Lines of Vision

Trinity College, Dublin

Ann Marie O’Brien
 Aim of Workshop

 To show how a selection of paintings

that featured in the Lines of Vision
exhibition can be used to develop
students’ literacy skills – oral, visual
(seeing/viewing), writing – and
learning skills for the 21st century
 Expected learning
outcomes for participants
• Knowledge of how to develop students’
literacy and learning skills through
engagement with paintings

• Appreciation of the rich possibilities

inherent in paintings for promoting
inclusive, quality learning environments
 Art and Literature
56 Irish writers
John Banville, Roddy Doyle, Seamus Heaney,
Jennifer Johnston and Colm Tóibín

Paintings - National Gallery of Ireland collection

Masters – Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Poussin
and Velázquez
Irish artists – Harry Clarke, Paul Henry, John Lavery,
Jack B. Yeats
Modern European artists – Claude Monet, Pierre
Bonnard and Gabriele Münter

Rich variety of literary responses

Essays, stories and poems about art,
love, loss, family, dreams, memory, places
and privacy
Some of the writers’ responses
‘Here was a vibrant, living and colourful
Dublin…’ The Liffey Swim by Jack B. Yeats

‘I loved the lion and the beard of the old

man…’ St. Jerome by Bartolomeo Passarotti

‘…the light is real and the food is good and

the chat has been good. There is nothing
false. The goodwill is enormous…’ Le
Déjeuner by Pierre Bonnard
 More writers’ responses
‘I like that notion, the darkness of life and
the light of art…I love the drama of the
picture…It’s not what it seems, that’s the
essence of great art, it’s very ambiguous…’
The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio

‘All this and so much more…out of one small

painting…’ Cavalry in the Snow by Ernest
Meissonier
Lines of Vision - Resources
 Lines of Vision. Irish Writers on Art. Edited
by Janet McLean
• National Gallery of Ireland website, includes a
video (also on Youtube) with a selection of Irish
writers involved in the initiative
 https://www.nationalgallery.ie/lines-vision-irish-
writers-national-gallery-ireland

 National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2 – many of the

paintings from the exhibition still on display
 Art and Literacy
 Rich possibilities inherent in paintings
for developing students’ literacy skills – oral,
visual and writing

• Imaginative use of paintings can help

to develop 21st century learning skills –
critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration
and communication

• Paintings offer students pathways to re-make

works of art and to share the various texts they
create in meaningful ways
 Children and Art
Examples of what 5 – 7 year olds like:
Warm bright colours
Pictures of people and links with everyday life
Pictures of movement and familiar poses
Clear expressions of emotions – love, laughter,
crying etc.
Simple pictures with one central person
Strongly contrasting shapes and colours
Art that reproduces textures
 Children and Art
Examples of what 8 – 10 year olds like:
Paintings full of colour and/or contrast
Paintings showing daily life in different times
Scary paintings
Paintings with good guys, bad guys, heroes,
underdogs/people with less power, money
etc.
Pictures with a story behind them – about the
subject or the artist
 Pre-teaching key words
Key words may include: Image, gesture, expression
and texture

Key approaches include:

• Use of student dictionaries

• Use of a concept or semantic map
• Active demonstration of a word’s meaning
• Dividing a word into parts
 Activity 1: Concept
Map/Visual Word Square
 Key Words – Suggested
Definitions
 Image – An image is a picture of a person
or thing in a painting
 Gesture – A gesture is a movement of part
of the body
 Expression – An expression means a look
on someone’s face that tells us how they
feel
 Texture – Texture means the look or feel of
objects
 Activity 2:Describing, forming
opinions, asking questions
 What can you see in this painting?
– I see
 What do you think when you look
at this painting? – I think
 What questions do you have about
this painting? – I wonder
 Extension activity

 Write suitable adjectives to

describe the nouns in your
picture.
Le Déjeuner - Lunch
 Activity 3: Collaborative
poetry writing (option 1)
 Create a list poem of seven lines inspired
by the painting Le Déjeuner. A list poem
is made up of a list of items or events. It
can be any length and rhymed or
unrhymed.
 Use the following structure:
Line 1: The title
Line 2: Name and describe item 1
Line 3: Name and describe item 2
ETC…
 Activity 3: Collaborative
poetry writing (option 2)
 Create a diamante or diamond poem of seven
lines inspired by the painting Le Déjeuner.

 The first noun is ‘Lunch’. Use the following

structure:
noun
adjective adjective
-ing -ing -ing
noun 1 noun 1: noun 2 noun 2
-ing -ing -ing
adjective adjective
noun
Le Déjeuner - Lunch
 Activity 3: Collaborative poetry
writing (option 3)
1. List one beneath the other, five things which you can
see in the painting Le Déjeuner
2. Add a verb and an adjective to each of the five items
in the list
3. List the colours you can see
4. List the textures
5. List the sounds you might hear
6. Write any similes or metaphors that the painting
suggests
7. Use your ideas to create a poem of at least four lines
in length. Each line should have a similar number of
syllables.
 Activity 2: Collaborative poetry
writing (option 3)
1. Girl; jug; bottle; fruit; plate
2. Young girl sitting down; jug filled with water;
green wine bottle resting on table; round plate of
fruit placed on centre of table; striped tablecloth
covering table
3. Orange, yellow, green, blue, brown,
4. Smooth, shiny, creased, hard, soft
5. People talking and laughing, tinkle of glasses,
rustle of napkins, clink of knives
6. Plate of fruit like a still life, tablecloth like a
canopy, loaf of bread is a round dome.
The Goose Girl
 Activity 4: Collaborative
story telling
The Goose Girl, 1921, by Stanley Royle
In groups create the story of the goose
girl for telling to the class.

Use the questions Who, Why, What,

When, Where and How.
The Taking of Christ
 Activity 5: Close reading

The Taking of Christ, 1602, by

Caravaggio
In groups write notes using the
headings below:
1. Light and colour
2. Gestures, expressions and body
language
3. How Christ is represented
 Activity 5: Freeze
frame/Tableau
The Taking of Christ, 1602, by
Caravaggio

What do you think the people in

the tableau are feeling?
Ask individual characters in the
tableau about their thoughts of
Christ.
The Little Green Fields
 Activity 6: Creating a new
version of a painting
The Little Green Fields, 1946-50, by Gerard
Dillon
Select 6-8 elements from the past and
present that are linked to the area you live in.
Using Dillon’s painting as a guide, present
your selected elements in the form of
pictures.
Oral presentation: Each group member must
give some input about the images chosen for
their version of The Little Green Fields.
 Activity 7:Talking/writing
about children’s games
The Dolls’ School, 1900, by Walter
Frederick Osborne
What was the most exciting or fun game
that you played when you were younger?

Write a short paragraph about it

(4-6 sentences).
The Dolls’ School
 Activity 8: Project work
The Dolls’ School, 1900, by Walter
Frederick Osborne
 Project title: Children’s toys and
games in the past and present
 Assign a different task to each group
and promote the use of different
methodologies
 Your ideas for group tasks?
Woman Writing a Letter, with
Her Maid
 Activity 9: Interior
Monologue
 Imagine you can hear the
thoughts of the maid in
Vermeer’s painting. Write a
monologue of these thoughts.
Use of paintings with your
students
Comments, observations, ideas …