Talking Pictures for Children 

Talking Pictures is an online resource for children and their adults based on artwork from the Crawford Art Gallery Collection. We will share creative prompts for happy talk and play every Wednesday.

About the artwork

This work is by Cork based artist Paul La Rocque. It is titled ‘In her Own Garden’.

What do you think is happening in this painting? Who is the person with two small white wings?

There is a green strip at the bottom of the piece filled with flowers and the girl seems to be looking at something in the greenery. What could she be looking at? Do you think there are some interesting creatures lurking in the grass?

Garden critters

Do you have a garden? Or is there a park or field that you like to go to? You probably see all sorts of interesting things when you’re in the park - do you look closely at the bark on the trees and the strands of grass? There you will find lots of tiny creatures.

These insects and bugs are very important for our environment. They make very tasty meals for birds and bats. They pollinate flowers and trees. Some insects are also predators to pest insects, minimising the damage they do to their homes and ours by eating them up.

Can you name the following insects?

How many of these insects have you seen in your garden or in your local park? There is a fun activity you can do to help researchers monitor the amount of insects in Ireland. An adult can help you with this. It is called the FIT Count (Flower-Insect Timed Count)

Choose a plant and closely monitor it for ten minutes, taking notes of all the insects you find. Then submit it to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.

For more information take a look at this link: https://pollinators.ie/record-pollinators/fit-count/

Winged things

Now let’s do some drawing! We are going to try on lots of different wings in this activity, just like the little girl in Paul La Rocque’s painting.

First we will divide a piece of paper into 8 sections. Take a piece of A4 paper and fold it in half lengthways. Unfold it and then fold it in half the other way. Bring the outer edges to meet the middle line and press down on the crease. Unfold the page - now you have 8 equal sections!

Now draw yourself as the following winged things in each section:

Have a look at some winged things here:

Have a look at some winged things here:

Talking Pictures: Winged Things was devised by Annie Forrester

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