29 April 2010

Painting stories, week 2

We chose a story - from life, the newspaper, memory, whatever - and brainstormed/visualised it, noting down the details -
Then we worked in pairs, telling the other about our story and listening to theirs. Joanna was using "The Bed Song", which starts out with the couple bedding down in a sleeping bag on friends' floors, then moving up to ever bigger beds, until they have a king-size bed that mirrors how far apart they've grown. She was visualising a plain room and a neat white bed, a tree outside the window. I added a door on the left and a blowing curtain - and a big mirror over the bed - to reflect...what?
Here's her revision -
My story is a Bluebeard variant called Mr Fox - published in Joseph Jacob's English Fairy Tales in 1869, but known at the time of Shakespeare. I used it in a storytelling course, 25 years ago, and couldn't quite remember the details - so set it in a French farmhouse, where the young wife discovers something nasty in the attic, and something else unwelcome around the breakfast table. Here's what Joanna painted for me -
which I revised to add French doors onto the patio, storm clouds gathering, and perhaps the cupboards etc of a big farmhouse kitchen.
Homework is to gather reference images for the objects etc in our painting.

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