Students in painting and drawing benefit from the variety of views of faculty members who are all practicing and exhibiting artists.
Studio work is complemented by trips to New York City to visit galleries, museums, and artists’ studios. Students pursuing the BFA major in painting/drawing take part in sophomore, junior, and senior reviews; all students participate in critique and review sessions conducted by the resident faculty, as well as by visiting artists and critics.
Students have access to nine studio classrooms specifically designed for painting and drawing, with large north-facing windows that provide excellent natural light. In the junior and senior years, selected students are assigned semiprivate studios.
Please Note: All students are expected to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 to remain in good academic standing. All required studio arts classes must be completed with a grade of C or higher in order to advance within the degree. Any required studio arts grade of C- or below must be repeated.
Foundation Courses: 16-17 credits
VIS 1050/ComX: 2 credits or VIS 2150/Key Class: 1 credit VIS 1060/Foundation Drawing: 3 credits VIS 1070/Extended Media: 3 credits VIS 1080/Visual Language: 3 credits VIS 1260/3-D Processes: 3 credits VIS 1330/Lens and Time: 3 credits
Art History Courses: 12 credits
ARH 1020/History of Art Survey II: 3 credits ARH 1021/History of Art Survey II: Discussion, 1 credit ARH —/One course in the history of art before 1800 (lower-level) ARH —/Art history elective (modern/contemporary)
Painting/Drawing Studio Courses: 27 credits
PAD 1000/Painting I: 3 credits PAD 2000/Painting II: 3 credits PAD 2050/Painting III or PAD 2350/Intermediate Drawing: 3 credits VIS 2100/Color or VIS 2110/Color Seminar: 3 credits PAD 3000/Junior Studio: 3 credits PAD 3500/Materials and Techniques: 3 credits VIS 4470/Field Trips: 3 credits PAD —/Drawing elective: 3 credits PAD —/Painting or drawing elective: 3 credits
Visual Arts Studio Electives: 12-13 credits
Synthesis Courses: 12 credits
PAD 3010/Junior Seminar: 3 credits PAD 4010/Senior Seminar and Critique: 3 credits PAD 4990/Senior Project I: 3 credits* PAD 4991/Senior Project II: 3 credits*
*Senior Project is changing from 4 to 3 credits applicable to students entering the program Fall 2025.
Mid-Program Review
Students who choose to major in painting/drawing are required to participate in a mid-program review, conducted in the semester prior to taking Junior Studio. This allows students to be reviewed by full-time faculty and to present their work in a group critique format. Students should contact the board-of-study coordinator for specific information on the review process and timeline. Students who do not successfully pass sophomore-level coursework are encouraged to work with the School of Art+Design administration and faculty to find a path to successful study or another major that will better fit their educational goals.
Students are also expected to abide by the policies and procedures laid out in the A+D Student Handbook.
Note: Students who are wishing to obtain a dual degree (BFA/MUSB degree combined with a BA or BS degree or a BS degree combined with a BA degree) must satisfy the academic requirements for each degree and major. See complete dual degree policy.
Additional credits must be completed in order to obtain a second degree, and that in many cases this will require a student to extend their studies by one or more semesters. Please see your advisor for more information and guidance.
Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Painting and Drawing
BFA, Tyler School of Art
MFA, Yale School of Art
Courses
In this introduction to oil painting, students are presented with a variety of attitudes toward making paintings, with emphasis on composition and color. 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.
Credits: 3
A basic introduction to drawing for students from other disciplines. Focus is placed on becoming familiar with the elements of 2-D design and on strengthening observational skills. A variety of drawing techniques and materials are used to explore both representational and nonrepresentational image making.
Credits: 3
A basic introduction to painting for students from other disciplines. Focus is placed on becoming familiar with the materials and methods of painting. A variety of techniques and materials are used to explore both representational and nonrepresentational image making.
Credits: 3
A continuation of PAD 1000. Emphasis is on the role of technique, style, color, and composition in painting. Students’ work is based on art historical models, concepts, and direct observation. Students develop a range of skills, including alla prima, underpainting, transparency, divided color, and various approaches to color mixing.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD1000
A survey of contemporary artists, ideas, and texts in which basic research skills are taught. A combination of slide lectures, discussions of readings, and museum/gallery visits familiarize students with contemporary art discourse and many of its important figures. Contemporary issues are understood to originate in modernist traditions.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
A continuation of PAD 2000, 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.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD2000
Observational drawing of the figure is a vehicle to comprehend drawing as visual language. Drawing fundamentals are employed as tools in intense observation of the human form. Such elements as gesture, contour, line, mass, and movement are introduced in critiques and slide presentations. Materials include pencil, charcoal, wash, and various wet and dry media.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Students paint the human form from direct observation while examining conceptual frameworks surrounding the genre. Key topics are anatomy, process, palette, craft, observation and scale. As students build these foundational skills they also discover their own relationship to depicting the body. Exposure to relevant artistic influences will occur through presentations, readings, in person viewing, and independent research.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD1000
Students work outside the studio from direct observation and experience. Invention and unique responses are encouraged. Sites have included the Museum of the City of New York, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the World Trade Center, the Museum of Natural History, and various locations on campus.
