The painting program is given balance by the very different approaches to painting of the professors who guide it: Darby Bannard and Brian Curtis. Bannard is an abstract painter in acrylic who specializes in innovative uses of new materials; Curtis is a realist painter who paints highly polished narrative paintings in oil. Their common interest is the program and the students in it.

Many of our other full-time and adjunct professors are accomplished, exhibiting painters and all of them are available to critique your work. This is a structured but nurturing environment for young artists; hard work and new ideas are welcome, and students who exhibit these qualities are assured of specialized individual attention according to their needs.

Our painting program is based on our rigorous foundation series and is designed to train each painting student to skillfully render images in oil and acrylic paint and then use these skills to make original art.