Liberal Arts

Intro to Painting: Painting History (1828-2010)

Course No. PTG221.2  Credits: 3

This is a beginning painting course; it is a prerequisite for painting electives and all advanced painting courses. Students are asked to approach painting pre-photographically (as if the year were 1828.) Students are introduced to the fundamentals of a traditional painting practice with an emphasis on observational rendering and applied color theory beginning with Newton. Students will learn about color mixing, brush types, support construction and general canvas preparation. Students will paint from life learning how to capture the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface as well as how to use material working through shape, form, texture, and mark to create an illusion of space and mass. Through Critiques, discussions, readings, slide presentations, and museum visits students will develop vocabulary and critical thinking skills essential to their studio practice as well as a sense of the history of painting leading to contemporary practices.