Credits: 3
Explores themes and a variety of approaches to style, form, and content. Themes are subject to change; examples include science and art; ornament, pattern, and decoration; and politics and cultural identity. Classroom work, lectures, critiques, readings, and illustrated discussions augment the thematic research. A range of drawing materials and approaches are encouraged.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD2000
How do people recount events in the silent and still realm of visual art, specifically the painted image? Students explore issues of conception, construction, and reception of narrative, and formal strategies for its visual conveyance. The primary media are watercolor and acrylic, and final projects may range from paintings to books and beyond.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Focuses 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.
Credits: 3
COREQ: PAD3010
PREREQ: PAD2000 And PAD2050
Students explore two-dimensional, handmade processes in order to make digital animations. Stop-motion methods are covered with a focus on using analog means to create four-dimensional effects. Through screenings, lectures, and independent research, students become familiar with the history of hand processes in animation. They also learn many methods, including narrative sequencing, still photography, and digital editing, used in transforming handmade work into digital animations.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Helps expand students’ knowledge of art and theory. Students learn new ideas and perspectives through research, presentations, and discussion of modernist and contemporary art. They also research artists and identify their individual affinities with contemporary and modernist traditions. This seminar is tailored to junior-level painting/drawing majors who are beginning a self-motivated course of study.
Credits: 3
COREQ: PAD3000
PREREQ: PAD2050
Students work independently, choosing their subjects and approach to painting under the guidance of a faculty member. Critical thinking is promoted in critiques and discussion of readings. Students’ work is considered in the context of contemporary painting as they attempt to define their individual sensibility and concerns in preparation for (or in complement to) the senior project.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD2050
This course encourages nontraditional approaches to drawing. 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.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
This course involves drawing the figure on a large scale from direct observation of the model and various sculptural, two-dimensional, or digitally based sources. Form, gesture, and composition are stressed in large-scale, fast-to-slow drawing. Assignments in anatomy, photography, narrative, memory, and art history are used to develop concepts for representation of the figure. Analysis, critique, and experimentation are components of the course.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Students experiment with ideas for making a series of work that is extreme in content, scale, color, and visual impact, and may choose to work independently or collaboratively.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Students work outside the studio from direct observation. Invention and unique responses are encouraged. Sites have included Rye Beach, The Hudson River, Kensico Dam, Grand Central Station, the Rockefeller Estate, and various locations on campus.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD1000
By treating the sketchbook as a portable studio, students will develop an understanding of first-hand research, sequence, and methods for translating experiences into narrative artworks. Students will work in a variety of media from drawing, water-based painting, and basic digital processes, to experimental book forms.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
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.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Issues are figure/ground, identity/context, and the diverse roles of the figure in art. Using varied methods and approaches, students explore the wide-ranging possibilities of figuration, drawing from the model and other sources. The history and traditions of figurative art are examined in slide presentations and gallery visits.
Credits: 3
Contemporary and more traditional approaches to painting materials and techniques are examined. Topics include pigments, solvents, supports, media, and their technical applications.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Students explore the impact and legacy of queer theory, artistic practice, and artists throughout time. This course examines how queer aesthetics resist normalization, foster collectivity, and inspire imaginative futures. Through visual, literary, performative, and philosophical lenses, we will engage with the generative power of queer contributions to artistic discourse and cultural production, embracing a spirit of constant transformation.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: VIS1060
Students gain technical professional experience by helping provide a safe and well-functioning studio environment for their fellow students. Studio assistants are expected to have advanced standing in their media area and a thorough understanding of current professional practices. Duties include basic maintenance and demonstrations of equipment, independent or group tutorials and workshops, weekly meetings, and other responsibilities assigned by the sponsoring instructional technician. A maximum of 4 credits in PAD 3950 (or a combined maximum of 6 credits in VIS 3998 and PAD 3950) may be applied toward the BFA.
Credits: 2
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.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD3000 Or PAD3001
An extensive study of a particular topic or technique in painting. Topics vary each semester.
Credits: 3
PREREQ: PAD1000
An extensive study of a particular topic or technique in drawing. Topics vary each semester.
Since actual course offerings vary from semester to semester, students should consult the myHeliotropecourse schedule to determine whether a particular course is offered in a given semester.
Information Changes
In preparing the College Catalog, every effort is made to provide pertinent and accurate information. However, information contained in the catalog is subject to change, and Purchase College assumes no liability for catalog errors or omissions. Updates and new academic policies or programs will appear in the college’s information notices and will be noted in the online catalog.
It is the responsibility of each student to ascertain current information (particularly degree and major requirements) through frequent reference to current materials and consultation with the student’s faculty advisor, chair or director, and related offices (e.g., enrollment services, advising center).
Notwithstanding anything contained in the catalog, Purchase College expressly reserves the right, whenever it deems advisable, to change or modify its schedule of tuition and fees; withdraw, cancel, reschedule, or modify any course, program of study, degree, or any requirement or policy in connection with the foregoing; and to change or modify any academic or other policy.
