Sheryl Woo--Critical Study

People are enjoying themselves in nature, at the Botanic Gardens. Everyone is in a shady and cool spot, beneath the canopy of trees. The main colour of the picture is green. The trees are of different shades, the grass as well, because of the shadow of the trees above it. The people seem to blend into the natural surroundings, looking peaceful and serene. The trees provide shade to people and looking at greenery makes people feel more relaxed. Green creates feelings of comfort, laziness, relaxation, calmness. Some attribute this to its connection with nature and our natural feelings of affiliation with the natural world when experiencing the colour green. When one looks up into the continuous sky, one may feel a little melancholy as the sky looks rather gloomy. However, when you look back down around you, the greenery makes one feel carefree and joyful again. This shows the harmony of man and nature, both man and nature can live together in peace if we want to. In this picture, man is not destroying nature. Man is enjoying himself in nature, sitting with their friends, or sitting alone, admiring their surroundings. Therefore, man and nature are in harmony.

The pinkish flowers have fallen onto the ground. They have served their purpose of decorating the tree. Now they are scattered on the ground, making the green grass and brown soil seem dotted with pink flowers. The flowers which were growing on the tree, alive and in full bloom have now fallen to the ground. Many of these fallen flowers have been trampled on; some have withered and would be swept up or become nutrients for the soil. This shows that man is taking control over nature. Nature—the fallen flowers—is under our feet. To me, this signifies that human beings are destroying nature. Singapore does not have many nature reserves and the Botanic Garden is one of the few nature places we have left. In the world today, man has destroyed nature by deforestation—Amazon forest, and by burning the trees. All these were done to clear the land for farming, building modern structures such as high-rise buildings and cities. People should not continue this exploitation of nature and start cherishing nature.

This path is surrounded by plants on both sides. Even though this path is man-made, it is made of natural materials—wooden planks and some nails to join the smooth planks into a path. The wooden planks that make up the path are from trees. Therefore, the man-made path is in a way, natural. Thus, this man-made path blends into the natural surroundings. Along both sides of the path, lies two continuous rows of shrubs, with pink five-petal flowers growing at the edge of the branches. The different plants have leaves of different shades of green. Even so, different plants planted together do not look messy. This shows the beauty of nature.
The main hues of this picture are green and brown. Green and brown compliment each other and are the colours of nature—leaves and grass are green, trunks, and branches are brown. This picture signifies that nature and man-made things are in unity. Man-made and natural things do complement each other.

Sheryl Woo

2A'07