The Meal by Paul Gauguin

The Meal by Paul Gauguin

The Meal

A Still Life

With foreign fruit

Island children

empty bowls

full of questions

and the vacant eyes of a girl.

J. Binford-Bell

May 2012

As a student of art I have always wondered about Gauguin's island days and the paintings he produced. They all seem to hold questions. Not the least of which is why Henri Paul Gauguin left France to go there; left the school of artists called impressionists to paint alone. Was it just for the colors he could use? For brown people to paint. And red dogs?

The Red Dog by Paul Gauguin

Did he run out of paints? Some his canvases seem to use an economy of paint. Almost washes as opposed to a more lavish application. They belie the richness of the color; the lushness of the subjects. The landscape they occupy.

When will you Marry by Paul Gauguin

I find myself nervous spying on what seems an uncomfortable moment. I want to escape from the eyes and run into the hills and fields behind them. Did he make them pose? Do quick covert sketches he later inserted into landscapes and still lifes? Why do they make me so uncomfortable?

The short poem of questions was written for Magpie Tales 117. The image The Meal a prompt. The questions I have always had about Gauguin are mine.