Painting consists of an ongoing dialogue between the present and the past. This dialogue is filled with conflicting visions, concepts and philosophies involving both the personal and the political, the individual and the social. It provides the context within which the art object we call a painting was and continues to be crafted and viewed.

Lamar University’s painting curriculum includes many opportunities for the development of skill and personal vision. Students are exposed to a variety of approaches to painting including diverse media, historical and contemporary techniques, color theory, the chemistry and physics of paint and painting supports, the presentation of paintings and, most importantly, faculty guidance in the student’s process of self-discovery. The undergraduate experience culminates in Lamar’s unique “Senior Thesis” program involving a series of original works produced by each BFA candidate, exhibited in the Dishman Art Museum and defended by the student in a formal written thesis.

Supported by a rigorous drawing curriculum, students work with individually assigned problems in painting toward the achievement of mastery. Lamar’s Department of Art is small enough to allow intimacy between students and faculty so that painting is not only taught formally in the credit classes, but also through informal interactions within the physical environs. Painting instruction at Lamar is undertaken in two studios devoted exclusively to the subject, as well as in individual studio spaces within the art building and a separate building on campus, the ArtHouse. Semi-private studio space in the ArtHouse is assigned to graduate students pursuing the Master of Arts in Visual Arts degree with an emphasis in Studio Art.

The developing awareness of location of self in relationship to the world in general and to the worldwide network of art are both critical steps in the painting student’s development and are nurtured through required courses in Art History and Studio Seminar. The latter course involves topical reading and discussion in a variety of subjects from the areas of art theory and criticism.

The Drawing and Painting program has two full-time faculty:

• Professor Donna M. Meeks
• Assistant Professor Xenia Fedorchenko