PART 5 EXHIBITION – post 2

Developing the virtual exhibition with sound

Because poetry has always been an important aspect of my creative process, as described in previous posts, it needed to feature strongly in the exhibition of the paintings. I had planned to have the words of the poems written next to the paintings but this was not really satisfactory as the words do not actually link closely to the images, certainly do not describe them. The words have always been a kind of musing, a ‘listening’ to thoughts and often their relevance comes simply in opening ideas as I begin to paint. Without major expense in the face to face exhibition, I was left with simply transcribing these musings alongside the images.

However the virtual exhibition platform allows for me to record the words and as the viewer hones in on the painting, it triggers off the audio addition and my voice can be heard speaking the poetry as the viewer looks at the image. This seems to me to be a perfect experience for the viewer.

With this additional feature I feel very staisfied that those visiting the exhibition will have a multi sensory experience. Below are the examples of poetry which will be heard as the viewer experiences the image.

TITLE: “Someone coloured my world today…

Not sure it will be there tomorrow –

I hope it is!”

 Today I heard the wattle is out –

Tiny yellow balls of pure yellow

The memory is locked

Almost forgotten but always there.

Is it the yellow?

Not the shape, the texture or the thing itself

But pure yellow!

It sweeps across the page

And settles somewhere

THIS IS MY SONG!

…and the day dawned with such ferocious newness –

Flooded with ideas

Everywhere, sounds!

There was an urgency with it….I couldn’t stop to look.

 5.15 am Nasturtiums and sweet peas

Oranges, yellows, pinks, deep reds –

Splash of green and a strip of umber

Humbled I stare!

Unable to find even the simplest language to communicate –

Yet before me are the humblest of flowers!

Nasturtiums…sweet peas…

We seem to join together in a simplicity

A tiny voice!

Almost a whisper to those not listening

Yet for me, it is a roar!

A magnificence and intensity

Hidden away in quietness and depths that I don’t know about.

Seeing isn’t enough –

                            because I can turn away.

But listening holds the moment

The time is always NOW!

A connection with pure joy!

I hear a story

Of earth’s simple radiance

Of honesty

Of rhythm

Of laughter

Of the beauty of just being……

 The Sounds of Colour

Uncompromising

Without apology

Yellows, orange, reds, burnt in the heat of the occasional sun!

A moment…

Hope

Purity

Where does it take me?

 

I can’t stop smiling!

There is an eternal  promise here

And I must find it!

Listen to its sound!

 Truth!

 …and as I looked

There appeared amazing things.

 I didn’t try to force the looking

Emerging, hidden spaces of imaginings –

And the more I stared, the more appeared

Sending thought into the unexplored…

Colour suggesting new colour

Was it sunlight?

Was it the breath of…?

 As the birdsong finishes

I hear another of nature’s music fill the space.

COLOUR!

The sounds of red, orange, yellow , vibrant red

Throw themselves into the space

With such urgency

I just step back!

 

Intense flashes of light

No tones, just colour

Beyond imaginings.

 Layer and layer of something

What is it? 

Drawing back the curtain

It comes and goes…

I catch hold of it and it’s gone

Emerging into something

But what?

Still layer on layer

Still colour and knowing

Is it part of now, the present?

It has to be-

Layer on layer…

 …and where does memory end

And ‘now’ begin?

Is it this moment?

The bird sounds in the distance echo thoughts

And the waves become the reality.

I lose myself…

 I walked along a path today

Layers of time everywhere!

Revealing naked bough and shed leaf.

Colour against colour

Mixing, blending, contrasting!

Without a care….

 

I heard the sound of magnificence

Infinite colour

Intense life!

And I was allowed to see……

 The sounds start to deepen

Change is coming

Bursts of burnt red!

There is a gentling

A stillness –

Silence

As the earth rests!

A kind of moment of breathing out…

A sigh, perhaps!

As colour fades and sounds dissolve –

How to paint the silence!

 

 The cool air gently caresses

While warmth pervades thought.

Stillness always –

Far-off cries

 Blue, red flash

Across the mind.

Colour, colour

Beyond imaginings

Again and again I run to catch up

Beyond imaginings

 DUSK

Complete stillness

Not a hint of movement

The yellow of the bush is the only sound in the garden-

And it is shouting as the final shaft of sunlight lingers over it!

Now the light has left

But still it sings its song!

But there is movement

In the gentling of the colour and the last birdsong of the day.

The soundscape never tells of silence!

Always newness

Always expectancy!

 

The orange is revealing, revealing…

The surface changes, allowing meaning.

Softening

Where is memory now?

Certainly not in what we call the past…

What is the past…if not a prison for the now…

That orange is not from time remembered,

It is new of this moment.

It may never be again.

And why should it?

All is new, all is new!

 

 

PAINTINGS  about the fires in Australia 2019

(only one poem – these could be grouped together)

 

The trees are burning

The trees, blackened, charred

Skeletons of what was!

Where is the life?

This moment holds it –

The secret mystery hidden in the transforming heat.

The mystery of the hidden spaces

Renewal, re-awakening

Life forever new…….