Seeing the Patient Visual Learning Exercise with Bonny Hill
March 3 – August 8
Step One: Description
Note the title, date, size, and medium. Describe the subject matter. Notice all of the details you see in the work. It is important to carefully, slowly, and non-judgmentally observe the art.
Step Two: Analysis
Pay close attention to which art elements the artist used. Line, shape, colour, value (lightness or darkness), texture, and space. Look for ways the elements were used to organize the composition using principles of design: rhythm, balance, movement, proportion, variety, emphasis, contrast, and unity.
Step Three: Interpretation
List any feelings, impressions, or moods you get from the artwork – think creatively and imaginatively at this stage. Base your interpretation on what you’ve concluded in the first two steps of the critique process. Guess at the artist’s intention and motivation. If possible, research the artist at this stage and refer to information in the gallery.
Step Four: Judgment/Evaluation
Describe the ways in which the artist has successfully created a work that fulfills their intention and connects with their audience in a meaningful way.
Here’s one way to interpret this portrait based on the four steps above, courtesy of Bonny Hill.
Artist Mark Gilbert has created a large pastel study of two figures: a caregiver holding a young girl. The caregiver’s gaze is on the child’s face. The child looks outward as though in deep thought. The two sit together on the same chair in the corner of a room next to a small table. They both wear warm, comfortable clothing. The girl reaches back to feel the caregiver’s hair while the caregiver holds the child on her lap with both hands around her waist.
The artist has chosen a closely cropped composition with little negative space or background, and in doing so, describes the intimacy of the relationship. The viewer is drawn to the faces, as is always the case in figurative studies which appear to have a higher degree of ‘finish’ than other areas of the work. For the bodies and background spaces, Gilbert has used gestural marks to capture the poses quickly. The free-flowing lines add movement and contrast with the highly detailed faces. The vertical corner line adds stability as the curvy, diagonal lines of the floor mat add to the impression of dynamic motion. The artist has used a limited colour palette; neutral blacks and greys with cool undertones contrasting with the warmth of the skin tones and the vivid yellow on the floor that balance the composition. The pastels describe textures of smooth skin and soft fabrics.
Erin & Michaela clearly communicates the warm relationship between the two figures. My impression is that the child is comfortable and content but having some difficulty staying perfectly still, as evidenced by the way in which her left hand is thrusting outward. She clearly is enjoying her caregiver’s embrace and her caregiver is fully engaged in keeping the child sitting contentedly. The lack of detail and colour in the neutral clothing works to bring emphasis to the faces and to tie the two figures together so closely that it is difficult, at a glance, to discern which limbs belong to the caregiver and which to the child. This adds to the emotional impact of the work.
In his artist’s statement Dr. Gilbert writes: “As an artist and researcher, I have always aspired to create artworks that authentically illuminate the relationships we all rely on in our lives as patients and caregivers. Portraiture as an art form and qualitative methodology embraces association rather than separation. It is through the interaction between artist and sitter that access is sought and given, connections made, trust built, intimacy negotiated, stories exchanged, and knowledge constructed. Moreover it has the potential to engender intimate social connections that can empower the sitters, viewers, and artists alike”.
Dr. Mark Gilbert is Research Associate with the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University and uses arts-based research methods and narrative inquiry to illuminate the relational skills required in clinical interactions and care giving. The portraits in Seeing the Patient, specifically, rely on the interactions and richness relationships he witnessed between children and young people living with epilepsy and their families.
If the portraits in Seeing the Patient attempt to present patients with epilepsy in an authentic and compassionate manner, they truly succeed. Erin & Michaela, in particular, feels like a celebration of, or monument to, the giving and receiving of care and love. Dr. Gilbert’s impressive technical skills and genuine commitment to his profession have resulted in a wonderful, moving exhibition.