By Tate Papworth
St Albans Secondary College students were left inspired after a visit by one of the state’s leading artists.
Recently crowned Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith stopped by the school last week to address art students and said she relished the opportunity.
“It’s really nice to connect to the younger generation and open their mind to other possibilities and ways of thinking,” Coppersmith said.
“When you’re a student, you’re not really exposed to people who are real artists and you kind of have perceptions as to what they might be like.”
She said she hoped her visit would inspire the students to discover ways to allow themselves space to create and express who they are with confidence.
Many of the students were eager to know how creating art can be turned into a career and keenly took in Coppersmith’s words.
“I think people always want to see how you make it work,” the artist said.
“I don’t talk about the nuts and bolts of how you make it work as a business, but a lot of people aren’t exposed to artists – they just don’t meet them in their everyday life.
“There is a really rich art world in Melbourne that people can tap in to if they know where to look, so I guess I’ve sort of come out of there to meet the students, rather than the other way.”
Coppersmith had originally wanted to paint a portrait of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but when she was rebuffed, she decided to create a self-portrait.
Her work, which was inspired by another Australian artist, George Lambert, won the Archibald Prize and has taken Coppersmith’s profile to another level.
“It’s a life-changing event,” she said. “It’s such a sudden launch pad for taking you to the next level in your career.
“It’s a support – both the initial financial award and also in profile – so it opens up more choice. You can choose and think about what your own goals are instead of just trying to survive from one thing to the next.
“In terms of logistically trying to stay on top of things like admin, which has just gone nuts, there’s a lot of requests you have to respond to and I’m looking forward to getting that balance right where I can get back my time to paint more fully.”
