ART 281B Painting 2

Lecture Hours: 2
Lab Hours: 4
Credits: 4

Emphasizes further skill development as paintings are executed with a greater degree of intention, gracefulness, and accuracy. Focuses on discovering inventive solutions through content development and disciplined studio practice. Stresses critical analysis and revision. Explores historical and contemporary approaches in relation to personal work. Includes demonstrations, critiques, slide lectures, field trips, video, research, readings, and studio time.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 (or higher); and completion of ART 281; or consent of instructor based upon demonstration of fundamental painting and drawing skills. (All prerequisite courses must be completed with a grade of C or better.)
Student Learning Outcomes:

Perceive and paint shape, edges, color relationships and space with increased sensitivity and personal confidence.
Integrate more complex painting approaches and styles.
Design dynamic compositions.
Construct and utilize an increasingly complex palette.
Use a variety of idea generation strategies.
Formulate and produce a planned painting process from conception to final execution.
Analyze personal, cultural and/or social themes to bring meaning, expression and inventive solutions to studio paintings.
Speak and write critically about painting to develop clarity of language, alternative strategies and to crystallize a personal painting philosophy.
Analyze historical and contemporary visual examples to discover options, precedents, and shifts in representation in relation to personal work.
Demonstrate a work ethic and exhibit a sense of craft.

Content Outline

Composition
- Unity
  - Coherence
    - Closure
    - Theory of organic form: the symbiotic relationship of form and content
    - Harmonic proportions through the armature of the rectangle
  - Completeness
    - Finished versus “unfinished”
- Variety
  - Complexity versus economy of expression
  - The tension between unity and complexity
  - Asymmetry versus symmetry
- Rhythm/repetition
- Focal point
- Movement
Historical and Contemporary Representational Painting
- Time periods, genres, genders and cultures
- Materials and processes of representation
- Mining this body of work for individual use
Introduction to Content and Personal Expression:
- Idea generation strategies
- Consideration of context
- Subject matter possibilities: contemporary and traditional explorations
  - Personal, cultural and/or social theme
  - Narrative and metaphor
- Style as meaning
  - Expressionism/abstraction versus realism
  - Symbolism
  - Subjective interpretation of the material world
Development Strategies
- Research
- Creative Process
  - Define - clarification of goals, restrictions
  - Brainstorm - non-judgmental series of written or roughly drawn preliminary sketches
  - Analyze - testing the brainstorm designs
  - Revise - modification to clarify or simplify the design
    - Reference materials (actual, photographic, art historical)
    - Scale considerations
    - Color strategies
  - Refine - execution of finished work
Color Theory for Painters
- The color wheel: primary and secondary hues, compliments, neutrals, value, intensity
- Color and context: the relativity of color perception
- How colors conflict–contrast and disunity
  - The seven color contrasts
    - hue
    - value
    - intensity
    - complementary
    - temperature
    - extension (size)
    - simultaneous
- How color can be controlled to achieve unity
  - Color harmony - 3 methods
    - using same or similar values
    - using analogous colors
    - neutralizing intensity
  - Use of subjective rather than objective color
  - Employment of color tonality
  - Manipulation of the spatial effects of color in the 2-D picture plane
Painting Methods
- Under-painting
- A la prima
- Wet-into-wet
- Scumbling, scrubbing, blending, feathering
- Glazing
Professional Painting Practices
- Finishing and varnishing
- Presentation and framing
- Archival considerations
- The artist statement
- Responsibilities in relation to sustainability
Traditional Practices of Representation
- Hard/obscure edges
- Linear and atmospheric perspective
- Figure/ground integration
- Brush stroke
Critique and Assessment Strategies
- Group, peer-based and individual critiques
- Oral and written
- Formal analysis
- Alternative choices
- Suggested use of rubrics to help students recognize both strengths and weaknesses