Yesterday, Saturday, I went to the ‘Write Me a Picture Workshop’ at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery in Leeds Uni.
This session, lead by Suzannah Evans, was attended by ten artists and/or writers, mixed age group and experience. Suzie started us with an exercise of imagining an old photo in our possession and writing a response to it.
It was interesting how diverse the approach (as group responses always are), and how each person immediately engaged with the subject in the 10 or 15 minutes allocated. We were invited to read our efforts, and across the afternoon everybody felt able to read their work at some point.
Suzie then gave us examples of other writers’ work – for example Self-Portrait by Adam Zagajewski, and The Hunters in the Snow by William Carlos Williams which refers to a Breughel painting – and we then used pictures in the gallery for our own work.
The first exercise, again only 15 minutes or so, was to describe the work. I chose a large abstract by John Hoyland 30.3.69, a glorious field of red and orange.
The next piece was as narrative, to be part of the picture, and I looked at two very different paintings. The first was Ceri Richards’ The Violinist 1948, an exuberant representation of a violinist and her piano accommpanist, and the second one was Malcolm Drummond Chelsea Public Library 1920, a quiet subject quietly portrayed.
It is interesting today, as I reflect on the session, how much of those paintings I remember, and indeed of others that I looked at during the afternoon.
Perhaps the enduring lesson for me is that ‘just looking’ isn’t enough, writing the picture is important too. So, thanks, Suzie for the inspiration.
I just have to write up the work, do some illustrations, compile the resultant book and make a few copies. Onwards.
