olar bears in Palmerton? In July? If you were one of the students at the Palmerton Area Library art camp on Friday, that image might not seem so strange.

The class, headed by Paula Zelienka, is one part of a weeklong art camp hosted at the library. Friday’s charcoal polar bear pictures capped off the second session, with three more camps scheduled over the course of the summer.

“We try to work with acrylics, watercolors, pastels, pen and ink, origami and charcoal,” Zelienka said. “We try to expose them to a lot of different mediums so that we can explore those areas.”

Zelienka, along with her assistant and former student Stacy Ahner, take the kids on a step-by-step adventure through an art project each morning.

“Everything’s different, every week, because we have children who like to come every week,” Zelienka said.

While last week’s campers got to experiment with acrylic daisy paintings and charcoal polar bears, this week will feature more patriotic artwork to coincide with July Fourth. Expect flags, fireworks and plenty of red, white and blue.

Ahner said that she loves the atmosphere of the class, where students get a solid foundation in the arts while still having an opportunity to make their projects their own.

“I enjoy watching them figure out their own style,” she said. “They’re all doing the basis of the project the same, but their style is always different. Everyone’s artwork is always different, and I enjoy helping them figure out their own little quirks.”

Lilly Amorim, whose favorite project was the acrylic dandelion painting the class worked on in the beginning of the week, said that she enjoys how Zelienka and Ahner encourage the students to develop their own talents.

“Everyone has their different way, and you don’t get in trouble if you don’t do it ‘right,’” she said. “You get to express yourself, and everyone gets to use their own ideas.”

Other projects included watercolor hedgehogs, silly caricatures and postimpressionist sunsets a la Van Gogh.

On top of teaching technique, Zelienka mixes in a little art history, enriching her students’ understanding of particular artists’ styles and techniques.

We get to explore artists, we get a better view of the world and the artistic talent that is out there. We show work from other artists, and we talk about other artists’ work. We copy famous artists, like Van Gogh or Monet, and talk about their history,” she said.

The passionate painters and imaginative illustrators of the camp relish the opportunity to explore different subjects and mediums that they can take home and display at the end of the day. And judging by their enthusiasm and talent, you should definitely keep an eye out for these budding artists.

“I want to be an artist when I grow up,” Julianna Williams said. “There’s a lot of paintings and canvases that we get to do here that I get to take home.”

For parents interested in enrolling their kids in an upcoming camp, Zelienka can be reached at pzpzpz444@gmail.com.