A Drabble: Chichester Canal
A drabble based on THIS painting by JMW Turner. No beta- since I wrote it half an hour before going to bed yesterday. XD
Chichester Canal
He had discovered the little clearing just by chance.
It looked down the length of Chichester canal as far as the eye could see with Sheerness on the horizon and not an hour would go by without him seeing a ship pass by. It was a glorious sight- especially in the fading light. They fascinated him; nineteen years after they first kindled the light in his heart, he was still entranced by their deadly but graceful splendour.
It was a peaceful clearing to sit in, to contemplate on light, shadow and shade. On pigment and wash; on brushstrokes as thin as hair and thicker than the finger. And he would often bring along paper and charcoal and pencil, for an artist without them is like a ship without her officers and crew.
Once or twice, other people came to his clearing; a few ladies- sisters it seemed- who sat solemnly to watch him work, often asking questions in sad but kind tones. There once was a gentleman too, but he never spoke; just stood there in the shadows and gazed out into the distant horizon. After an hour, he left, as suddenly and as mysteriously as he came.
But Joseph didn’t give much thought to the gentleman nor the ladies with their melancholic airs. He drew and thought about the age that has passed, about a young boy looking down the canal and being seduced by the beauty of the sea.
