UGA Bulletin Logo

Introduction to Painting and Visuality

Creativity & Innovation
Critical Thinking

Course Description

Introduction to contemporary perceptual painting, a synthesis of global image culture. Emphasis is placed on historic motivations, non-western influences, subject matter, and composition by utilizing painting media and image interpretation. Students learn painting techniques, respond to issues through painting language, and articulate their analysis through critiques and written responses.


Athena Title

Intro Painting and Visuality


Semester Course Offered

Offered fall, spring and summer


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Student Learning Outcomes

  • Students will be introduced to major social and historical contexts for painting through lectures, image presentations, readings, visiting artists, and museum visits.
  • Students will learn introductory skills and techniques through technical exercises that utilize various modalities of vision: direct observation, lens-based media, chromatic, and peripheral observation.
  • Students will be expected to assimilate and analyze the presented materials within the medium of painting.
  • Students will use the nomenclature that is stylistically appropriate and mature through response papers, presentations, and critiques.
  • During critiques students will learn to communicate for academic and professional contexts, supporting a consistent purpose and point of view while considering and engaging opposing points of view.
  • Students will develop and enhance skills in the techniques of painting and apply them in original and imaginative ways, taking appropriate risks to creatively solve problems, synthesize ideas, and develop imaginative and original responses in creative art practice.
  • Students will enhance skills in observation and attention to detail, interpreting visual information through abstract thinking, engaging various sources of inspiration, research and experiences, while resolving creative challenges through appropriate methodologies in experimentation and critical evaluation, synthesizing an iterative working process of production, self-evaluation, problem solving and refinement.
  • Students will engage in the oral critique of creative works, interpreting inferences in symbolic and indirect discourse, supporting one’s conclusions with sound reasoning and judgement, while considering, engaging, and analyzing opposing viewpoints.
  • Students will develop and effectively express ideas in written and oral form using language with clarity and precision, navigating interpersonal communication with respect and maturity, tailoring communication strategy and style appropriately for various contexts.
  • While engaging the work of others, students will develop an awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of varying perspectives from cultures and communities beyond one’s own.
  • Students will participate in a supportive arts community, developing self-discipline by initiating and sustaining a creative studio practice, while engaging and motivating others toward a shared vision of creative community through encouragement and trust.

Topical Outline

  • Students should gain a basic understanding of perceptual painting idioms practiced by artists of various cultures.
  • Students will become familiar with the art historical contexts and the impact of current events on the generation of that artwork.
  • Students will demonstrate the use of various models of convergent and divergent design thinking to prepare and research and investigate visual problems.
  • Students will demonstrate the use of various visual strategies, materials, and processes of modern and contemporary painting practice.
  • Students will demonstrate an understanding and adequate mastery of the material and tactile handling of the medium of paint, pigments, and mediums derived primarily from direct observation.
  • Students will develop a sensitivity to color through the creative application of color theory, the perceptual translation of color as it relates to the plastic world of space, light, and form and to the sensual world of surface and texture using various color palettes and painting surfaces
  • Students will build and prepare different painting supports and surfaces.
  • Students will demonstrate an understanding of safe studio practices and appropriate work habit
  • Students will learn to use critical language to succinctly articulate their work and the work of others both orally and in written form.
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate their personal thoughts and vantage points through the newly acquired language of painting.
  • Students will also demonstrate critical understanding through written assignments.
  • Unit 1: Seeing vs. Looking, Materials, Techniques, and Design Introduction to the painting mediums and techniques from the Western tradition of painting. Introduction to the substantive effect that Japanese kilo-e woodblock prints had on European and American artists at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, and the influence of “Japonisme” on composition and design: figure/ground relationship, cropping, and pattern. Students will complete various painted studies that demonstrate awareness of these concepts. • Development of Traditional and Contemporary Painting Materials and Techniques • Compositional Design • Rendering Skills • Light Logic • Color Theory • Written Assignment/Response Idea: Researching the Painting Collection at the GMOA. (Topic to be determined.)
  • Unit 2: Still Life and Object Painting Introduction to traditional still life painting before the 20th century in contrast to object paintings from Impressionism, Post- impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, and countless other movements from Modern to Contemporary. Students will Appreciate the profound change in Western aesthetics initiated by exposure to African sculpture and textiles; as well as the prints, textiles, and architecture from Asian and Islamic cultures. Students will complete at least two paintings that demonstrate understanding of asymmetrical balance, shallow space, repetition, and ornamentation. • Painting and Design Strategies Composition, Picture Plane, Positive/Negative Shapes, Texture, Pattern, Balance, Rhythm, Unity, Emphasis, Movement, Convergent and Divergent Strategies, Design Methodologies • Written Response: Themes to be explored: objects identity and power, consumerism, personal iconography and symbolism, naturalism, realism, expressionism, and hyperrealism
  • Unit 3: Modalities of Spatial Perception Introduction to the marked differences between Western and Eastern philosophies and depictions of pictorial space and their subsequent convergence in the Modern movement and onward. Students will begin by covering the Western tradition of linear perspective by incorporating the illusionary “window” and fixed viewpoint. Students will then be introduced to Japanese, Chinese, and Indo-Persian art that employs a parallel or isometric perspective wherein objects and their surroundings have been compressed within a shallow space behind the picture plane with no vanishing point. And they will become familiar with spatial ambiguity that primarily emphasizes the two- dimensional surface of the painting as opposed to the illusionary window. Students will complete one painting that demonstrates understanding of traditional linear perspective and a second painting that demonstrates a synthesis of various spatial perspectives. • Picture plane as a window vs. a rectangular surface described by ornamentation and pattern. • Reintroduction of Ukiyo-e prints, “the floating world.” Chinese screen painting and Mughal miniatures from India and Persia. • Written Response: Choose two or more artists who employ both Western and Eastern spatial perspectives in their work and compare and contrast them.
  • Unit 3: Modalities of Spatial Perception Introduction to the marked differences between Western and Eastern philosophies and depictions of pictorial space and their subsequent convergence in the Modern movement and onward. Students will begin by covering the Western tradition of linear perspective by incorporating the illusionary “window” and fixed viewpoint. Students will then be introduced to Japanese, Chinese, and Indo-Persian art that employs a parallel or isometric perspective wherein objects and their surroundings have been compressed within a shallow space behind the picture plane with no vanishing point. And they will become familiar with spatial ambiguity that primarily emphasizes the two- dimensional surface of the painting as opposed to the illusionary window. Students will complete one painting that demonstrates understanding of traditional linear perspective and a second painting that demonstrates a synthesis of various spatial perspectives. • Picture plane as a window vs. a rectangular surface described by ornamentation and pattern. • Reintroduction of Ukiyo-e prints, “the floating world.” Chinese screen painting and Mughal miniatures from India and Persia. • Written Response: Choose two or more artists who employ both Western and Eastern spatial perspectives in their work and compare and contrast them.

General Education Core

CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts

Institutional Competencies

Creativity & Innovation

The capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.


Critical Thinking

The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.



Syllabus