Speed painter dazzles students, brings hope

CFP CORRESPONDENT

NORTHBOROUGH - Rob Surette has speed painted all over the country, appeared on national television many times and custom painted for celebrities, but he always enjoys returning to St. Bernadette School.
Mr. Surette dazzled students and faculty with his speed painting presentation and inspirational talk, music and videos at St. Bernadette School on Feb. 2. It was his fifth visit to the school and his first since  the pandemic.
St. Bernadette scheduled him during Catholic Schools Week as a treat for the 390 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. While sitting on the floor, the s tudents cheered throughout his hour-long performance on the stage of the school’s Charbonneau Activity Center.
“It’s the virtue of hope jumping off the stage,” said Father Ronald G. Falco, St. Bernadette Parish pastor. “It is incredible energy. To instill hope in the hearts of these kids is just amazing.”
Mr. Surette, 51, of Andover,  has known St. Bernadette principal Deborah O’Neil for nearly 25 years, since his mother, Irene, taught computer science at St. Peter School in Cambridge when Mrs. O’Neil was principal there.
“She believes in me and I appreciate it,” Mr. Surette said of Mrs. O’Neil. He’s custom painted portraits for President Barack Obama, Beyoncé, Andrea Bocelli, Julie Andrews and Arnold Schwarzenegger among others. For the past decade, he has spent about half his time working as an artist for the Walt Disney Company, but he still speed paints at schools. He’s painted at more than 4,000 schools over the years, including at six Catholic schools during Catholic Schools Week this month.
Mr. Surette left in the middle of an art festival at Disney World to perform during Catholic Schools Week.
“I told Disney I had to come home because the Catholic schools were all relying on me. I couldn’t put them off. I feel that would be like selling out,” he said.
Mr. Surette, a parishioner at St. Michael Parish in North Andover, inspires the students with his motivational performance, music and videos and the students energize him with their cheers.
“This is more fulfilling,” he said, “because it’s real people. I get to reach their hearts.”
A first-grade girl was so moved, she broke down in tears and Mr. Surette comforted her after his show.
“I want to shake people up,” he said. “I want to have an impact because I want this to be powerful. I’m only here for one hour so I don’t want to show that the world is all puppies and rainbows. So, I show them life has ups and downs.”
That may be true, but Mr. Surette’s main goal is to encourage his young audience that they could overcome anything. He showed them videos of people helping others in need while he painted.
“It was almost mesmerizing at one point,” said eighth-grader Sam Erlandson, 13, of Marlborough. “He did it all so fast, but it was also organized and thought out before he would actually put any paint on the canvas. It was stunning.”
Mr. Surette’s uplifting message hit home with the students.
“How you can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it,” Sam said, “and actually believe you can do it yourself.”
“I thought it was really cool, “said eighth-grader Lauren Staunton, 13, of Northborough, “because if you set your mind to it, you can do anything. If you trust God, you can do it. I think he has a lot of faith in God and he knows that he can do it with him by his side.”
With brushes and his hands, Mr. Surette painted portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., each within just a few minutes. The audience couldn’t determine who he was painting until he was nearly finished, especially Dr. King because he painted him upside down before turning him right-side up.
Mr. Surette also showed several paintings he had finished elsewhere, including those of Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks, Pope John Paul II, Tom Brady and Jesus. He ended his performance by giving the school a painting he had done of St. Bernadette from a photo Mrs. O’Neil had given him.
“There are a lot of different faiths here,” Mr. Surette said. “So, I’m here to reach a universal audience about kindness and respect and self-empowerment, knowing that you’re special, you’re on earth for a reason, you’re smarter than people think. Those are my messages.”
Mrs. O’Neil said several ethnic groups are represented in the school’s student population and she estimated that non-Catholics account for more than 40 percent.
In addition to Father Falco, four other priests from parishes of St. Bernadette students accepted invitations to view Mr. Surette’s performance: Father Anthony Mpagi, pastor at Our Lady of Hope in Grafton, Father Diego Buritica, pastor at St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Westborough, Father Edward Niccolls, pastor at St. George Parish in Worcester, and Father Miguel Pagan, associate pastor at St. George.
St. Bernadette already had eight Surette paintings from prior visits and they are displayed throughout the school.
Catholic Schools Week means a great deal to Father Falco.
“It’s a national celebration of excellence,” he said, “that our Catholic faith influences this country in great ways. All of our universities, our colleges, our hospitals, the way we take care of young people from in-need families and our elementary schools, our high schools. It’s just a great influence. We celebrate this excellence and it is excellence that really puts God central in the celebration every single day for an entire week.”
Mrs. O’Neil has two main goals for her students.
“I want them to know that they are loved by God,” Mrs. O’Neil said, “because in essence we all believe in that higher being. We might call him different things, but that is what grounds us. I also want them to go out into the world proud of who they are and accepting of others.”
Mr. Surette’s performance fit perfectly with that message.