"I was really timid, afraid of what others might think…, so I avoided drawing unless I really had to. But Stuart helped me push past this and find a transcendent, real place to work from. Now I can draw freely and I’ve reclaimed a well of inspiration that’s been there all along. Invaluable.”

— L.R.

“Reframing the Ordinary… brought me the clarity I needed in my work, with an exciting new language of shapes, forms and lines that I suspected existed but didn’t know how to acquire. With simple tools and key questions, Stuart unlocks the Realm of NoTime and NoWhere for us to explore and share with others, through artworks of any media imaginable.

A powerful mindset to notice the wonders of our daily lives.

An elegant and subtle way to capture the viewers eye in a picture and keep them wandering a bit longer.

A grammar of temporal depth to infuse our work with.

…your class gave me new purpose and reminded me of what I wanted to be an artist in the first place.”

— M.W. in New Zealand

“If you want to create art that looks like everybody else’s, don’t sign up. If you want to find your way forward and express your unique way of seeing and being in this world, I cannot recommend this workshop highly enough. 

…you won’t believe me if I say Reframing the Ordinary changed my approach to making art — what could really happen in just three days? — but RTO changed my entire approach to making art.

This workshop is like no other. I’ve been an artist all my life — and taken many an online class — but I now see differently. I create differently.

…fast-paced, hands-on, takes you through a process that outsmarts the inner critic. Ideas emerged from me I’d never before considered. Stuart’s teaching style, knowledge, and sense of humor can only come from someone who has been working as a full-time artist and teacher for decades. This workshop gave me access to a world-class artist and teacher via a simple Zoom link; it’s a Master’s-level education in a weekend..”

— K.R.

“I am sure I have no idea how the many micro lessons will have a bearing on how I see going forward, but with reflection, I went through the full cycle of an adolescent( ha.ha) - meaning thinking (I think) I know what I am doing > I have no idea what I am doing > pissed / anxious about how much I don’t know / how am I going to get it all done? > grateful for some tools for how to proceed.

Thank you for your atmospheric, non-school, approach…I am encouraged that I can try some new things to build my own strength (whatever that is.)”

— S.S.

“In three intense and wondrous days he cracked open doors I didn’t realize were closed. He encouraged us to simultaneously get out of our own way (‘head’) and face ourselves (‘heart’). To ditch habit, comfort, fear; grow wings and fly off-leash. An extraordinary spark (fireworks) to re-boot our art-making practices.”

— A.D.

“What a content rich workshop! I came into the session with much interest and curiosity, I left with a completely new way to approach my drawing practice. I feel like I’m rewiring my mind with the observational exercises Stuart taught and are very excited with how this might impact my painting practice.”

— K.M.

“Stuart's workshops provide the perfect reset for me. His teaching style fosters self-exploration, and through his lessons, I've gained insights into both art and myself. I leave feeling empowered to trust my instincts and embrace risks. His guidance has truly influenced my journey.”

— J.W.

“The opening talk was amazing, so fascinating. My mind is blown away !!! I had to go for a walk to calm it down.”

— M.V.

“It feels like you’ve taken my brain out, rotated it 180 degrees, and put it back! … in a good way!”

— B.B.

“I signed up for this class because I did one of your drawing classes a couple of years ago. I struggled with the first 2 days and the third day I was at my wit’s end. And that’s when it hit me to just draw what I was seeing not what I thought I saw. It was such an aha thing for me.”

—

“I just wrapped up participation in a zoom workshop with Stuart Shils. It was totally not like any other workshop, and quite fabulous. What it is, what it's not:

It's about thinking deeply about your art. About half was presentation by Stuart of really thought-provoking material - and discussion with us participants (12). The other half was guided exercises using sketching and collage, designed to teach us to dig deeper into intuitive composition. At least that's my take on it. You can read his description for his. I left each session utterly exhausted, good exhausted.

Not - not about technique, not about rule driven composition, not about rules at all. There was not even critique of work! "What? but...". Nope. He was very clear that it wasn't about what he thinks about what we do, but about what we think - learning to self adjust - to learn to recognize and trust our own judgment. I actually found this very freeing. I just DID, no thought of anticipated comments.’

— W.W.

“You answered many questions that I am wrestling with –  with questions I needed to hear. The class…not just useful – meaningful!’

— C.C.

“You made it easy to dive in to difficult things, which is something that can be pretty challenging to do via zoom.”

— K.S.

