The theme for this week's Collage Obsession is 'Cities'. I worked through a few ideas about city skylines, and Liverpool's distinctive skyline in particular, but wasn't inspired enough to start.
Then I realised that I was looking at the theme from the wrong angle.
A city is more than just buildings.
A city is about its heart and soul - the people who live there, and the workers and visitors.
Without the throbbing heart of its people a city is just an empty shell.
Photo by Zoë Photography
Artwork and poem by Jez
All images and poem Copyright
So this is my take on the 'Cities' theme. My daughter Zoë took the photo on a business trip to New York. I always love all her photographs, but have never visited NY, and as a surprise she gave me an unusual and original Christmas present.
The gift was an A4 sketchbook with one of her photographs on every alternate page, opposite to a blank page, so that I could create a drawing or painting inspired by the photograph.
The photograph of the vintage café tables reminded me of a Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph of two lovers at a café table. If you don't know his work, check him out on Google - he lived from 1908 to 2004.
So although the inspiration was New York, this simple collage of three images was inspired by Paris.
I wrote the poem some time ago, when I first saw the photograph. I used Derwent colour pencils (i.e., ordinary coloured pencils) for the drawing because I wanted gentle colours and a soft focus feel to the image. I hope you enjoy it.
Hop over to the Collage Obsession site to see more interpretations of the theme.
