On Sunday afternoon, a local girl scout troop and leaders were surrounded by swirling color and patterns in the meeting room at Lone Tree Library - an artist's view of her universe. Nineteen year old Highlands Ranch painter Olga Alexandra Kaydanov opened a show of her recent paintings, "Space," on Feb. 4, scheduled to run until March 11.

A dozen exuberant same-size canvases in a range of rich, brilliant colors are hung on the room's curving wall, an especially nice way to set off the large works which are filled with curves themselves. Don't miss these when you go to see the show - ask for lights to be turned on if they're not already on.

Paintings are also hung the length of the main reading room, starting above the circulation desk and continuing through the children's section. Some have titles - "Kindred," "Freedom to Elephants," Flowers for Eternity," "A Perfect Moment," "Hell Bird," while many others are " Untitled #_."

While the viewer will recognize some images based on nature and an occasional reference to the human figure, the majority are complex abstract paintings with areas of intense color and heavy black lines and forms which the artist pours onto the canvases.

Paintings fill her parent's Highlands Ranch home where she works at her art almost daily - she says she is taking "a little break" and feeling "bored" with her recent use of almost exclusively primary colors, red, blue, yellow with black lines. Her favorite painting, she says, tends to be "the one she has just finished."

Plant forms appear in paintings and the artist loves to grow plants in her home - her mother says her room is almost a jungle. She thinks of a move to a tropical climate and recalls the softer light and colors she remembers from Russia. Colorado's bright sunlight and constant blue skies seem a bit harsh.

Kaydanov started drawing designs, whimsical figures and other images as a very young child in Minsk and studies in the studio of Richard May at age 5. Her paintings depicting the fantasy world of a youngster with technique of a more mature painter, were shown in the Central Museum of Belorussia. Her work was also shown in Poland, India, and Mozambique.

In 1989, Olga and her family immigrated to the United States and her first solo exhibition was held at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in 1990, when she was nine. She also showed her paintings at the Jewish Community Center and University of Denver Driscoll Center. The family moved to Highlands Ranch and she attended Highlands Ranch High School, where she included some art classes in her schedule. She has a web site at www.Artistandart.com.

Lone Tree Public Library is at 8827 Lone Tree Parkway, at the corner of south Yosemite St.

This article has been reprinted with the writer's approval.