Last month I introduced this topic and suggested initial steps to begin to analyse and interpret a piece of artwork, using painting as an example. These steps were:

1. Look at the painting - immediately consider its effect on you. What are your first impressions? What does it make you feel? What words enter your thoughts?

2. Look again - what is the first thing to catch your eye? Then, where does your eye travel next? And after that? Where does your eye end up resting? Does your sight leave the painting altogether?

3. Look once more - is there anything that did not catch your eye before? Or, perhaps you keep going back to a particular part of the painting? Then again, perhaps there are parts you think are unimportant in the painting?

A generally recognised aim of art is to elicit emotion from the viewer. However an artist will never be able to predict precisely the effect on each and every individual of any single piece of work, hence the initial reaction is very important in the analysis of everyone considering any artwork. Just remember, you are not striving for meaning at this stage, rather you should realize there is no ‘right answer’, and moreover the effect the piece has on you can be influenced by many seemingly extraneous factors. For example, your own background, your beliefs, and even your prevailing mood may play some part in this. Okay, let us take an example to illustrate this early phase of analysis. Below is a painting by John Borrero, entitled ‘swing’. The medium is mixed media, found objects on wood panel, dimensions are 24” x 24”, dated May 2006.

swing
John Borrero
Mixed media, Found Objects on Wood Panel
24” x 24”
May 2006
Image courtesy of John Borrero. Visit John’s website at : www.johnborrero.com

Although it is always better to view a work ‘in the flesh’, nevertheless we can adequately use this image to gauge the immediate effect this painting has on us. Have a look right now at the image, and consider the three steps listed above, gathering some brief thoughts, words and feelings of the effect the painting has on you.

How did you get on ? Here are my notes on what I thought (remember, yours will likely differ in many respects - there is no right, no wrong) :

• My first emotion was of conflicting feelings of sadness and happiness, I felt some sort of empathy with someone unknown, perhaps a feeling of loneliness. Words entering my thoughts were : hidden, quiet, still, deserted, sad, calm, memories.
• The first thing that caught my eye was the swing. I then moved up to the area of darkness above, and followed the edge of this cave-like area down to the red foreground. Then I traveled along the horizon-like line at the top of the red area, and then down to a mark which I felt resembled a boat. I was then drawn to the bright area towards top left, and then became aware of a person-like shape of light yellow and red within a dark background, but then my eye pulled from this and defined the light areas as sea and sky as seen from within a cave. Following this, I then fell on the red area, the scratches in this area drawing me back to what my mind recognized as a boat floating in the sea, and finally drawing me up to a yellow sky.
• Looking away, then back again, small light marks in the dark areas draw my eye, and ‘birds’ come to mind. Then I sense movement, opposing the stillness felt initially, the ‘person’ I saw before now feels like they are moving to the left of the composition. Finally, I am drawn back to the swing.

Now, as I said before, I fully expect you will differ from my first impressions analysis, and this is fine. These are my own feelings, thoughts and emotions, and I can now build on these to analyse the painting in greater detail … and now you can too !

Right then, we can now move on to the next stage of analysis, which is to look at techniques used in a painting. Referring to the example above, one primary feeling I had was ‘stillness’. To relate this to technique, I could expand on this by considering that the lone empty swing, my impression of a calm red sea and a pale light sky, plus the viewpoint I felt of looking out to this scene from a dark cave, all combine to make me feel a calm stillness.

Generally, techniques such as use of colour, type of medium, and the composition arrangement, can all combine to create an effect on us, and it is these three areas I will look at in next month’s Zine. So, to end there … may I finally wish you all that you wish for yourself in 2007.

Martin Devine