Describing paintings is an ideal way to make students practice their vocabulary
in all sorts of fields and language levels. It is also
suitable for the advanced learner of English as a complete description should include
the artist’s intention and the impression on the viewer.
STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
It's not easy to follow a picture description if the writer jumps randomly
from one point to another. Therefore, make sure that your picture description
is logically structured, for example:
- From left to right (or from right to left)
- From the background to the foreground (or from the foreground to the
background)
- From the middle to the sides (or from the sides to the middle)
- From details to general impressions (or from general impressions to
details)
The structure you finally choose depends on your taste and the picture you
want to describe.
PICTURES IN GENERAL
- Short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
- Details (who / what can you see)
- Background information (if necessary) on place, important persons or
event
PAINTINGS
- Name of artist and picture, year of origin (if known)
- Short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
- Details (who / what can you see)
- Impression on the viewer
- Artist's intention
- Perspective, colours, forms, proportions etc.
TIPS
If you want to practice describing paintings, check out the websites of
some galleries and write down expressions that might be useful for your
descriptions.
On the website of the National Gallery in London for example you'll
find lots of interesting paintings with descriptions.
The website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides a
detailed description of a painting with interesting background information, e. g. how to use
colours, how to give the impression of movement or perspective etc.
Without having to “travel” so far, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum offers both a
wide range of paintings and descriptions on line which you can access from here as well as some educational programmes for teenagers
A pack of on-line resources to help you work on Art in your classroom can
be found on the website of the Tate Gallery in London
LANGUAGE SCAFFOLDING
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