I'm kind of baffled by this question. It's very difficult to create good art. If it is necessary to create good art in order to get an art major, then getting an art major will be correspondingly difficult.

>To me it seems like mostly learning technique and practice practice practice.

You could say the same thing about learning a musical instrument. I guess it's true that with enough practice, pretty much anyone can learn to play a musical instrument with some degree of competence. But that doesn't mean that it's easy to become a good musician, or to reach a standard that's high enough for a music major.

Come to think of it, you could say the same thing about math (at least at the undergraduate level). Solving differential equations is largely about learning a certain set of techniques and practicing them.