Alexej von Jawlensky was an expressionist. Expressionist artists strive “to convey their inner emotions and thoughts via their works, frequently using distorted forms, vibrant colors, and vigorous brushstrokes to establish their own visual language.” – Sparks Gallery You may not…
poem
A Table D’Hôte – A Poem
A table d’hôte translates to “the host’s table”. The expression dates back hundreds of years to the days before there were restaurants in Europe. It was originally used to mean a common table in a guest house or tavern, where…
A Roman Feast – A Poem
My first prompt for “A Roman Feast” was the image at the very bottom of the page of a Roman serving vessel. I began to imagine what was actually served in it – which led to peacock, snails and dormice….
Migrant Mother – A Poem
It’s funny what we remember, and how memory is triggered. In this case, by a soup bowl. More of my ekphrastic poems can be found here. More on the huitain form here. Migrant Mother My mother made me drink pea…
Life in Arles – A Poem
I love that you can access incredible artworks through galleries’ open access policies. I encourage you to follow the links in either the quote or the caption below and see van Gogh’s painting in zoom close up. There’s no way…
Strawberries, Nuts, &c. – A Poem
Riddle Me This How is it possible –Orange, so fresh the leaf is intactRuby-red strawberries that if wild would collapseTogether with nuts and raisins, to beIn the same still life in a nineteenth centuryComposition? What, summer and winter?Unless, if not…
For the People Waiting – A Poem
So many still lifes of previous centuries feature abundance. As The Met points out, for this particular painting by Severin Roesen: “Nineteenth-century improvements in cultivation and shipping practices enabled the extravagant assortment.” It was about status, and fortune, and horticulture,…
Cherries – A Poem
This project of mine, writing poems as a response to food-themed art, has the added benefit of making me more mindful of small things. Like cherries. They have associations beyond, well, cherries. I remembered Marcel Proust and his madeleines. They…
Fruits of Midi – A Poem
In France, the southern regions along the Mediterranean Coast are known colloquially as le Midi. It’s thought Renoir may have painted this still life somewhere in le Midi on his way to study classical paintings in Italy. There’s a more…
Figs – A Poem
Figs are one of my favourite fruit. When I was in Greece, I was thunderstuck by the amount of figs fallen to the footpaths from overhanging trees. Fallen figs were underfoot. All that gorgeous bounty, gone to waste. I was…
Beyond the Fireplace – A Poem
If you follow the source link in the caption below the image, you’ll discover that this painting was used as a screen in a fireplace. The idea was to make it look like there was another room beyond the hearth….
Grapes, Lemons, Pears and Apples – A Poem
I was inspired to write this poem by the intensity of van Gogh’s colours, and in particular the brushwork of the tablecloth. It seemed to me as if the fruit are falling into hyperspace, or are themselves experimenting with gravity…