“With examples interwoven into our sessions--from the familiar to the completely unfamiliar--Stuart asks the workshop (each person at home) to look at something, in the room or out the window, create a frame of perception, and then to respond on paper to what we "see."  He might then ask us, in a series of brief exercises, to change things up, to create different versions of the "picture,"  to focus on one area or another, find points of interest and points of conflict, and above all to select what's important, accepting the fact that a representation of reality is not reality. These are timed exercises, and the point is to respond quickly, intuitively, to trust our decisions, to trust our mistakes as things we can learn from.  Stuart's exercises, including translating drawings into collages, were, in my own experience, revelatory, letting me see the process by which we can move from "literal" observation (what Stuart calls an inventory of things) to something more and less--more interesting, less indexical--recognizing that what we love in art is form, composition, texture, and that you can learn to see and create through a combination of analysis and intuition, craft and improvisation. One of his startling exercises was to take a piece we thought was weakest in a set of three and focus on how to improve it, find out what was wrong, "fix" it. 

… The workshop is about how to look at art, how to change our way of thinking about our own creative acts, and kind of about how to live by slowing down--paying attention, looking more deliberately and carefully, more analytically, at what we see and what we do.  There were professional artists, designers, architects, art teachers, and students of visual history in this workshop, and we each got something different from it, I'm sure.  (I'm a photographic historian and an amateur artist.)  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.”

— M.O.

“Stuart is an exceptional teacher and offers an unparalleled experience in his ZOOM delivered Nourishing an Improvisational Visual Imagination course. Over the span of the three days, the carefully orchestrated exercises we did put me in a kind of improvisational hotseat. 

At certain moments, I experienced a profound shift in how i could think and feel in front of a painting surface and this allowed me to access images and memories that I hadn’t thought were possible. I was able to drop how i have habitually proceeded to make a painting and the waters of my imagination parted, so to speak. Now, i’ve experienced that this is possible for me. 

And. . . i have a new repertoire of exercises from the course that i can use to continue to ‘build this improvisational muscle’."

— M.J.

“I found your approach totally revelatory. As a fairly new painter (only a few years), I initially (and somewhat naively) thought that painting itself could be “instructed". But what I’ve come to realize is that only awareness can be instilled and honed. Enlightenment of the process and what it feels like to be in the process can be nurtured and practiced—indeed, musculature built up. The way you help build that awareness, to have it become part of the process, is truly remarkable. I think it’s important for every artist, no matter where they are in their own development or where they are in in their own process, to experience this sort of stretching and toning. I will reiterate what I said in the chat during the drawing workshop: Listening to you talk about drawing and painting, and the universality of the construction of the surface, was like listening to Alan Watts talk about Buddhism. That something so amorphous and lofty can be described with such accessibility and relevance to our daily practice of this art form, is beyond inspiring. I would recommend your workshops to anyone, no matter where they are in this journey that has no end! Just knowing that there is no destination is, in itself, a magical doorway!”

— L.P.

The weekend was like a drawing meditation, the induction being the evening lecture. From there, each day built on the previous day’s openings of the unconscious mind by way of words organized into an encouraging dialectic. By asking us to move through each exercise using simple tools and materials with only myself as both actor and witness - blind to others, and absent the fear and favor of an instructor over my shoulder- I have been deeply touched and sensitized to my own creative learning.

— L.W.

In November I turn 72 and while my body is slowly falling apart, because of your class my mind is on FIRE !!

— P.W.

“Thank you so much for the Reframing workshop.

It has opened my eyes and my senses and maybe even my feelings a crack. It's amazing how, after many years of pursuing painting, on and off in my life, my 'visual desires' have become so weighted down and lost in some struggle with expectations and notions of convention.

Now, i'm thinking and seeing differently. I have new questions that i can ask as i look out 'on the world' . . .like 'what's attracting me?' and 'what are the lights doing in relation to the darks'? 'How do the darks speak to one another?' 'Where does my eye go first?' And, if i'm looking out at a glass bird feeder caught in the sunlight, how do the things in the periphery appear? Such elemental questions to bring me more fully into those moment of looking.

Also, i felt in the hands of a teacher who knows what they're doing and has given a lot of thought to how to unfold the process over three days. There was a good balance of looking and talking about 'great' drawings and 'perceptual process' and doing the exercises. I felt energized by the wealth and depth of ideas you shared and, also, like i'd had a rich and novel perceptual and tactile experience from the drawing exercises we did.

Thank you for your generosity, wisdom and passion. I look forward to the painting course in February.”

— L.H.

“Stuart Shils’s lecture series exceeded all my expectations. He is a skilled teacher, wise and entertaining at the same time. I’d recommend it to artists at any career level, either beginner or more experienced but rethinking their art goals, education or just wanting a new and different view of things".

