WILTON – For the second time, Artist-in-Residence Lizz Van Saun of Kast Hill Studio in Hopkinton, assisted the students at Florence Rideout Elementary School create a glass and ceramic three-part mural. On Feb. 5 it was unveiled for the students, staff, and parents to see. In 2016, the students created a mural featuring the newly chosen school mascot, a red fox, which hangs inside the school.

The unveiling was held at the beginning of the school with the entire population seated near the front entrance.

“We chose the theme local birds,” art teacher Greg Lamers said at the unveiling. “Now we have students from two towns, and we wanted something common to both Wilton and Lyndeborough.”

Physically the two towns have little in common to choose from, he said..

The murals shine with the red of a large cardinal, the bright blue of jays, and a gold finch as well as a variety of others. The students researched each bird used.

“We wanted bright colors,” Van Saun said.

“The kids worked very hard,” Lamers said, “and we got to see all of the kids. Everyone (in the school) got to put in a piece. A mosaic is a community project,” he added. “I saw a lot of communication. It’s a symbol of what a community can do together.”

Van Saun began making murals in 2002 and has been traveling around the state since 2007 teaching others to make them. Last year, the year of Concord’s 250th anniversary, she and many visitors created a mural of the state house dome, a Concord Coach, and other landmarks as a gift to the city.

She is a teacher with the N.H. Council on the Arts and is a member of the American Mosaic Artists and the N.H. Learning Network.

She can by found on line at Kast Hill Studio.