Shadowing Practice: Saying "I could have painted that" Is Cringe - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Have you ever seen a painting like this? Or this? Or this?

And thought to yourself, what's the big deal?

I could have painted that.

Well, you're wrong.

And not for the reason you might think.

Over the last few years online, I've seen the steadily rising opinion along the lines of abstract art isn't real art.

And this isn't a new opinion by any means,

but these days it usually comes in the form of people on TikTok pointing out famous abstract artworks

that they claiming they could easily replicate themselves so these couldn't possibly be real pieces of art.

Well, as someone with a degree in fine art who is

honestly just tired of hearing the same like really shallow critique of art that you don't like, I'm here to offer you a counterpoint, okay?

This is a peace offering.

I'm not claiming to be the expert, I'm not claiming to have all the authority, but I am claiming to have an opinion and a camera.

And that kind of seems like the only qualifications you need these days.

So let's talk about it.

The artist we're going to be talking about today is Piet Mondrian, and if you don't recognize that name,

you might still recognize his artwork because he's the artist behind this painting and lots of others that look very similar.

This composition is a great example because this is one that I have seen multiple people critiquing in this very specific way.

Looking at this painting, we can see it's pretty simple, right?

We've got straight lines, basic shapes, limited color palette.

This simplicity is usually the catalyst for the inevitable, I could have painted that, that everyone is just dying to say.

The issue is when somebody says, I could have painted that, they're usually only referring to technical skill, meaning I, regular

Joe, have the physical dexterity to replicate these straight lines and basic shapes onto a canvas.

And that is probably true, but you still couldn't have painted this.

Okay, teeny tiny speed run history lesson.

Are you ready?

Piet Mondrian was born in the Netherlands, 1872.

His dad was a professor who taught him how to draw from a really early age,

and his uncle was a professional artist and he taught him how to paint.

When he was 20 years old, he enrolled in Amsterdam's Royal Academy of Visual Arts to further his artistic career.

He graduates, he becomes the world famous artist that we all know today.

Good?

All that is to say, Mondrian obviously led a very creative life from start to finish.

He was an artist through and through, right?

He did not just sit down and put lines and squares onto a canvas.

Abstraction is not just an art style, it's actually an iterative process, and oftentimes it's a really long one.

When we see a finished abstract painting hanging in a museum

and we wonder what's so great about a couple lines on a canvas,

it's because we're missing the fundamentals of how those lines actually got onto the canvas.

Let's look at this painting.

This is one of Mondrian's earlier works.

This piece is from 1910

and it's safe to say looks a little bit different than the work we know him for, right?

You can look at this painting, I can look at this painting, and even though he's taking some inspiration from the post -impressionist,

he's got expressive brushstrokes, he's got vivid colors, we can very clearly see that it is absolutely, positively a tree.

Right?

That's very clear to us.

This is a painting of a tree.

Lucky for us, Mondrian actually loved painting trees and he kept painting them as his style evolved.

Now this painting is from 1911.

It's about a year later and at this point we can tell he's interested in simplifying the forms.

We've stripped all the color out so we're only working in black and white and we're down to the most basic shapes.

You can look at this painting and probably still come to the conclusion that it is a tree, but it's getting a little bit more abstract.

Now in 1912, one year later, we get this painting.

Would anyone like to guess what this is a painting of?

If you said a tree, you win.

I think you probably get it at this point.

Mondrian is essentially playing a years -long game of artistic telephone with himself.

He's painting the same subject over and over and over

and over again until it's stripped down to its absolute most basic form.

Until in 1929 his paintings start to look like this.

The least interesting critique that you can make of a piece of art is, I could have painted that.

Because we don't really care if you could have painted it.

That's not even really the question.

The question is, would you have painted that?

And every single time, every piece of artwork, the answer is no. You wouldn't have painted that.

And you didn't paint that, because you're not Mondrian.

You didn't grow up where he grew up, you didn't hear all the songs that he heard, you didn't see the trees that he saw.

You have lived an equally valuable but very different life up to this point, so your painting would have been different.

But While you couldn't have painted this, you could have painted something.

And that brings me to my other issue with this phrase.

Let's all picture our mutual hypothetical friend, Regular Joe.

We love Regular Joe.

He's walking into an art museum.

He would not describe himself as a creative or an artistic person.

In fact, Regular Joe is probably the type of guy where if he sees someone out in the wild drawing, painting, doing a wonderful job,

he gets in real close and he looks over their shoulder and he goes, I can't even draw a stick figure.

