Daniel
Bilmes

I began painting at eight years old under the guidance of my father—the artist and educator Semyon Bilmes. It was not a hobby I came to. It was the world I grew up inside.

Over more than fifteen years of teaching and studio practice, I have noticed the same pattern again and again: painters who develop technically but never find their own direction. The work is skilled. But it does not belong to anyone.

I have had solo exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles, shown in group exhibitions across the US and internationally, and taught workshops domestically and abroad for most of my adult life.

Methods grew out of a simple frustration—with shallow online instruction that offers tricks without understanding, and with rigid academic teaching that produces technical skill at the expense of individuality. This program is my attempt to offer something different.