Painting faculty provide guidance, technical instruction, and critique to help students develop their painting skills, artistic vision, and conceptual thinking.
Meet our FacultyThrough both guided and progressively self-directed work, students master the elements of painting, finding their creative independence and personal voice.
MassArt’s Painting department offers students a unique learning environment that combines traditional painting instruction with support to gain creative independence and self-directed work within an intensive, collaborative environment.
Unique To MassArt
Painting cohorts of 15 students work in group studio areas, and each student has their own personal workspace within that studio. Classes meet for 10 hours each week, and students regularly spend substantial time in studio work outside of class.
As their studies begin, Painting majors focus on core techniques and skills. Heavy emphasis is placed on drawing, from both observation and imagination. Students work mainly with oil and acrylic painting, in order to explore the main components of the language of painting, such as form, space and light articulation, composition, and color. Students also participate in frequent individual and group critiques to foster independent thinking, the construction of conceptual frameworks, and the ability to discuss and contextualize their practice in meaningful ways.
As students progress, they are introduced to advanced techniques and processes – exploring mixed media, digital drawing, abstraction, and expanded painting, all while being encouraged to experiment and grow as individual artists. Seniors work on self-defined degree projects in painting, and develop a command of both technical and conceptual elements of painting towards the articulation of meaning.
World-Class Museums
The Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Harvard Art Museums, among other institutions in Boston, act as extensions to our classrooms. With free access, MassArt faculty frequently teach classes on site, studying directly from the most significant works of art in these institutions.
Alumni
Graduates of MassArt’s Painting program pursue varied careers, as professional independent artists, curators, educators, art dealers and gallerists. They are equipped with the vision, knowledge and skills to navigate the art world and make a meaningful impact on the field of painting and beyond.
BFA Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the Painting BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
- Understand perceptual, formal, and conceptual approaches to painting and printmaking;
- Demonstrate technical and material proficiency in drawing, painting, and printmaking;
- Strengthen visual analysis and verbal articulation skills in relation to artistic practice,
- Understand and appreciate diverse, historical, contemporary practices, and the artist’s role in society;
- Develop a unique body of work that reflects authentic perspectives;
- Comprehend the histories of Painting and Printmaking as technological/material/conceptual developments that are tied to geography, time, and larger ideologies;
- Develop strategies that encompass the role of investigation and experimentation in creative practice;
- Demonstrate best practices in the studio, including health and safety
- Acquire professional skills for sustainable studio practices beyond school.
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