poetry / writing prompts

Flying off the Canvas

Chris Hall45 Comments
The image shows an incomplete watercolor on open pages of a notebook. There are tubes of colors next to it and some painting paraphernalia.

Purple robes from the snot of snails, rays from the tails of mango-fed cows.
Colour-wash fades, dribbles down the page,
Feeble brush strokes
weep over wet
paper.

In a misery of contempt she kicks the traces of her fractious art.
Screw it up and start again!

Ground from stones, hewn from rocks
poisonous pigments from the artist’s jewel box
cobalt and lead, one blue, one red
the venomous tools of her craft.

Carving curves with furious angst
passions explode and erode
while careless cadmium spatterings
join dread smears on the studio floor.

Scissoring through shards of purple-pink silk
the blood on the carpet of despair
raising her brush she rages on
rending the canvas in two.

Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #47 photo prompt.
Image credit: Elena Mozhvilo – Unsplash

45 thoughts on “Flying off the Canvas”

  14. Love this, Chris. I feel those emotions when I try to paint something that just doesn’t look like it does in my head… most of the time, actually! Although I keep dabbling… and weeping with the feeble brush strokes over wet paper! 😊

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  17. I was just watching a show the other day about the color blue. Which wasn’t used until someone crushed up Lapis Lazuli. If you look at older paintings and see rainbows you won’t find blue in them.
    It wasn’t that blue didn’t exist – there weren’t words to describe the color! The sky was either white associated with clouds or grey associated with clouds. Look up Blue on Wiki. Very interesting.

    I haven’t worked with paints yet… but other crafts and it is frustrating when things don’t go as planned.
    Just keep trying. 🙂

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    • There’s some fascinating history surrounding paint, isn’t there? Like the colour of yellow from the urine of mango-fed cows – how cruel that was! Some pigments have recently been banned because of their toxicity too.
      One a happier note, I’ve seen many happy accidents created by artists though. So yes, just keep trying!

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