DESCRIBING

PAINTINGS

What do you see?

•Saying uhh, umm, errr, and too many pauses

•To give concise information

•To give a descriptive presentation in a few minutes.

The task is to describe and present a picture without:

•Presenting without looking at the picture

Background

Middle/central

Foreground

Composition

Spatial relationships Where is the cow to the tree?

Adjacent to the tree.

Next to, close to, besides

Across the river

On the opposite side

Across the river and up over on the hill.

On your handout is at least five things you need to list what you see in this picture.

For each subject:

•Adjective

•Noun

•Where

•Doing

Let’s just describe the woman.

Bright red hair

Woman

Sitting on a blanket beside the man

Holding a basket

Bright red hair

Woman

Sitting on a blanket beside the man

Holding a basket

Using your own words, put these into a sentence.

“there is a woman with bright red hair, sitting on a blanket beside the man and holding a basket.”

Step 1:

Your group will be given 3 minutes to make a list of at least 5 things in a painting.

Step 2:

You will describe the painting to the class.

But! You can’t look at the painting when you are describing it, you must use just your notes only.

Your group will describe what you will see in paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Some useful starting sentences.

“What you can see in this painting is…….”

“The first thing you will notice is …….”

“At first glance you will see ……”

“What captures your eyes’ attention is …..”

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