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Painting in the back room of the Artists' Gallery of Steamboat - under new fluorescent lights and a roof that no longer leaks, oil painter Susan Gill Jackson tests the room's potential for art demonstrations and workshops.

"I guess I'm the guinea pig for the classes," Jackson said. "We're all seeing what happens with it."

The Artists' Gallery, a collaborative effort that has thrived on trying whatever is available to bring visual art to those interested in it, will host its first seminar Tuesday through Thursday. The three-day series focuses on Impressionism.

In the future, back room organizer Jacque Hart said the gallery hopes to host workshops on book binding, oil painting and creativity.

The gallery's back room has been used for storage and rented at times since the space opened in November 2006. Behind the recently cleared teaching space, sculptor Sandy Graves has a workspace for a piece of public art commissioned to go on the Routt County Courthouse lawn.

There are remnants from the space's past life as a press room, with thick concrete slabs forming the floor and a loading dock at the back. Jackson said opening the door to the dock in the summer would give ideal natural light for gallery artists to work by.

"Especially if it's a slow season or the off-season, we can just bring our paints in and work while we're working here," Jackson said of using the space while manning the gallery's front desk.

Hart said she hopes if other artists in that community are interested in doing workshops, the space can be opened up to them. For now, Hart said the gallery is open to ideas for how to use its extra room.

"We've just been waiting to see how things go and in what direction things go to see what's going to happen back there," she said.