Private lessons and small group classes
for adults, teens & children
in the Hudson Valley and NYC

please visit here for more information


and, to read students' thoughts on study with Shuster, please visit here

please don't hesitate to call or write with any questions.
i look forward to working with you.

image for thought, feeling...
by me


“No sooner than the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs, touched my palate, than a shudder ran through me and I stopped. Intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me, an exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me – its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory. It was me – I had ceased to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal; whence could it have come to me all this powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake but that, infinitely transcendent of savors, it could not indeed be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize it and apprehend it? I drink a second mouthful in which I found nothing more than the first, then the third which gives me rather less than the second. It is time to stop. The potion is losing its magic. It is plain that the truth that I am seeking lies not in the cup but in myself.”

from Marcel Proust’s book, The Search

Making a mark on paper - drawing charcoal across a surface, bringing paint to canvas - it's a mystery, and a beautiful one, how utterly and deeply I'm moved by this simple act.... it touches the deepest part of me and often prompts song and spontaneous thanks .... and, if I'm lucky, with time, song emerges on my paper or canvas too... Of course, I don't mean to say that every moment in the studio is a joy. But to work from and for one's heart, that's truly a blessing, both grounding and liberating…

I hope you'll join me on another occasion to explore our world, ourselves and that wondrous, simple act of making marks on paper.

o glorious spring!

For the Love of Art
life drawing workshop

for adults & teens (ages 16 & up)

May 15, 16 & 17 (friday, saturday & sunday)
10am-5:30pm each day with break for lunch

Art and art-making open our eyes, and stir our hearts and our minds in unexpected ways. They are vital resources for the individual and the community. While art-making is an act of creating, it also provides inspiration for further creativity of all kinds in all facets of our lives. As we know, creativity is essential to life, creativity is life. In this time, when the earth seems to be moving beneath our feet, it is a fine time to tap into our greatest ingenuity, our highest spiritual and creative selves, and to revel in the beautiful simplicity of charcoal on paper.