Painting can fully reflect young children’s inner world, serving as an important tool for preschool teachers to understand and discover children’s inner thoughts and carry out personalized psychological counseling. The literacy of interpreting psychology through paintings is a professional competency that preschool education students should possess in the new era. Different from traditional art painting skill teaching, it places greater emphasis on comprehensive abilities including artistic observation, psychological interpretation and educational empowerment. However, art courses for preschool education majors in universities generally focus on skills while neglecting practical application at present, which leads to insufficient professional competence among student teachers. Based on the job requirements of preschool education, this paper analyzes the connotation of preschool student teachers’ ability to interpret psychology through paintings, and explores approaches to cultivate such competency via art courses for reference.