Painting

Show your work

Get hands-on experience with framing, installing, documenting, and presenting your work. Then submit your best pieces to the annual undergraduate student exhibition, which awards prizes for exceptional entries.

Learn to improvise

Working with paint allows you to improvise, connect, and think freely with the strokes of your brush. Responding aesthetically to your environment with practice, you will develop a personal style and artistic voice.

The department faculty are diverse in their practices and have some amazing experiences as professional artists, and [they] literally know the field inside and out and freely share every tool and tip they can with us.

Claude Smith-Kenny (B.F.A. Painting '20)

Student work

See more student work
Caroline Hawkins painting
Chanya Ruby painting
Mazzy Both painting
Mailinh Ho painting
Hannah Westbrook painting
Sarah Carton painting
Dominick Morales painting
Anna Nussbaum painting
Wynter Rhoads painting
Jessica Rothenberger painting
Brooke Snoeberger painting
Megan Vogeler painting

Left to right, top to bottom: Caroline Hawkins, Untitled, 2021. Chanya Ruby, Untitled, 2020. Mazzy Both, Untitled, 2022. Mailinh Ho, Untitled, 2021. Hannah Westbrook, Untitled, 2020. Sarah Carton, Untitled, 2022. Dominick Morales, Untitled, 2022. Anna Nussbaum, Untitled, 2022. Wynter Rhoads, Untitled, 2022. Jessica Rothenberger, Untitled, 2022. Brooke Snoeberger, Untitled, 2022. Megan Vogeler, Untitled, 2022.   Courtesy of the artists

A student cuts pieces of denim fabric.

Foundation studies

Your first year at Herron focuses on skills that are crucial to your success in art and design school. You will explore basic principles and techniques, as well as your own historical, cultural, and personal influences as an artist or designer.

Learn more about foundation studies

Facilities

Herron's facilities are thoughtfully designed with natural lighting and multidisciplinary studios. As a painting student, you are given 24-hour access to the studios and facilities in Eskenazi Hall, including a shared studio for juniors as well as private studios for seniors.

  • Individual painting spaces
  • Easels, worktables, stools, and lockable carts
  • Live figure models
  • Dedicated critique spaces
  • Professional lighting
  • Mac computer labs with advanced editing software
  • Access to the Think It Make It Lab and woodshop as well as ceramics, photography, printmaking, and sculpture facilities

Professional opportunities

Establishing your own small business studio, selling your work through galleries, or teaching at community art centers are all options to consider as a fine artist. You may also exhibit nationally and internationally at galleries and art fairs, and work behind the scenes in film and television or museums.

Pursue your calling as a professional:

  • Exhibiting artist
  • Artist in residence 
  • Art critic
  • Curator
  • Gallery owner or director
  • Arts administrator
  • Educator or instructor
  • Portraitist
  • Preparator
  • Muralist
  • Studio manager
  • Conservation specialist
  • Film and television scenic painter
  • Illustrator

Faculty

Robert Horvath

Robert Horvath

Associate Professor

Marc Jacobson

Marc Jacobson

Professor Emeritus

Danielle Riede

Danielle Riede

Randolph H. Deer Professor in Painting, Professor

Stuart Snoddy

Stuart Snoddy

Associate Faculty

Andrew Winship

Andrew Winship

Associate Professor

Join Indiana’s only professional school of art and design

Degree programs