Lighten the dark days of winter by exploring some colourful and intriguing artworks, as Monmouthshire Museums’ popular art history and appreciation talks get underway again from Monday January 31.

Join popular lecturer, Eleanor Bird in live online talks, for ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, an in-depth exploration of ten very varied pictures from across the centuries and by artists from different countries.

There are two opportunities for live lectures, Mondays 2-3.30pm and Wednesdays 10.30am-12 noon, and one of these sessions will be recorded so there’s no need to miss out.

From Botticelli to Van Gogh, Hals to Turner, this course takes ten extraordinary artworks, one each week, puts them “under the microscope” and dissects them.

Who was the artist, where does this work fit into their life story and artistic development?

Delve into why the artist was painting in this way and how their picture relates to the work of their contemporaries and what was happening around them when and where they lived and worked.

Some of the paintings will be familiar, but still have secrets to tell – or else are lesser-known works by a famous artist or even some names you may not recognise.

Time travel from the 14th to the 20th century and journey across Europe.

Enjoy looking in depth at these fascinating artworks and “tickle the grey cells” with detective work to uncover hidden meanings as well as the interests, obsessions, life and work of the artists and their times.

This is purely for pleasure and the enjoyment of learning something new, there is no homework or coursework.

It is 10 weeks (with a half term break), 90minute live lectures,

MonLife Heritage Museums will also be continuing to run art history talks online pursuing an Introduction to Art History into the 15th century and the explosion of art in the Early Renaissance “The Moment of Truth”

These one-hour, Monday evening talks, from 7-8pm continue the online provision by Monmouthshire Heritage which has proved popular with viewers who are at work in the day or prefer to remain at home to consume some of the highlights of art history.

To book and for more details www.visitmonmouthshire.com/moment-of-truth