Stuart Shils presents a selection of new intimate landscape paintings in his second solo exhibition at Hackett-Freedman Gallery, January 9–February 1, 2003.

Shils’s small, exquisitely simple works evoke their poetic atmosphere and emotion through virtuoso paint handling. Though specific in light and atmosphere to the locales in which he paints, Shils sees his work as an extended metaphor, a highly compressed meditation on form and light. The exhibition will feature recent landscapes from Ireland as well as works inspired by American motifs.

Shils is a plein air painter, and finds direct inspiration in working from nature. His works are generally small, a significant departure from the heroically large-scale work in vogue when he came of age in the 1980s.

There is a clear, though complimentary, distinction between the works done overseas and those painted domestically. The rainy Irish climate creates a tension between land and sky that Shils calls "the battle between heaven and earth." This competition inspires highly abstracted and atmospheric paintings.

Conversely, the pictures painted within the U.S. are somewhat more representational and contain less sky; they express the more grounded effect the domestic landscape has on Shils. These variances are not a conscious decision, says Shils, but rather, an honest reflection of his differing responses to the motifs.

A perfectionist, Shils sets demanding formal challenges for himself. His chosen medium—oil on primed paper or board—is a notoriously unforgiving surface which requires consumate mastery and control.

Shils has exhibited nationally, with solo shows at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; and National Academy of Design, New York, among others.