Director Ann Hamilton's teaching form incorporates traditional and experimental methodology. "My approach includes both the psychological and stylistic. Getting to know my students and what mediums they use are important elements of this process. I have to get inside their heads and hearts in order to help them bring out, through techniques, their styles. In order to do this; I must first learn what my students want to accomplish. Our time together is focused on this expectation. "Many years ago, while researching the artist, Georgia O'Keefe, I learned the importance of being true to one's self in the creative process. Through O'Keefe's words "...at least, I can paint what I want to," I gained self-assurance as an artist. It was this confidence that convinced me to concentrate on teaching my students to express themselves, not someone else, through their art.

 "My students say they learn the most by watching me work. Because artists are more visual, seeing, rather than listening or reading, is a more efficient way of learning.

"My style is that of allowing the subject matter of the painting to direct me. I have an idea, such as a landscape or a seascape, but the painting, like a work of fiction in a literary piece, takes on a life of its' own. It often appears to be telling me what to do. This is what challenges me most about painting. 

"When I place, pour, paint, colors onto paper, canvas, or panel, a vision of the painting soon begins to take shape in my mind. Once I decide on a focal point, the development of the painting proceeds much like that of the development of characters in a work of fiction. Whether it's in the classroom, my studio, or during workshops that I conduct, I am always being surprised. More than twenty years of experience have trained me to make most of the surprises joyful results. And I love to teach others how to free themselves up to better enjoy the act of creating in their own way."--Ann Hamilton