Painting & Drawing

Art Practices

The Drawing and Painting Area fosters an environment of exploration and promotes a variety of approaches to art making, ranging from traditional media, such as oil paint on canvas, to experimental tactics that challenge the idea of tradition and blur boundaries between media

two students looking at a painting in the painting studio

Katie Minyard installation in her studio

The artist opens a portal through which a viewer can observe the artist’s perspective of the world. The history of the discipline of mark making offers a multitude of perspectives from which all artists and cultural makers can sample. Marks made without the hand illuminate processes in the world that give rise to actions. These processes become a surrogate for the hand and offer artists a new context for mark making. The Drawing and Painting Area fosters an environment of exploration and promotes a variety of approaches to art making, ranging from traditional media, such as oil paint on canvas, to experimental tactics that challenge the idea of tradition and blur boundaries between media. Moreover, the Drawing and Painting Area approaches material and conceptual explorations as inextricable and encourages students to carefully consider the implications of their decisions when making art.

Explore the Painting & Drawing Program

Undergraduate Information

Students working towards a Studio Arts degree can select drawing or painting as their area of emphasis. The diverse faculty in the Drawing and Painting Area are working contemporary artists whose professional practices operate within the tradition while, at the same time, challenging the boundaries of drawing and painting.

An example of an undergraduate track through a drawing and painting concentration in two and a half years (after Foundations):

Year 1

First Semester: Beginning Drawing
Second Semester: Beginning Painting, Intermediate Drawing

Year 2

First Semester: Intermediate Painting, Figure Drawing
Second Semester: Advanced Drawing, Figure Painting

Year 3

First Semester: Advanced Drawing/Painting, Color Theory

Note: Figure Drawing, Figure Painting, and Color Theory can be taken at any time as they do not require pre-reqs beyond Foundations.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

The area also offers a concentrated degree in drawing and painting in the form of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). This is a highly competitive degree and students must apply to the BFA program with a portfolio that displays a unique vision, internal drive, and advanced understanding of practice that sets them apart from the average studio arts major. Once accepted into the BFA program, students will be expected to develop technical proficiency in their media, engage in a critical dialog with their peers, investigate the conceptual underpinning of their own ideas and interests, and work closely with the full-time faculty. Every BFA student will be assigned a faculty mentor. This degree is intended for students that believe they want to be a professional in the arts community.

All students in the Drawing and Painting Area must show a rigorous commitment to their creative impulse and a willingness to foster their intellectual curiosity through their chosen media.

BFA Application & Information

Graduate Program

The Drawing and Painting Area offers a competitive two-and-a-half-year Master of Fine Arts degree. The diverse faculty in the Drawing and Painting Area are working contemporary artists that exhibit both nationally and internationally. Working alongside these and other faculty in the department offers students the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of experimentation and interdisciplinary pursuits, all the while receiving critical feedback from a variety of perspectives. An emphasis is placed on conceptual rigor and the current dialog of each student’s inquiry.

MFA students choose a graduate committee comprised of no fewer than four faculty members, with two from the Drawing and Painting Area and all others from any other department on campus. First year MFA students must pass a first-year review in order to advance onto the second year. A second review occurs prior to the student’s final thesis semester; this is called the pre-thesis review. A final thesis review takes place during the student’s MFA thesis exhibition held in the �� Art Museum. The MFA thesis includes both the exhibition and a written paper addressing the student’s practice. Equal weight is given to the written thesis and creative work. Students must pass the final thesis review in order to receive a degree.

MFA Application & Information

Area Faculty

Alumni Spotlight

Michael Dixon

MFA, Painting & Drawing, 2005

I received two bits of advice when I was considering graduate school. The first was to pick a place where there was someone you wanted to work with teaching in the program, and the second was to pick a place that you felt like you could live in for two or three years. �� Boulder fit the second criteria for me.

My graduate school experiences pushed me and stretched me. There was lots of joy and lots of disappointment. I think the people I continue to stay in contact with made my time in Boulder priceless. I want to mention Kay Miller who was the chair of my graduate committee. She is the reason I ended up attending �� Boulder, and she continues to be a positive force in my life today. Overall, the years I spent in graduate school were some of my best years of my life.

I am currently working on a new body of work called "Picaninny 1976." My mother is white and my biological father is black. I make work about race and identity that primarily focuses on exploring this "in between" space. My mother's parents grew up in Mississippi and when my grandfather first met me he said, "Where is that little picaninny?" I am painting images of myself as a child and inserting crocodile/alligator imagery. The pairing of black children and alligators is common within racist memorabilia in the United States. These images were ubiquitous around America but especially around the gulf states. I am interested in the word picaninny; its historical context; this particular personal narrative within my family; and the implications of violence or erasure of black bodies within this imagery.

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