Art is often subjective, as students at Southside School in Niles learned Thursday morning.

There’s no perfect way to paint a picture, even if everyone is working to recreate the same scene of a tree set to moonlight.

“They all looked great,” said Roberta Craig, director of the school’s SOAR program.

Sixty-four Southside students participated in the half-day painting exercise taught by Jessica Kauffman, of U Can Paint 2 of South Bend, Ind.

The course was made possible by a private donation to the SOAR program at Southside, which is focused on teaching low-incidence special needs students.

Southside doesn’t have a traditional art program, so Thursday’s exercise provided students with a unique activity.

“We wanted to enrich them in the arts,” Craig said.

Students began painting in the morning and were finished before lunch. They were able to take the artwork home.

“Everybody had a great time,” Craig said.