From On High: after John Russell's Toul Rock (Guibel Rock) 1904–05

Abstract

From On Highafter John Russell's Toul Rock (Guibel Rock) 1904–05 Kathryn Fry (bio) He sets his easel on the grassy sward by yellowgorse and wandering heath, above mudstonebattered into grey cliffs. On canvas, the broken headland becomes blue with brilliance,the aluminate to shine on the sea's mood. He grinds more pigment with oil, a little resin;he'll have each pure without loss, each to last(light-fast, weather-fast) so the sun's rays are always just so. There's Toul Rock withits window on the water, shimmering. Two decades he's known the bustle and calmof bays and inlets, red sails and fishermen;himself a sailor, a boat-builder. He brushes for an impression as rich as the real: the houseand garden for Marianna his love, their five sons and Jeanne. Each touch, each edge and spreadthis way and that, he'll square with his flat daband stroke into every nook: their simple lives on Belle-Île. Not Paris, nor Sydney, it's herehe can paint their everyday. Yesterday's ride with Marianna, the children at play, the flowersat Goulphar, the boats. He's here at the heightof his artistry en plein air. Like our best days of giving, he'll frame this and have us inthe high-key flow of an unfading summer. [End Page 396] Kathryn Fry Kathryn Fry has poems in various periodicals including Antipodes (2016) and the Newcastle Poetry Prize anthologies of 2014 and 2016. Her poems are also in Cordite Poetry Review (2016) and Not Very Quiet (2017, 2018). Her first collection is Green Point Bearings (Ginninderra Press, 2018). Copyright © 2021 Wayne State University Press