The school holidays are full of fun, with routines going out of the window, but not as much studio time spent painting. Luckily this time of the year is also around the Coonawarra Arts Festival which coincides with the annual John Shaw Neilson Art Prize. So I had time to contemplate which one of his poems was going to inspire my entry.
This year I was drawn to the poem 'You, and Yellow Air', the descriptive prose led me to imagine a golden scene with promise & lazy dreams. In particular the lines 'In the dim place of cherry-trees, Ridden by yellow air' I looked to create from. I find it a welcome challenge to try and paint to a theme, getting me to think outside of my own art practice, and in this case draw inspiration from poetry. A little bit of fun as well as whole lot of wondering if I should have done something else, the usual formula for when I enter art competitions!!
