ART
130 – Painting I @ Mercer County Community College
Kyle M. Stevenson, professor
Office: ET 124; email: stevensk@mccc.edu;
or kylestevenson@yahoo.com
Course blog: www.professorkylestevensonpainting1.blogspot.com
Office hours: TBA
Course
goals and objectives:
The student will begin to formulate his/her conceptual
direction in painting by completing assigned projects and imposed goals to the
satisfaction of the professor. The
student will begin to develop an understanding of the working of paint to make surfaces
and images, what to do with those surfaces and images, and how those surfaces
and images might fit into the context of the artistic canon. There should be no particular
interest in developing a prescribed style of painting at this point. The student will also learn to work in a
community of “artists”, carrying an ongoing dialogue with the professor and
each other in the form of critiques and more informal discussions, and applying
those discussions to his/her own work.
Evaluation
Each of you will complete a series of assigned paintings and
projects in order. Each project is designed to build upon the
last, so if a project is missed or for any reason incomplete, success in
subsequent projects is substantially lessened.
“Success” will be judged by the professor, according to how the project
meets the goals stated at the assignment of the project. The aim is for the
student to explore the stated goals and to discover his/her own strengths and
weaknesses, using the former as a foundation and improving upon the latter. Attention
will be paid to making work with solid composition, quality paint handling, and
conceptual strength. The class work
should be considered more as projects or exercises than works of art. With that in mind, the more open to
experimentation and risks the student can be, the greater the chance for
success and personal growth since a large part of the goals for each project is
based on content and is conceptual in nature.
Perhaps more than anything else, art making as a concept is a process of
inquiry, and not a series of hoops through which to jump. That having been said, there will still be
the necessary evil of having grades assigned to each project, though
improvement and personal discovery (a result of risk taking and
experimentation) will be factored in to grading.
Each project will receive a letter grade (and at times a related
rubric) after the critique at which it is due.
A final project will be due at the end of the semester that will
integrate many of the concepts covered throughout the class, and will therefore
act as a culmination project representing your entire body of work for the
course. This project will necessarily be
worth more than the rest of the projects in the semester. 50% of final grade will be calculated from
the average of the class projects, with the final project taking another
20%. Class participation in the form of
involvement in critique, class discussion, attitude, reception to criticism,
punctuality and preparedness, etc., is another 20%, and Artistic Movement
Presentations take up the last 10%. With
all this in mind, the grade chart is as follows:
Projects 50%
Final Project 20%
Participation 20%
Presentation 10%
Late
Projects
My policy for late projects is as follows: you are allowed to hand in one project after they
are due without penalty. After this, any
more late projects will simply not be accepted.
But the time window to hand in this late is not infinite. You have one week (or until final critique,
whichever is less) from the date and time it is due to hand it in; after that
it will not be accepted.
Attendance
This class will meet 15 times throughout the term. Attendance
and the constructive use of time, both in and out of class, are essential. Class is your time to work in an environment
where you have access to me and your classmates. Take advantage of this as it will greatly
inform the time spent painting outside of class. Your showing up to class ready to work on time
will be reflected in your project and participation grades. If you miss a lecture or lesson for some
reason, DO NOT expect me to give you a private tutoring session getting you up
to speed (get the info from a classmate instead). It is your responsibility to attend class,
and it’s presumptive of you to expect me to repeat myself when you’ve failed in
your responsibilities. Because it is so important to be in class,
you have one absence before your final grade is affected. Accruing more
than one absence (or one for the evening class) will result in your final grade
dropping a full letter grade after all other calculations, with each additional
absence counting for another third of a letter grade. Arriving substantially late
or leaving substantially early will count as half an absence.
There will be several demonstrations and slide image
lectures during the term. In order to benefit from the information and as a
courtesy to your peers and myself, please be in class and set up to work at the
beginning of class.
Additional
Research Practices
Because many of you are in this class to pursue Art
seriously, it is time to learn that it simply isn’t enough to attend class and
do the homework projects. If all you
care about is the grade it might be enough, but if you are serious about Art
you MUST make it a practice to pursue Art nearly every day, whether someone
like me is compelling you to do so or not.
That means not only painting when it isn’t required, but to read art
related books, periodicals, and websites, watch films, listen to podcasts, and
anything else that will further your knowledge and understanding of what it
means to be an artist. Your curiosity of
your world must be insatiable. Your world consists of the stuff that
interests/excites/inspires you. Any true Artist never stops learning. I will
certainly have recommendations—feel free to ask as much as is necessary!
Finally,
as we all come to this class with different experience, ability, and
confidence, it is essential that you treat me, each other, this course and
studio with respect. Failing to do so
will result in your dismissal from class.
Materials
List
-Sketchbook and pencils (does not need to be new)
-tool box or case in which to keep your supplies
-wooden palette (no glass)
-pencil and straight edge
-masking/painters tape
-metal palette knife, good quality with a bent shank; trowel
shaped
-Bounty or
Viva brand paper towels (replace as
needed)
-all metal medium sized coffee can with lid
-one shallow can, cat food or tuna fish size that
fits inside the coffee can
-plastic or tin pan (contains spills from above can)
-small bottle of Windsor & Newton Liquin
-2 canvas boards 18x24.
-2 canvas boards, 9x12.
-Paint*—must have these specific colors! Though you can certainly have others as well.
. .
- alizarin crimson
- cadmium red medium**
- cadmium yellow light **
- cadmium orange **
- yellow ochre
- cobalt blue**
- permanent green light
- manganese or dioxizine purple/violet
- ivory black
- titanium white—large
tube
*for all the colors except white buy
tubes that are at least 37ml. The tube
of white should be 130ml to 200ml
**If you are able to buy the “hue”
of a color as opposed to the true pigment that’s fine .
. . it’s also much cheaper.
-Brushes—you will need to buy long handled brushes in a
variety of sizes and styles:
Bristle brushes
- Flats—small,
medium, large; (exact size/number is up to you)
- Filberts—small,
medium, large—at least one of each of these.
Sable
or Synthetic brushes
- Flats—small,
medium
- Rounds—small,
medium
- Fan—medium to
large
-a beverage or dish (with food in it!) to pass at final critique
(we’ll discuss this as the time comes)
Additional
supplies for stretching canvas
It is certainly possible to paint for an entire career
without ever having stretched your own canvas.
It is often possible to buy pre-stretched canvases for very reasonable
prices, making the time and effort used to stretch a canvas unnecessary. However, when cash is much scarcer than time
or energy it is very important to have the tools and knowledge to build your
own supports. Therefore, this term you
will have to stretch a canvas or prepare a panel for all of your paintings once
I show you how to do it. This is what
you will need when the time comes:
-staple gun ***
-a box of ¼” to 3/8” staples for the above ***
-stretcher bars of appropriate sizes
-canvas 8 to 12 oz. (width and length as needed)
-1 quart of acrylic gesso (if your canvas is unprimed)
-2" decent quality house painting brush (for gesso)
-canvas pliers are suggested, but not mandatory (though your
knuckles will thank you) ***
-tape measure ***
***I have some available to borrow, but
to avoid waiting you might do well to get your own
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