Heidelberg

Delicately over templated canvas

Burgundy Street is houses in mist

Walter Withers’ blue, trees tall mostly gist,

Cottage garden all sprawl, locals unfamous.

Rosanna Road is mud of the outskirts

The scene a sign where the changes were wrought

With First Prize cattle, acres highly sought,

He makes broad claims in colourful outbursts.

To suggest, not merely to represent,

To outnature nature with thin chances,

To square off the marks today will present,

To plod splodge lodge something new with sinew,

To sign a scene not England’s or France’s

Is the job of an artist and he knew a few. 

Photograph: A wall of our home. Left to right. A mandala painted by Bishop John Bayton. A framed print of ‘A Bright Winter’s Morning’ (1894) by Walter Withers. A silver pendent given by my sister to her niece. A pennant by a member of the Calligraphy Society of Victoria, possibly Sally Diserio: “Seize the Day and Put the Least Possible Trust in Tomorrow – Horace”.

Note: Carol had the Withers print framed in her twenties. As the poem explains, it depicts Rosanna Road at Heidelberg Creek, hence the bridge. Since moving to the north-east of Melbourne in 2002 we travel over this piece of road nearly every week. Cattle no longer stroll the left side of the road, but the sight of someone pushing a trolley is familiar enough. Immediately recognisable are the colours and gradients of this part of the world, the soft blues and greens on a cold morning.