— M.R.

“The workshop itself was totally mind-blowing. Not only is Stuart an exceptional teacher and thinker, but he also offers unique insights into how artists can extend exploratory inquiry into their own creative process while giving a strong foundation for doing so. The … discussions …deftly illustrated the importance of risk-taking and revisiting one's own personal and developmental history as an artist.”

— S.H.

“The workshop was a really rewarding experience and I noticed some pleasant and insightful observations of my art work afterwards that I hadn’t noticed before. I was actually surprised how well the Zoom format went. Aside from spending less (or no) time ‘walking’ from easel to easel during the critiques – there was a positive sense of focus including the ability to look closely at views of the artwork when it was on the screen. Stuart’s photos of interesting examples of famous and obscure artists’ work along with his great personal stories further amplified and brought the workshop to life.  I’ve recommended his workshop to others and will definitely take another one in the future whenever I can.”

— J.L.

“… you have reignited a love of drawing in me that I haven't felt since childhood. I've done thumbnails in crayon or pencil every day since the workshop. I'm seeing so much more in terms of shape, form, and rhythm, and am loving the editing process. The biggest shift is that I’m now able to see why a painting is working and why it isn’t. This is huge for me. In the past it was ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t’, but not really understanding why. I’ve been looking at my own paintings since the workshop and I can see why they are or aren’t working. It is so powerful to now be able to know what to look for when I am stuck on a painting. It has made both making and looking at art so much more alive for me.”

— A.W.

“As with your in-person classes, your recent zoom class left me feeling transformed in my understanding of the visual-emotional world and how to relate to it … and I felt a sense of loss when the class ended. There is so much to talk about and never enough time. There are so few people in my ordinary life that are interested in or know how to have the depth of conversation on these topics which seem to me like they are the only things worth talking about. I mean, these are the things that bring meaning to our lives, but it seems like most people aren’t interested or have no way to talk about it. I probably fall into the latter category myself most of the time So, for me, there is nothing more valuable than my art education because it helps me engage more deeply with the world and with experience. What else is there? And your zoom class did all this successfully.”

— J.L.

“Like others in the group, I've had my head down in my sketchbook or drawing table daily. Crayons, markers, graphite, ink. No medium is off limits. Even my printmaking is embracing what I took away from Stuart's workshop - looking, looking, noticing, noticing. My just finished linocut and another in progress both show shades of Stuart's influence and are vastly improved. The latest is highly experimental, heading in an abstract direction (new for me) combining printmaking and collage - definitely collage in the design process - but also collage in the final product. Never would have done that before the workshop.”

— A.C.

“I fully agree about the lasting impact of this great workshop! Some of my favorite moments in the studio since I returned - were spent drawing in my sketchbook before starting to paint for the day. It is absolutely true that drawing generates ideas …. And I am now addicted to Lamy fountain pens for life!  I have been teaching since 1974 and I know a good teacher when I see one and you are a terrific teacher. I really appreciate your passion and enthusiasm for the arts. I wish that I had the experience of taking a studio class with you. Zoom is great, but ‘in person’ is more powerful. I really needed this workshop and it gave me a lot to think about. A lot of it was a re-enforcement of what I knew to be important, but had been buried under a lot of less important noise that I had been listening to. I started playing around on paper again and I reconnected with the tactile experience, that had been missing in my oil paintings. This made me want to go into the studio more often!  I got out the crayons and loved them. Somebody spoke and I went into a dream…”

— B.P.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the class.  Stuart made some observations that were new thoughts to me ... and I feel I learned a lot!  His manner of presentation and handling questions was easily to follow - he is a great listener and responder!”

— N.J.

“Stuart is such a wonderful teacher/guide/person. I found his talks fascinating and very freeing. We all seem to get so hung up on what’s art and what’s not art or good vs. bad art. He seemed to suggest that one should put that aside as it’s total crap and just explore all possibilities …. beginner’s mind which adds some excitement to it for me rather than doing the same old thing. Oh and turning off the NOISE!  Harvesting ….  My main intention for his workshop was to explore collage and a different path to come at while doing my own work. Searching is key and he seems to be a real explorer. I love that he works small and observation is key, telling a story and taking risks. I was really struck by his ‘looking for pathways of lights and darks’ in imagery. ‘Feeling space with our eyes’ was another key phrase he talked about over and over. My takeaway was that in the time spent together he showed us a very energetic, heartfelt exploration of many elements to ruminate on. It was really a lovely presentation.  His images were gorgeous and his poetic descriptions, candy.”

— M.J.