Idlers in the Gallery (with paintings)
by Pamela Miller Ness and Michael Dylan Welch
Second prize winner in the 2004 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. First published in Mariposa #12, Spring–Summer 2005, page 24. Written by email from November 2003 to March 2004. Each verse is based on a painting in the National Academy of Design in New York City. Paintings presented for reference only. See this ekphrastic rengay without the paintings.
overflowing
its cut-glass vase
La Farge’s magnolia Pamela
John Lewis Frederick Joseph La Farge
ANA 1863; NA 1869
Magnolia Blossom, n.d.
Oil on composition board, 11 x 8 7/8 in.
NA diploma presentation, June 7, 1869 (721-P)
Homer’s croquet player
hides a ball with her skirt Michael
Winslow Homer
ANA 1864; NA 1865
Croquet Player, n. d.
Oil on canvas, 8¼ x 12 in.
NA diploma presentation, May 7, 1866 (590-P)
strewn across
her studio table
Nell Blaine’s turnips Pamela
[image of Nell Blaine painting is not available]
the unused pencils . . .
Jacob Lawrence grins
in his self-portrait Michael
Jacob Lawrence
ANA 1971; NA 1979
Self Portrait, 1977
Gouache on paper,
22 1/8 x 30 in. (sheet)
ANA diploma presentation, 1977
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence
Courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation (1977.15)
gathering hollyhocks
Frieseke’s woman in blue Pamela
Frederick Carl Frieseke
ANA 1912; NA 1914
Hollyhocks, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 25½ x 32 in.
NA diploma presentation,
November 2, 1914 (479-P)
to the porch born . . .
the precise signature
on Blum’s two idlers Michael
Robert Frederick Blum
ANA 1888; NA 1893
Two Idlers, [1888–89]
Oil on canvas, 29 x 40 in.
NA diploma presentation,
March 26, 1894 (108-P)