Matisse, John Lyons (40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas)
Blue is
the colour
With one leap
and a bound
Matisse entered
the room
Matisse means
movement
John Lyons
art
Tangled web
Tangled web, John Lyons (70 x 50 cm, oil and enamel paint on canvas)
We have been
over this ground
a thousand times
she said
This is the tangled web
we have woven—
a landscape
in which we can
barely distinguish
the wood for the trees
John Lyons
Just like love
Venetian red, John Lyons (40 x 40, oil on canvas)
Out of the red earth
a light warm pigment
from pure ferric oxide
the iron in the blood
of Renaissance art
used with lime white
to create skin tones
faces and hands
and naked bodies
Here in the background
to an embryonic study
of a human head
a first pass over
the main features
to relay the exacting
geometry of eyes
forehead chin nose
and mouth : a synthesis
like all art — statement
and understatement
observation and adjustment
much like life
much like love
John Lyons
How Beautiful You Are
Art or a shared thought
a certain fixed combination
of words or shapes
or numbers in a mathematical
formula : a theorem or
a theory
How when they are captured
they transcend time and space —
the eternal curves of the lines
presented on canvas
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
that transport us to 1907
and beyond
They mixed pigments
by the fireside
before daubing the walls : later
panels or cloth stretched
on a frame that allowed
the walls to be transported
Is it the heart
or the mind that delights
in infinite things ?
Let’s call them
death cheaters
Art
Imagination
Creation
The music of the spheres
harmony abounds
and our senses
soak it all up
How beautiful the nightingale
How beautiful the Grecian Urn
Autumn fields heavy with dew
The cold North
and the warm South
The drowsy Mediterranean
How beautiful the body
How beautiful life
How beautiful love
How beautiful the air
we breathe How beautiful
you are
John Lyons
Highly recommended, The Cloud of Witness a retrospective of paintings by Keith Cunningham at the Newport Street Gallery till 21 August 2022. Free admission.
Bones of the earth
Face detail in earth pigments, John Lyons
That constant urge
to create—to re-present
the world around us
upon stretched cloth
that grows in the fields
daubed with silica and clay
with manganese
and hydrated iron oxide
We carry these pigments
in our bones
we who have sprung
from the very bones
of the earth
all the hardness
and the softness
of our bodies
and our eyes
devouring everything
we see
shape and colour
texture and weight
our lives a constant
interpretation
of what it means
to be and to live
and to love
John Lyons
Portrait of the artist
Face, John Lyons (40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas)
I know this face
from somewhere
those piercing eyes
looking out from the canvas
There have been subtle shifts
since it last appeared
alterations in the tone—
the cadmium red sharpened
the yellow ochre lightened
the titanium white
slightly buffed to lower
the intensity
I think of this study
as a field or a terrain
out of which an image
emerges organically
much as though
it were alive
I like the uneven
surface of the land
the imperfections
the different shades
and tones
a face from the earth
and of the earth
dust of my dust
which once was
John Lyons
Landscape with blue sky
Landscape with blue sky, John Lyons (70 x 50 cm, oil on canvas)
The fact is
that anything goes
as along as boundaries
are respected
that is to say
the sun and the blue sky
remain above the fields
and farm buildings
Paintings are colourscapes
full of hints and suggestions
Renaissance nativities or crucifixions
have become easy on the eye
imagine now a stage upon which
reds and yellows and blues
and whites dance freely
and follow nothing but
the most basic rules :
seek and you shall find
John Lyons
Love’s bone structure
Third detail, John Lyons (oil on canvas)
The high cheekbones
the shape of the eyes
the thin smile
the unobtrusive ears
the slender neck
her supple feet
The feet of a dancer
trained to pace the floor
with dignity and poise
a frame upon which
fabrics sat elegantly
could bear the weight
of primary colours
had she found
someone to love
she might have
loved him forever
dearly deeply
John Lyons
The promised land
Further detail, John Lyons (oil on canvas)
The colour of my words
set against a dark grid
behind which the light
struggles to be seen
So many horizons
a maze of directions
that twist and turn
bound by the canvas
My heart has become
a plaything in her hands
she speaks of paradise but
denies me the promised land
John Lyons
Love’s hard lines
Minor detail, John Lyons (oil on canvas)
Figment done
in pigment :
the devil
is in the detail
a composition
to raise a hue
and cry
If you must have it
at least let me see
the colour
of your money
Here there is
light and darkness
within the geometry
of chaos
A representation
of mood
of a life lived
on the hoof
a mere hint at
the hard lines
of the love left
in her wake
John Lyons
johnjosephlyons 