In this course, we will study the historical, cultural and aesthetic foundations of the still life genre. Perceived as one of the lowest genres of art since ancient Greece, the still life has continually served as a negative space in which the dominant social and cultural values can be materialized, fetishized and preserved. Today, dismissed almost as an antiquated vestige of the classical tradition, the still life has in fact acquired a multiplicity of form and has become a site in which contemporary values can be identified, molded and reinterpreted. To arrive at our current moment, we will examine four major historical movements within the genre and their wider contexts:

1. 2. 3. Dutch Golden Age still life paintings in relation to Dutch trade and colonialism Modernist still life paintings in relation to the fracturing social order and advent of mass democracy Pop art still life paintings in relation to the rampant consumerism of post-war United States

4. Contemporary still life paintings in relation to social and political discourse Some artists that we will pay particular attention to: Adriaen Coorte, Rachel Ruysch, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio Morandi, Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Jennifer Packer, Kerry James Marshall, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Vija Celmins.

This course will be delivered in a combination of the seminar and studio formats. The coursework will include in-class exercises, alongside slide lectures, readings, and class discussions. Additionally, the students will make one still life painting for each of the four themes.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $80.00 - $200.00

Elective

The dream is a never-ending source of inspiration for artists, challenging reality with raw emotion and imagination. Often unclear and uncanny, a dream invites limitless investigation and interpretation. Monotype printmaking, a process that has supported artists' practice throughout history, possesses a similar nature to that of the dream: singular, backwards, fast, and unstable.

This course will explore how to use the language of dreams to serve a body of work. We will explore the significance of the dream and dreamer in the work of The Getty Tondal, Odilon Redon, Hilma af Klint, Demetrio Urruchúa, Bea Parsons, and Jung's Red Book, and many more. Using the monotype process, students will utilize dream imagery to refine their critical thinking skills. Throughout the course, students will complete weekly studio assignments that highlight the monotype techniques demonstrated in class, including additive, subtractive, ghost, trace, and stencil, and end with a final assignment exhibiting their accumulated development. Additionally, two research-based presentations, a daily dream journal, and individual and group critiques will support the evolution of students' conceptual and technical skills.

By the end of the course, students will be able to build imagery and translate narratives through monotypes. They will have developed an understanding of symbolic dream imagery, feel confident in presenting and participating in group discussions, and possess an extensive personal visual language. With no prerequisites, this introductory monotype course is presented by the painting department and is open to undergraduate and graduate students from any department.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $265.00

This course is intended for non-majors as a Non-Major Studio Elective (NMSE) and does not fulfill the Painting major elective requirements for degree completion.

Elective

This graduate level wintersession studio course is comprised of one external faculty member who is a well-established professional artist working in the field of painting. This course is designed to support second-year painting students in continuing to grow towards their culminating Spring Thesis work. Students will develop their individual works alongside rigorous guidance and feedback from the Professor. They can expect to both expand and focus their inquiries and methods. Activities will include long-form studio visits, group discussions, reading assignments, collaborative assignments and group critique. There will also be at least one field trip to New York City.

This class is largely structured around intensive 1:1 long-form studio visits with whole group meetings to engage in discussions around studio work, assigned readings, collaborative activities, and a final group critique. Students should expect to spend a significant amount of time working in their studios outside of class periods. Sign up sheets for Studio Visits 1-2 hours long will be emailed each week, please check your emails regularly.

This course is open only to second-year Graduate Painting Students.

Elective

Painting from Observation is a team taught for 6 credits. The class meets on both Schedule A and Schedule B in Wintersession.

Drawing, collage, printmaking and painting will introduce students to contemporary painting as practiced by the RISD Painting Department. This course is a comprehensive introduction to painting. It is designed to develop confidence and experience with paint and painting. We will examine historical and contemporary trends and paint from life models and photo sources. Fundamental techniques for basic ground preparation, oil painting mediums and direct as well as in direct processes will be taught. Representational painting will be the primary focus but experiences in abstract painting will also be encouraged. We will learn abstract principles that organize composition, depict spatial illusion and describe form while developing a shared language for critiques. No prior painting experience is required.

