When art students exhibit their efforts together with their teacher it reveals a great deal about the learning environment. If the pupils' work mirrors the teacher's style or if all the work looks the same, then the class room is a hierarchical space where a 'do as I do' attitude prevails. This may work in a driving school where rules of the road must be uniform but it can be very inhibiting in a painting class. But when there is a variety of styles, all at a high level of competency, it suggests an atmosphere where individuals are not only allowed, but encouraged, to find their own creative spirit. At first glance I couldn't tell which paintings were the instructor's and which were executed by the students which tells me  that Alpha Studios, where these artists develop their skills, is definitely not a driving school.

Wendy Vincent shows skills in different media and styles.  For example Bali and Beyond in oil is a traditional still life, realistically rendered in warm hues with a smooth surface, while her The Garden in acrylic is an impressionist depiction of a cool respite on a hot day.  Vincent understands light on her subject and obviously enjoys playing with the qualities of her media.

Kate Petty and Patricia Holland obviously enjoy the water colour medium, and they handle it well.  I particularly like Petty's carefree concoctions of wash and stencilling in Dance of the Leaves and Oasis in Autumn.  Each evokes a mood in nature.  Holland can contain her wash within fine black lines in well-drawn images, as evidenced in The Lady of Matisse, or she can set the wash free to dance with spontaneous bold black marks, as noted in her fine abstract series The Scorched Earth.

John Baldock works with water colour wash and ink. Like the others, he too can turn his hand to many subjects and adjust his style accordingly.  Two works, The Cathedral and The Ritual, offer images that suggest a ceremony in some 'holy' place.  The former, an excellent study in the tonal varieties of green and yellow, present robed figures under a vast decorative gothic arch.  The latter uses more colours while the figures, although more defined, are equally ambiguous. We are unsure of the activity in this exotic environment, if it is ancient or contemporary, holy or unholy.

So which works are by the instructor and which by the students?  It hardly matters, I would venture to say they are all in a shared learning space, each absorbing what they want or need to develop their own creative ends.