Art and Your Practice

Explore a series of videos with artist Laura Slater that will make you think, feel, look at and make art differently.

Each video introduces an activity to help you observe, critique, and create in the gallery and make connections between the artworks and your own creative practice.

Explore the videos in any order, focussing on artworks and exhibitions that inspire you.

Thank you to students and staff who helped consult on the resource, particularly those  from New College Pontefract who piloted ideas and activities with us.

With generous support from Art Fund.

The resource is available on Bloomberg Connects.

Scan the QR code below, or access the resource online here.

OBSERVE: LOOK SLOWLY

Slow down and take time to look at an artwork that inspires you.

Take 5 photographs to record your findings.

How do your images inform your ideas about the artwork?

OBSERVE: VISUAL CONNECTIONS

Choose an artwork and write a list of words that describe the visual elements.

Now write a list of words that describe your experience of the artwork and the emotions it provokes.

Draw connections between your two lists of words.

How do the visual elements in the artwork communicate the meaning or feelings you experience?

OBSERVE: DRAW TO RECORD

Drawing is a form of looking.

Fold some paper into 8 boxes. Describe through drawing 8 different visual elements from the artworks.

Observe the artworks. Look from different perspectives.

Zoom in, zoom out.

CRITIQUE: QUESTION

Choose an artwork you have questions about. Think of five questions you would like to ask the artist who made the work to help to understand it better.

Use WHO, WHERE, WHAT, HOW, and WHY to start your questions.

How has thinking about questions helped you to shape your ideas? How could you ask questions of your own work to develop it further?

CRITIQUE: CURATE

Choose an exhibition in the gallery you are inspired by.

Observe the artworks in the exhibition.

What are the visual connections between the artworks? What do you think are the key themes in the exhibition?

Share your opinions with someone else.

CRITIQUE: YOUR VOICE

Your voice is powerful, and can confidently communicate important ideas.

Choose one overall artwork from the galleries that you feel aligns the most with your interests and passions as a creative person.

What does the artwork say about your creative identity?

CREATE: THINK THROUGH MATERIALS

Choose a sculpture and notice how it has been made.

How have the materials been used to communicate the ideas in the artwork?

Use one sheet of paper to make a sculpture inspired by the artwork you have chosen.

Now draw the sculpture several imes to see how ideas can develop and change.

CREATE: COLOUR STORIES

Use your camera to build a colour palette from artworks in the gallery.

Think about the meaning behind the colours you choose or a theme to inform your choices.

Select individual colours by zooming in, or record how several colours work together.

What would your colour story be called?

CREATE: PROCESS & IDEAS

Barbara Hepworth said:

‘I rarely draw what I see. I draw what I feel in my body’.

Make a series of drawings. Consider the physicality of how you draw. Becurious, take risks and try new processes.

How many different ways are there to hold, move or press your pencil?

Make at least one drawing that feels uncomfortable.