Blog 3 (Creative)

Creative – Take any single Australian painting that you saw at the gallery yesterday (it must be one that you saw) and write a description either in poetry or prose. Pay close attention to detail in your description. What you are in fact doing in this exercise is a piece of Ekphrastic Writing. Check up the meaning of this word!

“Good Lord Andreas, can we slow down already.” barked Hans in his husky German accent.
“Not yet old friend, we must get to the top of this waterfall, I am convinced the view will be splendid.” replied Andreas with authenticity, but with his focus fixed elsewhere. With his hand extended upwards, Andreas mumbled to himself as he paced on the rocky ground beneath, his eyes transfixed on the glory before him.
“Look at the beauty, the grandeur… it is so virgin… so untouched!” His thought process was brought to a halt by the loud groans of Hans beneath him.
“You’ve brought me out here to die havent you! I just know it! And for what? To view this God forsaken wasteland!”
Andreas turned his loving eyes to behold the frustrated and irritated Hans beneath him. His eyes lit up as he let out a knowing chuckle from deep within his belly,
“Oh Hans, have I been with you this long and you still cannot see what is before us? My dear friend, the problem is not with this landscape, it is with your eyes!”
Hans countenance began to change as he sobered up from his miniature tantrum, which had been occurring more frequently of late.
“Come Hans, rest your hands on this rock and look at the waterfall. We need not do anything to it Hans, look at how splendid it is! So free flowing, and the trees, look at the trees Hans how wild and untamed they are!”
Submitting to the loving goad of his colleague, Hans reluctantly perched his body on the rock and fixed his gaze upwards.
“Andreas its so barren, its so colourless.” he questioned with a childish innocence. “How could you even dare compare this with the slopes of Innsbruk or the falls of Krimml?”
Andreas remained quiet as he kept his focus above, his hand still moving around from spot to spot, as if he couldn’t capture enough of the beauty despite his very best efforts.
“My dear Hans.” whispered Andreas in a quieter voice, his eyes still fixed above.
“You are far to accustomed to the chiseled perfection that Our Father above has graced our homeland with. But here, my dear Hans, here is a different type of glory. There is a wildness in this nature that cannot be subdued, a beauty that cannot be described, in this bush lies a peace that surpasses all understanding.”
“But Andreas, we cant even paint the landscape before us. Its too natural, too uneven, too unpredictable!”
“A-HAH!” shouted Andreas with excitement, as if Hans had finally caught onto his wave length.
“That is precisely the point my Dear Hans! Here lies a beauty like nothing we have encountered before on our many adventures. A beauty that no brush can capture, a beauty that not even the greatest of poets can describe. That is true beauty Hans, beauty that cannot be contained or captured! It must be experienced! Yes, it must be experienced..”
He lost focus of Hans almost instantly, his attention going back to the nature before him as he began mumbling to himself once more. “Milford… Milford is beautiful, and Lysefjord is fantastic, but this.. ” his voice became lost in the sound of a company of rosellas flying up ahead.
Andreas turned his attention back to Hans, awakened from his captivating revelation by the sound of the birds above.
“Come now, dear Hans.” he whispered.
“Let us ascend to the top of this waterfall.”