Step 1: Talk about subjective feelings and impressions

You can always start with talking about something you do know quite a bit
about, namely your feelings and emotions.

Ask yourself: what mood or emotion does this painting convey? Does it
speak to me in any way, or does it leave me completely indifferent?

is there anything in particular you like or dislike about it?

Here you can use a variety of adjectives describing feelings and emotions,
such as any of these:

POSITIVE: happy, excited, joyous, optimistic, calm, serene

NEGATIVE: angry, gloomy, nervous, moody, sad, cold

NEUTRAL / CONTEXT-SPECIFIC: nostalgic, sentimental, wistful,

longing
There are many, many other adjectives you can use; look them up in a
dictionary. A handy grammar structure you can use with them is the
causative make, here in the Present Simple tense:

“x” makes me feel “y” (x = who/what causes the emotion, y = adjective)

e.g. This painting makes me feel sad. Then add a simple explanation as to why
that is: This painting makes me feel sad, because it’s very dark and gloomy. Or,
you could be more positive, and say something like The painting makes me
feel so calm and serene, because of the lovely moonlight.

Step 2. Describe the painting itself

Describe the composition / layout:

Use this to practice prepositions of place, possibly in combination with the

there is / there are structure: There’s a young woman on the left side of the road,
under a bare tree. There are two large houses on the right.

You can add some Present Participles here, as well (the -ing form): There’s
a woman standing under a bare tree and waiting for someone. There’s the Moon
glowing in the midnight sky. There are no birds sitting in the trees.

Commenting on the composition, identify and describe who/what is in

the centre, in the background and the foreground of the painting. What
can you see in the distance?

comment on colours and shades

Colours, shades and the use of light are, obviously, crucial in visual arts.
Which colours can you identify in this painting? Are their shades
predominantly dark or light? Would you say the colours here are bold or
soft and delicate? What kind of atmosphere do they create? Do you like it?
If not, what colours would you use?

Describe the scene.

A useful thing to remember is that we normally use Present Continuous

to describe any actions seen in an image. If you feel particularly creative,
you might want to write a short story based on this painting. Who do you
think is the person in this painting? Where is she going in the middle of
the night? Does she live in one of the large houses on the right, or is she
perhaps a servant there? Does it look like she’s walking away, or perhaps
waiting for someone? Who could that be?

Since we have no idea who she is or what she’s doing out there on that
road, we can also use various forms to indicate that we’re simply guessing.
A good way to do that is by using modal verbs: The girl might be a servant.
She may be running away. She could be waiting for someone.

You could set your story in the past and practice the use of narrative tenses.