485 - the hat factory and the yellow room

 

29.iv.21

485

2.89

the hat factory and the yellow room 

ekphrastic for Margaret Olley’s studio

(48 Duxford St, Paddington -- now at Tweed Regional Gallery)

‘because I have a face like a pudding and it’s easy to draw’

 

fill your head with flowers 

such statuary 

teeter too 

the vindication of spread and pile 

like a certain shed 

you’d never have guessed from the street

life as vast array

palette dry 

Classic FM goes on 

the chair inherited 

furniture older than anyone left 

reminds me of Bernard Hickey’s Lecce 

that vintage 

things have fallen 

there they lie 

though one must not say ‘come to rest’

pods and pots

table set still 

how is the table cloth clean?

here is a midst and how the mind’s carried

gather the outside in 

the garden head, undomestic 

scrub canvas 

gum leaf, bottle 

all to come back 

from sketch not scratch 

making icon of self by extension 

the day’s a pun 

every inch of life in 

taken up 

who makes it to the wall? 

take harbour 

take streets go on after 

off Stafford Lane 

odd things anatomical 

teeth in the cage concealed 

brolly broom and rug worn through 

a porcelain hoarding and poppies 

for wilt at the day  

objects of lost provenance 

stairs wound up to sleep 

ribbon, confetti, leaf strew

the floor itself a dig 

see colours

of the kitchen spiced

see The Nurses’ Dictionary 

a box with ‘fragile’ -- that’s a joke 

(but possibly all is)

all faux supported Corinthian order

things about to come into their own 

‘studio first and kitchen second’

a cushioned world, with all required 

never wished for another 

she knew where everything is 

all lost to the trouble of where to be next 

and here we are at home 

(John McRae's portrait of Margaret Olley, 2011)