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.

You can download an Irish language version of this page in PDF format here.

About the artwork

This artwork is a boat made by an Irish artist called Hugh Lorigan. It has green sails that look like curled leaves and two golden horns. If you look very closely you can see that Hugh has written his name on his boat. This boat is made from clay and is heavy, so it cannot float. 

Hugh fired (in other words, cooked!)  the raw clay at a very high temperature in a ceramic oven called a kiln. Ceramic is the word that we use to describe finished clay artwork.

Hugh has described working with clay as being hard work, when he is lifting and kneading large slabs of clay, but also like magic! He can never be sure exactly how his artwork will look when he opens the kiln door because ceramic artists use chemical powders and a liquid called glaze which both interact with heat. 

Let’s Play!

Imagine that you are the captain of this boat.

Perhaps you are a jolly sailor or a cruel pirate!

Will you look for treasure or are you spoiling for a fight?

Who is your ship mate?

Will you bring your friends or your family on your voyage?

If your family are really annoying you can always make them walk the plank!

Invent your own characters, who will hoist the sails, cook the grub, catch the fish and swab the decks!

What will you bring on your voyage?

Draw a big cloth sack and fill it with all of the things that you will need

What food will you bring? 

Will you need a sword, rope, magic potions, your toys, a torch, your pet, your granny, chocolate, a teddy, warm socks?

Design a flag for your ship and draw a map.

Where will you travel to?

You can travel anywhere that you wish!

Under the sea or sail through the clouds in your sky boat

Look through your telescope what can you spy?

Maybe you are missing someone, who will you visit?

If you are a pirate looking for treasure, draw a map, include all of the obstacles that you face

What treasure do you seek, gold, chocolate or a faraway city!

Cast your nets into the sea and write a story to describe what you find.

Giant spider crabs, whispering sea shells that grant wishes, enormous clams that hold pearls, a colossal squid that you are the very first to see, a lion’s mane jelly fish, a map inside a bottle, a mermaid, an under water city, a magic key, a mysterious empty ship with torn sails 

Design a boat!

Can you draw what you think this boat looks like on the inside?

Design your own quarters, will you sleep in bunk beds or a swinging hammock?

Design a boat for the future, will your boat have wings or be driven by a computer.

Give your boat a name.

Floaty fun in the kitchen sink!

Raid the recycling bin for boat-making materials!

Can you find things that will float?

You could experiment with a milk carton, plastic container, bottle, egg boxes, corks, take away containers

Ask a grown-up if you can use some tinfoil or kitchen sponges to make little boats to float in the kitchen sink

Make a tiny ocean in a dish, if you have access to a garden find some stones for rocks, and leaves for seaweed

Some of your small toys might like to dive into your ocean!

If you have ice cubes experiment with an icy sea, imagine glaciers

Use a squirt of washing up liquid and a wooden spoon to make your boats swirl in gently bubbling waves and sea-froth.

Ahoy Ship-mates! We used some frozen beans for tiny weights to hold our boat steady.

Our boat was taken over by a naughty pirate!

We would love to hear your kitchen sink adventures…. Tag us in your uploaded photos of your designs on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #crawfordartgalleryhomelife