At Maggie’s we often use visual prompts for our writing, but this time we collaborated with the art group that meets on the same day and used some of their creations as prompts.

These days we are bombarded with images everywhere we go. The ease of taking and sharing a photo means that images flash up on our screens every minute of every day, and it’s easy to get desensitised. That’s why it’s important to take a bit of time to look at an image and allow it to spark the imagination.

Original art works well for this exercise because there is more depth in a painting than in a static photograph. I have a Lowry (print not original, sadly) on my living room wall which I’ve had for years. Even though it’s so familiar I still become absorbed in the picture discovering new things to look at in it. There’s so much going on in the scene.

So here’s today’s writing exercise:

Part 1

• Pick a painting (and if you don’t have paintings to hand you can go to a gallery, exhibition or art shop to look for inspiration)
• Take a few moments to observe it
• Note what thoughts and feelings spring to mind
• Freewrite for 10-20 minutes, seeing where the image takes you.
• Some people put themselves in the picture, others write from the point of view of an observer, others write something seemingly unconnected, but prompted by the image.

Part 2

• Think of a picture you’ve had on your wall in the past, or one you have on your wall at home now.
• What significance did/does the picture have for you?
• What associations (good or bad) do you have with it? Do you like the picture? Did you choose it?
• Conjour up that picture from memory and write about it

If you like visual prompts this site is a great source of images: