INSIDE ART: INSPIRATION AND TECHNIQUE
TEACHERS’ NOTES
‘Inspiration…she doesn’t visit the lazy’ – David Hockney
‘I am a magpie, I observe, I watch, I think, I consider…I build up a
scrapbook’ – Isaac Julien
Overview:
This series of interviews provides rich resource material for the
teaching of the visual arts from the perspective of the artist, the
curator and the gallery director.
Material provided is intended for use with secondary students in
Years 7 – 12 in all Australian states and territories. It is particularly
useful for years 11 and 12.
Senior school art curriculum is currently diverse, yet there are
significant similarities between all course outlines.
All senior art students study artists, their artwork practices,
inspirations and techniques. Students develop their own
understandings and in turn may use this knowledge to inform their
own artmaking.
The interviews ask the question:
Q Why do artists make art?
Students can then turn the question around and ask
themselves:
Q Why do I make art?
Artists featured on this video:
1. Rona Green - Painting
‘I amalgamate and collage my interests.’
2. Marion Borgelt - Mixed-Media
‘My colour palette is off-key.’
3. Geoffrey Ricardo - Sculpture and Etching
‘Copper is the starting point.’
4. Sally Smart - Installation
‘I am interested in mapping space.’
5. John Forrest - Oil Painting
‘I want to avoid a linear narrative in my work.’
When students are asked to analyse artworks, it is important that they
LINK the following together:
1. The meanings and ideas behind the artwork
2. The materials and techniques used in the artwork
3. The Elements and Principles of Art seen in the artwork
To look at meanings, materials or formal aspects in isolation does not give
an in-depth understanding of the artistic process.
The Inside Art series of interviews gives an insight into the artistic process.
Students gain valuable insights into HOW and WHY artists work the way
they do. These insights will also help with their own art practice, when they
ask themselves how and why they work the way they do.
Using the Inspiration and Techniques video, students can ask themselves:
 Why is copper sheet the preferred medium for Geoffrey Ricardo’s
sculptural elephants and etchings?
 How does Rona Green combine tattooing, rabbits and her partner in
her portraits?
 Why is Sally Smart driven to explore American Punk and postcolonial discourse in her art?
 How do Marion Borgelt’s use of Colour, Repetition and Contrast help
to get her messages across?
 How does John Forrest create a sense of dysfunctional reality in his
paintings?
A useful template for students to use when viewing these interviews:
Artist:
MEANINGS
IDEAS
SUBJECT MATTER
INFLUENCES
MATERIALS AND
TECHNIQUES
ELEMENTS AND
PRINCIPLES
Students take brief notes while watching the videos, discuss their findings
as a group, then do further research and write extended responses
LINKING the three categories together and weaving in quotes taken from
the videos.
An Example of note-taking for Geoffrey Ricardo:
MEANINGS
IDEAS
SUBJECT MATTER
INFLUENCES
The elephant
Extinction
People and animals
Pinocchio
Copper as the subject
matter
MATERIALS AND
TECHNIQUES
ELEMENTS AND
PRINCIPLES
Copper sheet for
etching and sculpture
Layering
Etching
Construction - soldering
Weaving copper wire
Texture
Repetition
Scale
Line
Tone
An example of the beginnings of an extended response for Geoffrey
Ricardo:
Geoffrey Ricardo uses copper sheet for etching and sculpting into
elephants of various sizes. He even recycles old etching plates by
soldering them to form his elephant sculptures. The joins in the copper
create repetitive lines in the elephant’s skin, like wrinkles. He points out that
the Statue of Liberty was made from panel-beating rejects. In his words,
‘copper has a life of its own, it just wants to be made into something.’ He
scratches, bends, shapes and solders copper plate and weaves copper
wire. You could say Ricardo is obsessed by the aesthetic qualities and
properties of copper.