Perhaps you were once deeply inspired, and wrote a poem?
Or maybe you read a poem and was moved to tears by it?
You also happen to be an artist. You want to paint the poem.
I can help!
How-to-paint-a-poem steps are listed further down, in the mean-time here are lots of examples of painting from poetry going all the way back to 1994!
I have a tiny little book called More Than a Tea Party that was printed in the 90's by Harper Collins San Fransisco, who approached me to do the book, a compilation of poems and paintings that you can still get online here for just a few dollars, or a collectable for almost $100 now!
I also have a later book; The Book of Jane that I self-published here where you can see many excellent examples of painting poems: The entire book is available to preview for free.
Here I am going to go through the steps to painting a poem:
Take each line and meditate upon it.
Perhaps certain words stand out to you?
Close your eyes and visualize.
See the images in your imagination give dimension to the words through imagery.
Trick yourself into thinking nothing for a minute.
When you do that your mind opens up to the cosmos
Just allow the process
And amazing visuals will enter your realm
Feel the colors of the mood that the poem evokes.
The deeper you go, the more vital your senses become, to the point where even your olfactory senses kick in! If you see an ocean, you will smell it too!
Once you have slowly emerged from your meditation;
Make rudimentary sketches of what you see in order to jog your memory later.
Write down the prominent colors on the sketch.
Arrange your sketches into a harmonic composition.
Take your sketch to canvas. ( I use Carmine red to sketch with on the canvas.)
Begin painting!
Before you actually start painting you might like to do a creative meditation?
Viola, it's THAT easy!
I will take you through the steps in a visual manner as I attempt to paint my latest poem:
While Tending My Vibrational Garden
Though I plough through
Rich emotional soil
Striking gold
In summer’s-end blooms
I see once-vibrant elements
Die back before the fall
Though I accept
The darkness
And unforgiving
Sleet of winter
Wrapped about my soul
I know
Its role;
To highlight the measure
Of how bright green
My thumb of life can be;
I laughingly summon
Fecundity
From
Cracked, parched riverbeds
At my whim
And remain vigilant
In my vibrational garden.
I will leave this poem here and get back to you with the visual steps as I create it. Be sure to check back! Perhaps you may like to create your own visual for this poem? I would love to see what you create and compare notes! Okay, off to work...
Evershed taught her first art class to Zulu children in South Africa in 1982 and her most recent student in Bali Indonesia in 2019. Evershed was invited to be on the New Earth University Art Faculty in 2019. As a young mother Jane found herself with no support so she turned to her art to make a living for her and her children way back in 1986! By the age of 30 she purchased their first home with the money she made from reproducing her art. Jane has been painting for forty years and is now ready to share her painting secrets with you!