painting – Judith Laws
photo © irene waters 2014
I attended a writing workshop with a difference a couple of weeks ago. It was held in an art gallery where a series of artworks painted by Judith Laws were hung. The writing project was to creatively write to a painting of your choice with what history you knew of the events and your interpretation. Numerous books and newspaper articles were available for our perusal. Two works of fiction, including Patrick White’s Fringe of Leaves, portrayed the events from a man’s perspective and with a different interpretation to that shown by the paintings.
This suited me down to the ground. I enjoy art and combining it with writing, another passion, I immersed myself in the world of Eliza Fraser. She was a woman who set sail with her husband on May 15th 1836. The boat hit the reef and sank off Rockhampton a week later. She gave birth in the long-boat and the baby drowned. They eventually hit land on what is now known as Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island. The aboriginals gave her a baby to look after and expected her to do women’s work. The Captain went with the men. There is speculation that he contravened tribal law and was fatally speared; to warn and not kill as it is believed that a healthy man would have survived the injuries inflicted. He died observed by his wife. TheK’Gari tribe believed that they were ghosts of dead ancestors come back which is why the aborigines accepted them so easily. On the 16th August John Graham, an ex-convict, rescued her. By mid October she was in Sydney raising funds for her fatherless children. Secretly she marries another sea-captain but continues in her pursuit of money. When found out everyone begins to question her tale of the ship wreck. She disappears from sight.
When looking at the art works we were advised to firstly record what we saw. Secondly record what the picture makes you think and finally what it makes you feel. From there we started writing our creative piece drawing on the information we had gleaned from the painting we had chosen but also our own world experience and any item of interest on the table of books and articles of the period. By the end of the afternoon we each had a piece of a couple of thousand words.
She was a bad omen, the men said when she came on board heavy with child. She’d left her children to look after the ill captain, her husband. Their ship sunk, holed by coral. She gave birth in the long-boat. The baby cried. She saw it drown. She saw her husband speared and watched him slowly die. She felt alone despite the goodness of the aboriginal women. She longed to join their chatter. She ran into the bush to get away, encountering the corroboree of near naked men. She stared, horrified by her attraction. Her husband and child just dead.
A week later at the opening of the exhibition we performed promenade theatre where the audience moved from painting to painting and we each read our response to Judith’s wonderful works of art.
This has been written in response to Charli’s prompt for this weeks 99 word flash fiction where we were given the prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that has an expectation met or missed. It can be an implied expectation to your reader, or a character’s expectation for an outcome. Think of how expectations can direct a story.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Irene, I was thrilled to read your post, reminding me of ‘Fringe of Leaves’, that I read so long ago. I also was intrigued with Judith Laws name popping up, as I knew someone by this name in Canberra some time ago. Sounds a great workshop to have attended. (My surname would have been Starr, if Judy is still about to ask!) 🙂
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She certainly lives around here somewhere so if I come across her again I will ask her. The exhibition is still going.
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Thanks Irene, the Judy I knew was a Quaker, Shall be interested if is the same person. 🙂
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Will see what I can find out but no promises.:)
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I can tell that you “felt” this story. First of all, what a fabulous writing workshop–art, history, words, oh my! Second, I’m so delighted that after spending time with this painting, woman and story that you could distill it into 99 words. It’s a strong piece of writing and goes so well with the painting!
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It was a strong painting to work with and the colours of my photo don’t do it justice. It was vibrant and the face of the aboriginal both powerful and frightening. It was a great experience and something I plan on doing with other artworks – but that will be for later.
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What a super thing to have been involved in, Irene ! – wonderful !
Do I have your birthday yet ???
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It was M-R. and no you don’t – I avoided that post of yours.
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Interesting story, Irene, in both the blog and flash fiction telling. You really brought the character to life.
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Thanks Anne. I find the story fascinating, particularly when you go into the detail.
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Absolutely fascinating read this Irene, from the painting (and I can’t stop looking at it, very deep and quite frightening, ghostly actually), to the story of Eliza Fraser, your account of your interesting time at the writing workshop and all the way to your fantastic flash at the end. Loved the way you ended the flash with her ‘horrified attraction’ in the face of her devastating losses. Things definitely didn’t work out as she expected did they? I would love to know what happened to her after she disappeared from sight. You can tell you have me totally hooked with this one my friend, great stuff 🙂
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Glad it captured you the way it did me. Just putting yourself in her position leaving three children behind when pregnant to sail with sick sea captain who had a habit of wrecking ships. Most mothers would stay with the children and opt for a bit of safety (at least another woman’s presence) with an impending birth. And that is just to start. Oh Sherri we could walk with Eliza all day and still be discussing it. 🙂
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Oh yes we could Irene…absolutely fascinating this story…love how much you know about it and how you can really get inside the nitty gritty of the real story behind the main story…the psychology of it all. I lap it up 🙂
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