Chestnut Hill artist Claudia Rilling always wanted to be an artist, even as a child growing up in Bucks County, but she had no idea how to make that happen.

“It is all so abstract when you are a child,” she explained, “but I spent a lot of time drawing and doing anything creative with my hands. I was lucky to learn classical drawing and classical composition at a small private art school when I was a teenager. That was the most informative experience that provided me with actual skills I knew I could apply to a potential path as a fine artist painter. I was still unsure how any of this would work out!”

Art lovers can see for themselves at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Manayunk where Rilling’s work is part of “Common Ground,” a group show at 123 Leverington Ave. through Oct. 17.

Rilling graduated from Germantown Academy in Fort Washington and earned a B.F.A. in painting from Boston University in 2002. She graduated from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, with an M.F.A. in painting in 2010 and has had her work exhibited in 47 selected group exhibitions and solo shows in places such as Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Ireland.

Rilling won first prize in landscape painting in competitions at the Academy of Art University in 2009 and 2010, along with a full merit scholarship to study abroad in Corciano, Italy. She has served as an adjunct professor at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design in Lancaster, and as an adjunct faculty member at Academy of Art University.

“Common Ground” is a group exhibition curated by painter Celia Reisman and presented alongside her concurrent solo exhibition, “Street Views.” Reisman selected four painters — Claudia Rilling, Lou Schellenberg, Laura Vahlberg and Sophie C. White — whose work addresses architecture within landscape. Together, the two exhibitions “look at how artists observe and reinterpret real-world locations and how composition, color, perspective and personal experience shape our understanding of place.”

According to exhibition essayist Elizabeth Johnson, “Reisman admires Claudia Rilling’s deliberate way of organizing shapes and color. Attracted to rendering architecture and other man-made forms, Rilling prefers working from imperfect preparatory drawings and studies rather than from literal architectural copies.”

We chatted with Rilling about her work last week:

What artists, past and/or present, have been the biggest influences on your own work?

I cannot get the over the beauty, sophistication and stillness of early Renaissance painters like Piero Della Francesca and Giotto. I think the Italian painters are wonderful and Giorgio Morandi for a 20th century Italian painter. The English, too, for example, Euan Uglow and Lucian Freud. And wonderful contemporary painters like Celia Reisman and Susan Jane Walp.

Has your work changed or evolved over the years? If so, how?

Yes, so much! While learning classical drawing was crucial, it took me several years to break away from feeling like everything had to be accurately drawn. It took me a long time just to loosen up, just to put the brush stroke down. I had to learn that accurate drawing did NOT equal an exciting painting. So I had to “unlearn.” There is more to painting that is so hard to pinpoint, these ineffable qualities that exist in great art.

How would you describe your style?

My style is always hard for me to describe. I am a representational painter, but my initial focus is on the abstract underpinnings of the painting — the shapes, structure and feeling of a motif are very important to me, not the “things.” So really I consider myself semi-abstract in style. I just find the natural world to be a great motivator to make a painting.

Where are you teaching now and for how long?

At the start of COVID, I pivoted from college teaching to running my own classes online. That has been wonderful since I get to teach people all over the world. I also travel and teach classes at the Wayne Art Center on the Main Line.

What satisfaction do you get from the teaching?

The excitement of talking about painting is huge. And I have great students who want to learn.

What is the best decision you ever made in your life?

To spend a summer semester in Italy. That is were I fell in love with landscape painting and with Italy, and I have returned every few years since then to paint. That first trip was 17 year ago.

What jobs have you had since you got out of school?

I did work an office-based creative job in Philly once. That was enough for me to learn that I cannot work in that environment. It made my path towards painting and teaching much more clear.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

With regards to painting, to be totally neutral not only about criticism but also about praise. This is great advice; it’s helped me a lot. And to stop “drawing” the forms out in my paintings.

How did the current exhibit in Manayunk come about?

Celia Reisman wanted to curate a show of four painters whose work would connect with a theme in her solo show work which features buildings and architecture within the landscape. I admire the sophistication and intelligence in her work very much and was honored to be included.

If you could meet and spend time with anyone on earth, living or dead, who would it be and why?

I think it would be interesting to talk to the painter Wayne Thiebaud about his life and how he managed to paint every day until his death at the age of 101.

For more information, visit claudiarilling.com or grossmccleaf.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.