Component 1 - Reporting

Wild & Free as titled by artist Kirsty Wales is an A3 water colour painting. Her work, a
representational painting of a horse galloping through a paddock is depicted with the use of
soft water colours and short through to deep, long brush strokes.
Starting at the bottom, the painting captures your eye with a rhythmic brush stroke to
represent the bristled green grass. As your eye wonders Kirsty Wales begins to represent the
beige coloured horse with wrist movement strokes, to ensure the importance is emphasised
while the dark black mane and tail continue the rhythmic strokes.
This Colour painting has a landscape of pale blue, almost the colour of a smoke filled sky,
which is given its own sense of boldness by the large strokes of the brush, moving across the
page in a left to right motion.

Component 2 - Responding
The application of design elements, including line, colour, shape and textures coexisting with
the effect that is created by balance, contrast and repetition which creates the design
principles determine how successful the design is as a whole.
Wild & Free uses the element Line, in an effective and capturing manner. Not only has Kirsty
Wales incorporated a variety of strokes she has used direction to enhance effect and
considered edges where two lines meet. When engaging with this piece of art consider the
variety of brush strokes including the rhythmic brush strokes used to create the grass. These
strokes are short, directional and give the observer a sense of immediacy Kirsty has used
this stroke technique effectively and in connection with proportion and scale (Schink, n.d.).
Another mentionable use of line is the way in which the two horizon planes meet. These
wide, directionally influenced arm strokes imply a sense of movement and have a strong
influence on the overall mood of the painting. Christopher Shrink (n.d.) credits this style of
the design element line, in helping create the smallest details with the largest movements.
Kirsty Wales Wild & Free, uses a soft, primary influenced colour palette. Dinham (2011,
p.318) reinforces that every colour has hue, value and intensity. Wild & Free uses hues of
blue, orange and green and would be considered a high key painting (Dinham, 2011).
Wales successfully used intensity to influence the landscape by having a brighter colour in
the foreground and duller blue, receding in the landscape (Dinham, 2011). This use of colour
is another example of elements and principles integrating to achieve success.
Another example evident in this piece of art is the use of contrast and emphasis made through
the use of colour. Wales could have kept with her light colour palette but instead decided to
use a black in contrast for the mane and tail. This decision to change the value has provided
an emphasis on the brush stroke which when all carefully considered together has invited the
viewer to engage with the intensity of the horses gallop.

Component 3 Reflecting and Relating

When I first viewed this piece of art I wondered firstly, who is Kirsty Wales, secondly, what
is her relationship with the landscape created in this picture and finally, does she have a

strong love and connection with horses. These questions first popped into my head because
when I was trying to experiment with art throughout this subject I found myself only creating
pieces that were relevant to whom I am and the surroundings in which I live.
This initial observation sparked a memory from my time in Amsterdam at the Van Gogh
Museum. During the tour it was noted that Van Gough did not consider himself a landscape
artist even though his paintings of landscapes are still today some of the most amazing I have
had the opportunity to see. Van Gough, instead considered the emotions that are expressed
when we consider life cycles such as life and death and portrayed these through landscape
portraits (Van Gough Gallery, 2013).
From this, I realised that Kirsty Wales unlike me, may not necessarily live amongst the
scenery that she depicts or have an emotional connection to horses. Kirsty instead may be like
Van Gogh and see both nature and art as linked and essential in trying to explain some of the
big questions.
After this thought process occurred I then focused more on the essence of the art work, the
design elements and principles and how it emotionally affected me.

Component 4 Reasoning
Representational art can be easily considered by the vast majority of viewers as it is the visual
world as seen by the artist (Dinham, 2011). At first glance, Wild & Free, I believe is a
representational painting depicting an everyday horse running through an open paddock. But
is there a sense of symbolism felt by onlookers?
Figurative symbolism expressed by artists in representational art is when the artist wants to
push the boundaries beyond literal representation. This can be done through colour, line and
all other elements and principles of design (Dinahm, 2011).
I believe that Wales wants the viewer to take note of the brush strokes, the colour palette,
location and reference of the horse and delve into the emotions that are compelled by doing
so. I felt a sense of calm panic, similar to the emotions that are compelled when listening to a
piece of classical music, right before it peaks at the bridge.
While some people will look at this and only see a horse others will ask questions. Why is the
horse alone? An intriguing question considering horses, especially wild, travel in herds. Does
this painting represent breaking free? Or is the symbolic message behind this painting more a
biblical reference using the horse to represent the spiritually dull person (Psalms, 32;9).
Each symbolic representation could be correct as they both are representing the horse as the
main feature which Kirsty Wales herself aimed to do through colour, value, contrast and
proportion. The use of iconography within this painting has taken this representational
painting to a level of higher order thinking that when added with the various design elements
has created an extremely successful and regarded piece of art (Dinham, 2011).

Component 5 - Reconstructing
Doing this task has moved my artistic skills from a level of just creating a piece of art down
through Blooms Taxonomy to Remembering. By using Blooms Taxonomy in art I believe
that I will be developing my students aesthetic sensibility growth. Judith Dinham (2011, p.

111) says that this is developed by arts literary and artistic activity coupled with
opportunities to respond to artworks and engage in conversation about the nature of art. By
applying blooms taxonomy to my art program I believe that I would be able to successfully
achieve a competent artist, fluent art vocabulary and confident art critique. I would not only
have my students Create but I would have them work their way through the various levels.
Evaluating and Analysing could be in the form of critical reviews using templates such as the
one used in this assignment, Applying can be used regularly by incorporating the language
into the everyday classroom vocabulary, Understanding is achieved by teaching students the
various styles and design elements and principals of art and Remembering would be achieved
by incorporating successful classroom lessons to ensure students remember art elements and
principles of design.
In corporation with a spiral learning lesson sequence and ongoing placement of the arts in all
aspects of the curriculum I believe that these domains are achievable. I believe that a spiral
learning style is even evident in the class we are taking right now. If we were to continue to
build on our knowledge attained in this course and revisit more complex concepts and ideas
we would gradually become more confident and competent art teachers and artists. As
teachers when we increase the complexity of the spiral cycle (Dinham, 2011) I believe that
we will gradually be increasing the cognitive domains pinned by Benjamin Bloom.

References
Dinham, J.(2011). Delivering authentic arts education. (2nd ed.). Victoria, AU: Cengage Learning
Australia.
Schink, C. (n.d.). Making your mark. Retrieved from https://www.cheapjoes.com/media/wysiwyg/artinstruction/artist-tips-and-lessons/images/026/make-your-mark.pdf
Van Gogh Gallery. (2013). Van Gogh Landscapes. Retrieved December 20, 2014, from
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/landscapes.html