MATTAPOISETT – Before the big tent at Shipyard Park fills with food and crowds of people for this year’s Harbordays festivities, it was stocked with 41 paintings of jellyfish – and each one looked different.

Jillian Yates, an instructor with New Bedford-based Painting at Splash, led a kids paint afternoon on Sunday, July 14 and taught a tent of youngsters how to paint glow-in-the-dark jellyfish.

“I’m going to walk you through step-by-step how to paint this,” she told the group. “But I encourage you to add in your own personal touches to the painting.”

And while many jellyfish came out looking like the example painted by Yates before the class, others went a little off-book.

Five-and-a-half-year-old Maggie Patten, added a little smile and rainbow tentacles to her jellyfish painting to make it unique. According to Maggie, her jellyfish is named Bubbles.

Seven-year-olds Daisy Donovan, Nixon Forcier and Henry Robert all named their jellyfish Jelly.

Nixon added lots of bright dots to make his piece unique and Henry made his jellyfish “cartoonish” to make it special.

Daisy included two yellow fish and a little heart because “these two fish love the jellyfish,” she said.

Nora Dawicki, 5, didn’t know her jellyfish’s name, but she did know that it was “a mommy jellyfish,” which is why it’s so big, she said.

According to Yates, she likes to “keep it fresh” with the subjects of her painting lessons. “We like to do things that excite kids … There’s nothing that gets kids excited about activities more than something you don’t see everyday.”

Yates will return to Shipyard Park on Thursday, July 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. for “Painting in the Park.” Attendees must pre-register online. 

For a full schedule of Harbor Days activities, visit sippicanweektoday.com.