Learn all about the artist, Judy Joel, and her painting Preparations for Christmas.

Judy Joel’s style of painting is known as naïve. Naïve artists are usually self-taught. Ask the children for some words to describe these paintings (simple, honest, innocent). Other naïve artists include Henri Rousseau, Alfred Wallis and LS Lowry.

Display the image so that everyone can see it and spend time looking closely at the painting. Talk to the children about what they can see. Ask questions that will encourage them to look at the detail, for example: How many Christmas trees can you see? How many dogs can you see? How many snowmen can you see? How many black birds can you see? How many white birds can you see? This will give the children opportunity to really study the painting.

Once the children have studied the content start thinking about the characters they can see. How many children are there? What might their names be? Which people in the painting do they think live in the house and who is visiting? How near to Christmas is it? Explain there are no right or wrong answers. Although Judy Joel bases her paintings on real events, paintings can take on different meanings to different people.