Over Christmas vacation, Niepoort asked if she could paint a mural in one of the stairways at Ipswich High School. Niepoort is a gifted young painter - art teacher Kirsten Losee says she's the most talented student she's ever had - but she had never attempted a mural before.

"I'm not a landscape painter, and I'm not an acrylic artist," Niepoort said, but Principal Barry Cahill gave the go-ahead.

The result was a dazzling depiction of Crane Beach at sunset, with Plum Island on the horizon. The mural is about 13 feet wide by 9 feet tall, and Niepoort estimates it took her 80 to 100 hours to complete, all donated time.

"I wanted to leave something behind at the school," she says - and there was more to come.

Cahill and middle school Principal Cheryl Forster were so impressed with the work they offered to pay Niepoort to paint murals in the other three stairways in the two schools this summer.

Yesterday afternoon, she was finishing the last of them under a deadline - she's leaving Monday morning for Denmark, where she'll be working for UNICEF.

All of the murals are of Crane Beach or the Ipswich River. The last one is more new ground for Niepoort, who's painting her Choate Bridge mural in black and white.

The subjects of the paintings reflect the principals' tastes as much as Niepoort's, and that's one reason she doesn't see herself making her living as a painter, although Cahill and Forster shouldn't take that the wrong way.

"It's really been the perfect summer job," Niepoort says. "I couldn't have asked for anything better."

She has had to learn to work with other people telling her what they want, however, and she can't envision a lifetime of that.

"I love painting on my own," she says. "Once you have to do it, it takes the fun out of it."

Niepoort, 19, moved to Ipswich from Denmark when she was 11. She's a little older than many graduates - Danish children start school a year later than Americans.

Her interest in art developed early, watching her father, a professional artist, at work.

"But I didn't find myself and my art until high school," she says.

She's taking a year off before returning to the classroom. When she gets back from Denmark around Christmas, she's planning to go to the Galapagos Islands, where she hopes to work as an art and English as a Second Language instructor.

After that, she plans to attend the University of San Francisco.

"I love the city, and it's a nice school," she says. "It's not too big, and it's not too small."

Losee said the art department would like to see more student works on the walls of the schools, and she can only hope to find other artists with Niepoort's talent.

"I'm an adult and a professional, and I can't do this," Losee says as she admires Niepoort's Choate Bridge mural.

Completing the three murals has meant spending long nights at the school, where Niepoort is often at work until 10 or 11 o'clock. But she has a boom box and a large selection of CDs for company, and she paints with a smile on her face.

"Time just flies," she says.