When 'Just Pastels' opens at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard tomorrow evening, it will be the seventh annual exhibition by students of professional artist Sharon Wilson — and as much a testament to her dedication as a teacher as it is their enthusiasm for the genre.

Some have been studying with Ms Wilson for many years, while others are neophytes with less than a year's tuition, and it is the latter in particular that she wants the public to engage with during Sunday's official opening.

"They are both excited and nervous about showing their work for the first time, and they are quite new to the whole experience of working and exhibiting, so I hope that when people come to the show they won't see it just as an exhibition, but will take the opportunity to meet the artists and talk to them — especially people who may be considering taking art classes themselves but never had the nerve.

"It is one thing to see the art, but something else to speak with the artists to find out what they are thinking, what it is like taking classes, and if they have exhibited before. I have people who have always wanted to do art, and now they are having this experience. They are not 20 years old or children. Sometimes it takes more courage at a later age to do it."

Since Ms Wilson teaches at home, her classes are small and spread over various days, which means that while students bond with their immediate classmates, they don't necessarily know students from the other classes, so before each annual exhibition she organises a special dinner exclusively for them all so that they can socialise.

The professional artist says that watching classmates bond and develop a camaraderie makes her feel like a mother hen sometimes, but it is also very satisfying.

With only two male students, Ms Wilson also enjoys watching them interact in a class of mainly women. Equally, she finds interesting the various topics and issues women discuss in all-female classes as they work.

Each class of between seven and eight students is three hours long, and no one is under age 30.

"In a sense they mentor each other, not specifically for art, but through the course of a year of being together and working together they forge certain kinds of relationships," Ms Wilson says. "It is very satisfying for me, otherwise I wouldn't do it."

As a teacher, her approach is to concentrate on the learning process rather than the end result because she says "it takes years before we are really and truly satisfied".

"Looking back 25 years I can see it is the total learning process which is colouring the world. (The students) see things they didn't see before."

• Tomorrow's official opening of 'Just Pastels VII' is from 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. For further information see www.artbermuda.bm, e-mail artcentre@ibl.bm or telephone 234-2809.