National Galleries of Scotland creative writing competition: The written art

WRITERS in need of inspiration should look no further than their local art gallery. And proof positive of that is in the National Galleries of Scotland's creative writing competition, going from strength to strength as it enters its fourth year.

Inspired? Get Writing, now open for entries for the 2008/09 competition, is run in partnership with the English-Speaking Union and the Scottish Poetry Library. It's open to adults and children, poets and prose writers, experienced writers and beginners. The chief criterion is that each entry should be inspired by a work in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland – but that still leaves more than 65,000 to choose from. The competition never fails to turn up unexpected strands of inspiration, from Botticelli to Martin Creed, Rembrandt to Paolozzi. Robyn Marsack, the director of the Scottish Poetry Library, says these writers are following in a long tradition which goes all the way back to Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn.

"Artists are changing the way we look at things, whether it's the effect of light, or a sense of pattern, or highlighting a detail we haven't seen before. The same things that inspire the artist inspire someone who writes: to see something freshly and therefore to say something freshly."

The ten winning entries in each category will be presented in a public reading at the National Galleries in May 2009, and will be published in book in the autumn. The overall winner in each category will be published in The Scotsman. The vision is an individual as the writer – as these fine examples from last year's competition show. So, what are you waiting for?

A fun trip to London
By Emily McCullagh
Highly commended, Category A
INSPIRED BY: The Tourists/
Duane Hanson

The first day in London was…
Boiling at 26 degrees,
Running out of film,
Looking at the view.
The second day in London was...
Going on the London Eye,
Putting on sun cream,
Having their sandwich stolen by a seagull.
The third day in London was…
Seeing their son in his new job,
Buying some holiday clothes,
Eating at Café Rouge.
The fourth day in London was…
Meeting new people,
Taking the tram to Big Ben,
Falling asleep almost immediately.
The fifth day in London was…
Buying postcards to send,
Going to the Tower of London,
Falling asleep straight away.
The last day in London was…
Rushing around trying to pack,
Hunting for their airline tickets,
Remembering their favourite moments.

Musings
By Ceris Aston
Highly commended, Category C
INSPIRED BY: The Ladies Waldegrave/
Sir Joshua Reynolds

Butterflies
Pinned to a screen
Captured by an artist's strokes
Cannot throw off society's yokes
Songbirds
Cannot sing
Trapped in a silver cage
Memories of a bygone age
Lapdogs
Do as bidden
Sit, or stay, or come to heel
Don't dream, desire, feel
Three dolls
Playthings
Dressed up in silken dresses
Rouged cheeks and courtly tresses
Sisters
Daughters
Mothers, aunts, wives
Somebody else's, all their lives.

Extract from Wee Jimmy and Sandro
By Donald Mackenzie, Highly commended, Category D
INSPIRED BY: The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping
Christ Child/ Botticelli

Ah hudnae looked at the picture properly yet. Just sat wi ma eyes shut fur a meenit. Waited till ma heart an ma breathing hud calmed doon. There wis a smell o newness aboot the place. It's no that long been refurbished. New paint an polish. An ah wanted total silence but there wis a phone ringing ootside somewhere. An then ah heard the attendant's squeaky shoes an he went oot tae see aboot it. The quiet ah wanted arrived an at last ah wis alone.

That wis when ah opened ma eyes....

It's jist great. Ye kin see the way he's painted it. The flooers are fading noo an gaun transparent cos it's that auld. So ye kin see the leaves unnerneath that he painted first. An it's aw fu o meaning. The roses tell ye it's the Virgin's ane gairden. An there's these other plants aboot. A strawberry, a violet an anither plant o some kind. They aw mean sumthin. An lying there on the groond is Jesus as a bairn. Fast asleep. Ye dinnae see that in these kind o pictures normally. Clever like. They think Botticelli's idea wis tae show an allusion tae sleep being like death. As if the bairn wis seeing its ane future but smiling aboot it. An the Virgin is jist stunning.

An the colours are jist as beautiful. Aw these blue an pinks. The thing jist glows so it does – even though it's probably no as bright as the day it wis first painted but that disnae matter.

Ah stared at it fur ages. Then ah got up an went closer. In fact, right up tae it. I wis trying tae imagine him painting the picture. Attempting tae visualise his studio an aw the smells there wud huv been there. Thinking it widnae huv been sae different fae ma ane studio. An ah lifted ma hand like a benediction. Ma finger no quite touching the glass...

Opens its white eye.
Catterline in Winter
by Manakan Christie
Highly commended, Category B
INSPIRED BY: Catterline in
Winter/Joan Eardley
Still dizzy from flu, longing
for her mother's hot kitchen,
seven year old Jane Wilson's legs ache
from pushing through deep snow.
A low moon flicks on and off
through pastel painted clouds
making trees leap, the barn staggerthrow
shadows at her.
The brae ahead leans to the right
sending the village down the slope
to pile into a writhing sea beyond.
Telegraph poles totter.
Bonfires in the trees spin.
She finds that by tilting her head
well to the left and concentrating hard
she can halt the slide, hold the village
level.
Cottages now stand upright.
Hot scones shuffle back on to stoves.
A pointed finger commands
telegraph poles back in line.
Waving her handkerchief thus,
drives aside the barn's menace.
A loud sneeze followed by Jane's hard
stare
so shocks the moon, it stops its tricks
to beam constant on the last mile home.

How Jane Wilson steadied
the world on her long walk
home from school
by Alan Gay
Runner-up, Category E
INSPIRED BY: Catterline in
Winter/Joan Eardley

Still dizzy from flu, longing
for her mother's hot kitchen,
seven year old Jane Wilson's legs ache
from pushing through deep snow.
A low moon flicks on and off
through pastel painted clouds
making trees leap, the barn stagger-
throw shadows at her.
The brae ahead leans to the right
sending the village down the slope
to pile into a writhing sea beyond.
Telegraph poles totter.
Bonfires in the trees spin.
She finds that by tilting her head
well to the left and concentrating hard
she can halt the slide, hold the village level.
Cottages now stand upright.
Hot scones shuffle back on to stoves.
A pointed finger commands
telegraph poles back in line.
Waving her handkerchief thus,
drives aside the barn's menace.
A loud sneeze followed by Jane's hard stare
so shocks the moon, it stops its tricks
to beam constant on the last mile home.

Catterline in Winter
by Manakan Christie
Highly commended, Category B
INSPIRED BY: Catterline in
Winter/Joan Eardley

A pristine path beckoning.
Tilted houses smudging against
Matted colours of a frosted field.
As night evolves a velvet sky
Opens its white eye.

HOW TO ENTER:

There are five categories:

• Under 12 years (A)

• 12-15 years (B)

• 16-18 years (C)

• Unpublished adults (D)

• Published adults (E)

ENTRANTS should write a poem or story (max 1,000 words) inspired by a work of art in the permanent collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. (Please note that not all works in special exhibitions belong to the NGS collection). A winner, two runners-up and seven highly commended entries will be chosen in each category. All 50 will be presented at a public reading and published in a book by the National Galleries of Scotland. The five overall winners in each category will be published in The Scotsman.

ENTRIES must be sent by e-mail to [e-mail]. Those without e-mail access can post their entries to: English-Speaking Union Scotland, 23 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 8HQ. There is a maximum of five entries per person. The deadline is Friday 23 January 2009.

THE following information should be included in the e-mail message and on a separate final page of the entry:

• Category

• Name of work that inspired the entry and location where it was viewed

• Name of entrant

• Address, telephone number and e-mail address (in categories A, B and C, school contact details and name of teacher should also be supplied)

For more information see: www.nationalgalleries.org/education