Entering the Painting: "The Vineyards at Cagnes"

 

Leaning against an olive tree,

the lady sits contentedly

in her own private world.

Red blouse, blue skirt,

the wide brim of her hat

shielding the sun.

Apparently reading a book,

entering the story,

absorbing the narrative

in her delicate head.

Invisible to the reading lady,

I enter the painting.

Leaning on the other olive tree,

sitting in the summer shade,

wearing my ordinary clothes.

I observe the landscape,

and begin to write about

my pastoral impressions

and her captivating presence.

© 2025 Richard Havenga

"The Vinyard at Cagnes" ~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1908

Photo Location: Vero Beach Museum of Art - Vero Beach, Florida

Vincent

 

Despite working in your asylum studio in France,

I believe "Starry Night" shines with hope.

You also brought recognition to peasants

working tenaciously in the dreary fields.

Working with a self-imposed urgency,

you suffered under the duress of stress.

Your bold, dramatic brushstrokes

expressed motion and emotion.

"Sunflowers" is a warm harmony of yellows.

A robust vitality of color.

You've left a profound impression

on generations of admirers,

with the skilled manipulation of your brush;

painting with the lucidity of light.

© 2022 Richard Havenga

Photos from this book: 

Pentecost

"... they were gathered in one place, united in prayer." ~ Acts 2:1

Illumination
from the Holy Spirit
provides the light
by which we work.

Inhaled as inspiration,
changed from within,
released in a new form.

The breath becomes art.
The vision becomes mission:
The love must be lived.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Pray, Montana

2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Kent County - Michigan

Published in Stone

Bold beasts
suspended in sandstone,
traveling through time,
rambling nowhere.

Angular, circular,
intense with purpose.
Hands drawing hands.
Hands drawing tracks.

Cut with care
and crude tools,
dyed with earth's pigments,
their instruments of art express:

respect for ravens
and fear of snakes;
pursuit of elk, bison,
antelope and deer.

Meals shared
with stories of the hunt.

Visions published in stone.
Preserved for centuries.

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

Dinosaur National Monument ~ Colorado

Dinosaur National Monument ~ Utah

Canyonlands National Park ~ Utah

Chosen

Reader:

I will lend you my words
so you may see
what I have seen
through the eyes of my heart.

May your vision
be illuminated
by words chosen
to shine upon the page;

chosen to reveal
miracles and mysteries,
the spectacles of spring,
the secrets of summer;

chosen to discover
stimulating images
by translating
life into art. 

© 2018 Richard Havenga

Photo Information: 

1. Round-leaved Hepatica - Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan 

2. Wild Geranium - Home Woods, Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. Blue Flax - Crested Butte, Colorado 

Picasso

"Art washes away

from the soul

the dust of everyday life."

~ Pablo Picasso  (1881 - 1973)

Photo Location: 

Saul Lake Bog - Land Conservancy of West Michigan 

Aristotle

Photo Location: Home Woods, Cannonsburg, (Cannonsburg) Michigan (Michigan)

Orange Day Lily - Hemerocallis fulva