This course is not available for registration in Workday. To register, please contact the Registrar's Office at registrar@risd.edu. If seats are available, students will be added according to their registration appointment time. Registration will close once the course reaches capacity.

This course is intended for non-majors as a Non-Major Studio Elective (NMSE) and does not fulfill the Painting major elective requirements for degree completion.

Elective

This studio course considers how painting and drawing can engage landscape in a time of ecological instability and environmental change. Students will develop work that responds to land, atmosphere, weather, memory, and changing ideas of place. Through studio projects, critique, and discussion of historical and contemporary artists, the course will examine how contemporary image-making can register both the beauty and volatility of the natural world.

This is a hands-on course, designed for advanced painting students who are fascinated by color, surface, transformation and alchemy, DIY processes, craftmanship, invention, and the stuff of paint. It is for those who are eager to dive deep into all sorts of materials, methods and techniques. The objective of the class is to arm students with the tools and resources to figure out how to make what they imagine and to expand their practice through material exploration and information sharing. With an emphasis on experimentation, play, research and development; advanced students explore, problem solve and implement specific grounds, paints, supports, mediums and tools into their own practices. The level of specialization and expertise students may eventually desire for their work could require seeking the advice of paint manufacturers, conservators, fabricators, other artists or even experts in other fields. How to identify and acquire knowledge outside of one's comfort zone, approaching and finding a common terminology with peers and specialists is also a part of this course. Relevant art historical and contemporary methodologies, techniques and materials will be presented. Environmental Health and Safety guidelines that apply to painting practice and painting studio safety will be an integral part of this course.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

This first-year graduate seminar approaches painting as a technical skill, a historical practice and an intellectual project. Weekly sessions begin with group discussions of key readings about recent painting. Readings are organized in three sections. The first looks backward, to the problem of medium that preoccupied modernist painting and, residually, contemporary practices until the 1980s. The second section looks at the academy, the institution and the art market, and their effect on how painting is produced, disseminated, discussed and received. The third, the most speculative, looks laterally at a range of contemporary practices and their cultural frameworks from the 1990s to the present. Frequent studio visits will occur and drive some of the reading and discussion.

Please contact the instructor for permission to register. Preference is given to Graduate Painting Students.

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

This studio-based course will provide the foundation necessary to understand basic color theory and practice in painting, art and design. A historical and cultural perspective will be introduced to inform ongoing color studies executed in the studio. Students will acquire the vocabulary to articulate color phenomena and the means to exploit the expressive potential of color in their work. Color studies will be principally created with gouache, and a variety of other materials and means will also be explored. Lectures, demonstrations, and museum visits will supplement studio work. (An in class presentation is required).

Elective

The work intensive studio course will involved students in an intense visual, aesthetic and theoretical discussion around the historical relationship of Cinema to Painting and Arts Culture in general and move on to the analyze the current embodiment of Cinema's more conflated and confounded, co-dependant relationship to the Art's of today, tapping into the cross-pollination resulting of imagery, politics and theory's as they apply. Each class meeting will involve studio work and discussion and culminate with a film screening. The film screenings will move forward from Cinema's very beginnings to a few of today's best Indie films. The concentration of the course will be assigned painting projects that will be direct responses to the films being screened and related critiques of these projects as they pertain to the films and the applicable supplemental literature, allowing the discussion around Cinema, cinematic and art critical theory and the Art culture to be transferred to the students individual works thus allowing for the work to be seen in a larger context.

Elective

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

An introduction to the basic language of the painting discipline. Emphasis on the plastic and formal considerations necessary for work that will become an increasingly personal statement.

Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Painting Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

The purpose of this course is to continue development based on Painting I. Individual expression will be encouraged through a series of larger works which require greater time and organizational skill. Experimentation in different painting media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media will be encouraged. Group and individual critiques are required. Outside work will be assigned.

Open to non-majors pending seat availability and department permission.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting

The purpose of this course is to continue development based on Painting I. Individual expression will be encouraged through a series of larger works which require greater time and organizational skill. Experimentation in different painting media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media will be encouraged. Group and individual critiques are required. Outside work will be assigned.

Open to non-majors pending seat availability and department permission.

Major Requirement | BFA Painting