Talking Pictures Week 48: Tree House

S Brandes, Der Angstlustbaum

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 huge drawing is by an artist called Stephen Brandes.

There is a whole strange city within the tree trunk shown in this drawing. There are factories pumping out smoke, what do you think they could be making? Would you like to live in a city in a tree trunk? It might be dark but it sounds quite cosy.

Tree time

What kind of tree do you think this is? It looks tall and has no leaves, so it must lose them in winter time. Here are some Irish trees that have been grown here for thousands of years:

Do you recognise any of these trees? Can you see any from your window or around your area?

Every tree has a unique leaf shape that helps us to identify them. Can you match these leaves to the trees above?

Where there’s a tree there’s a home

Let’s take another look at Stephen Brandes’ tree. There are lots of little houses in it, so it looks like many people or creatures are living there. Trees offer shelter for all sorts of beings - insects, birds, squirrels, rabbits, badgers.

Let’s make some tree houses. You can download and print the template below or just draw your own.

My tree is home to Wilma the Woodpecker who loves reading books about science. Underneath, in the basement, there are lots of rooms for local worms and burrowers. Wullo the worm is an outdoorsy fella and watches lots of travel shows to help him choose his next destination. Rebecca the rabbit enjoys a hot cocoa after her evening lettuce.

Talking Pictures: 'Trees' was devised by Annie Forrester

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