Inside and outside in fine art
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can review the range of ways artists have been inspired by inside and outside.
Key learning points
- Artists can represent physical and psychological boundaries through interior and exterior spaces.
- Artists might use framing, perspective, and scale to connect or separate inside and outside spaces.
- Artwork can explore the relationship between personal, private spaces and wider, public or natural settings.
- Some artists explore the boundary between external appearance and internal experience.
Keywords
Space - the area around, between, and within objects. It can be physical, like a room, or it can be visual
Threshold - a point of change, a space between two different areas
Barrier - things that block, separate, or divide spaces, people, or ideas
Framing - how an artist chooses to surround or crop a subject in an artwork
Common misconception
"Inside" and "outside" in art always refers to physical spaces, like buildings or rooms.
In art, "inside" and "outside" can mean more than places — they can show how someone feels on the inside, how people hide emotions, or the contrast between personal and public life.
Teacher tip
Greater contextual information on the artist's work can be found in the additional materials. You may wish to alter the imagery to better fit your project themes.
Equipment
Access to the internet or a library of art books. Sketchbook or paper for recording ideas, pencils, pens.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What does "composition" refer to in art?
Q2.In art, creates the illusion of distance between the foreground and background.
Q3.Match the keyword to its correct meaning.
The size of something in relation
Drawing to show depth on a flat surface
3D shape or structure of an object
Q4.Which of these shows an artist using perspective?
Q5.Artists use to understand 3D shapes in both natural and manmade objects in space.
Q6.How does composition help an artist communicate meaning in their work?
To help you plan your 10 art and design lesson on: Inside and outside in fine art, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 art and design lesson on: Inside and outside in fine art, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 art and design lessons from the Themes within Fine Art unit, dive into the full secondary art and design curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.