Julie Airoldi adjusts one of the framed landscape paintings hanging from the wall in her Amesbury studio. Then she stands back, tilts her head admiringly, and folds her arms across her black, paint-splattered apron.

"They're pretty talented, I have to say." she says, surveying her students' work.

Though it was early in the week, Airoldi was already preparing for "Small Treasures," her first student art show this weekend. The show features more than 75 framed and unframed works from her students.

Airoldi hurries around her studio, a rented space in the Artists' Muse Studios, which is on the second floor of a brick mill building near the Powwow River. She's small and energetic, and clearly loves to show off her students' work.

"That piece is so beautiful," she says of every painting she points out, whether it depicts a woman walking through snow-covered sand dunes, colorful fields of flowers, or rocky coastlines

After years of working as a video game illustrator and later at a dot com, the Hampstead, N.H., resident gave in to her true passion to be a full-time painter in 2002 and opened J.C. Airoldi Fine Art. Her landscape work appears in festivals and galleries throughout the region, and she was recently profiled in American Artist magazine.

She began teaching early in her painting career. What began with two or three students in her home has blossomed into three classes with between nine to 12 students each. She began renting her own studio space in Amesbury in October.

Working with Airoldi reawakened the dormant artist in Robin Thornhill of Danville, N.H. Thornhill studied fashion illustration at Massachusetts College of Art before getting married and starting a family. She credits Airoldi's work with inspiring her to pursue art again.

Thornhill knew how to draw, "but when it came to oil painting I knew nothing," she says. "I went in there as a complete beginner. I didn't even know how to move my brush along the canvas."

Under Airoldi's tutelage, Thornhill learned how to work the medium and developed her own style, which she describes as realistic, but "with a softer touch." She uses oil and pastel to paint mostly landscape, but also paints figures, still life and animals.

Now, Thornhill is a member of several art associations and an accomplished painter in her own right, doing outdoor shows in the summertime, entering juried shows, and renting her own studio space. Her painting in the student show is a landscape of a tree in a misty meadow.

Atkinson, N.H.-based artist Liz Peck has oil paintings in the show, one of which is a striking image of a Tuscan poppy field. Peck began painting 10 years ago, and also credits Airoldi with getting her more serious about her work.

"I can't say enough about Julie, because she gives the best critiques and best lessons," Peck says. With Airoldi's help, she's tried new styles and media, like experimenting with gouache, which is similar to watercolor, for the first time. She's also learned how to paint landscapes, attending plein air workshops with Airoldi in Taos, Maine, and Cape Cod, where they painted outdoors.

"Landscape was a foreign territory for me and was very overwhelming," Peck says. "With her guidance, I'm finally getting the gist of it, I think. I feel more confident."

The gratitude her students feel for Airoldi goes both ways. Airoldi says she feels indebted to her students for helping her learn more about herself as an artist, and this show is a way of thanking them for that.

"Many of them are now professional artists themselves, selling their work right alongside my own work," she says. "Some have never shown their work until now, in this show. It is a wonderful opportunity to share their hard work, efforts and vision with the public."

If you go

What: "Small Treasures" art show

Where: J.C. Airoldi Fine Art Studio at Artists' Muse Studios, second floor, 9 Water St., Amesbury

When: Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Reception on Saturday, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Cost: Free

Also: Artists' Muse Studios is hosting Open Studios during the same weekend. Learn more at artistsmusestudios.blogspot.com