In a post lavishly illustrated with images of Shils monotypes, studio views of new paintings in progress and a video, Neil Plotkin interviews painter Stuart Shils about his work and his recent paintings and monotypes. Shils speaks personally and candidly about changing his work, the relationship between his prints and his paintings, and memory versus observation.

"…so these images, these residues, are distillations of memory that can only come with time. Unlike working directly in nature, maybe what monotypes offered me, from the beginning, was a way of reflecting on an aspect that was and is absolutely impossible to approach or to understand sitting in front of nature. And actually, the interrelationship between those two things is very complex… I had been trained as a painter to think that the only paintings that matter were the ones you make while you’re looking at something. I thought that was Gospel. When I first started making the monotypes in 1998, I was amazed to see what can happen with the back turned to nature. But what does looking at something really mean?"

Stuart Shils: Monotypes and Photographs is on view at David and Langdale through April 23, 2011.