Simple Pleasures

Welcome to the sixth edition
 of Poetry and Paintings

Mary Ann Anderson, an artist* friend of mine sent me the following words by esteemed artist and teacher, Robert Henri, who wrote the Art Spirit published in 1923.

"The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture -- however unreasonable this may sound. The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence....

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could but recall his vision by some sort of sign. It was in this hope that the arts were invented. Sign-posts on the way to what may be. Sign-posts toward greater knowledge."

An example of this is when I recently painted a still life....just three ordinary onions. But my true enjoyment wasn't because of the actual subject matter, rather it was the joy of relating to the color and light effects. After the busy and "stuff"-laden moments of the holidays, it's nice to get back to the "Simple Pleasures" of the day.

For information about the above painting and my art in general, please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I welcome you to sign up, below, for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send  favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

In the following section, I hope that you will add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!

* Take a look at Mary Ann's website...her work is beautiful!

artistanderson.weebly.com

Twilight Serenade

Welcome to the Fifth Edition of

 Poetry and Paintings!

For this blog I have selected a photograph of a Canadian sunset submitted to me by my good neighbor, Joan Bullard. You will see the painting that was inspired by that beautiful image and some quotes that remind me of the specific scene. 

 

        “Watch the sunset without speaking, just like a bird watching the sunset in complete silence!” 

― Mehmet Murat ildan

“This unlikely story begins on a sea that was a blue dream, as colorful as blue-silk stockings, and beneath a sky as blue as the irises of children's eyes. From the western half of the sky the sun was shying little golden disks at the sea--if you gazed intently enough you could see them skip from wave tip to wave tip until they joined a broad collar of golden coin that was collecting half a mile out and would eventually be a dazzling sunset.” 

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flappers and Philosophers

            

                 

For information about the above painting and my art in general, please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I encourage you to sign up, below, for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

In the following section, I hope that you will add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!

A Sense of Awe

Welcome to the fourth edition of 
Poetry and Paintings! 

I am excited to share this adventure with you!  I continue to receive wonderful responses to the idea. Many have submitted photos that they have taken, while some have sent poems and sayings that they have written themselves or that have certain meaning to their lives.  


For this blog I have selected a passage by Ralph Waldo Emerson, submitted by Ansel Mullins, a creative writer in his own right. Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.

“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown.  But every night come out these envoys of beauty and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”

When I read this I thought of striking photo recently sent to me by my high school friend, Jeff Barker. It was of his young grandson overlooking a distant mountain range, blanket in hand, and with a posture exhibiting a true sense of awe. Clearly, this was the first time he had seen this particular magnificence! My painted response is below...

For information about the above painting 
and my art in general, 

please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I welcome you to sign up, below, for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send  favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

In the following section, I hope that you will add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!

Ode to Autumn

Welcome to the third edition of Poetry and Painting


For this third blog I have selected a poem written by John Keats (1795-1821). It was suggested by my friend, Ellie Densen, who majored in English literature, is still an avid reader, and resides in Iowa:

                     

                                 TO AUTUMN.

                                            1.

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
 

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 
   

Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
       

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 
   

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 
       

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 


To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
   

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 
       

And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
       

Until they think warm days will never cease, 
           

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

                                            2.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 
       

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 
   

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 
       

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 
   

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 
       

Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 
           

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: 
   

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 
       

Steady thy laden head across a brook; 
       

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, 
           

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

                                            3.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 
       

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
   

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 
       

And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue; 
   

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 
       

Among the river sallows, borne aloft 
           

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 
   

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 
       

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 
       

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; 
           

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

My painted response to this poem was a work I began en plein air in Western NC in early fall. As I recall painting it I could feel some of Keats' description of impending Autumn, especially “thy laden head across a brook”.   So I decided to go back to this piece and finish it with that sense of place and time in mind. 

For information about the above painting and my art in general, 
please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I welcome you to sign up (under my profile in the email box) for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

Feel free to add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!

Crossing

Welcome to the second edition of Poetry and Paintings!

I am excited to share this adventure with you!  I continue to receive wonderful responses to the idea. Many have submitted photos that they have taken, while some have sent poems and sayings that they have written themselves or that have certain meaning to their lives.  

For this second blog I have selected a poem by Archibald MacLeish submitted by Phillip Carl, a creative writer in his own right. MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet and Librarian of Congress who received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work. 

Crossing

At five precisely in the afternoon

The dining car cook on the Boston and Albany

Through train to somewhere leaned and waved

At the little girl on the crossing at Ghent, New York---

The one with the doll carriage.

Who understood it best?

She, going home to her supper, telling her Pa?

The Negro cook, shutting the vestibule window,

Thinking: She waved right back she did? Or I,

Writing it down and wondering as I write it

Why a forgotten touch of human grace

Is more alive forgotten than its memory

Pressed between two pages in this place?

My painted response to this poem....is based on a photo I took during a recent visit to Lugano, Switzerland. I was struck by the pensive look on the gentleman's face and his posture. What was he pondering? Interestingly,  I added another layer to this story by observing HIM! And yes, he was decked out in green and white!

For information about the above painting and my art in general, please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I welcome you to sign up, below, for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send  favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

In the following section, I hope that you will add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!

Arbor Gate

Welcome to the first edition of Poetry and Paintings!

I am excited to begin this adventure with you!  I already have received wonderful responses to the idea. Many have submitted photos that they have taken, while some have sent poems and sayings that they have written themselves or that have certain meaning to their lives.  For this first blog I have selected a poem written by my fellow NC plein air artist, Janyce Divers. The painting I created was inspired by a photo of Susan and Roy Meal's well tended garden. 

Arbor Gate 

by Janyce Divers

Go --  go, through the arbor gate

To ponder

The flowerful wonder.

Yes, fifty years of faithful use.

Tilled and tended with care.

Remember when it was brand new?

Romance perfumed the air,

White pickets marched in regimental rows

Protecting the newly planted.

The rose thorns pricked at fingers.

Never mind; the garden bloomed

And, soon the smaller flowers appeared

With their attendant needs

Who knew about tomato worms

Or rabbit’s twitching noses?

And, the sweaty labor it would take

To keep the small plants safe.

Tilling, tending, and learning

Came with each new season

Now prized heirlooms surround

A wooden swing, handmade.

Weathered and gray,

The beloved arbor gate has stayed

Though at times it squeaks a rusty note

And, the soft breeze hums, “Well done.”

My painted response to this poem....

For information about the above painting and my art in general, please visit ...

KarenMeredithArt.com

I welcome you to sign up, below, for this twice-a-month blog and share it with your friends who might be interested. AND I invite you to (continue) to send  favorite photos you have taken and writings (inspiring, thought provoking, or humorous)  to me at kmeredithart@gmail.com.  

In the following section, I hope that you will add personal comments and links to your own images related to this posting. I would like to make this creatively interactive!