Art educators can be a daring lot. Artistic self-expression is very personal, and communicating that to an audience can feel risky, especially when you're at the mercy of a school board. Public school art teachers sometimes don't even have art rooms -they just push "art on a cart" from classroom to classroom. And their own energies must be divided-try balancing time teaching novices with time alone with your paint or camera, your loom or your printing press.

"Teachers in the Hall," the current show at the gallery at 100 Market Street, gathers a cross-section of art-educators' work to be duly honored. Each artist has his or her own "voice" represented by several works, and most names are familiar to local gallery goers: Nancy Carey, Jennifer Daly, Kate Freear-Motor, Dorine Miles Gross, Sarah Haskell, Jong-Yoon Kim, Francine Kontos, Susan Larochelle, Norma Machado, Erin McFarland, Carol Ann Morley, Anna Nuttall, Darlene Furbush Ouellett, Shawn Pelech, Lisa Reinke, Mary J. Vermeersch, Cary Wendell and Gerry Willging.

They teach in a variety of settings and share with all manner of folks, from elementary schoolers to octogenarians. Unfortunately, their statements included in the show's materials say very little about their teaching philosophies. That's a missed opportunity for the show's two-faceted mission, for these are fine artists and teachers.

Carol Ann Morley, a botanical illustrator, renders a reaped corn field, silage stubble, a few stalks on the outskirts, with the precision of Andrew Wyeth. In "Renewal Awaiting" there's lovely detailed work up close, fading to inference, in a shower of golden maples at a distance. Next to it hangs "Amish Farm, Laura's Child," which offers a young girl in a bower of corn, the field pre-harvest yet late season. Wisps of hair at the girl's temples mimic the precision of the corn silk Morley's drawn on each ear of corn. A member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, she teaches courses like "Drawing in the Garden" at Sanctuary Arts in Eliot.

Cary Wendell is a theatrical set designer and theater teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy. Many have seen his work as a set painter and muralist up to three stories high. Wendell's smaller works on paper-watercolor, gouache, pastel, and pen and ink nature sketches-fill the better part of the first floor. In "Cabin at Crawford Pond," you can smell the pine boards and pond water's murk. Screen doors springs stretch and you anticipate the slap of closure. Quick expressionistic work in "Weeds and Ribbles on Crawford" (and nearby sketches) plays with water surfaces disturbed by waves, breeze and fish, creating a lazy, meditative feel. Long, sun-dappled docks invite you for a swim or a ramble.

One of the more unique and quiet corners of the show belongs to a Plymouth State University art education graduate who started out in commercial design and ended up teaching at Little Harbor School in Portsmouth. Anna Nuttall's print "Water Wheel" is a mere inference of wheels and gears, a few drops adding a kinetic feel. Her colors are gorgeous: gears and wheels in dark brown and cinnamon with hints of crimson, on a background of gold and butter cream, a wash of cocoa over all. Next to it grows the layered and iconic "Tree," a print heavily impressed with twine, cut paper stars and triangles. The overall surface of smudgy black and deep grays is punctuated with spangles of silver. An odd crown of fruit graces the foliage on a homemade paper trunk

Nancy Carey's "Peaceful Meadow" is colorful and adventurous. One of the show's larger works (38 by 48 inches), this impressionistic landscape renders large spaces with broad brushstrokes: skyscapes of lavender, slate blue and creamy yellow. A treat of a tree foregrounded looks like a quilted confection, yet holds its own as a light-dappled maple surrounded by cut wheat and brushy edges. The painting is free and loose with rich slashes of raw color. Her smaller works have far less joie de vivre and color wealth. I say, "Paint big!"

Norma Machado's clouds and skyscapes hold the tension and heaviness of night's lifting coupled with the hover of morning waking. They must be seen up close. Her pastels in "Flight" are masterpieces of smudge and smear. Exquisite blending of blues, purples, yellows and oranges make cloud tops light and wispy with dark underbellies of teal and navy. "A New Dawn" has a very western palette, uncommon to the New Englander's eye.

Curatorily, the exhibit needed some TLC. "Teachers in the Hall" had some of that slap-dash high school hall art show feel, with a bit too much of some subject matter represented as well. Paintings were crooked (I straightened a couple as best I could) and duct tape had come unstuck or was showing. This is uncharacteristic for a 100 Market Street show.

A broad spectrum of abilities were represented, some works more conventional and others pushing the limits of more than one genre at once. It's worth a wander through. A teacher in class wants you to pay close attention, and here's a great opportunity to do so. You can wander the halls without a pass until Labor Day, then it's back to school.

"Teachers in the Hall Exhibition" will be at 100 Market St./McLane Gallery, Portsmouth. All four floors are open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Lower two floors only open on weekends, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.