Throwback Thursday: Yellow to Welcome Spring, with Alarie Tennille

Throwback Thursday: Yellow to Welcome Spring, with Alarie Tennille

Every winter I grow weary of the gray, though this year I have an adorable gray kitten in the house to keep my spirits up. Spring arrives late in the Midwest. In Virginia, where I was raised, flowers have been blooming for weeks. So I’ve selected yellow works of art from the archive that inspired writing to lift our moods.

Alarie

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Wendy Taylor Carlisle: And Simply Read

We get a double dose of sunshine from the girl’s daffodil dress to the pleasures of reading. Small wonder I couldn’t resist buying a print of this Fragonard painting when I was in high school. I’ve always had my nose in a book.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/and-simply-read-by-wendy-t-carlisle

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Sheila Wellehan: My Life with Matisse

Wellehan made my selection process easy by celebrating the vibrant colors and subjects Matisse is known for.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/my-life-with-matisse-by-sheila-wellehan

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Judy Kronenfeld: Unfinished Painting

The painting welcomes us into a new day with it’s soft glow of yellow and serenity. Then Kronenfeld makes us wish to linger there with her powerful last stanza. We’re trespassing, but relish the chance to do so.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/unfinished-painting-by-judy-kronenfeld

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Mary McCarthy: Vincent

When I think of vivid yellow canvases, Van Gogh is the first artist I think of, which is one just one reason McCarthy was brilliant to use “Vincent” as the title instead of giving the wheat field or crows the credit for the painting’s electric pulse and that killer ending.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/vincent-by-mary-mccarthy

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Bill Waters: A Found Poem, Submit

You may disagree about yellow being the main focus of this painting. After all, there’s a fair amount of Luzajic’s flirty pink and dramatic black to hold the painting down to earth. Yet I applaud the yellow for setting the playful tone that Waters bounced around like a balloon. 

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/submit-a-found-poem-by-bill-waters

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John Skeen: Inside and Out

The bird in the photo doesn’t just sing spring. He is spring, and he brought that feeling to John Skeen, too.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/inside-and-out-by-john-skeen

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Barbara Lydecker Crane: Painting Henry

You might be surprised I chose this selection. It’s not the bright, springy, feel good moment caught in the other paintings, and the color is more greedy gold. But the insider
joke and mockery of Henry VIII make me laugh.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/painting-henry-by-barbara-lydecker-crane

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Kate Young: How Lovely Yellow Is!

It’s fitting to end this throwback admirationg of yellow with a poem specifically targetting the color and capturing the spirit and rooms in which Van Gogh lived and breathed his art.

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/how-lovely-yellow-is-by-kate-young


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Alarie at age 5 with a guard at the Jamestown Fort (Virginia). I was clueless about the first permanent English settlement in the new world at the time and didn’t realize my ancestors, French Huguenots forced out of France, would fight in the American Revolution.

Be a guest editor for a Throwback Thursday! Pick up to 10 favourite or random posts from the archives of The Ekphrastic Review. Use the format you see above: title, name of author, a sentence or two about your choice, and the link. Include a bio and if you wish, a note to readers about the Review, your relationship to the journal, ekphrastic writing in general, or any other relevant subject.  Put THROWBACK THURSDAYS in the subject line and send to [email protected].

Along with your picks, send a vintage photo of yourself!