The painter s world, the painter s work...

Celebrating Margaret Olley

1.


Yellow room, red room…
 

Time is light,
and water, life;
water in a jug or vase
postpones the death of clivias
as long as it takes paint to dry.

The yellow room with empty pitchers
brims with a limpidity
that thins the shadows and restores
upholstery on the ottoman;
the red room is a vessel
for oblique reflections from outdoors,
the slanting rays of mornings,
Sunday afternoons with visitors.

A table has been set for one,
festive with white hippeastrums
placed with care to catch the eye;
a tea-mug, homely, functional.



2.


Portrait of the Artist
 

Mugs and bowls and jugs and jars
with tigerlilies, pomegranates,
contradict the hourglass
by holding fruitfulness in stasis.

Studying the artist's face -
her solemnly reflective gaze,
an image as inscrutable
as water in a vase - I sense

the vibrant stillness she has wrought,
the better to observe the form,
the deep intensity of thought
beneath a surface mute as pears.



* Margaret Olley is one of Australia's
most celebrated living painters, best
known for her still lifes and interiors.
````````````````````````````````````````````
This poem was first published in
Stylus Poetry Journal, an international
on-line journal edited by Rosanna Licari,
in January 2007:
editor@styluspoetryjournal.com
home page:
http://www.styluspoetryjournal.com/main/master.asp?id=75