Sunday Challenge: Joaquin Sorolla

Self Portrait~1909~Joaquin Sorolla

Greetings, toads, toadettes and fellow pond travelers, Hedgewitch coming at you with our weekend challenge. By now we're all well into our second week of April poetry madness here at the Garden, so I'm not going to tie anyone's brain in knots trying to learn a new poetic form. Instead, I'm choosing a simple ekphrasis challenge today, to write to one of the paintings of Spanish Impressionist Joaquin Sorolla.  

If you don't have time to read all my blithering,  you can get to the lowdown on the challenge by scrolling down to the end of the post.

The First Child

As a child growing up in the slums of Chicago, eldest of three daughters of a single mother on welfare, Art was not something  to which I had much exposure. A Superman comic bought with pop bottles I patiently collected and returned for a two penny deposit, or the cheap print of Jesus cut from a magazine above my grandmother's bed were about it for me back then. I am nowhere near an expert or even truly knowledgeable about Art, but I do know that when I met it for the first time, it changed my life.

Another Margarita

This change happened in junior high (middle school to you sprouts) when we took a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago.  I saw sculpture, I saw art ancient and modern, from medieval religious paintings that seemed like a child's drawings, primitively sketched and colored by a species beginning to feel its way from survival into something larger, to the bewildering abstracts of Picasso. I saw my first Van Gogh, my first Seurat, my first Monet. It was like a door opening into a fantastic palace of unbelievable treasures to me, and I spent many, many days walking its halls when I became old enough to get there on my own. It was there that Impressionism became the first Art love of my life, and where I stared for hours at Renoir's softly blurred, bright women and the ballerinas of Degas.

It's only recently, though, through the equal magic of the blogosphere, that I've discovered a new favorite, the artist I'm sharing with you today, Joaquin Sorolla y Batisda.

Cafe in Paris

To quote wikipedia, "Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Valencian Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land."

Beached Boats

Girl with Flowers

His flavor of Impressionism is to me often a warmer, brighter one, reflective of the color and light of Spain, more dazzling than other Impressionists, with their muted blues and greys. He painted everything from formal classical pieces to vibrant landscapes and idiosyncratic portraits and has a wonderful way with children, the seashore, and sunlight, as well as the everyday life of the people of his country.

Mending Nets

You can browse through a collection of his works here at wikipaintings.org, to get a feel for his subject matter and method, and also look for a painting that speaks to you beyond the few I have included here. All of his paintings are in the public domain, so it's fine to reproduce any of them with your poem.

Seville~The Dance

Mother

Skipping Rope at La Granja

The Challenge

Because Sunday is normally the day for our mini-forms challenge, I'd love to challenge people to write from any one of Sorolla's paintings, employing their favorite of the many short forms we've been exposed to here at the Garden over the months: haiku, slijo, senryu, nonet, sevenling, triolet, cinquin, or any of the many others Kerry and others have shared with us. This is purely optional!

For those who prefer to write in free verse, of course please feel free to do so. I'd just ask that in the "mini" spirit of the mini-challenge, you write an original poem inspired by one of Sorolla's paintings  (either in a short form or in free verse) using approximately 100 words or less.

A Rooftop With Flowers

That's it, toads. Have at it and enjoy! And if you've been keeping up with the challenge of Poetry Month, congratulations on writing your fourteenth poem.

All paintings by Joaquin Sorolla, Public Domain