A noted New York painter has accepted a position in the Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) Department as the first of two artists to be hired following the recommendation of a visiting committee two years ago, professors confirmed yesterday.

Ellen Phelan, known for her landscape paintings, will become "professor of the practice" and will offer two classes this spring, one in figure painting and one in landscape painting.

"My mandate is to develop a program in studio art," Phelan said yesterday. "Although Harvard has had something of a program in studio art...in the past the emphasis has been on design and architecture. So we are looking to develop a very serious and exciting program in painting and sculpture."

Until now, there have been no senior faculty in painting or sculpture. Although it is infinitely renewable, the position is not tenured and will be renegotiated in five years, said Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies Alfred F. Guzzetti.

The visiting committee, responding to a number of angry students, recommended in its report that offerings in studio arts be increased and improved. In addition to the appointment of a painter, the report called for the hiring of a sculptor.

Professors have hailed Phelan's appointment.

"It's great," said Guzzetti, the department's former chair. "It's going to be the beginning of a new era in studio arts, and will be great for students."

"What is special about her is that she has a tremendous appetite for taking this on," Guzzetti said. "You don't find that among painters of similar talent."

"She is first-rate both as an artist and as a teacher," added James Cuno, director of the University Art Museums. "She will not just teach well in the classroom, but will also build a coherent program for teaching studio art."

Professor of Fine Arts Irene Winter called Phelan a "superb painter."

"Her work on both outer landscape (trees and the world outside) and inner landscape (of the mind) have been consistently excellent," Winter said. "Her art has been less well-known than it might be, but with the Art in America article [published in November 1994] and the quality of her work, it may really start to take off."

"One of the things she wants to do is to better integrate VES undergraduates with courses in other concentrations, like fine arts," Winter said.

Phelan was born in Detroit and received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wayne State University.

She moved to New York in 1973 and has had major one-person shows in Cincinnati, Baltimore, Montreal and Honolulu.

Her work is also in the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.