ART / SNEAK PEEK : BUSY ARTIST HAS IT COVERED.

When friends visit artist Synthia Saint James, they frequently bring their progeny along. The kids are no dummies. By the end of the visit, they know it's likely that Saint James will have broken out her sketchbooks and joined them on the floor for an impromptu coloring session.

``They usually ask where my toys are,'' says Saint James, letting out one of her bright, periodic laughs.

By her Froot Loops-colored palette and undulating, almost musical figures, you'd easily guess that Saint James has an affinity for the young and restless. As it happens, she's a distinctive children's book illustrator, with such titles as ``How Mr. Monkey Saw the Whole World'' (Doubleday) to her credit.

``I may be 47, but there's still a lot of that child in me,'' says the self-taught, L.A.-based artist. ``Even though I don't have any children, I have a lot of little friends.''

But she's most prominent as an illustrator of covers for heftier adult tomes such as Alice Walker's ``Trilogy'' and Terry McMillan's best-selling novel, ``Waiting to Exhale.'' You may even have a Saint James artwork sitting on your shelves, placing you in company with collectors Richard Pryor and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr.

Parts Cherokee, Haitian and African-American, Saint James incorporates different painting styles, spiritual rites and folk stories from around the globe into her paintings. Her playful style also has made appearances in commissions for the Mark Taper Forum and the California Afro-American Museum, and in UNICEF greeting cards and a new licensed line of clothes.

Switching constantly from commercial projects to more personal ones, she admits sometimes ``it's hard for me to focus.''

``So what I do is, I do three- or four-mile walks, and then I come home and focus with tunnel vision on whatever I'm working on.''

About 50 of Saint James' pieces, including oils, acrylics, prints and works on paper, will be displayed in a solo exhibition, ``Recent Works,'' at the Third World Art Exchange, 2016 N. Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz, through Dec. 8. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. For information, call [phone].

Drive-by art: This Sunday, all you need is a map, a car in reasonable condition and $10 ($7.50 in advance) to get an intimate view of the bustling Arroyo Seco arts community. Encompassing the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Mount Washington and Eagle Rock, this funky area is home to one of the region's largest concentrations of creative folk.

Sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective, Sunday's self-guided auto tour allows visitors to drop in on artists working in painting, prints, sculpture, neon art, photography and interactive computer art. You can trade shop talk, or simply ogle the historic and/or architecturally arresting artist-occupied homes.

You still have time - though not much - to buy tickets at Random Gallery, 6040 N. Figueroa St. The tour starts at Lummis House, 200 W. Avenue 43. For information, call [phone].

Absent friends: On Dec. 1, galleries large and small around the world will pause to reflect on AIDS' terrible toll on the arts world. Los Angeles will mark the annual ``Day Without Art'' at theaters, museums and performance halls with memorials, educational programs and sundry artistic tributes.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art plans to drape one of its statues in observance of the day. Ditto the J. Paul Getty Museum, which will draw a shroud over its fourth-century B.C. ``Statue of a Victorious Athlete.'' Getty director John Walsh says the museum hopes the gesture will make ``everyone feel the loss of this work of art, and to take a moment to consider the ways in which AIDS affects their own lives.'' Proceeds from museum bookstore sales Dec. 1 will be donated to Project Angel Food, which ministers to AIDS patients in metropolitan Los Angeles.

At the UCLA Armand Museum of Art and Cultural Center, there'll be continuous screenings of four AIDS-related videos, plus an installation by artist Karen Atkinson titled ``For the Time Being ...'' The project, which has toured throughout the Southland, consists of altered parking meters which, at the drop of a coin, play taped messages from artists and writers with HIV/AIDS and their friends and families.

Admission to the Armand Hammer is free that day; hours are 11 a.m to 5 p.m. The museum is at 10899 Wilshire Blvd. For information, call [phone].

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Photo: Sunday's self-guided auto tour of the Arroyo Seco arts community includes a visit to Chaz Bojorquez's Mount Washington studio.