Program Overview

Painting – BA (Hons)

Course Overview

The BA (Honours) in Fine Art Painting has distinct qualities which enables active learning through the continual use of materials and processes in a studio environment. The Painting course is housed in purpose-designed spacious studios, with workshop studio and an audio-visual demonstration seminar space. The studio environment is active as a place of individual visual research for making and presenting works allowing for continual peer learning. The lecturers and technical officers who deliver this course are all professional working artists and this perspective ensures that the Painting programme is focused on the provision of knowledge which is up-to-date and relevant to the contemporary world.

Why Choose BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting?

• Embark on a vibrant journey where creativity flourishes within purpose-designed studios: Step into a spacious sanctuary where ideas breathe, and materials come alive. Our course emphasises hands-on material exploration.
• Visual Research Playground: Become an artist-researcher in our sunny studios, where individual expression is celebrated. Peer learning is ingrained, allowing experimentation and growth.
• Artists as Mentors: All your lecturers and tutors are working artists, guiding you through technique and context. Technical officers ensure you are equipped with the materials you will need to grow your creativity.
• Relevance in Real Time: Our programme bridges art with the contemporary world, ensuring what you learn today is applied tomorrow across many different mediums.
• Making and Presenting: Your studio doubles as a stage, where you can exhibit works with local galleries and museums such as the Hunt Museum, to our Graduate Show, fuelling your creativity.
• Where Art Meets Acceptance:** Limerick’s vibrant atmosphere and dynamic art scene is a fantastic location for fostering your creativity.

Entry Requirements

• Entry into Painting is by competition and selection during US800 First Year Art & Design (Common Entry).
• Mature Applicants: Candidates applying as mature applicants may be required to attend an interview and may be requested to take an aptitude test to prove their suitability for a place on this programme.
• International Applicants: International applicants should apply directly to the International Office at TUS, allowing plenty of time for completing the visa process. Applications for September start should be made by 1st June at the latest to ensure visas are processed in time. You should familiarise yourself with visa processing times for your country of origin to ensure you make a timely application.

Course Modules

Year 2 – Semester 1

• Introduction to Studio Painting (25 credits) This module provides the context for the establishment of a strong foundation of primary skills in the preparation and ordering of the studio procedure for painting.
• Critical and Contextual Studies (5 credits) The aim of this module is to demonstrate the significance of twentieth century art and the con-texts from which it emerges, providing students with models of analytical evaluation of the art of the period.

Year 2 – Semester 2

• Painting and Participation (20 credits) This module provides the student with the opportunity to situate and navigate cultural contexts and define a practice within the broader college environment and offsite creative projects within Limerick.
• Professional Practice (5 credits) The Professional Practice module will take place in the Second Semester Module 2 and is a 5 credit module. This module examines the organisation and production of an off campus presentation exhibition.
• Critical and Contextual Studies (5 credits) The aim of this module is to explore the significance of twentieth and twenty-first century art, and the contexts from which it emerges, providing students with models of analytical evalua-tion of the art of the period.

Year 3 – Semester 1

• Languages of Painting (20 credits) This module provides the context for the student to develop and elaborate the range and com-plexity of their painting language with respect to methods of colour application, gestural sur-face manipulation and drawing directly with paint.
• Preparation for Placement (5 credits) The Preparation for Placement Module is a shared 5 credit module, delivered in the first semes-ter of year 3 and is the first of three modules which deal with Placement and Exchange in Year 3.
• Critical and Contextual Studies (5 credits) The aim of this module is to facilitate debate and discussion in relation to concepts presented in the module.

Year 3 – Semester 2

• Placement/ Exchange (20 credits) The overall aim of this 20-credit module is to offer the student the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills gained throughout their course of study up to this point in a new and rele-vant experiential setting.
• Reflection on Placement (5 credits) The Reflection on Placement module offers you the opportunity to produce a learning portfolio in which you reflect upon the situated learning gleaned from your placement.

Year 4 – Semester 1

• Establishing Research Agendas in Painting (25 credits) This module provides the context for the student to develop and elaborate the range and com-plexity of their painting language with respect to methods of colour application, gestural sur-face manipulation and drawing directly with paint.
• Professional Practice (5 credits) The Year 4 Fine Art Professional Practice programme provides students with information which they will require in their professional practice in life after LSAD.

Year 4 – Semester 2

• Establishing Professionalism in Contemporary Art (25 credits) The aim of this module is to enable the learner to realise a professionally competent body of artwork, originating from self-defined themes and a theoretically established position.
• Critical and Contextual Studies (10 credits) The aim of this module is to devise a substantial, self-directed academic research project within the field of visual culture, allowing for the student to build on their core skills in research, writing and critical analysis.

What can you do after this programme?

Career Opportunities

Graduates from this programme have pursued successful career paths in a wide variety of art and related fields: including education and outreach, curatorial practice, animation, the film industry and establishing a contemporary art practice, which bears testimony to the value of the Painting programme.

Further Study

Successful graduates of this programme are eligible for Level 9 and 10 postgraduate programmes within TUS or elsewhere.