July Segment - Ways of Seeing

This month's inspiration came from Calypso by Julian Trevelyan and Red Still Life by Mary Fedden.  The image seen above is of the Mary Fedden painting and there is some excellent information about this and other paintings on the BBC "Your Paintings" website.  Herefordshire Council gets a mention too !!

There's rather a nice story about the planning of this session - I had originally chosen another picture to go with the Julian Trevelyan print but it was having a re-frame so I had to go in early on Monday morning and Catherine Willson kindly showed me round.  Red Still Life caught my eye and I asked Catherine about it.  I then discovered that she was married to Julian Trevelyn so of course I had to reunite them!  Here are a couple of pieces written that morning:

Sonia Grieg

Response to the painting

Red Still Life

by Mary Feddon

Furious explosion of conflicting colour

Pours from the sky and table

And finds the very core

Of earth’s gifts, and without a label

Of convention screams, Look!

I am not what I seem!

And the viewer shook

Unable to comprehend

Is it the beginning

Or the end?

Yvette Sutton

SHADES OF GRANADA

The heat

The hills and lazy haze

Could this be a desert?

Am I in a daze?

In sheer delight

Thirst seems quenched

Fruit layered upon a bench in a woven basket too

Red cherries neatly placed upon a plate

Water melon its seeds black and random

Figs to peel ready to reveal their fleshy body

And just to set the scene, a violet. Is it lonely?

If only a carafe were in sight we might have the perfect dessert tonight.

Calypso was a more mysterious and enigmatic study.  Trevelyan depicts her as a woman in a desert wearing a burka. The portrait above is an more opulent 18th century approach by William Hamilton.

My internet search tells me that:

Calypso was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the island of Ogygia, where she detained Odysseus for seven years. She is generally said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas.Her name in Greek means literally “she who conceals”.  

And most of us thought it was just a type of song from the Trinidad.!! Rhian was inspired to write and perform a calypso for us but sadly there is no way of conveying its plangent beauty in a mere blog. 

This was our last Segment of the series and as always it was a very good party and we did get the chocolate biscuits and perfect summer weather. I'd like to finish by thanking all the wonderful staff at the Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Friar's Street who have looked after us so well. 

Sally