Fine Art Painting BA(Hons)

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio advice 

Admission to this course includes a review of your portfolio. This helps us to see your potential and understand how you think, create and explore ideas. We want to see your passion and curiosity – not just your finished work.

Creating your portfolio

Find out what to include in your portfolio and how to present it by reading our portfolio requirements.

Sharing your portfolio

Once you have applied and received details on how to activate your University of Brighton username and password, you can log on to Student View and share your portfolio link. Please make sure we can access this link without a password or login.

Support and advice

Take a look at our advice and guidance on creating a portfolio. If you need help, please contact our Admissions Team. We also run regular online portfolio advice sessions where you can get support from our expert team.

Top reasons to choose this course

• There is no house style – we believe that to develop as a painter you must be unafraid of taking risks and be willing to learn through both failure and success.
• We encourage you to explore all aspects of painting, discovering how different media and processes impact on the ideas and content of your work.
• We will encourage you to test boundaries in an environment of discussion and debate.
• Strong links with local arts communities provide volunteer and employment opportunities.
• The optional placement year gives you the chance to make connections and gain valuable experience.
• You will have your own studio space and be in regular contact with expert staff through individual tutorials, lectures, seminars and workshops.
• There are opportunities to exhibit your work throughout the course including student-led exhibitions at the university and in art and exhibition spaces across the city, culminating in the Graduate Show.
• Your lecturers are professional painters, so you will receive guidance from established artists.
• International links with the University of Nagoya, Japan, including an exchange programme available by competitive application.
• Professional development lectures in your final year cover areas including self-employment, networking and project management, preparing you for a career in the creative industries. 

Follow Fine Art Painting on Instagram  

Hear from Fine Art Painting degree student Archie Nash about the studio spaces, the course tutors and living in Brighton.

Year 1

First year tuition develops your ability to produce self-directed work. Studio practice units emphasise experimentation and risk-taking within a critical but supportive environment; workshops cover all technical essentials of painting; you’ll explore the contexts of art; and seminars introduce you to professional development. 

Modules

• Introducing Studio Practice

  This module introduces you to the main elements of artists’ studio practice, with emphasis on investigation, experimentation and risk-taking, as important aspects of generating of new work. In this module, you will explore painting and the different roles of drawing, together with studies in a variety of media, as a means to process and develop source material, record information and generate ideas. You will develop your understanding of artistic practice and ability to lead your learning and research.

• Developing an Independent Practice

  In this module you will explore the themes and ideas you initiated in semester 1, adding to this growing body of work with new subject matter and content. You will be helped to take increasing control of the direction of your own artistic research. The emphasis continues to be on investigation, experimentation and risk-taking. In addition, you will be encouraged to begin to articulate the art, historical and cultural context in which your work sits. 

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Introduction to Global Art Histories and Art Writing

  This module introduces a range of global art histories underpinned by various modes of art writing and art practice. You will examine and critique the Western canon of art history; indigenous, decolonial, punk, feminist and queer art histories; high and low art theory; art criticism; art journalism; and artist’s experimental writing. 

• Methods and Materials

  This module introduces you to materials, processes and technical skills and will support you to develop your confidence with independent research, time management and planning. You will learn how to make a stretcher and prepare a variety of supports and grounds. Through workshops and demonstrations, you will be introduced to a wide range of oil and water based media and learn about presenting and hanging work. You will also be briefed on good health and safety practice within  workshops and studios.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 2

In your second year you continue to produce self-directed work, but there is greater emphasis on its relationship to the worlds of cultural and political debate. The interim show teaches you about the key issues of exhibiting publicly, and the option modules allow you to explore topics outside your usual learning range.

You may also apply for overseas study placements in Japan and Korea.

Modules

• Studio and Public Exhibition Practices

  In this module you will develop a body of work from which at least one will be presented for public exhibition. You will be guided towards professional approaches to presentation through inclusive, safe and ethical working practices in studio and exhibition contexts. You’ll also be supported in developing speculative approaches to making, exploring materials and processes through experimentation and developing self-critical evaluation skills through post-exhibition reflection.

• Professional Development and Studio Practice

  This module will support the development of your independent practice, explore how your learning can be used to improve your employability and enterprise prospects and identify key skills you have acquired to date. It looks at issues related to your personal and professional practice, including a variety of presentation forms, visual and written documentation, and how these can be used to publicise and disseminate your work and ideas.

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Contexts and Specialisms

  This module will explore the theoretical, analytical and critical frameworks in your field of fine art practice. It addresses how characteristics of disciplines, genres and media have been defined and challenged within an expanding and global field of practice. You will be encouraged to think about and articulate your ideas around art and consider alternative viewpoints to the Eurocentric Western cultural traditions within fine art.

Placement year

Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, additional real-world experience and valuable contacts. 

A placement year gives you the chance to work with established creative professionals and get an insight into their workflows and processes. You’ll come away with a portfolio filled with real-world projects that will stand out in a competitive job market. 

