Cave paintings dating back 25,000 years testify to humanity’s profound urge to create images. This studio teaches the formal aspects of painting, from organizing the picture plane to mixing colors. Students also explore new ways of thinking about space, form, line, texture, and pattern as well as various approaches to applying paint.

Class projects are primarily structured around observed subjects, such as the still life and the figure, but they also include exercises that pull from the imagination or expand into abstraction. Students learn to ask themselves not only “How do I paint?” but also “What do I paint, and why?”

Painting is paired with Drawing.