Kerry's Wednesday Challenge

Impressionism


It is Claude Monet who is considered to be the founder of French Impressionist painting. In 1874, the landscape entitled Impression, Soleil Levant, was exhibited, not only lending its name to the movement but inspiring a group of artists to explore new ways to express themselves in paint.

                                                                                           Impression, Soleil Levant ~ Monet


Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was the enfant terrible of the Paris Art scene. Bohemian, decadent, he gathered a huge following and turned prostitutes into his models. His freedom of colour, form and line pushed Impressionism forward.

                                                                                       Can-Can Dancer ~ Toulouse-Lautrec


The tortured soul of Vincent van Gogh, a post-Impressionist painter, gave birth to some of the most vibrant canvases the world of Art has ever seen. His emotional honesty and rough beauty had a far-reaching influence on 20th Century Art.

                                                                Wheatfield with Crows ~ Van Gogh 


So the question I am asking today is: Can a poem be like an Impressionist painting?


My challenge is to step out of the framework of line and stanza, form and meter and slap words around your own canvases with bold brush strokes, or palette knives, or tiny points of colour. Work with word, phrases, fragments in an attempt to give an impression of a poem, then step back to view the end result.


If this seems too daunting, write a poem inspired by one of your favourite Impressionist paintings.