Sun behind her on threadbare floor,
at thirty-seven, draw
girl and dog in ink,
a yearning, younger self
has dabs of nail polish pink,
girl and gold-washed hound,
peaceful on the (h)earth,
‘gainst the ground of brown.
And did dogged drawing of
Girl with Dog,
Girl with Goanna,
Girl with Hat and Far Away
and Girl with a comet tail,
dull the burn of radiotherapy?
Those Girl portraits
hung stark in the winter dark
and shuttered at Heide
from your view
through cigarette smoke and the
hubbub of Hester’s lovers and contemporaries
now streaming into the gallery
from the Field of Reeds.
Note
Joy Hester: Remember me celebrates 100 years since the birth of this significant Australian artist. The exhibition was open at Heide Museum of Modern Art until 14 February, 2021. First published online in Not Very Quiet, September, 2020 when Heide was closed due to covid 19 restrictions the poem ‘On Joy Hester’s late portraits of girls’ is included in Not Very Quiet: the anthology published in 2021 by Recent Work Press.
Acknowledgement
Tim for taking the photo
Key words
ekphrasis, Joy Hester, the Heide Circle
Riparian 