Painting and Drawing | Academic Requirements | Drawing Courses | Painting Courses | Faculty
Undergraduate Painting Courses (VPA)
VPA 1000–1999 (lower level)
VPA 2000–2999 (lower level)
VPA 3000–3999 (upper level)
VPA 4000–4999 (upper level)
Note: In sequenced courses (e.g., I, II, III, IV), successful completion of each course is a prerequisite for the next course in the sequence. For example, VPA 3010/Advanced Painting I is a prerequisite for VPA 3020/Advanced Painting II.
Painting I
VPA 1010 / 4 credits / Every semester
In this introduction to oil painting, projects focus on a variety of attitudes toward making paintings. Some assignments involve painting from direct observation while others involve transforming and abstracting from a given motif. Students develop color equivalents for observed relationships by translating their experience into color choices of hue, value, intensity, and temperature.
Painting II
VPA 1020 / 4 credits / Every semester
A continuation of VPA 1010, with emphasis on the choices of color, composition, and surfaces. Students discover the role of color and composition by constructing a painting working from art historical models, concepts, and direct observation. Various oil painting methods, techniques, and approaches, as well as the physical aspects of building painting supports are covered.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010
Painting III
VPA 2010 / 4 credits / Fall
A continuation of VPA 1020, with emphasis on choices of color, scale, size, composition, and subject. Projects may include interiors and figures in the environment, as well as narrative, conceptual, and thematic approaches.
Prerequisite: VPA 1020
Black and White as Color
VPA 2130 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students are asked to invent and discover roles for black and white to play, other than the traditional and obvious ones of dark and light. The goal is to characterize observed form and space in “plastic terms” (Matisse). Colorants are explored in extension, as areas. Plasticity is expressed by means of color interaction: selective orchestrations of color intervals, edge conditions, quantity, distribution, and proportion. Also offered as VDR 2130.
Prerequisite: VDR 1010 and VPA 1010
Art in the Dark
VPA 2260 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A drawing and painting experience, working from flash slides, master slides, and directly from observation. Concepts and processes are discussed in terms of the space-forming cues: position, size/shape, overlap, figure/ground, and brightness/contrast. Exercises performed in a partially dark environment encourage peripheral vision and a unified field response. Media include chalk, pencil, brush, and paint.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010
The Generated Image
VPA 3000 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students make paintings and drawings based on generated images. Various strategies, including appropriating imagery from cultural media (print, photography, the Web) and manipulating imagery through mechanical and electronic processes (photocopy, Photoshop), are explored. Other approaches (e.g., layering, de/constructing, morphing) may also be used to generate imagery for narrative, ironic, or abstract works.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010 and working knowledge of Photoshop
Advanced Painting I and II
VPA 3010 and 3020 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
Students work independently in painting under the guidance and criticism of a faculty member. The objective and the subjective, the world and the self are considered in the context of contemporary painting. Choices of subject and approach are the student’s own. Each student attempts to define his or her own sensibility and concerns in preparation for the senior project.
Prerequisite: VPA 2020
Visiting Artist
VPA 3050 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Visiting artists work with advanced students to further develop their painting skills and abilities. Students work independently and meet for group discussions and critiques. Readings and field trips may supplement the visiting artists’ discussions.
Materials and Techniques
VPA 3100 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Contemporary and more traditional approaches to painting materials and techniques are examined. Topics include pigments, solvents, supports, media, and their technical applications.
Prerequisite: VDR 1010
People and Places
VPA 3110 / 4 credits / Spring
This course focuses on the figure: dressed, undressed, alone, with others. Issues of figure/ground (person/situation) and the diverse roles of the figure in art (realist, narrative, expressive, etc.) are explored. Students paint both from the model and from source materials. The history and the current renewal of interest in figurative painting are considered through slide presentations and gallery visits.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Onsite Painting
VPA 3270 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students work outside the studio from direct observation. Personal invention, imagination, and unique responses are encouraged. Sites have included Grand Central Station, Rye Playland, the Westchester County Airport, and various locations on campus.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting
Experimental Painting
VPA 3410 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
This course encourages nontraditional approaches to painting. Students explore a more innovative and interpretive response to their visual and intellectual experiences, both through a wide-ranging use of tools and materials and through complex and unconventional concepts, ideas, and subject matter. Assumptions about technique, subject, author, environment, audience, and historical classifications are interrogated.
Prerequisite: VPA 1010
Junior Studio I and II
VPA 3500 and 3510 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
A two-semester course focusing on the synthesis of observational skills, a visual vocabulary, and individual vision. Students identify their sensibilities and interests through increasingly self-directed assignments and further their visual, technical, conceptual, and verbal abilities. Also offered as VDR 3500 and 3510.
Prerequisite: Junior standing in painting/drawing
The Monotype
VPA 3550 Go to VPR 3550 in Printmaking Courses for description.
Studio Assistant
VPA 3950 Go to VDR 3950 in Drawing Courses for description.
Research
VPA 4200 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Students are asked to discover and develop source material for their personal vision and to identify their affinities with contemporary and historical art and artists. Casting a wide net (including collecting, sorting, and recording thematic topics; making drawing studies; and sketchbook investigations of images and information), students gather stimuli and create a personal archive to nourish their studio practice. Also offered as VDR 4200.
Senior Seminar and Critique
VPA 4400 / 4 credits / Spring
Commitment and professional practice are the focus of this seminar. Students are encouraged to articulate and clarify the intentions of their work through lectures, critiques, discussions, and readings. Required for all painting/drawing majors who are undertaking a senior project in painting.
Prerequisite: VPA 3500 and 3510
Special Topics
VPA 4500 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An extensive study of a particular topic or technique in painting. Topics vary each semester.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting
Special Topics Workshop
VPA 4501 / 2 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A workshop on a particular topic or technique in painting. Topics vary each semester.
Prerequisite: Two semesters of painting
Updated Mar. 5, 2008