Component 4 - Reasoning

Criteria - Reasoning

This is a response to the deeper substance of the artwork and includes reasoning and critical comment on significant factors such as the use of symbolism and visual metaphor.

Include thoughts about ‘the meaning’ of the work and how the compositional factors contribute to its ‘meaning’. Support subjective interpretations with explanation. (In the final submission stage, in your group you may discuss the original intentions of the artist. but in collaboration, you may also include ‘alternative’ interpretations of meaning that other members may have about the piece).

Min – 250 words

'Seasons' critiqued by Kelly Hansen

This art piece symbolises a love of nature and therefore expresses personal feelings. The colours used the individual seasons create a different feeling for each and this allows the audience to portray their own feelings. As you look deeper into the art piece you can see the changes in wild and plant life. The wild and plant life both change accordingly to the environmental changes. For example in the spring, there is new plant life and active bee’s working. This gives the audience a sense of new beginnings and lets you know that the season is spring. Opposed to winter there are no leaves on the trees and no wild life. This provokes a sense of abandonment and that the environment has become cold and challenging to survive in. In addition, summer is similar to spring, only it uses very bright colours which portrays a hot and sunny day and as the artists displays a dark cloud you can assume that the wet season is here. The artist has used such deep and warm colours for autumn. You can see that the leaves are starting to fall of the trees and that the wildlife is decreasing. This season is showing signs that the temperature is dropping and the animal and plant life are starting to feel uncomfortable in this environment. I have noticed in all of the seasons that the water colour in the ponds change as accordingly. For instance spring and summer have a bright coloured blue water in their pond, autumn has a grey shade of water and winter’s pond has frozen up.

A critical comment on my behalf would be, in what area of the world is this art work representing as each area endure different weather extremes. For example, Canada delivers snow in winter, as for Sunshine Coast does not.

© Kelly Hansen, 2013