Vincente Romero © 2007-2009
As I’m focused on picture books for children through my 12 x 12 challenge, I’ve also just enrolled in a class on The Art of the Picture Book illustration class with Shadra Strickland.
(Of course, I could never be as good as Vincente Romaro who’s paintings I’ve just discovered!)
So for a ‘tester’ project, I’m going to use a poem I wrote many years ago (and I mean many) in the early 60’s called “The Prima Ballerina”.
I hope to show you how I adapt it to a PB and slowly, how I have a go at illustrating it too…
The Prima Ballerina
She lives in a world of fairy tales,
all fantasy, happiness and woe.
Floating across the stage in tulle,
fine silk or organza.,
softly pirouettes through the mist,
or dies upon the snow.
This is the world of Ballet
of the Prima Ballerina.
So lithe and slim, so beautiful,
so graceful and serene.
On stage, supremely untouchable
yet so frail behind the scenes.
She’s the Queen of the ‘Corps de Ballet’,
the star with the golden feet,
dancing her way through ‘Petruska’,
‘Swan Lake’ or the ‘Nutcracker Suite’.
The audience, transfixed with awe,
watch silently, as in a dream,
for gripped by suspense and beauty
– such as they’ve never seen!
They observe the scenery so real,
the superbly made costumes,
but their eyes are fixed on the ‘Bluebird’
and all it’s fine blue plumes.
And when the ballet is done,
And encore after encore taken.
And baskets and bouquets
of flowers dispensed….
There’s a feeling of despair and longing
at the end of such unforgettable enchantment.
Frances Macaulay Forde © 1968
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