Expression of Ideas and Emotions
The painting program promotes visual understanding that allows both representational and non-representational expression to be realized. Each undergraduate course follows a deliberate and progressive series of problems designed to enable students to develop formal awareness and facility with the material and evolution of painting. Students are challenged to build form confidently with color and light prior to exploring the numerous possibilities that their increasing confidence with the material will allow. When at the senior level, and having the proper prerequisites, students are able to work independently on self-directed themes. This important transition allows students to engage in the self-discipline of independent research that begins the lifelong learning of an artist's daily studio practice. Both Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) students in the program complete their study with intensive work toward a final public exhibition. Undergraduates with a concentration in painting/drawing at SIUE have been accepted into quality graduate programs and remain active artists locally and throughout the region.
The painting/drawing area has three tenured faculty members: Jane Barrow, who heads the area of painting; John DenHouter, who is the undergraduate foundations coordinator; and Brigham Dimick, who heads the area of drawing. All faculty are working artists with established records of regional and national exhibitions.
