LEARNING : A Brush With Art : Youngsters who are willing to do a bit of walking can visit galleries with a class to watch creativity in action.

If your kids take an art class from Ron Walker, they will have to use their legs as well as their hands.

Walker, who teaches classes through the Ventura Parks and Recreation Department, has come up with a new way to get kids hooked on art--provided they don’t mind walking a bit.

This fall he is offering a one-of-a-kind class for kids that takes them to some of Ventura’s galleries.

Each week on Thursdays they will meet at the Momentum Gallery in downtown Ventura, then walk to a local gallery. If all goes as Walker hopes, an artist whose work is on display will talk to the kids about his methods and style.

Then the troop of would-be artists will return to the Momentum Gallery, where they will do a project using techniques similar to the ones they have just seen.

Walker will take the kids (ages 8 to 12 years only) to one gallery a week for the six-week course. They will spend about an hour at the gallery and an hour on their art projects.

“All the galleries are within walking distance to the Momentum,” Walker said.

One place Walker has lined up for the kids to see is the Ventura County Museum of History and Art.

The carousel display will still be up, and the kids might do something like soap carvings of horses.

The Buenaventura Art Assn. is another spot on Walker’s gallery list.

He also hopes to take them to Art City, where artists actually work.

“This is the first time this type of class is being done through the recreation department,” Walker said. “It’s got lots of possibilities.”

The idea is to make art more real. “Instead of just sitting there and being artists, we’re going to go into galleries and see what goes on,” he said.

Actually seeing how artists work will have more of an effect on the students than just putting pencil or brush to paper, he thinks.

Walker, 33, should know. He is a professional artist who grew up in Ventura. He works primarily in acrylic paint, doing what he calls neo-Dadaistic stuff. “It’s like a misleading diagram. When someone looks at it, they think it’s specific in its message, but it comes down to meaning nothing. It amuses me.”

*

While we’re on the subject of art, Oxnard College has some class offerings coming up for kids.

Artist Parmalee Duke is teaching two Saturday classes beginning Sept. 5. In the first, running from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., kids will sculpt red clay animals, create Navajo sand paintings and try their hands at printing and painting projects. This is for kids 6 to 8 years old. The cost is $30.

Duke will also run a drawing workshop for kids 8 to 11 years old from 10 to 11 a.m. Students will be encouraged to “stretch their imaginations” while drawing animals, trees and marine life. The cost will be $27.

Older kids, 11 to 15 years, who don’t know their left brain from their right, can find out about it in a drawing class conducted by Doris MacTague.

The class starts Sept. 12 and will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Camarillo Community Center. The fee will be $35.

* WHERE AND WHEN

* Ron Walker’s art class with its walking tour of galleries will be held on consecutive Thursdays, Sept. 24 to Oct. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. Cost will be $40. For more information or to register, call 658-4747.

* For information on classes for kids at Oxnard College, call 986-5822.