Searching for artworks to write about

© estate of William Scott 2025. Image credit: The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds

Still Life 1955 or 1956

William Scott (1913–1989)

The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds

If you already have an artwork or artist in mind, you can use Art UK's artist search or artwork search to find them. But if you're not sure what you're looking for yet, there are lots of places to start your quest on Art UK. You could choose an art movement that sparks your interest. Or a topic that is close to your heart. Or pick an artwork completely at random with artwork shuffle.

Our page, tips for writing, offers more help with searching for art, and previous winner Viola Harrin Turrell has some tips too:

Choosing an artwork

Once your search is underway, it might be useful to keep a shortlist by creating a Curation, which is an online space to collect and keep notes on the artworks you find on Art UK.

When you have a shortlist, it's time to choose the work you will write about. Here are a few ideas to try:

• Look through your shortlist, then spend some time away from it. Which shortlisted artwork can you picture most clearly in your mind? Can you draw any of them from memory?
• Annotate your shortlisted artworks with questions. Which artwork provokes the most questions? Which artwork raises questions that really stir your curiosity?
• Work through your shortlist, noting down one word you associate with each artwork in turn. Repeat this a few times (or keep going until your run out of words). Review your lists of words – do you have a favourite?

Looking at your chosen artwork

You will draw upon your observations of the artwork in your writing, so, as previous second-place winner Felicity Mackenzie points out in her video, you need to really look at the artwork you have picked. Editor of Apollo art magazine Thomas Marks' advice on writing about art is to 'start with the experience of your eyes', but the average time a gallery visitor will spend looking at one artwork is 32 seconds, so looking long and hard doesn't come naturally to most of us.

Look closely

Before you write anything, take some time to look at your chosen artwork. Look up close, look from far away, glance at it quickly, or stare at it for a long time. Look up and down, left to right.

Asking yourself these questions as you look can help you to explore it. 

• What materials and techniques has the artist used?
• What colours can you see?
• Is it dark or light, cool or warm, textured or smooth?
• Do you think it was made quickly or slowly?
• Is it abstract or does it show something recognisable from the visible world?
• Does it look like anything else you've seen?
• Where do you think it was made?
• How does it make you think of or feel?
• How do you think the person who made it felt?
• Is the artwork telling you something?

Write down the answer to some of these questions as a starting point for your writing.

Art UK's Superpower of Looking Kit also contains examples of questions you might want to ask yourself about your artwork.

Here are some more exercises you can try to practice your observation skills.

Compare pairs

As a warm-up, test your observation skills by choosing a pair of similar artworks from the selection below and comparing them.

• What do both artworks share in common?
• How are they different?
• Do they make you feel the same way?
• If not, can you identify why not?
• Which do you prefer, and why? 

Try to replicate the artwork you have picked

You could do this with art materials in a sketchbook, or in three-dimensional space with people and objects. To create a convincing recreation, you need to carefully observe not only what is in the artwork, but also the artists' use of light, space and colour.

If your chosen artwork includes people, physically recreating their poses can help you observe them, and also examine the artist's intentions behind the pose, as artist Hazel Reeves demonstrates in this video about her statue of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Describe to observe

Describing an artwork is a great way to flex your observation skills. Describe your artwork to a friend over the phone (or hide the artwork from them if they're in the room with you) in enough detail that they can draw it, or pick it out of a group of artworks.

Alternatively, describe the artwork from the point of view of an object, person or another detail in the artwork. This can help you think about the composition, and how the elements of the artwork relate to each other.

Formal analysis

One way that some art historians look at artwork – particularly Western art – is by conducting a formal analysis.

The questions included in our Superpower of Looking Kit will help you decode and unlock the power of the image you have chosen. Consider which aspects are relevant (e.g. colour, composition, figures, etc.) and then try and answers the questions listed beneath.

Here are some examples of formal analysis in action from the Getty Museum to give you some ideas.

Research your artwork

Find out what other people have said about your chosen artwork. These people could be art historians, art critics, members of the public, the artist, or people who knew the artist. You may agree or disagree with what they think about it. You could include your agreement or disagreement with their writing in your piece.

Explore the life of the artist or artists and other work they have made. Does this artwork respond to any significant event in their life/lives? Does this work tell you anything about them as a person/as a group?

Look into the time and place your artwork was made. Were there any major historical events happening at the time? What was society like at this time? What was important to people? Does your chosen artwork respond to anything that is happening today? Does your artwork seem unusual for having been made when it was made?

You could also look at the life of your artwork after it was made. Has it moved between owners or museums/galleries? Have people come to understand it in a different way over time? Have other artists created responses to the artwork? Have there been any stories or scandals linked to the artwork?

• If you're not sure about how to research an artwork, artist or time period, there are plenty of places online you could start with – including Wikipedia, the Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize or HENI Talks.
• You could also visit a library and ask a librarian to help, or even go directly to the source by contacting the gallery or museum where the artwork is kept.

Reflect on what it all means

You might want to reflect on the messages or meanings the artist is communicating to the viewer through their artwork, but it is particularly important to reflect on what it all means to you. The choices the artist made shaped your experience of the artwork, but your reaction to it, and your personal understanding of it, is all your own. As previous second-place winner Grace Page says, 'sometimes the most interesting discussion comes from different interpretations of an artwork.'

 

Some questions to consider:

• What was your reaction to the artwork when you first saw it?
• Has your opinion of it remained the same or changed over time? Why?
• Why does this artwork interest you?
• What does this artwork say to you about the time it was made in, the person who made it, or the subject?
• Did you learn anything about yourself from looking at the artwork?
• What does the artwork mean to you?

Make your writing enjoyable to read

Writing can also be an artistic practice and a way of being creative. Make use of skills you've developed in English lessons in your art writing. There are lots of different ways you can ensure that readers enjoy your work, and are entertained, moved or inspired.

• The words you choose. What words or phrases might you use to describe the artwork's subject or style? For example, could you describe a sitter's dress as 'cascading like a waterfall' or talk about the 'looming storm clouds'?
• Show, don't tell. Showing the reader what is happening is often far more exciting than telling them. For example, 'The woman in the painting furrows her brow and grits her teeth' rather than 'The woman in the painting looks frustrated'. This technique keeps the reader's attention and allows them to use their imagination
• Proofread! Once you've finished writing make sure you go back through it and check things like spelling and grammar. Make your writing the best it can be!

Get writing

If you're looking for tips on writing in a way that will persuade people to share your interest and enthusiasm, writer and art history teacher Rose Aidin has plenty for you in her article 'How to write about art'. It includes advice from previous winners too.

A final reminder from art history student and writer Remi: 'enjoy the process – it's sharing ultimately your passion, through (critical) praise and sharing your emotional response to works.'

Enjoy writing and good luck!