HOW TO READ A PAINTING

Questions to Ask

To read a painting, it is useful to follow a four stage process:

Describing, Analysing, Interpreting and Evaluation.

Describing:

Title,

Artist,

When and where was the painting made?

Subject Matter, list as many facts as you can.

Elements of Art and design: composition, colour, tone, contrast, pattern, space,

shape, form. How are these used in the painting?

Brush marks, how has it been painted? (Evidence of the artist?)

Analysing:

What draws your eye? (Think about the compositional lines)

What is going on in the background? What is going on in the foreground?

Think about overall mood or feeling.

How has the artist framed the painting?

How do the various elements work together?

Interpreting:

What is happening in the painting?

What is the artist trying to say?

Why has the artists used particular colours, tones or other elements of art?

Discuss the time period when the painting was made. (Context)

Evaluating:

What do you think about the work?

Make a judgment about the value and the importance of the painting.

Essay (Autumn Term)

Introduction, this should pretty much mirror personal portfolio question but could focus on a particular artist, artists or genre). Include images!

Short biographies of the artists (concentrating on their work). 

Analyse an artwork by your chosen artists.

(Refer to Creatavi) 

Find relevant quotes by your chosen artist and use these when analysing the images to back up your points (make sure they’re in italics and are contained in speech marks). If you are looking at a contemporary artist and have managed to contact them personally (through email, letter, phone), make sure you mention this in your essay!

Make some art in the same style of your chosen artist, genre. Perhaps try recreating a composition? 

Select a couple of these images, put in your essay and chat about what you’ve done.

Now choose another artwork to analyse, compare and contrast.

This could be:

i Another artwork by the same artists, but one that you 

           feel is different in meaning.

ii An artwork by another artist that uses similar ideas.

iii An artwork in the same genre as your chosen artist.

Look at your analysis from the two artworks. What are some of the key things you are saying? Can you start to see common threads in your analysis? Make a rough list of the key words you are using.  Choose a third image and see if you can analyse it using similar key words and ideas to back up your arguments.

Make more art that reflects your artist’s style or ideas.

At this point you will probably be well on your way to the required word count (no more than 3000 words). If you need more writing (don’t forget you’ve still got the conclusion) you could consider the following…..

Analyse a couple of artworks together in a purely technical way. Consider the elements of art; composition, tone, use of colour, depth, form. Also consider 

Try and find a few common denominators in the images.

Conclusion. It doesn’t need to be too long. Use the information you have gathered so far to write about your thoughts regarding your chosen artist/s.

Include small examples of their work and your own to illustrate your points. Try to make this personal. What are your thoughts about the artwork? Do you agree with the artists intentions? Do you think they have been successful in what they have achieved? You can also mention how you are using them to pursue your own ideas.

Appendix – what resources, books/information did you use?