With dexterity and imagination, one young artist records the teeming life of Whidbey and beyond.

The Dog House Tavern, Choochokam Arts and other celebration-worthy island familiarities will live on eternally thanks to Langley Middle School sixth-grader Matthew Holmberg.

The 11-year-old artist won “Best in Class” last year at the Island County Fair for his colorful portrait of the historic Langley tavern.

Inspired by the positive response, Matthew is busy creating a series of drawings that focus on other landmarks of the Village by the Sea, including the Langley Library and the Clyde Theatre. The art will be offered for sale on sets of cards, prints and posters on his Web site to help pay for his continuing art education.

His work continues to be noticed.

Matthew took first-runner-up honors in the recent Choochokam Arts poster contest with his whimsical depiction of an artistic goddess hanging on a rising star in a midnight-blue sky, her long rainbow-colored dress festooned with the natural wonders of Whidbey.

Matthew also placed second in this year’s Good Cheer art contest and was honored to create the art to be printed on the thank-you notes of his fifth-grade class featuring an orca á la Holmberg.

But the consistent second-place label has got the young artist down of late, and he said he thinks that maybe there should be separate contests for those who don’t use computers to create posters.

“It’s harder to do pure art without any help from the computer. They should change the rules,” Matthew said.

In spite of the letdown, this artist is a fighter.

“I’ll try again next year, and I’ll win,” he said.

Computer-pumped artists beware, even at the ripe old age of 11, Matthew has many years of drawing experience under his belt already.

“Matthew has been drawing since he could hold a pencil,” said his grandmother, Ann Spink.

“When he was a toddler he was wiggly in church so we gave him a pad of paper and a pencil. People would lean over the pew to watch him draw.”

Matthew said he can draw and paint with just about any media. That includes charcoal, pen, pencil, watercolor, oil pastels and, his favorite, Sharpies. His favorite color is lime green.

Having studied through the MonArt method and most recently with Bellevue Art Museum teacher Julie Hammerquist, a practitioner of the form, Matthew sees drawing as something to be taken seriously.

“My friends at school saw my work on my Web site and said, ‘Hey, nice artwork, Matthew.’ That made me feel good,” he said.

Art at school is a good thing, he added, but far too short of a class period and therefore a big rush to get anything done. As he enters middle school, Matthew said he’s hoping for a good art teacher and the time to create something new.

Presently, he’s been at work on a portrait of a dark blue 1964½ Ford Mustang with a white convertible top.

“I’m using watercolor and Sharpies for that. It’s really pretty,” the young artist noted.

And although he has plenty of other interests, such as reading (“I’m on the fifth book of the Lord of the Rings”), playing in the band and basketball, art is the main thing for Matthew.

“I’d like to work for Disney as an animator,” he said. Pixar and Microsoft would also be acceptable employers, he added.

When asked how he chooses his subject matter, Matthew said he’s not particular.

“I just imagine things, or I’ll print things out on the computer and then draw them from the photograph.”

Indeed, a look at Matthew’s Web site reveals an array of imaginative portraits, some whimsical, some realistic, some political but all thoughtful, inventive and skillful.

For this young artist, the world of art and its possibilities are endless.

“Art makes me think I can invent something new. It’s good for me because there is no other thing in the world like what I make.”

To see more of Matthew’s work, click here .