Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun writing one or two sentence stories and finding suitable pictures to illustrate them. Occasionally I’ve done it the other way round; seen a picture and thought of a story to match it.
Today it’s your turn. I’m posting a painting that I’ve used before to illustrate a poem, Odilon Redon’s Flower-Clouds, and I’m throwing it open to anyone who wants to have a go at writing a one or two sentence story to go with it.
Post it on your blog and leave the link in the comments box below, or leave the story in the box if you’d rather.
If there’s a good response I’m make it a regular challenge with a set day and I might even pick a weekly winner. If nobody’s interested I’ll forget I ever mentioned it.
See what you can come up with this week. I’ll leave the challenge open until Sunday.
Take it away, Odilon.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Okay Jane I’m up for it. It’s not poetry but here goes:
DEAL
Due to outside circumstances I can neither sail this boat, or enjoy the beautiful surroundings on my favorite place, the sea. My brain is clouded by black and white images of nothingness, yet, I know the breathtaking, floral skies will wait as my life takes another toll of which I wanted no part.
You certainly entered into the spirit of the picture with those floral skies 🙂 Thanks for jumping in first.
The fireworks display of flame, smoke and strange lights had lasted for three days and there had been no more boats coming from the island. It might have been beautiful to watch if had not been their home, burning.
Like it Nice twist in the tail.
Thank you, it was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the image.
That’s often how it happens. If you have to ponder for ages it probably means the image doesn’t inspire you much.
Autumn sends me into reflections of faraway places. As I sit and meditate on colors splashed against old wooden boards of time, I see a canyon grown with tall trees. The leaves are turning, some escaping their branches in the wind and tumbling on the surface of the stream. High on a cliff overlooking the secret place there is a cottage. A place of solitude caressed by nature.
Hello Mary. You found it! Thanks for joining in 🙂 Lovely picture you paint.
Thank you, Jane. This is a wonderful idea. I will be eager to see the next picture you select.
It’s an exercise I really enjoy. The ideal is to get your story down to one, two sentences at most. It makes for grammatical acrobatics too 🙂
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Anyone care to take up Jane’s challenge? 😀
Thanks for reblogging, Chris 🙂
Welcome Jane – I love your short stories and will be interested to see what others do 😀
Me too! I’m already seeing it 🙂
Captured by a kaleidoscopic concussion of exploding pallets, colours rare, rich, intense, splashing chaotically about the soft night sky, we set sail for the shore opposite, expecting, but never promised, reprieve, comfort, and a pristine and imprecise peace.
Brilliantly beautiful and bejewelled prose 🙂
Thanks Jane. As much as it flowed from your beautiful prompt, it also emerged from the angst of just watching Canadian tennis star, Genie Bouchard, being taken to the cleaners by her superior French opponent.
Ah. I don’t have that problem—I HATE tennis!
Reblogged this on fotoblog ep…. and commented:
Neem eens een kijkje op deze blog met poëzie,gedichten en korte verhalen.
Take a look on this lovely blog with short stories and poems.
I love the image, and the idea for a prompt. Here’s what I got from it: As we watched, the world exploded in a kaleidoscope of colour. Our journey was at an end; we had reached Elysium at last.
Nice images! This is obviously a joyful sort of painting 🙂
Phillipe cursed the six weeks spent at sea, his dream of finding lost treasure still unfulfilled. He glared at Guillermo, lying there on the deck, gazing in blissful reverie at the splendid sky.
Now that is a story full of intrigue and optimism. You’ll have to write a sequel 🙂 Difficult to write pessimism for this painting.
Frank realised far too late that he should never have popped the two tabs of acid, considering he had no idea about sailing a boat in the first place.
Trust you to lower the tone 🙂 Where’s the cheeky sex-crazed roo then? Oh, course, he’s the skipper. Love it, Laurie. Made me smile 🙂
I can be counted on Jane, don’t worry about that. The Roo? They were using his tail as the rudder. 😉
Best use for it 🙂
I thought of my character BUCK CRENSHAW when I saw this so here’s my story:
None of the comfortable cousins with secure fortunes Buck Crenshaw worked with at the quiet bank off Wall Street knew that Buck dreaded being on the water. Life was rudderless enough, but money needed to be made and so Buck sailed with the fortune hunters while keeping a wary eye on the changeable clouds.
Thanks Jane!
A
Thanks Adrienne! Your character does fit very well 🙂
They knew it was the last time they be alone together — sailing in a kaleidoscope of color, matching the intensity of their passion, already burned out.
Nice one, Noelle 🙂 So much colour and passion this painting inspires!
Thanks, Jane!
They sat in stunned silence, watching The Entity give birth to what seemed to be thousands of new souls, wondering who among them would become a new dear friend or formidable foe, who might become their parents or siblings in another time, or who may have been a lover in a past life–or a “lover to be”–and who they themselves might be upon meeting any of these souls, for meet they would. And they smiled at the thought.
Yay! Zoe passed on the message! I love the fireworks of this one 🙂
Thanks, Jane! And thanks for the challenge, it was a lot of fun….and since you got a pretty nice response already, am hoping we’ll get more challenges from you!
I have the next one lined up. I’ll post it on Sunday.
This looks something Steinbeck would have written. Beautiful prose.
It is a lovely piece, isn’t it?
What a compliment, thanks, Andrew!
There is an other-worldliness to this painting, and you’ve expressed it well, Emily. Nice writing!
Sailing across the lake towards the glorious sunset, I could still feel the warmth of my lost love sitting close behind me.
Ah, melancholic and wistful. A sunset rather than fireworks and kaleidoscopes of colour. Lovely 🙂
Laurie, I laughed so much.
“Darling, I lie in your arms as the sail fills with the slight breeze and we sail through the middle of a Redon. As we listen to the water lap the bow in this polychromatic paradise I look at the colours and think, ‘but there’s so little red on’.”
I can see there should be a special category for the jokers 🙂
In this moment, the July night became an October sky. Streaks of glittering gold and amber plummeted gracefully. What would normally have thrilled me, now just reminded me that this would be our last sail together. I leaned against his body, wanting once again to feel the joy that we shared before we knew the end of was coming.
Lovely bit of prose, Susan. Thank you. There’s a new challenge this week if you feel inspired. It’s here
Beautiful, Susan, sad, evocative….I can feel the emotion! So glad you took Jane’s challenge, my friend!