a lively canvas

We considered her moody -
our assertions brushed off
a swirl, a sweep
some severe crosshatching
to overturn the green flat wash
"I'm a quick-change artist"
(her jaunty joke before tantrums)
now tearily dabbing a filbert
she pitched powdered pink
- a mercurial touch to finish

Weaving ‘quick’ into a fairly rapid quadrille for De’s “Quick, Write something‘ prompt
And since I was fairly slow on the Monday uptake, am joining the Tuesday Platform

38 thoughts on “a lively canvas

  1. “I am a quick-change artist,” works like a charm. I love when poems draw such compelling character-sketches. The artist becomes the art in such a setting. Very well-penned.
    -HA

    1. had to think on my feet with this one – glad you enjoyed the character sketch – the photoart helped make the prompt as the artist here is so serene!

  2. I love the audience and the artist, the complete presence as the art is created out of her moods. The pace and the amazing places you go from moody, jaunty jokes and tears, the swirls and sweeps and severe cross-hatching. I resonate with this so!

  3. This is absolutely exquisite! ❤ I can picture the character and loved the phrase “I’m a quick-change artist” 😊

    1. my ‘paintings’ make no mess and only take up disc space – I remain a frustrated artist but hope you can find the urge to bring out your talent

    1. thank you – one of my ‘not up to scratch’ photos heavily disguised with smart photo editor. Created separately from the poem but waiting in the wings for its debut

  4. Capture so well how emotions shift and sturm not as a weakness subservient to a forced stoicism, but an affirmation to live a broad spectrum, the jaunty, plucky, tearful, mercurial, ranges. So nice to be fully human!

  5. I’m thinking about Spring at the moment (beginning now in this part of the world) and your poem – although I knew it was a person you were describing – read like a personification of Spring, with those colours and the changeable moods!

  6. Stunning lines, Laura:
    ‘a swirl, a sweep
    some severe crosshatching
    to overturn the green flat wash’
    and
    ‘“I’m a quick-change artist”’

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