Drawing and Painting
Drawing and Painting courses at UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice foster the bridge between helping students to develop and enhance their technical skills with conceptual and critical thinking, in relationship to image making in the 21st Century. Students are encouraged to conduct explorations within traditional conventions of painting and drawing as well as exploring, examining and challenging those conventions, in order to create experimental and contemporary methodologies. Through critiques, discussions with peers, individualized time with instructors and rigorous studio exercises, students from various disciplines are encouraged to interrogate what painting and drawing is and can become, as tools of investigation in relationship to developing their art practices.
Drawing and Painting courses are integral offerings within the department in which it is the largest disciplinary area due to student enrollment and square footage in terms of studio facilities for instruction.
All courses are taught in the Anthropology + Art Practice (A+AP) Building, within four large, double-story studios with ample floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows that face north. Each studio is specific to either dry or wet media. The two painting rooms have easels, usable wall space, storage racks, oil paint cleaning stations, flammable cabinets for all containers, sludge containers for oil and acrylic, water containers for acrylic waste, washout sinks, emergency clean up supplies and cleanable rag services. The drawing rooms have storage racks, sinks, large tables, usable wall space, and large drawing boards, as well as model stands. There is ample portfolio storage for works-in-progress as well as plentiful hallway wall space for students to share and critique work with their peers.
Courses in the Painting and Drawing studios rotate between these selections:
ART 12: Drawing: Foundations
ART 13: Painting: Foundations
ART 102: Advanced Painting: Research and Methods
ART 103: Advanced Painting: Reconsidering the Portrait & Figure
ART 116: Ancient Pigments & Contemporary Drawing Practices
ART 117: Advanced Drawing: Research and Methods
ART 118: Advanced Drawing: Remixing the Figure
ART 160: Special Topics in Visual Studies
Location: Anthropology + Art Practice Building, third floor
Lab Hours: TBA
Lab use: Access to these spaces is reserved for students enrolled in painting and drawing classes and to graduate students in Art Practice.
Facilities/Materials fee: varies per class
Facilities contact: Erik Nelson
Faculty oversight:
Search open for tenure-track Assistant Professor in Painting. Deadline: November 28, 2022.