CREATING FROM A HIGHER PERSPECTIVE
5333 Ave Casgrain, 9th floor/ 9e étage Montreal
A School for Art and Expanded Seeing| Une école d’art et de perception élargie
“The body is capable of rising above its earthly ties by listening to the supernatural energies.”
— Hilma af Klint
— Hilma af Klint
The Sky School of Art is an evolving studio-school founded by artist and educator Esther Hoflick. Originally established in 2008 as The Living Art Room, it began as an intimate teaching practice in a home studio, offering art instruction in drawing, painting, and creative exploration.
It has since evolved into a new form: an elevated studio located at Metro Laurier in Montreal, where sky, horizon, light, and atmosphere are not background elements, but active conditions of perception.
At its core, the school is built on a simple premise: art is a training of perception.
It has since evolved into a new form: an elevated studio located at Metro Laurier in Montreal, where sky, horizon, light, and atmosphere are not background elements, but active conditions of perception.
At its core, the school is built on a simple premise: art is a training of perception.
A SCHOOL FOR EXPANDED SEEING
Drawing and painting here are not treated only as technical skills, but as ways of developing perception itself.
Expanded Seeing refers to a slower, more attentive, and more embodied way of engaging with the world—one that moves beyond habit, assumption, and surface recognition.
All courses and workshops grow from this foundation.
COURSES (8 WEEK PROGRAMS)
Each 8-week course integrates one of the three modes of practice:
Drawing Stream
- Drawing: Technical Practice
- Drawing: Historical Context & Material Exploration
- Drawing: Expanded Seeing (Soul Practice)
Painting Stream
- Painting: Technical Practice
- Painting: Historical Context & Material Exploration
- Painting: Expanded Seeing (Soul Practice)
WEEKEND INTENSIVES
Unblocking Perception: Creative Release Workshop
A guided studio experience focused on loosening control, breaking habitual image-making patterns, and reconnecting with intuitive, process-based creation.
Mandala Practice: Drawing the Inner Field
A contemplative drawing workshop exploring repetition, symmetry, and circular structure as a meditative practice of attention and perception.
Sacred Geometry: The Architecture of Seeing
A studio-based exploration of proportion, spatial order, and geometric systems as both analytical structure and perceptual framework in visual art.
Silicone Form & Material Casting
A hands-on material workshop exploring mold-making, surface translation, replication, and transformation of form.
Chromatic Embodiment Series
A 7-part Saturday morning series exploring colour as lived perception and embodied experience. Take one or take them all!
Each session is dedicated to one colour: Magenta, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan/Blue, Purple.
PRIVATE STUDY
Portfolio Development
One-on-one guidance for students applying to art schools and fine arts programs.
Artist Mentorship Sessions
Ongoing support for developing artistic practice, conceptual direction, and body of work.
STUDIO SERVICES
Artwork Documentation
Professional photography of artworks for portfolios, applications, and exhibition materials.
EVENTS
Bi-Monthly Student Vernissages
Every two months, student work is presented in an informal evening exhibition in the studio, open to friends, family, and community.
Founded by Esther Hoflick
The Sky School of Art is founded by artist and educator Esther Hoflick. Her practice spans painting, drawing, and sculpture, and is informed by formal studio training alongside long-term teaching experience in fine arts education.
She has worked at both independent and post-secondary levels, developing studio-based curricula and leading courses focused on technical skill, perception, and sustained artistic development.
The school extends this work into an independent studio environment dedicated to focused making, attention, and long-form creative practice.
Registration is completed through the payment links on the program or schedules pages.
Located at Metro Laurier
