5th grade had recently come back from camp when we started this project. I asked them what they liked doing at camp (hoping their answers would loosely follow what Jen Aranyi draws about and paints.)

Archery, fishing, canoeing, hiking, and hanging out topped their lists. Good! I told them about another contemporary artist we’d be getting to know, Jen Aranyi.

Her art features the great outdoors with snowy areas and mountains along with streams, tents, trees, and being outdoorsy.

We had a class discussion to talk about what they noticed when they looked at various pieces of Jen Aranyi’s art, and what their connections were.

We brainstormed as a class to think of various ways to finish off their projects once the Sharpied art with painted backgrounds were completed. Their creative solutions were exciting to see.

Here’s a geometric notan inspired background where the stream’s negative space continues its related positive space.

This student added a white colored pencil how effect around his art.

This student transformed her art into a snow globe.

This student layered construction paper into a geometric flag style.

A colored pencil background worked well.

The kids enjoyed working on this and learning about a contemporary artist. We’ll be repeating this.