1. Answer the following questions. Be explicit:

Chen Hongshou (1598–1652), Leaf album painting (Ming Dynasty)

1. What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘painting’?

2. Do you or did you ever like painting?

3. Are you good at painting?

4. Do you think modern artists are good at painting?

5. What style or period of painting / art do you like?

6. What do you think of people who are very good at painting?

7. Do you think painting is an important school subject?

8. Do you prefer artists from your country or those from others?

9. What do you think of artists from other continents?

10. Do you prefer oils, watercolours, sketches or another medium?

1. What do paintings mean to you? What kinds of paintings do you have in your house?

2. Why is painting and art so important to us?

3. Do you like watching children paint?

4. Have you ever been emotionally moved because of a painting?

5. What do you think artists from centuries ago would think of today’s artists?

6. What painting that you did was/is your favourite?

7. Would you consider investing money in a painting? Do you think art is a good investment?

8. What do people think about when they look at paintings in galleries?

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera (1717, Louvre)

1. What are some famous paintings that you like? You don't like?

2. Can you paint?

3. What type of painting do you do?

4. Are you impressed with people who know how to paint?

5. Would you like to pose for a painting of yourself?

6. Do you like to watch a person painting?

7. What's the most expensive and most beautiful painting you have ever seen?

8. If you could be given the talent to paint, what would you paint?

2. Think over the following questions, looking at a painting: Reading a painting: general questions

1. Can You Say a Few Things About this Painting?

2. What can you tell me about what the paint is like in each painting? How has it been used? Thick? Thin? Are the lines precise, neat, or is this or that (pointing to the painting's content) smudged?

3. How do the colors make you feel?

4. How do you get those colors?

5. Does the painting make you feel happy or sad?

6. Is it a somber or an energetic painting?

7. Can you paint like this?

8. Do you like the brush strokes?

9. Does this painting look three dimensional to you? Why?

10. How is the perspective of the painting?

11. Regarding the subject matter: What is the "mood" of the painting? Is it sad or happy? Is it making fun of anything -- is it satirizing/satirical?

12. What are the expressions of the characters? What are they doing? What can you say about what they are doing? What is your guess about when this was painted? Was it hundreds of years ago, or done more recently?

13. What kind of times are represented in these paintings? (this question is a little more advanced -- time allowing.) Comment on the sitters’ clothes, painting background, architecture, lifestyle of the painting's subject.

14. What time of day is this painting?

15. What did the artist want to say?