The course stresses the joy of painting. The student only needs to be enthusiastic and willing to learn. Ilona will teach the student how to hold a brush and create a lovely painting. Impressionism is the painting style with emphasis on the importance of color and form, of learning to see all the nuances of color, and light and shadow in every subject painted. Ilona is noted for her landscapes, portraits and still lifes.

Ilona Royce-Smithkin, a dynamic teacher, has been sponsored in residence by private foundations and the Art Commissions of several states to lecture on and teach her personal impressionistic style of painting. In addition to technical know-how, she infuses her students with the joy of painting by offering them her own warm personality, pixie humor, amusing anecdotes about the “greats and non-greats” she has captured on canvas, and a firm conviction that painting is for everyone--and anyone can paint if they want to.