He loves seeing it.

He's that guy.

But we love him.

He's our best friend.

Regular Joe's in this museum.

He's walking around.

He's looking at a piece of abstract art.

Lots of people gathered around.

People are oohing.

People are aahing.

They're taking pictures.

It's very famous, supposedly.

And Regular Joe sees it and he says, oh, come on.

I could have painted that.

What Regular Joe is really saying is if he of all people has the skills necessary to replicate this very famous artwork,

then this very famous artwork must not be worth anything, right?

If regular Joe can do it, it's meaningless. That is where regular

Joe is wrong.

If you are alive, and I'm assuming you are because you're watching this, you have artistic value.

Every single one of you watching this and every single one of you not watching it, could call yourself an artist today and be absolutely correct.

You don't need a degree.

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You don't need any awards.

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You don't need an exhibit in a museum.

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If you are a human being who has put anything out into the world that was not there before, congratulations!

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You have made art.

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Art is a pre -programmed universal language.

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You don't have to earn it.

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So the fact

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that you could make a piece of art just as easily as some famous artist could make a piece of art

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doesn't really make either piece better or worse.

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The only information that that tells us is that both of you are people.

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And we already kind of assumed that.

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So saying I could have painted that isn't even a critique on whatever artwork you happen to be unimpressed by.

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It's just a criticism of yourself.

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And an unnecessary one at that.

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We're living in a world right now where AI art is becoming more and more prevalent.

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I know you've seen it.

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I've seen it.

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Your grandparents on Facebook posting pictures of like Jesus made out of shrimp.

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Yeah.

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It's dark.

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We're being encouraged to abandon our natural creativity in the name of convenience, and doing this disregards the only,

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only prerequisite for something to be considered art and that is life.

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The point of this video is not to force you into liking abstract art if it's not your thing.

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I'm not even the world's biggest abstract art fan.

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To be honest, I like a broad range of artwork, okay?

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As long as it's made by people or animals or trees.

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You guys ever seen that?

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Just not AI.

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My hope is that you can look at a piece of art, even a piece of art that you really hate and still know

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that it's art and the reason

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that you hate it should never ever be I could have painted that because that's not a very good reason

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so the next time you see something and you think I could have made

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that you should probably just go make something thank you guys

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so much for watching this is your prize for making

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it to the end of the video I would love to hear any thoughts

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that you have down in the comments

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they don't even have to be art related it can be about anything

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we have lots of interests over here on the channel

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and speaking of this channel if you enjoyed this video I would love

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if you subscribed because we're kind of brand new and we're just getting started so see you next time

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138 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Saying "I could have painted that" Is Cringe”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: painting, painted, piece, regular, Joe. This video has 139 sentences and 1578 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:58. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
abstract noun	/ˈæbˌstɹækt/	An abridgement or summary of a longer publication.
artwork noun	/ˈɑɹtˌwɝk/	A painting, drawing, sculpture or other piece of creative, visual art.
artistic adjective	/ɑɹˈtɪs.tɪk/	Having or revealing creative skill.
canvas noun	/ˈkæn.vəs/	A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for…
critique noun	/kɹɪˈtiːk/	The art of criticism.
replicate verb	/ˈɹɛplɪkeɪt/	To make a copy (replica) of.
skill noun	/skɪl/	A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
strip verb	/ˈstɹɪp/	To remove or take away, often in strips or stripes.
universal adjective	/ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/	Of or pertaining to the universe.
earn verb	/ɝn/	To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
encourage verb	/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/	To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
refer verb	/ɹɪˈfɜː/	To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
uncle noun	/ˈʌŋ.kl̩/	The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
essentially adverb	/ɪˈsɛnʃəli/	In essence: by nature.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
grow up verb	To mature and become an adult.
look over verb	To check quickly; to make a brief or cursory visual inspection of.
make out of verb	To construct from; to create (something) using (a material or substance).
point out verb	To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.
sit down verb	To assume a sitting position from a standing position.
walk around verb	To walk with no planned destination; to meander.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Have you ever seen a painting like this?
We've got straight lines, basic shapes, limited color palette.
Let's look at this painting.
The question is, would you have painted that?
You guys ever seen that?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	Have you ever seen · I've seen · have seen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was born · be unimpressed · being encouraged

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 44 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/
Long words — get the stress right: universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like abstract, artwork, artistic.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Saying "I could have painted that" Is Cringe - Learn English Speaking with Video

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