The oil paintings by Schyler Standish are too small to be evaluated in terms other than as sketches, but within such a frame of reference, there is a wide spread of experience represented. Many of the figure pieces employ a rather dry technique, with carefully modeled form and an inclination toward academic painting yet with a potential––if a sizeable studio piece were attempted––beyond that which is generally seen today. More exciting are a number of landscapes done in heavy impasto that suggest a simplification of nature in relatively abstract-expressionist terms. Baldwin Hills utilizes a fine economy of means, sensitively felt, but again only suggestive of the quality possible to attain if the same keen vision were to be maintained at a larger scale. Again, the heavy impasto and quick brushing of Adam and Eve is a tantalizing sketch. Schyler Standish, basically self-taught, was seen in 1954 when his landscapes (larger at that time) were tighter and contained a primitive folk element. Since then he has become much more sophisticated and potentially an interesting painter if he can develop that which is promising in its present embryonic form.
—Constance Perkins
