Teachers
Joanna Chalson
Joanna Chalson is a watercolorist and print maker who makes original designs with linoleum and woodcuts. Along with teaching classes in watercolor and drawing, she instructs students in creating paste papers with acrylics and starch.
Lydia Chojnacki
My interest in jewelry started when I was teaching high school art. It was more less a hobby. Eventually I started to use semi-precious and gem stones which made my pieces more sophisticated and elegant. I find the pieces I am producing currently reflect my environment. Having arrived to Hilton Head Island, SC from Chicago, IL in April of 2011, I immediately started incorporating shells, beach colors and the findings characteristic of marine life here on the island.
Diane Dean
Award winning artist, Diane Dean, works in watercolor, acrylic and mixed media/collage. Diane also creates customized reproductions of her artwork in tile and stone, using digital technology.
Janet Dent
Janet Dent is a watercolorist who paints landscape and florals in an impressionistic style. She teaches the importance of good composition and elements of design in her watercolor classes.
Marilyn Dizikes
Marilyn has pursued painting her entire adult life with a B.A. from UCLA and a Masters of Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has had numerous solo and group shows, beginning in 1980 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She freely moves from Abstraction to Realism, always searching for the best way to express an idea. She has taught art in public schools for 25 years.
Fran Hubbell
Photographer Fran Hubbell captures the color and beauty of nature in her hand-printed images. Her classes help students realize the full capability of their camera equipment while improving the composition of their images.
Rosemary Hurkamp
Rosemary Hurkamp works in acrylics and oils, and occasionally in watercolor and clay with miniatures a specialty. She teaches naive folk art in classes for adults and children at the Academy.
Donna Ireton
Donna Ireton creates unique freeform baskets and sculptures from local driftwood, manzanita, redwood, cedar and gourds in designs that enhance the grain, texture and coloration of these natural materials. She teaches pine needle basketry and gourd decorating for the Academy.
Ted Jordan
Ted Jordan holds a B.F.A, an M.A., and an M.F.A. in Fine Art which more than prepared him for working in many areas of the art world from teaching at several universities, living as a painter in New York, and enjoying a long career as an artist with Hallmark Cards. His versatility with most media is extensive from oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, and all drawing media.
Vickie Jourdan
Abstract Artist, Vickie Jourdan is know for her experimental paintings of bold colors and textures. She encourages her students to think outside the box, creating paintings on canvas using big brushes, acrylics, gesso and gel mediums.
Sherry Kahle
Painter, Sculptor, Potter, and Art Teacher, Sherry Kahle has a Master of Arts in Education and a Bachelor’s of Science in Art Therapy. Her teaching methods emphasize on mastering the different clay techniques to create functional pottery.
Mary Kelly
Mary Kelly works in oils, acrylics and watercolor and is also a weaver and spinner. She likes to challenge students to create the paintings and art of their imaginations.
Dennis C. Lake
Dennis Lake has been teaching art in high school and free-lancing with murals, portraits, gilding, and painting of all kinds in the mid-Tennessee region. Now that he has retired and moved to Bluffton, he would like to continue instructing and painting with oils, acrylics and watercolor.
Nancy Mitchell
Nancy Mitchell has created murals, commissioned paintings, faux finishes, as well as hand-painted furniture and montage prints of Hilton Head and Savannah, in a career that has spanned the last Twenty years on Hilton Head Island. Nancy teaches how to work quickly and accurately in oils, while staying loose and in the moment.
Don Nagel
Don Nagel is a strong believer in teaching the four essentials for making a great painting: drawing, composition, value and color. His pastel images range from landscapes to boats and shorescapes. He also teaches Pen & Ink techniques for sketching and finished art.
Joyce Nagel
Joyce Nagel is an enthusiastic and sensitive teacher who stresses drawing, value patterns and color perspective. Her award winning images, in both oil and pastel, range from Hilton Head landscapes and beach people to scenes from her travels to Provence and Tuscany.
Don Nelson
An award winning photographer, Don Nelson teaches image-editing software and printing. He likes to experiment in his digital darkroom, creating photographic images resembling oil and watercolors.
Addison Palmer
South Carolina native Addison Palmer is renowned for his wildlife and landscape paintings. He also does commissioned portraits of people and pets. He currently teaches fundamentals of drawing and painting for the Art Academy in addition to doing workshops for various galleries, organizations and cruise ship lines.
Lynda K Potter
Lynda K. Potter has had a professional career in making and teaching art for over 25 years. Lynda's favorite mediums are watercolor and acrylic, and she helps students to find more creative and soulful approaches to making art.
Betsy Rogers
Betsy Rogers works in silver, gold, copper, brass and semi precious stones, as well as the lost-wax technique. Her classes focus on techniques for working with Argentium Sterling Silver, as well as Precious Metal Clay to make chains, bracelets, earrings, pendants and slides.
Cora J. Rupp
Color is my first love and what my work is all about. Exploring the many attributes of color--its subtleties and richness, its related values, its variations is a pure pleasure. My interests in color and with floral motif, pattern and the decorative arts all come together in this recent work. No botanical accuracy here; botany takes whatever form is needed to express itself and vessels tip, handles attach randomly, only dictated by where they reside in the picture space. These are one-of-a-kind inventions painted on the monotype plate and intended to celebrate the riches of color.
Alex Sharma
A painter, print maker, sculptor, and art professor, Alexandra Sharma has a Master of Fine Arts and has studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, and Oxford University, England. Her teaching methods emphasize use of a loose technique to capture the essence of the scene and to create fresh, lively images.
g.a. Sheller
g.a. Sheller, an award winning artist, holds a BFA with additional art study at Yale. g.a. has been on the art faculty of the Studio School of the U. of Rochester, NY for 25 years and has been naned to Who's Who in American Art. She teaches classes and workshops in various US locations and overseas, instructing in collage and all painting and drawing media. She helps students to strengthen their own artistic ability with emphasis on painting techniques, color, composition and creativity.
Barbara Snow
A master of versatility, Barbara Snow works in many mediums including watercolor, pastels, oils, acrylics and clay. In addition she is a talented calligrapher who works on commission. Over the years she has lectured on art and taught calligraphy and matting and framing techniques for the Art Academy.