WESTMINSTER, Calif. — To start painting, they dip from a palette of four colors. Black, blue, white and yellow. Swirling the bold shades, they create suns and stars and clouds, dotting the crisp paper with whisper-soft leaves and long, toothy animals.

At one table a second-grader hunkers down and calls her work “a secret.” At another, a favorite shade and shape emerge in the form of a teal ocean. Yet another: a ruby shinier than gems and browns deeper than chocolates.

“I need green,” one 9-year-old pipes up. “Not just any green, help me get something like the brightest trees.” A volunteer from the army of volunteers suggests that he mix it. And so begins the search for more “necessary ingredients,” as the boys and girls describe it when they gathered this past Saturday morning in Little Saigon for the fourth annual Autumn Moon Festival art contest.

Tết Trung Thu is a holiday set aside to give thanks, to spend time with loved ones and eat plenty of sweets. Yet to organizers from the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association, it’s also a moment to find inspiration amid an age-old celebration.

“Put your spirit into it,” urges Jenni Trang Lê, event co-chair along with Hiệp Nguyễn, pushing kindergartners with shorter attention spans. “If you think you’re done, and only five minutes have passed, you’re not done,” she adds. “The best thing about paint is you can always paint over it. If you don’t see what you want before your eyes, do it over, and do it using the power of imagination.”

Budding artists, packed into a room of more than 300, may agree.

Nguoi Viet 2 mingled with the Southern California crowd inside the Người Việt Daily News, and here’s what we heard, both about the children’s art and their interpretation of the holiday:

Cristina Lâm, 10, of Santa Ana:
“Drawing, it’s a hobby of mine. Last year I didn’t want to come, but this year I wanted to try. I think I could win. People say they like what I draw. I usually look at stuff around me to come up with the idea of what I am going to draw.”

John Phan, 12, of Garden Grove:
“I like art. I believe that creativity is not creativity unless you do it on the spot. I prefer to draw it in my head instead of planning first. I believe that’s what it’s all about.”

Kevin Phan, 10, of Garden Grove:
“I am here because it’s fun, and I get to meet friends from a long time ago. I like drawing dragons. It’s like theory. If you draw fire, it is hard to make it look like fire. If you make scales, you need to make them shiny. I will try.”

Kathleen Ngọc Trần, 11, of Santa Ana:
“I will draw about the guy in a Vietnamese fairy tale who gets stuck on the moon. I want to show everyone my Vietnamese heritage.”

Phương Quỳnh Nguyễn, 12, of Garden Grove:
“To celebrate, we go out to dinner together or eat at home. We hang around the house with my grandparents, aunt, uncles and cousins. The grownups tell us stories and their experiences of the past. These are happy times, and no matter what happens in the world, we’re still happy because we have our family.”

Hồ Phương-Quỳnh Arlene, 13, of Garden Grove:
“I’m here because I realize how important this is to my parents. They want us to know our culture.”

Martin Phạm, 11, of Garden Grove:
“The main reason I’m here is my mom wants me to participate, but also because I like to draw. The festival means that I get to spend more time with my family and I get the moon cakes.”

Jenny Trần, 11, of Garden Grove:
“Yeah, we celebrate the festival. It’s a special time because that’s when you have family sitting together and having fun and talking about the past.”

Phương Vũ, 12, San Diego:
“At home, drawing is a regular activity in our family. I don’t know anything about the festival because in Japan (where she grew up), there is no such thing as a moon festival. I wanted to do this for the fun of it.”

• And the winners are... (Thursday, October 05, 2006 4:34:01 PM)