Westmont students are expressing their love for painting with a historic perspective on the 1960s vibe of peace and love.

The students have been working on painting an old Volkswagen van for the last few weeks as part of the Taste of Westmont’s theme of the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival.

Westmont village spokesman Larry McIntyre said the project allows students to express their artistic ability and learn about Woodstock.

“We thought with the Woodstock theme for this year’s Taste, it would be a perfect way for students to participate,” McIntyre said.

The van is expected to be completed and will be on display at the 14th annual Taste of Westmont, which will be held downtown July 10 through 12 along Cass Avenue.

Sharon Macak of the Westmont Park District has been serving as one of the advisers for the art project.

She said about 10 students from Westview Hills Middle School and Westmont High School have been working on the project each week at the Crusin’ Night car show, held downtown each Thursday evening.

Westview Hills Middle School art teacher Josh Vance said to inspire the students, he put together a big book of images from Woodstock, with peace signs, doves, flowers, colors and a list of the bands that played.

“I told them not to copy these images but to use them to understand what we are looking for and to create their own images based on them,” Vance said.

Before being painted, the van needed to be sanded down and primed. Macak said that taught the students preparation is needed before a paint project.

“I don’t think some of the kids were expecting it would take this long,” she said.

With one of the Crusin’ Nights being rained out, and since there is only one more scheduled before the Taste, the students have been hard at work trying to finish the van in time for the event.

“Hopefully, we’ll get it done in time,” Vance said. “They have been working hard on this the past couple of weeks.”

Macak said that each year the village tries to incorporate some kind of art project into the Taste of Westmont. Last year, an artist created a mural for the event and children were able to add to the mural during the Taste.

Vance said he planned a mural project during the summer for the students to paint. But due to a new roof being installed at the school, no one has been granted access to the building. This project has served as a substitute.

“Most of these students graduated this year, so it’s nice they came back to work on this project,” Vance said. “As they have been working on this the past few weeks, they are seeing a lot of interest building from people who have seen it thus far, and they are really getting excited about it now.”