Picture Talk
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Why do we complete Picture Talks?
1. To familiarize students to great art.
2. To increase their interest in a particular artist's works to learn what is similar and what is different among the various works.
3. To show the importance of the artist's subjects.
4. To help them to read a picture truly.
5. To increase their powers of attention and observation.
- If we have studied previous works from an artist, begin by asking the children if they remember what their last picture-talk was about, and what the artist was famous for. Give any background information about the artist that would enhance their knowledge of the artist.
- Give them a new picture to look at, and ask them to find out all they can about it themselves, and to think what idea the artist had in his mind, and what idea or ideas he meant his picture to convey to us.
- After three or four minutes, take the picture away and see what the children have noticed. What was of particular note about the subject of the piece. Ask the children if they have noticed anything in the picture which shows the time of day.
- Let them read the title, and then let him tell you all he knows about the piece without looking at it.
- Let the children draw in their art portfolios the chief lines of the picture, in five minutes, with a pencil and paper.
Modified from volume 1, Home Education, by Charlotte M. Mason, pp. 309-311 to generalize it to all picture talks.
