Last modified: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:03 AM EDT Alex Oliveira of Fall River and Viola Gianetti of Seekonk look over a painting students and seniors worked on together for the 14th annual Intergenerational Art Therapy Show. (Staff photo by Mike George) Art for the ages BY SUSAN LaHOUD / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF It was an array of art of the ages - works by teenagers and the more mature. The 14th annual Intergenerational Art Therapy Show was recently held in the building at Arcade Avenue and Pleasant Street, home to the Council on Aging and the South Coast Educational Collaborative, a public school. The students involved were from the collaborative's Alternative Center for Learning program. The work on display was a culmination of the efforts by a class of about 25 teenagers and senior citizens. It is led by art therapist Phyllis Corbitt and meets once a week from September to June. The room was packed for the art show, which also included work from an art therapy class for seniors that drew artists, their family members, friends and supporters. "We try a one-on-one approach" with one senior citizen matched with one student, Corbitt explained. "The students get to know the senior population using art as a medium to do that." The senior citizens' works included many landscapes and still lifes, flowers and ocean scenes with ships and lighthouses, while their teenage counterparts largely chose to paint animals, brightly-colored dragons or characters. The generations worked jointly on one large canvas for the show, incorporating an artist's palette and supplies such as paint brushes, an easel mounted with a landscape painting, and flowers in the design. "It's really a mixture of the generations, so that they know what it's like when you're older," says Marge Chapman, 68, of Seekonk. She had on display a painting from a photograph of her son-in-law pulling her granddaughter on a boogie board on a chilly day at White Horse Beach. Zack Fair, 17, of North Attleboro, said he definitely benefited from working with senior citizens. He created an acrylic of a wolf with the warm orange glow of the moon in the sky, which he said he traced from a photograph onto a canvas. It was his first time in the program. Fair said he leaned heavily on Corbitt and senior artist Norman Bowlin. "They gave me a lot of help." Fair said, his mother at his side admiring his work. "I didn't think I would make it through this. "I didn't believe it would come out as well as it did." SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.