Author’s Workshop: “Pictures at an Exhibition”

Author’s Workshop: “Pictures at an Exhibition”

A creative writing workshop with the participation of… visual art.

“What did the artist mean?”
“Describe what is depicted in the painting.”
Oh no — that is not what we do here. That is for art historians. This is a writing workshop.

Over the course of 8 sessions, world painting becomes a working tool for writers.

Painting can teach us how to write. For example, Hopper teaches us how to build a scene around what remains unsaid. Vermeer teaches us to slow the gaze down to the smallest details. Munch teaches us to write about strong emotion without naming it. Goya teaches us not to fear the darkness in a text. Magritte shows how to make the familiar feel unsettling without explanation. Frida Kahlo teaches how to place yourself inside a text without losing its form. Canaletto teaches how to build a city in writing so that the reader can walk through it.

We do not write about paintings. We write with their help.

The artist’s instrument is paint. Ours is the word.

We translate the energy of artists into texts, use their techniques and ideas, reflect, experiment, and find inspiration.

These are not art history lectures. We will be writing literary texts — prose and/or poetry.

The workshop is led by its author, Natalia Gorbunova — philologist, literary coach, writer, and editor.