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VCE Art Making and Exhibiting (Year 12) · Unit 3 — Collect, Extend and Connect · 11m read

Collecting Inspiration and Influences — Artists, Styles and Ideas

Art Making and Exhibiting (formerly Studio Arts) starts Unit 3 by collecting — inspiration, ideas and influences from artists and exhibitions. What you collect now fuels a whole year of making.

Learning objective: Collect inspiration from artists, artworks, exhibitions and your own experiences, and analyse how artists’ styles and practices can influence your art making.

By the end of this lesson you can:

  • I can research artists and explain how their practice influences mine.
  • I can collect visual and written inspiration in my Visual Arts Journal.
  • I can identify the style, materials and techniques that shape an artist’s work.

Collecting is filling your pantry. You cannot cook a great meal from an empty pantry. Fill it with images, ideas, materials and artists before you start making.

Sources of inspiration

  • ARTISTS and ARTWORKS — historical and contemporary, Australian and international.
  • EXHIBITIONS — galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, public art, online exhibitions.
  • PERSONAL experiences, memories, places, objects, issues you care about.
  • MATERIALS — sometimes a material itself (clay, textile, found objects) sparks ideas.

For each artist, analyse:
• STYLE — the distinctive look of their work.
• MATERIALS and TECHNIQUES — what they use and how.
• PROCESS — how they develop work (sketching, photography, experimentation).
• IDEAS — what their art communicates.

Worked example (Easy)

Write a Visual Arts Journal entry explaining how an artist influences your work.

  1. Artist and artwork. Name and describe.
  2. What you take. A specific technique or idea.
  3. How you adapt it. Apply it to your own subject.

Answer: "Inspired by a ceramic artist who presses plants into clay, I will press eucalyptus leaves from my grandparents’ farm into porcelain tiles, adapting her technique to explore memory and place."

Common mistakes

  • Copying an artist’s style Influence should be adapted, not imitated. Fix: Take one technique or idea and make it your own.
  • Collecting images without notes Analysis shows understanding. Fix: Annotate every source with why it matters to you.

Practice questions

  1. Which is the best use of an artist influence?

    1. Recreating their artwork exactly
    2. Adapting one of their techniques to your own idea
    3. Ignoring all artists
    4. Copying their signature

    (1 marks)

  2. Describe an artist’s style, materials and techniques, and one idea their work communicates.

    (3 marks)

Summary

  • Collect from artists, exhibitions, experiences and materials.
  • Analyse style, materials, techniques, process and ideas.
  • Adapt influences — do not copy.
  • Record exhibition visits in detail.

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