Look carefully at the images on this page. What are they about? To explore them, we are going to do a writing exercise. 

Each person choose just one image.

• Write a description of this image to send to someone who cannot see it.
• Only describe its physical appearance. What exactly does it look like?  
• Here’s a very important rule for this exercise: Do not compare it to anything from real life (do not, for example, say that it looks like grass, or that it resembles an orange, a sunset, or anything else!). 
• What sort of words did you find yourself using in your descriptions? Write these words out (or just underline them in your text).  
• Taking turns, each read your description aloud, while the rest of you try to identify which image is being referred to.

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Your description may have included words like this:

Words and seeing

Which categories would your words fit into? As you will have seen, it is not always a simple match. There are many words that fit well into more than one category; or perhaps you may have struggled to fit a particular word into any of these groups.

The word “SMOKY” for example: does it describe tone? Or texture? Do the words that describe movement also describe a type of line? Do the words “EDGE” and “CONTOUR” refer to line, or shape? Or both? 

There might not be cut-and-dried answers to all the questions that will arise. But they will begin to show you how interesting it can be to talk – and write – about art. You will also notice that – surprisingly – having the words to describe things often helps you to see things. And, in turn, as you see more, you will extend your vocabulary to describe what you see.