From 1979 to 1981 Schuil attended the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam, the predecessor of the Willem de Kooning Academy. He went on from there to Ateliers '63, a postgraduate program in Haarlem, where he worked from 1981 to 1983. He made his debut in 1983 at the gallery Art & Project. In his early career, Schuil worked on canvas. After experimenting with wood, aluminium, and copper, he has opted for aluminium since 1985, because it provides a smooth surface for painting. The shapes formed by aluminium often play a central role in Schuil’s work. Examples include the folded edges and the seams and rivets in the aluminium, which sometimes run straight through the picture plane. Over time, Schuil has also shown a growing tendency to have the support protrude into three-dimensional space. Schuil frequently treats the aluminium before painting it, making dents and holes that become integral parts of the picture. “I use them not to emphasize the thingness of the picture, but because they fit into the picture,” Schuil told Dominic van den Boogerd in 2000. In the mid-1990s, Schuil’s work became more complex. By mirroring, doubling, and combining motifs, he fashioned increasingly elaborate and baroque compositions. In addition to creating these intricate works, he has also continued to draw on the plainer pictorial language of his early years.