His paint oozed solitude and sadness. The turbulent brush almost fell from his hands. He knew it so well, this field of rude life and death, its diverging blood-rusted paths leading to the same horizon. The violent polarity of yellow field of wheat daubed in rows and blue sky smudged with clouds erupts with black […]
Tag: Vincent van Gogh
Broken Compass
Vincent van Gogh once wrote: ‘The conscience is a man’s compass’, but humankind’s compass broke and we have lost our way. We are drowning the planet in a mass of plastic, choking the rainforests with palm oil, sitting by and watching as the polar icecaps melt into the background of inane selfies posted on social […]
Artistry
Extraordinary blue sky and Japanese artistry accentuate delicate petals against the outline of gnarled branches. They offer new life, calm before the storm of a spring breeze rips the blossom from the trees and fills the Arles air with sweet almond vapour. Kim M. Russell, 24th April 2019 My response to Poets United Midweek Motif […]
A Secret Guest
Hidden in plain sight, trapped in the linseed scent, the musk of old art and paint, behind the green and ochre of the Olive Trees for over a century, it forfeited the freedom of life en plein air. Vincent didn’t notice his secret guest, having picked off “a good hundred flies and more”. The grasshopper […]
Vincent’s Self Portrait
‘…painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter…’ Vincent van Gogh A grubby strip of cloth bound around his head distracts from the bright spot of burning reds, a Japanese print pinned to the wall before he sliced his ear. He painted the background of […]
Hearthful of Flames
‘Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way’ – Vincent van Gogh A fire roared in his soul. All his neighbours saw was smoke; they gossiped […]
Vincent’s Valentine
Vincent said, “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people’. But Vincent, when you braved love’s snarling thicket, you didn’t expect nervous coughs in quiet rooms. You believed that fungus and algae are stronger together, survive every kind of weather. Now, you gaze at your lover and see no white doves but a […]
Peace Within Day 11
colours of nature painted on a starling’s wings a van Gogh nightscape Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Carpe Diem’s Winter Retreat 2018 Peace Within For Carpe Diem’s Winter Retreat 2018, Chèvrefeuille has challenged us to create a haiku or tanka inspired on the theme of ‘Peace Within’ every day during a period of […]
Star Fishing
Once upon a van Gogh night more colourful than day, a shoal of stars, disturbed, took flight, and poured down from the sky. I couldn’t find a little boat to row on the cosmic sea, nor did I have a fishing-net to catch some dreams for me. I tossed and turned on my pillow, and […]
The Sight of Stars
ancient memories light up the night sky with a shimmer of astral dust yesterday’s magic scintillates astrology and mysticism a twinkling aura crowns the moon drunk with cosmic wine and weightlessness motionless in freefall earth is an afterthought a blue yo-yo suspended in the echo chamber of space while the universal orchestra plays a silent […]
