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Artist Inspiration

Reflection and Renewal 

Find one artist working in your chosen medium (or the closest related).
Include in your paper:

  • Artist’s name, short bio (4–5 sentences)

  • 1–2 images of their work

  • Caption: Artist, Title, Year, Medium, Dimensions, Source link

  • 5 written notes:

    1. Visual features (color, form, rhythm, scale, texture)

    2. How the work expresses reflection, rest, or renewal

    3. What techniques could you adapt or reinterpret

    4. Why their approach resonates with your theme

    5. Where or how you’ll show their influence in your project

  • Your Reflection Source (Photo and brief explanation of your source) 

  • Chosen Medium 

Test it → Apply it → Reflect on what you learned.

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You will complete your Artist Inspiration in a Google document in MLA format and share it with me at the end of the period. 

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Check out Holmes's Artist Inspiration for an example. 

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Potential Sources

  • National Gallery of Art (USA) — A vast online collection; over 60,000 works are freely downloadable under open‑access terms. National Gallery of Art+1

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) — Provides nearly 500,000 public‑domain images from their collection, free for use. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  • Art Institute of Chicago — Over 50,000 images available under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain). Art Institute of Chicago

  • Smithsonian Institution Open Access — More than 5.1 million 2D/3D items from Smithsonian collections, free to browse and download. Smithsonian Institution

  • Art UK — Explore over 600,000 artworks from Britain’s national collection. artuk.org

  • WikiArt — A visual art encyclopedia offering a wide range of artworks across centuries and media. wikiart.org

Tip for students: When you search these sites, use filters like medium, decade, style, or public domain to narrow down to useful references.

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Artist Inspiration - Echoes of the Past

  • Find 1 artist in your new-to-you medium (or closest hybrid).

  • Choose 1 specific artwork and bring 1 clear image + simple caption:

  • Artist, Title, Year, Medium, Dimensions, Source link (museum/official site preferred).

  • Write 5 quick notes:

  • 3 visual features (layering, texture, color, scale, repetition)

  • Meaning/context (whose past? what story?)

  • Echo of the past (how time is made visible)

  • Technique to adapt (name the process)

  • Where it goes in your piece (which layer/area)

  • Test it in your 3 swatches → show it in your prototype.

  • Mid-crit (60 sec): “Artist — Work — What I’m borrowing — Where it appears.”

Holmes Example

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939, Oil Painting, 173.5 cm × 173 cm (68.3 in × 68 in)  

1. Repetition, Texture, Color

2. Frida created this painting after moving to San Francisco, California, from her home in Mexico.

3. Time is made visible in The Two Fridas through the changed clothing, her changing skin color, and the artery (only showing an endpoint, not the beginning).

4. I’m going to adapt Kahlo’s use of color. The cool colors in the background contrast with the warm colors in the foreground subjects, making the figures pop (a common practice in Mexican Folk Art).

5. In layer one, I will use cool colors to develop a soft background. Then, I will use warm colors to create my subjects. I may even use acrylic paint in the Background, and oil paint in the foreground to enhance that layer because oil paint is more textured than acrylic.

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