Fine Art (Painting)

The MA Fine Art (Painting) course is designed to support the development of your own research in painting. Teaching on this course takes the form of one-to-one tutorials in the studio, seminars, talks and practical and theoretical workshops. 

The course will help you identify, explore and develop your individual position as an artist. You’ll take a holistic approach, embedding theory, research, and historical and contemporary practice into your work.

This studio-based course will draw upon the specialist resources available in our unique painting methods room, and on our highly reputed material and technical expertise in making.

You’ll work in an interdisciplinary environment alongside other students of MA Fine Art and MA Design specialising in Photography, Media, Curatorial Practice, Ceramics, Visual Communication, Graphics, Illustration and Textiles, allowing you to contextualise your work in relation to current debates.

MA Fine Art (Painting) at Bath Spa runs over one year and is divided into three trimesters.

Trimester one
You’ll interrogate your existing knowledge and develop skills in an environment that encourages playfulness and artistic risk-taking. You can experiment freely in our wide variety of specialist facilities, open studio and workshop spaces – with expert technical support.

Trimester two
Building on your work in the first trimester, we’ll support you to reflect upon your developments in the studio and refine your working strategy. You’ll be encouraged to pay greater attention to the presentation of your practice and to test how finished works relate to each other in, as well as to the spaces of, exhibition sites.

Trimester three
You’ll work in the studio with increasing independence as you establish a professional practice. You’ll devise and complete your Master’s Project, working to a proposal which contextualises your work within your specialist discipline and leads to your final Degree Show.

Your progress is evaluated throughout the course and at the end of each trimester via a mixture of exhibitions, verbal/visual presentations, research folders/blogs and written assignments.

You’ll learn through lectures, talks, taught sessions, individual and group tutorials, and studio critiques and seminars. Guest lectures and seminars with internationally renowned designers, artists and industry professionals will help you determine where your current practice sits within the industry.

Our collaborative structure also means that you’ll learn from each other – for instance, Illustration and Textiles students might engage in debates with Fine Art students. Technical Demonstrators provide teaching and support in our workshop facilities across a wide range of subject specialisms. Your learning is also supported by specialist librarians.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Bath School of Art, Film and Media offers fieldwork opportunities throughout the academic year.

There are several awards and competitions at Bath Spa that MA Fine Art students can enter:

• The Porthleven Prize
• Peter Kinley Prize for Painting
• Betty and Peter McLean Prize (for ceramics)
• Freelands Painting Fellowship (open to postgraduate students who studied BA Fine Art at Bath School of Art, Film and Media)
• Emerge studio residency

Students on our MA Fine Art programme find employment in a range of relevant areas, including:

• Professional artists and designers
• Studio and freelance design
• Retail and display management
• Curating
• Art criticism
• Arts administration  
• Museum and gallery work
• Education.

Recent graduates also have set up their own group studios and exhibition spaces. Others go on to pursue further research or a PhD.

The course is taught at our Locksbrook Campus.

As a postgraduate Fine Art student you’ll benefit from access to comprehensive digital workshops and specialist art and design facilities, including: 

• Our student service point at Locksbrook, where you can purchase subsidised art and design materials, hire out equipment for free and collect Library resources
• Access to our Library at Newton Park
• Specialist technical facilities across all of art and design
• Access to studio space where you can work on projects and refine your practice and your research.