The artist Natalia Goncharova said: “Colours have an effect on one’s psychological makeup.” In this painting Goncharova used bold Fauvist colours and curved lines to show the peasants’ joyful movement, and borrowed stylized techniques from woodcuts and iconography for the…
Baked Pears in Duane Park – A Poem
This poem was inspired by The Met Museum’s description accompanying William P. Chappel’s Baked Pears in Duane Park. Writing in the 1880s, one New Yorker fondly reminisced about the black women who stood in the streets tempting passersby with a…
Man with a Hoe – A Poem
Georges Seurat (1851-1891) was famous for developing the technique of pointillism, using tiny dots of colour, and scientific theory about colour perception, to create his gorgeous post-Impressionist paintings. There is more about Seurat here and here: “In Seurat’s method, which…
Dining Room Chair from the Speaker’s House, Palace of Westminster – A Poem
There was something so steadfast, and slightly pompous, about this dining room chair, that called for closer examination. In 1859, this chair was carved for the Speaker’s House, which was opened that same year. The House had been rebuilt after…
Rainy Day in Camp – A Poem
Probably the first thing you saw about this painting was the cluster of men drawing comfort by the fire? Then the rest. The mud. The horses. The tents. Even the rain itself. You can’t see the rain? You can zoom…
Stewed Rhubarb
Stewed rhubarb is no different to any other stewed fruit in that it requires, liquid, sugar, a covered lid, and a gentle cook. That’s the stovetop, and you! Rhubarb has a history going back thousands of years. Back in 1597,…
Donna Hay’s Blueberry Yoghurt Loaf
This is a simply scrumptious cake, and there is nothing to add to Donna Hay’s original blueberry yoghurt loaf recipe except … .. the blueberries can sink, as you can see here. This is real life baking. A remedy for…
The Harvesters – A Poem
I find it hard to imagine The Harvesters was painted four-hundred-and-sixty years ago! It still teems with life. Pieter Bruegel was nicknamed “peasant Bruegel” because he was one of the first artists to focus on painting the common people as…
Entwined – A Poem
This painting is a little bit out of left field for my ekphrastic series, as it doesn’t really depict food, or eating. However, hummingbirds do like to sup on red passionflowers. And red passionflowers do bear a fruit, with apparently…
The Wife of Robert Gordon – A Poem
There is so much going on here, not only in this painting, but in this painting’s title: The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room. Robert Gordon was a banker, merchant, and art…
