What to look 4 in paintings (1 Viewer)

[sly fly]

Hey ppl I dont do art but im doing something whereby i have to look at a painting and analyse it and find some meaning in it and all that kind of thing. So i thought I'd ask the art students for soem help. What kind of things do i need to look for/comment on in paintings?Especially about meaning and stuff - how do u guys look at an ordinary painting and find a million things to talk about and talk about the meaning of the painting and stuff?

I have a basic idea like colour, texture, focal point(?), text etc but i need more specific stuff, i think. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[lislabella]

if you have to talk about meaning in the painting you need to look for 'signs and symbols'.
things that are internationaly recognisable for meaning i.e. a cross generally refers to jesus or sacrifice
things that are culturally significant, so look at the time and place that the painting was created, then look at the artist and abit of thier background. then go back to the painting and look at symbols or signs that might be culturally significant to her and the time and place of the artwork
artists practice - how its is made - can tell you alot about the meaning behind the painting. eg. an aboriginal dot painting made with flourescent posterpaint.
focal point is generally the first thing you see when you look at a painting - if you aren't sure, generally speaking the things around the painting complememnt the focus point. Its just the area the artist wants to draw your attention to.

hope that helped abit

 

[sly fly]

Oh ok thanks heaps Just wondering, are there any websites which have analysis of paintings? Maybe i'll get lucky and find someones analysis of this particular painting. And if anyone has some more ideas on what to look for?

 

[lislabella]

just search for the painting in google or what not and you might find an analysis of it