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.

What do you see in this painting? Does anything stand out to you? Do any of the colours remind you of something?

This painting is called Walking to the Sea. It was painted by William Crozier in 1989.

Now that you know the title of the painting - do the shapes and colours make more sense to you? Can you see the line where the sea meets the sky? There is a large yellow area that connects the person looking at the painting with the sea - could this be the sand?

The sky is made up of dark blues on the left of the painting and light pinks and blues on the right. Why do you think the artist did this? Could it be the morning time when the sun is rising, eating up the darkness? Or perhaps a storm is coming and the gloomy clouds will swallow up the light…

In our island of Ireland, we are very lucky to have so many beautiful beaches and soon we will be able to take trips to the coast again.

What is your favourite part of going to the beach? Is it burying your brother? Building a pit and watching unaware beach goers fall into it? Finding crabs and anemones in rock pools? Throwing lumps of seaweed into the water for your dog to catch?

Here are some beach facts which you can wow your friends with when we are all able to enjoy them again:

How important are sand dunes?

Sand dunes are created when the wind pulls sand into a hill-like shape. We need these dunes to protect our coast from wind and waves. They are important for coastal grasses and plants, as well as providing a safe haven for animals.

How old is sand?

Sand is, indeed, just a bunch of tiny rocks. It is also one phase of the endlessly churning rock cycle that has been shaping the surface of our earth for the last 4.5 billion years.

Got sand?

You probably do, in your kitchen pantry. Sand is defined as any material made up of grains within a specific size range. Sugar and salt typically qualify.

Got gravel?

The next size up from sand grain is gravel.

Let’s fly a kite

Another thing beaches are great for is kite-flying. Here we will learn how to make a kite that you can fly anywhere with the help of a little breeze.

You will need:

• A4 sheet of paper
• two straws or wooden chopsticks or wooden skewers
• scissors
• ribbons and strings
• PVA glue
• things to decorate your kite with

• Fold your page in half lengthways.
• Fold two of the sides in to meet the centre line.
• Fold one side from the edge of your first fold in to meet the middle line (as shown). Repeat on the other side.
• Now unfold your page and you will be left with a kite shape.

• Cut out your kite. If the page is too scruffy from all the folding you can always trace around this shape onto a new page.
• Decorate your kite however you want. Here I used markers, pencils and paint.
• Now you have a fancy kite - don’t forget to put something on the back too!

• Add a hole at the bottom of the kite for your streamers.
• Pull your strings and ribbons through and tie so that the knot does not slip through the hole.
• You will need one full length straw/chopstick/skewer and one cut in half. Attach these to your kite with PVA then glue a string for flying your kite on to where the straws meet in the middle.

Once all the glue is dry you can try out your kite!

Talking Pictures: 'Walking to the Sea' was devised by Annie Forrester

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