STANTON - The children have left the school, but a bright flame of creativity remains.

The brick schoolhouse at the end of Stanton's business street embraced the last of the town's elementary children this spring. They will all go to the Center school in the fall.

There is the melancholy and the ghostly ring of children's voices that go with that final departure, but the lights still burn in the far end of the building.

The public is invited to an art exhibit by three Stanton artists from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday in the school's east wing.

One of the artists, Rob Leitner, has a studio in that end of the school building, which he's been leasing from the district in the time since Stanton's upper grades left to join Center in a district consolidation.

Leitner has a dream studio there, with large north-facing windows and enough room to keep 15 easels going, if he wants to.

He also teaches there and calls the space Great Plains Fine Arts Center. One of his students, Tana Rangel, will join in the exhibit.

A third Stanton artist, Ray Kerns, will display several of his stained glass works, also. Kerns work is not for sale, but his prairie-style glass with muted tones and linear shapes draws on the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is well worth viewing.

Leitner and Rangel will sell their work at the exhibit.

Rangel is making her re-debut into the art world.

She painted years back, but set her brushes aside 18 years ago when she went to work as a Mercer County Sheriff's dispatcher and started shift work.

In the past year, she started taking lessons from Leitner and expanded her skills and the media she uses to include graphite, acrylics and silverpoint.

She favors wildlife and in a silverpoint drawing of a cluster of wild horses shows she has reached a skill level of artistic departure, Leitner says.

He is an old pair of hands in the art world, with a master's of fine arts degree and European art studies on his palate.

The exhibit features perhaps 30 of his pieces, ranging from fanciful yet detailed renderings of medieval cathedrals, to scenes from North Dakota, to delicate garden flowers, to some animal studies, primarily cats with glowing green eyes.

Leitner calls himself a "classical realist" in style and says he leaves a lot of negative space in his art, allowing the viewer to fill it in with his own interpretation.

Among the media he works in is silverpoint, a tool that looks a lot like a common penny nail. Its pencil-like mark can't be erased and takes on a sepia patina over time.

The silverpoint lends itself to his concept of negative space especially well and his renderings of lily pads, tiger lilies and hollyhocks are some of his best examples of that style.

Leitner is planning another public exhibit in July to show his new works that are heavily influenced by the Stanton Knife River Indian villages and Mandan culture, as well as the military leaders and scouts of the day.

Anyone who can't make this weekend's exhibit can go to the school between noon and 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, when it will be open during public library hours.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)