20 09 07

Flamingos, Pomegranates and Presidents

White like salt
as a starting point

Finding the gap to slip through the wall
into the garden
to pick fruits
and suck as bees on nectar

down to the saline
out into the light
no longer viscous
now clear hot and bright

drove around along the stagnone coast road
to the towers at Torre S.Teodoro
a bar with hammocks chairs and seats
ankle deep in the water


Returning

Saw Flamingos

Saw Pomegranates

paint the derelict windmill
the pink and blue salt pans before it

Whist painting the Presidente of Sicilia, a Nicola Cristaldi, pulls up asks me for coffee
- all in the day of a Morgan driving artist
I say next time we meet I will speak Italian

Later Nicola de Spano says I have just met the most important man in Sicilia

In the evening park up by the lagoon and wedge myself in the car
Paint Molino, Egadi, Stagnone.
Sat there quite content watching the light slowly turn towards early evening

a dream filled ooze of gold haze
through the gap of Egadi and Levanzo
the distant Isle de Marettimo dissolves

early evening
just before the sun dips


to linger
two distant mulino - mulino lontano
sit on the Isle d Stagnone
right on the edge
on the lip of the horizon

the stagnone intices

I return to paint the two windmills at sunset

red red red
the salt pans
deep violet
deep pink
deep blue

to be here
to find a stone
unearth it and find something else

the pans near the road are drained
thick with a mat of salt
crust
like vast slices of white bread

back along the Trapini - Marsala road
one long straight strada
Bars shops and traffic

Perchance to happen upon
something out there
making a connection
from out of a blue sky
less familiar

a falmingo in flight
a stick with two wings

Flamingos - Stagnone, Sicily
Swans - Bryher, Scilly