Board of Directors

Stewart Cubley, Founder and Director

For over four decades, Stewart Cubley has pioneered a way of integrative and creative living through the practice of process painting. His method is one of respectful questioning, inviting you to extend yourself into new areas of thought and feeling. Stewart has the ability to meet you where you are and to ask the right question at the right time. He is a down-to-earth teacher whose personal interactions allow you to see yourself differently in ways that can be life changing. Stewart travels throughout the world, teaching his unique approach to thousands of people at personal growth centers such as the Esalen Institute and the Omega Institute. He has brought his work to multinational corporations, programs in prisons and countless other public forums. Stewart is the co-author of Life, Paint & Passion, Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous Expression (Tarcher/Putnam). He and his wife, Shae Irving, live in Fairfax, California and part of the year on their homestead near Denali Park, Alaska.

Robert Hardy, Treasurer

As a young pup I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, but alas I went to school for an architecture degree and then jumped into engineering and project management in the commercial construction field. Over my career, I have worked on many hi-rise building projects, especially in San Francisco. During the times I have been overwhelmed by the nature of working to shepherd the chaos of building projects, Painting Experience retreats have grounded my soul to express what was held deep. It’s been well over 20 years now since connecting with Stewart and the different sacred spaces we worked in together. I always look forward to discovering what may spill out in vibrant color. Though I am still in the same daytime career, I believe it was The Painting experience that influenced my adventure into meditation and becoming an ordained Interfaith Minister. I look forward to participating and contributing to the Painting Experience as an essential gateway to those in search of their own healing and unique spiritual journey.

Jean Matlack, Assistant Secretary

I grew up in the 50s, got married and had babies in the 60s, then went to graduate school and became a psychologist/psychotherapist in the 70s. Looking back, one of my most meaningful learning experiences were the times I spent with Marion Woodman, a Jungian, who used movement and mask-making as adjunct to dream work. I worked at a family treatment center, then at a college, and finally was in private practice in Washington DC. In 2000, I closed my practice, and moved full time into spiritual explorations. I painted with Aviva Gold (“Painting from the Source”) for a while, then fumbled around for years trying to find a way to paint that worked for me until I happened on Life, Paint and Passion in a local library. I went to the Omega workshop in 2015 and have not stopped painting since. The development of online painting has brought process painting into my daily life at home in a very meaningful way. Taking the online course is deepening my understanding of what process painting is really about. I live in Rockport Maine with my long time husband. Our three grown children live in the Boston area. We have seven grandchildren. 

Michele Reiner

Michele Reiner, owner of MNR Consulting, has over 20 years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector and a wealth of practice combining strategic thinking and outcome driven action. With a commitment to enriching individuals, families and communities through volunteerism, community building, and personal transformation, Michele inspires and leads people and organizations toward realizing their full potential through a continuous improvement approach. Prior to MNR Consulting, Ms. Reiner served as Executive Director of Cool Girls, Inc.  She and her husband, Jim, live in Atlanta GA and have three children. 

Matt Belay, Senior Facilitator

Raised on a farm in southwestern Virginia, Matt developed many skills and practical understandings at an early age. During and after university at Virgina Tech, he traveled extensively throughout the world for both work and personal study, widening his perspective of art, culture and diversity. While pursuing his degree in landscape architecture at Virginia Tech, he supported and organized many art programs and creative workshops in his community and beyond. These workshops included many of the Mountain Lake Workshops in which groups collaborated with artist such as M.C. Richards and Merce Cunningham. For a number of years, Matt worked as operations manager for Hui Ho’olana retreat center in Molokai, Hawaii, which is where he first connected with The Painting Experience. Matt now lives in his hometown of Blacksburg, Virginia, where he does all manner of construction projects on his own rural property and in the surrounding community. His primary interest is in continuing to live in a community setting and supporting his own and others’ personal growth by facilitating The Painting Experience locally and throughout the world.

Sarah Laskin, Board Member

Sarah Laskin is an accomplished leader and facilitator with over 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations on global programs in conservation, science, public engagement and storytelling. She currently serves as the Vice President for National Advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C., where she works to engage the public in the cause of conservation. Prior to this, she spent 16 years at the National Geographic Society in their Science and Exploration Programs. Sarah discovered the Painting Experience in 2013 and has enjoyed developing her painting practice, both at workshops and at home, since then. She is also a participant in Stewart Cubley’s training course for facilitators.

Peyton Petty, Board Member

I have been practicing with The Painting Experience since early 2014. While I was not new to the concept of process arts, it took Stewart Cubley’s teachings to deepen my practice and show me that living a process-oriented life was the goal. Over the years, I have learned to ‘trust the brush’ both inside the studio, and out. The Painting Experience has little to do with art, per se. In my mind, it is an easily accessible spiritual program, one that is uniquely positioned to help people grow. It contains all of the fundamentals that one needs to live an authentic, creatively charged life. At least, that is what it has done for me. In joining the Board of Directors of The Painting Experience, I hope I can help ensure that this exceptional program and its teachings are forever accessible to seekers of all kinds.

For most of my life I have worked in the social services, most recently helping people living with severe mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse. Throughout it all, I have raised a family, started and run various groups for both artists as well as for parents of children with special needs, and, always, found ways to express myself visually. Since retiring, I have become active in a recovery community for children of alcoholics, and joined the Board of a school for children who live with unique learning styles.

Karine Baczynski, Board Member

In 1991, Karine discovered the Painting Experience Studio. She was pursuing a BA in fine arts at SFSU at the time, and has been process painting ever since. After college and a lot of painting, Karine studied documentary film production at Stanford University, worked in Silicon Valley to develop an early video streaming platform, and then moved to NYC to work in film and television.

Through the years, she has always maintained close connection with her painting process, working with Barbara Kaufman and the CCE Studio of San Francisco. In 2014, having dropped out of the film world to have a baby, she reconnected with Stewart Cubley, one of the founders of the Painting Experience Studio. Stewart’s evolution and refinement of his facilitation method since they met in 1991, inspired Karine to discover even more freedom and depth in her process.

Karine brings a knowledge of other process oriented modalities to her teaching, having trained and been certified in the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Awareness, and having recently been certified in Digital Storytelling through the Story Center.