Live / Zoom seminars with Stuart Shils
Exploring the saturation of the visual moment.
“This course is like a love letter to yourself. There is no sharing/feedback, no technique - it is all you. There is no external gratification, but a deep and profound and lasting internal gratification that comes about by working curiously, vigorously on a journey towards oneself and one's own visual concerns.”
“It feels like you’ve taken my brain out, rotated it 180 degrees, and put it back! … in a good way!”
“And that's probably the goal--not to impose a single way of "doing" art, but a way of thinking about what you're doing, breaking the mold, opening yourself up to change.”
“You have reignited a love of drawing in me that I haven't felt since childhood.”
— A.W. (comment from a recent class participant)
The whole point of study... is to stand before the world in awe...
naming the moment without words
Feb 21 - 23, 2025, on zoom
Apr 4 - 6, 2025, on zoom
Reframing the Ordinary on zoom is a hands-on, participatory seminar for illuminating how you carry yourself within the choreography of paying attention and how that attention carries you.
Upcoming Classes
Reframing the Ordinary
Thinking Forward
a sequel, in paint, to reframing the ordinary
Mar 28 - 30, 2025, on zoom
A hands on zoom seminar exploring guided questions in paint including:
The voice of the surface
The choreography of navigation
Stuart Shils
Over the years, the emotionality and lushness of observation has fueled a variety of visual and graphic responses, from outdoor painting and drawing, to constructing small objects with wood and paint in three dimensionality exploring memory and traces of lingering aromas. I lead with my eyes and try to pay attention to taking notice of what I don’t know is there. And if a tree falls across the path, it’s not a problem, the point is to find a way over or around.
what are your tools for stretching your imagination?
Working Privately.
Regardless of what sort of studio work you’re engaged with, I’m available for consultation/discussion/exploration related to situations of mind, spirit or working surface as you arrive at those inevitable and complex intersections. To that I bring a seasoned and critical eye.
My job within the context of conversation is assisting with opening and nurturing your inner eye as it looks both outward and inward, but not to holding your hand to insure that you don’t waiver. To the contrary, because in studio life, learning and re learning to feel secure on uncertain ground with no prearranged map or convenient recipe is the beginning of moving closer to yourself. What you do with our conversation is up to you and then, the way you work on yourself is where the real work begins.
What I offer is a sense of judgement, observation and advice that has been fertilized and shaped over the course of decades in the studio, the classroom and more recently in Zoomland. We can pursue a conversation via either zoom or phone and if necessary, through email.