It can also help you discover your creative direction and passion for a particular area of work, helping you grow artistically as well as professionally.   

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that suits your interests and career goals by helping you with your CV and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well. 

Final year

In your final year you produce a body of work to professional standard, exhibiting it in the acclaimed, annual graduate shows; write a research essay to define and contextualise your practice; and receive professional development lectures on subjects ranging from self-employment to project management, networks and planning strategies.

Assessment for studio units is based on artwork and writings; historical and critical work is assessed through written work and presentations. You’ll receive written feedback on your progress. At these points you complete your own self-assessment matching the form used by your tutors. These encourage you to reflect on your development.

Modules

• Theories and Practices of Fine Art: Articulation of Your Critical Position

  In this module you will continue to work with increasing independence, expanding and refining your work in relation to theory and practice. The practical aspects of this module give you a foundation to explore, develop and shape your independent and reflective positions on art. You will identify a focused area of investigation and articulate an in-depth body of work which demonstrates an understanding of the theories and issues that underpin your subject.

• Studio: Reflection and Experimentation

  This module supports the development of your painting practice, building on your work in the previous year. It encourages reflection and experimentation, enabling you to further your knowledge and understanding of painting through critical evaluation and judgement. Technical, contextual and theoretical research will inform and enhance your work, and you will be guided towards a consolidation of the different elements of your studies to produce a focused studio practice.

• Studio Practice and Final Exhibition

  This final studio practice module supports the development of your painting practice, building on your previous work. Focusing on the synthesis of your interests and practice to develop a completed body of work for public exhibition, it is devoted primarily to the production, planning and carrying out of this body of exhibitable work to professional standards.

Facilities

• Dedicated studio space for each student
• Expert technical staff to assist you in workshops and inductions into equipment and technologies
• Wide range of power tools for woodworking
• Essential hand tools available for loan
• Media Centre with specialist equipment including materials for sound, film and photography available for short-term loan, computer rooms with contemporary software for digital image processing and manipulation, graphic layout and typography, animation, film and sound production and editing
• Photographic Services Unit including well-equipped dark room, studio and camera loan facilities
• The TECH HUB – a team of technical demonstrators based in Grand Parade who provide specialist creative software support including Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects etc), Rhino, Blender and C4D, as well as web and blog-related software. They manage digital manufacturing services within the School of Art and Media, including laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC routing, plasma cutting and 3-axis CNC milling. They also have VR headsets and 3D scanners. The TECH HUB has its own dedicated PC suite with all of the software they support as well as standard university programmes
• Department print bureau
• One of the country’s best-stocked specialist art and design libraries
• Internationally important Design Archives
• On-site supplies shop.

You must provide your own painting materials (paints, paper, canvas and wood supports) and basic equipment such as brushes, hammer, staple gun, drawing board, Stanley knife, etc. As a student on the Fine Art Painting degree you are entitled to educational discounts on computers and software.

Meet the team

Christopher Stevens, course leader

Chris’ work spans painting, drawing, photography, animation and video, and has won numerous national awards. Since graduating from Brighton in 1981 his work has been exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad, winning prizes in numerous national art exhibitions. In 1993 he was shortlisted for the post of official war artist in the Bosnian conflict by the Imperial War Museum. Throughout his career as an artist he has remained committed to realist painting as an ongoing and vital artistic practice. His work is represented in London by Mummery+Schnelle.

Find out about the rest of the Fine Art Painting staff: Alex Pollard, Dr Yvonne Feng, Oliver Gosling, Bernadette Kerrigan and Robert Hersey.

Washed Up by Chris Stevens, Oil on canvas 137 x 183cm

Course leader Chris Stevens

Student views

Ellie Sargant
“My favourite part of the course has been the freedom and independence to paint what I want in the studio. The studio spaces are fantastic, and my course facilitates such a brilliant art community, so the studio spaces are always so inspiring and I am able to bounce off my fellow students.”

Ross Borton
“All of the tutors have been very helpful and encouraging, pointing me towards artists I had not always heard of or seen before, enhancing my knowledge and helping with the development of my practice. I have also been inspired by all the brilliant students around me.”

Ellie Sargant

 
Ross Borton

Summer shows

Every year our brilliant art and media students show their work at the University of Brighton Summer Shows. Take a virtual wander and explore our students’ creative work.

Course fees

The course fees shown here are what you will pay for the first year of your course if you start in the academic year 2026–27 and you are studying full-time (fee amount is subject to parliamentary approval). You pay fees in each year of your course. The fees you pay may increase each year.

Regulated fees

Fees for UK students on undergraduate and some postgraduate courses are set by the UK government. These are known as regulated fees. From academic year 2026–27, regulated fees will increase annually in line with forecast inflation.

Student Finance England loans for tuition fees and maintenance will also rise in line with inflation.

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Unregulated fees

Course fees for international students taking undergraduate courses and for most postgraduate courses are not regulated by the UK government. Unregulated fees may increase each year by up to 5% or the forecast Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation (whichever is higher).

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.
• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more.

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton