Don't miss this week's Zoom on French Academy master William Adolphe Bouguereau. This artist resisted the sweeping tide toward modernism and continued working in and teaching the traditional classical techniques of draughtsmanship, composition, and mythological subject matter. He was driven by beauty alone.  We will discuss his body of work and his biography and enjoy some creative writing exercises with selected paintings.

Our workshops are all about connection, conversation, and creativity. Join us and become part of this learning community. It's a great way to learn more about artists you love or haven't yet discovered.

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Testimonial:

Lorette's enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge about art combine to make her one of the most exciting and empowering workshop leaders I have ever had the joy of writing with. And the Hyperbole police would not arrest me for saying that!  I was exposed to art I would never have looked twice at, and have learned how to linger and engage with the work and the artist. Her preparation, presentations and written feedback were thoughtful, generous and encouraging. an absolute delight!  
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Susie Whelehan

​Tecpatl

An
obsidian
eclipse I blot out
the sun and send you north
you will not outlive this act
of kindness unblinking sharp
fissile missile I devour the
droplets of fresh fear on
my tongue gnashing
blood-eager bright
flake of darkness
I split you slip into
you a vicious
incandescent
fish sleek
swimming
upstream
seeking the
source I
bite your
heart I
bite your
heart

Peter Sullivan

Peter Sullivan is a poet and teacher from Stirling, Scotland who has been living and working in Madrid, Spain for over 20 years. The landscapes, culture, art and people of both Scotland and Spain inspire his work. He has been published in The Stony Thursday Book, a prominent Irish literary journal, and is working on his first full collection. 

Want to Write Stories and Poems Inspired by Art?  Europeana.eu is Your Free Go-To Resource

Europeana.eu is a vast database of European digital culture heritage that you can use for research or inspiration for your own writing practice, or to kickstart your writing workshops. You may have already explored it if you took part in The Ekphrastic Review’s prompt in February, using an artwork by Michael Schoenholtz. Here, Beth Daley introduces Europeana.eu and shares some creative writing prompts. 
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What is Europeana.eu?

Europeana.eu is a practical, accessible and free online resource, funded by the European Commission. It provides access to Europe's cultural heritage, digitised and online. Why? To inspire and inform fresh perspectives and open conversations about our history and culture. To share and enjoy our rich cultural heritage. To create new things.
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The Gown 

1.
To love symmetry is to love
asymmetry – 

as this artist did, summoning 
the jagged edges of

a wilderness of broken ice, 
of chalk cliffs 

framing small-scale scenes of 
human presence

before some mist-confounded 
vista of infinity.

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An austere, orderly studio
such as this one – 

a box of geometric shapes – 
can be transformed by 

a latch window drawn open
to admit the day,

and even more so, as now, 
by this living figure

standing in a luminance
that speaks of

inner light and bodily light,
her feet delicately earthed.

Garbed in a silk gown 
whose patina of 

coppery gold points up 
the solacing strength of green,

Caroline, the painter's wife,
looks out.

2.
There are starlings and hummingbirds
(emerald starlings in West Africa, for one,
and, say, the ruby-throated hummingbird)
who, at rest or in flight, wear

the slippery, glittery life of green: 
images that hover as I view 
the green falls and folds of Caroline's gown, 
its honeyed burnish.

For Friedrich, though – such a northern-souled man – 
those colours might well have evoked 
pine forests needled by sun rays,
trunks with syrupy glints of resin.

3.
Is Caroline, as pictured here, 
a resplendent bird in a cage
or, with her open gaze,
a pathway into that soft spring view – 

a lacy haze of poplars 
in their first green, beyond the river.
Above the faint rigging lines of ships,
a fleet of clouds buoys along.

Her body, poised in an easy lilt,
tilts forwards, leftwards,
while the mast of a passing ship 
tilts, by a whisker, to the right.

Will her spirit climb the airy heights 
caught in that grid above her?
If so, may some murmuration,
ever unfolding, journey with her.

On the sill, stoppered bottles of oil 
to prime tints that will magic up  
her lissom posture, wreathed coiffure,
play its part in this quiet glory.

Diane Fahey

Diane Fahey is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently The Light Café (Liquid Amber Press, 2023) and Sanctuaries (Puncher & Wattmann, 2024). She has received various awards and fellowships for her poetry, including the ACT Government’s Judith Wright Prize, and been short-listed for six other major book awards. Her poetry has been published widely in Australia and internationally, over a period of forty years, and been represented in over 80 anthologies, most recently in Buzz Words and Spellbound (Penguin Random House). Her PhD in Creative Writing from UWS is titled 'Places and Spaces of the Writing Life.' <dianefaheypoet.com>

Dali's The Persistence of Memory

Watch face, clock face
melt into the distraction
of time, like a pancake
folden over a branch,
neither past nor present,
acting for tomorrow, lost
in the sun's light-now, mute.
And second hands flounder
like dying smoke signals.
Time, loosed like a spatula,
flipping nothing now but now.
This austere, careful moment,
no cry, no smell, just
the melting in midday sun,
the air forgetting all
it can become, nothing more
that the gray terror
of right now.

Brian Cronwall

Brian Cronwall is a retired English professor living in Hawai`i.  His poetry has won the Oscar Wilde Poetry Prize, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and been published in Chiron Review, Ekphrasis, Poetry Ireland Review, Bamboo Ridge, and other journals.

I love ekphrastic writing and find art (and music) to be an endless source of inspiration for me.  The Ekphrastic Review's challenges keep me writing, and is a joyful community of creatives to be part of.  I spent the last few days reading through the archives to select a few of my favourite pieces, and though there were so many I adored, these in particular evoked an emotional reaction from me.  I found myself marvelling at their imagery, their unique interpretation, some haunting quality, or simply for how well-crafted they were.  May you enjoy them as much I did.

Nina Nazir

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Kerfe Roig: It's 4am and I'm Wearing a Blue Raincoat (after Leonard Cohen)

Such a moving piece, as if the stormy night perfectly mirrors the turbulent feelings of the visitor and grieves with her.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/william-edouard-scott-ekphrastic-writing-challenge-responses

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Kim M. Russell: Figures in a Landscape

A well-chiselled poem that captures the meditative state and dramatic lines in the painting.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/ekphrastic-writing-responses-bertram-brooker


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Nina Nazir: Incognito

I chose my own work for this piece as I had fun embodying the voice for Queen Bee and I really enjoyed the journey it took me on.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/noah-jayne-andrews-ekphrastic-writing-responses


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Lorette C. Luzajic: Ragged Psalms

I love the wild streak that runs throughout this piece - it's like a scene from a road movie with a satisfying, heartwarming end.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/alexis-rhone-fancher-ekphrastic-writing-responses-curated-by-alexis-rhone-fancher


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Dihya Ammar: Perfect Measurements

A deeply considered reading of the artwork with dark undertones that speak of the animal side of human nature, which made it all the more compelling.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/harue-koga-ekphrastic-writing-responses

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Allison Connolly: An Offering

I was enchanted by this haunting tale that connects two strangers and crosses time and planes - eerie and beautiful.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/arch-hades-ekphrastic-writing-responses-curated-by-kate-copeland

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Stevie B: Eros at the End: a Meditation on Last Things

The psalmic nature of this epic poem perfectly expanded on the immensity of feeling captured within the painting and read like a heartfelt prayer, or a gospel song.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/kitty-north-ekphrastic-writing-responses-curated-by-kate-copeland

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Tracy Royce: Five Things I've Learned about Witches

The wry humour of this piece is delightful, inviting us into the world of witches, familiar in all the ways we’ve come to love.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/luis-ricardo-falero-ekphrastic-writing-responses


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Karen Gettert Shoemaker: Life or Something Like it

Such a mystical interpretation of the painting, alluding to the cycles of birth, change, and death, while hinting at so much more.  

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/michael-schoenholtz-ekphrastic-writing-responses

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Nina Nazir (she/her) is a neurodivergent British Pakistani poet, writer and fine artist based in Birmingham, UK.  She has been widely published online and in print, most recently with Under the Radar Magazine and Scumbag Press.  She is also a Room 204 writing cohort with Writing West Midlands.  You can usually find her surrounded by books, writing in her favourite café, or making art, which she sometimes shares on Instagram: @nina.s.nazir or on her blog: www.sunrarainz.wordpress.com

​Betrayal: the Language of Descent       

Francis. There’s no ascension 
in this triptych. Only
your lover

seated on a chair, 
seen from behind,
his naked back bent 

before a painting.
In the left and right panels
he faces a portrait of himself,  

a mirror of his head
enlarged and blotched,                                    
the bruises black. 

Stigmata of your betrayal, Francis?
Rejection a language of descent.                    
Anger and despair grown dense

until tremor, 
silent crack, avalanche, 
collapse.       
                                
Your lover’s suicide, 
perhaps,
revenge.

Hand’s anguished paint, a cry. 
The shoulder, once embraced.
Hunched muscle. Flesh. Pink slippage. 

Love’s last dark sluffing--
sorrow.
The central mirror, blank.

Ulrike Narwani

Ulrike Narwani, of Baltic-German heritage, grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. After living in the U.S., England, India, and Thailand for many years, she moved to Sidney, BC in 2003.  She and her husband, both passionate about flying, have co-written a memoir Above the Beaten Path about their adventures flying a single-engine Cessna 182—at times with one or more of their three children—throughout Canada, the States, and later into remote corners of the world. Collecting Silence (Ronsdale Press, 2017) is her debut volume of poetry. Ulrike Narwani is a lyric and haiku poet. Work appears in journals such Canadian Literature and The New Quarterly, and anthologies, most recently in Hologram: Homage to P.K. Page. Haiku have won the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku contest.