Master of Fine Arts in Painting

The core of Laguna College of Art + Design’s MFA program in Painting is built on the values of time-honored skills informed by contemporary theory and designed to help you realize the ideas possible through representational modes of painting and drawing. Our curriculum recognizes that there are particularly technical, ideational, and formal issues related to representation that require you to undergo specialized study at the graduate level, and we strive to meet these demands with a faculty and a curriculum tailored to your needs.

The primary goal of the MFA program in Painting is to support you in building on the traditional skills you acquired in your undergraduate studies so that you may realize ideas possible in the discipline of representational art. You will achieve this goal through the creation of a coherent body of work, a written thesis, and a thesis exhibition. Additionally, you will gain insights into the presentation and marketing of your work and will be educated in the logistics of teaching art at the college level.

Our students have recently been included in group exhibitions across Southern California at venues that include Laguna Art Museum, Koplin del Rio, and Arena 1. Our current students and alumni have had solo and group exhibitions around the country with the prominent galleries that represent them.

Work by our students has been published in Juxtapoz, Blue Canvas, Southwest Art, Drawing, Pastel Journal, and Art Collector magazines.

Our faculty includes such acclaimed artists as F. Scott Hess, John Nava, Kent Williams, and Peter Zokosky and it attracts world-renowned visiting artists including Jerome Witkin, Alex Kanevsky, Margaret Bowland, Bo Bartlett, and Justin Mortimer.

As a graduate of LCAD’s MFA program in Painting, you will be equipped for a career as gallery artists and/or a teacher in higher education.

FOUNDED IN 1961

Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) was founded in 1961 as the Laguna Beach School of Art, a non-profit college of art and design. In the early 1900s, artists, intellectuals, and entertainers began a thriving cultural community in Laguna Beach. Drawn to the stunning luminance of the area, Plein air painters like Edgar Payne and Anna Hills founded the Laguna Beach Art Association, while screen actors like Bette Davis and Charlie Chaplin helped inspire the founding of the Laguna Playhouse. These pioneering cultural ventures spawned the Festival of Arts, Pageant of the Masters, Laguna Art Museum, and Laguna Beach School of Art (LBSA, the predecessor to the College). Nellie Gail Moulton was one of the founding members of LBSA and provided the first significant gift to the then-fledgling college.

Since its founding in 1961, LCAD has grown significantly to include eleven undergraduate majors, three graduate degree programs, nine minors, and a Post-Baccalaureate program. LCAD’s campus also has grown to include seven sites throughout Laguna Canyon and Laguna Beach that accommodate its student population of more than 700 full-time students. The College has been under the leadership of thirteen College Presidents including our current President, Jonathan Burke. LCAD is now one of the leading colleges of art and design in the country.