BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) – Newcomer Marla Olmstead is receiving high praise in some corners of the art world. Critics describe her modernist paintings as laden with emotion. They rave how she makes colors interact with such intensity. Her pieces have already sold for as much as $15,000.

For now, though, 4-year-old Marla is more interested in making friends in her pre-K class and playing with her little brother Zane.

This shy little blonde has shot past loose-leaf paper on the refrigerator to giant canvases hanging in art galleries, studios and other people’s homes.

“Realistically, we didn’t envision anything coming from it. Except it was fun for us, fun for Marla,” said Laura Olmstead, Marla’s mother.

While there are skeptics who challenge her authorship, and critics who may debase abstract art, gallery owner Anthony Brunelli said there should be no argument about Marla’s talent.

“She builds her paintings in layers. Children don’t do that. She starts with big swatches of colors and then adds details and accents onto that. That’s what is so impressive and beyond what other children do,” said Brunelli, who gave Marla her first show in August.

“She paints with emotion,” Brunelli said.

There have been other child artists: Alexandra Nechita, now 18, a Romanian who immigrated to the United States, began painting when she was around the same age as Marla. Dubbed the “child Picasso” by critics, her paintings have brought in more than $1.5 million. Before he was 10, Beso Kazaishvili, of the Republic of Georgia, also now 18, had earned $150,000 for his paintings and been compared to Salvador Dali.

Marla’s works are filled with blazing blends of colors, texture and depth.

Buzz Spector, chairman of Cornell University’s Department of Art, said Marla’s “vision and process, that’s exceptional,” but that many children provided with the right materials and influences can produce surprisingly complicated abstract art pieces.

Marla’s parents forbid words like genius and prodigy to describe Marla.

Too much pressure.

Besides her little brother, Marla says she loves flowers, pigs and the color yellow. She is learning to spell and count. It takes her time to warm up to strangers but if she likes you, she greets you with tickles. She also is cautious, strong-willed, and an unlikely star, her parents say.

Mark has painted since high school and Laura has done some writing. Laura has an aunt and cousin in France who are artists.

About two years ago, Mark picked up his brushes again after a long hiatus and began a portrait of his wife. Marla was 2.

“Any time I wanted to paint, she wanted to paint. It became more her passion than my passion. It’s always fun for her. Soon, I became her assistant,” he said.

The Olmsteads gave one of Marla’s 11-inch-by-14-inch paintings to a friend, Andy Stevens, who owns a coffeehouse in downtown Binghamton, a city of 47,400 lodged between the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers that gave birth to IBM, Link Aviation and Endicott-Johnson but whose factories have long since been reduced by lean economic times.

Stevens thought it would be fun to hang some of Marla’s pieces in his cafe.

“We thought they were pretty. We were proud,” said Laura. “We honestly didn’t think it was beyond anything any other 3-year-old would do.”

Laura remembered Marla in a diaper as she covered a 3-foot-by-4-foot canvas with strokes of paint. Mark held her over the fabric so her little arms could reach the middle.

The canvas and 13 smaller paintings were hanging in Stevens’ coffeehouse only a short time before he called to tell Laura people wanted to buy them.

“I was laughing and thought it was funny because these people didn’t know a child had done it,” Laura said.

In disbelief, she set the “ridiculous and exorbitant price” of $250 for the canvas piece and $35 for the smaller ones.

A few hours later, Stevens called back to say someone had bought the canvas painting and three of the others. Delighted and stunned, Laura called everyone in the family.

Word spread, and more of the paintings began to sell. In August, Brunelli gave Marla her own show. Appropriately, it was titled “Four.” The response overwhelmed the Olmsteads, who suddenly found themselves negotiating with national television news and entertainment programs.

To date, Marla has sold nearly three dozen paintings. The Olmsteads have put all the money into a college fund.

Marla keeps no regular or daily painting schedule. She paints only when she wants to, working on a piece sometimes over several sessions.

“Painting is a three to four hour commitment by the time we get everything out and set up, paint and then put it all away and get everything – and I mean everything, the area, the brushes, Marla – cleaned up,” her mother said. Marla paints with her fingers, spatulas, brushes, and plastic mustard and ketchup bottles.

The Olmsteads try to preserve as much of a normal life as they can. They don’t allow her to be photographed or filmed at school. They rarely allow reporters into their home. Only once have they allowed anyone to videotape Marla’s painting sessions.

“We are not going to let anyone turn her into a circus act,” said Laura.

“Right now, painting is fun for her. That’s why she does it. She likes the act of painting. She likes the messiness. The colors,” Laura said. “When she’s finished with a piece, there’s no ownership of if. She could care less about it. Her bear and her blanket are more important to her. We don’t want to spoil the fun of painting by turning it into something that’s unpleasant.”

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