, meanwhile, has been doing these kinds of projects for years and art work at RiverFest since 2008.

He will work with children on a mural on the Friday evening of RiverFest at the River Common and the next afternoon at Nesbitt Park, he said.