Stage for Parnassus

Nature's theater.

It’s the draw of the unexpected,

yet familiar flora and fauna

that surrounds-the roaming wildlings,

the songbirds feathering about. 

Silken waterways that ripple on forever and a day.

Pastures and meadows delighted with sing song,

brimming with herbage and tucker to feed the eyes and soul.

My fervor for perpetual change and motion is ever intrigued-both

the calm and movement that the living world bestows.

High summer flourishes with scenes flowing with motifs

that melt and bleed into my well of inspiration.

Creatures: the cloven-footed antlered ones, the furred.

clever and shy ones and the flighty feathered ones.

Warmer days bestow oaken canopies that

project dappled imagery and shadowy-laden puppetry.

Waterways framed poetically with lilting willows and velvety-brown cattails.

All peppered with wildflowers and welcome weeds.

Tamed hayfields and tousled pastures lush with forage,

wreathed with wayward woodbine and tangled grapevine.

Varieties of birds-too many to count-spontaneous

in verse.

Layers of harmonious sounds.

Things unseen still there.

Daisy-fresh dawn brings the early birds.

with prattlings of scattered, layered lyrics.

Harpsichord mornings seemingly echo the pips and melodies without the background. which has yet to awaken and overtake them.

The charming, familiar chorales of the robin, the soothing coos of mourning doves and the flutey warbles of the wood thrush all become newly composed trillings.

Proclamations and serenades fill the quiet.

Accolades for the day spring.

Nothing cliché.

Surrounded by a bevy of flora and fauna, one. by luck and chance, becomes the very essence of an abecedarian Snow White.

Nature’s poetic, blurry nuances come into focus-growing and flourishing into fodder for art.

Golden skies give nods to gilded linings.

Vistas inspire fulsome interpretations in painted verdure landscape form.

Nature gives vision.

Nature is the genesis.

The realization dawns:

that the world is simply a fluttering aviary and liberated menagerie, here for us to gaze upon.

Blessed to be in an area where arcadian vistas of the Hudson River Valley merge with the highlands and wilds of the Adirondacks.

The horizons are beautifully erratic-conjuring sempiternal Last of the Mohican vibes.

The countryside. a virtual page from a Tennyson poem.

A raw, perfect natural milieu has been rendered

and set.

A muse all-encompassing-for paintings and nature

to be liberally translated into art.

Simple moments to be captured. then released.

I will gladly take a seat at Nature’s table,

as I couldn’t have set it better myself.

~Jennifer

View the complete photo shoot:

Stage for Parnassus

View Backdrop collection:

Backdrops

Go to:

Jennifer Lanne website

Tapestry-inspired backdrops by Jennifer Lanne create story with vintage wares

An unlikely pair of hand-painted backdrops float above still waters

Detail of verdure-inspired deer backdrop with artist wares by Jennifer Lanne

Painted landscape panels grace a trio of French chairs

Woodland bridge with painterly landscapes makes the perfect setting for a comfy reverie

Antique Victorian velvet fashioned into a heart necklace by Melody Elizabeth

Daybreak setting

Velveteen pillows create a place to daydream

Devoted doves gracefully hold an antique velvet curtain with tassels

BACKGROUND NOISE

I’m forever seeking the scene behind the scene.

The background noise.

I suppose it’s in part for my love of little tidings of life. 

Obscure beginnings for settings of stories

to be told.

Quite understandably that’s where my fascination for

theatrical stages began.

The framework for flamboyant happenings.

All the possibilities of layering life without the downstage pomp.

Settings with tidy fragments of coulisse and painted theatre props

in an organized manor with perfectly placed rows of trees to create depth.

All framed in glorious, velvetty, garish glitz.

Or as equally appealing are the organic spectacles.

Catawampus displays of decadent objects d’art and ambient fodder,

strewn to and fro as not be too predictable.

Yardage and swaths of drippy, drapery curtains

yielding Parnassian prose in swooping form.

All so artfully pulled back to draw your gaze in to reveal a bit of intrigue.

Luminous chandeliers mirroring the surroundings

to ever enhance the dreamscape.

Trees…oak, leafy and grand.

Forsanetti clouds, billowy, plump and tumultuous.

Cultivated pathways overgrown with woodbane

creating an alchemy of nature and magic.

So much natural life contained in a structured space.

I don’t factor in the players, the thespians,

just the view.

For me it’s all about mise en scene…

The back story, the flip side … what happens behind all the smoke and mirrors.   

Manna for the creative soul.

Oh, and the backdrops.

Textured, layered and soulful. 

I imagine the fortune of discovering an old painted stage scene,

tucked away to be discovered in an attic or forgotten room…

crackled, worn, ancient with beautiful fade.  

Once ostentatious, now fabled with patina.

For someone who’s never been to European

I seem to have nuances of that culture always buzzing in my head. 

Visions of flourishing Romanian rosemaling.

Once vibrant Gypsy hues now faded to tarnished perfection.

Gilded opulence, a bit broken yet still boujee.

I must at least be part faux Francophile with all those ancestral whisperings in my ear.

I have a profound appreciation for what goes on in the latent milieu.

What it truly takes to create something beautiful and meaningful.

The hours of painting, suspending, the lugging, the physical and the creative process

The planning the scheming and the follow through.

All the details behind the main attraction.

I have profound respect for those who forge the unsung content.

All the hours working out the issues and dreadful kinks.

All the trial and error to get a thing just so.

The laboring hands that fashion the infrastructure.

Their efforts will never go unnoticed with me.

Creating life as big as a dream,

or a dream as big as life. 

There is gold in the silence,

But for me it’s truly the need

for the dulcet, yet raucous tones.

The background noises beckon.

To view more of my photo shoot:

“Woodland Reverie”

A wooded vision accessorized with velveteen wares,

artwork and musings set amidst a theatrical backdrop.

Painted Clouds Suspended Above Velveteen Throws

Easy Home Concepts Chandeliers Inspo

Woodland Setting for Landscape Artwork

Markgrafliches Opera House

Swaddling the Stag

Lush Trees Create a Scenic Surround

Pulling Back the Curtains to the Carnival Tent

Cirque du Soliel "Corteo"

Woodland Reverie Photoshoot. Antlers and Florals

The Abandoned Columbia Theatre

Respite in the Thicket. Woodland Reverie Photoshoot

Antique Silken Theatre Jacket

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Terry Gilliam

Holding Up the Cloud

Forsanetti Cloud Wallpaper. The Palazzo dell'Arte in Milan

Bits and Bobs of Faded Grandeur

Painted Bird Backdrop by Jennifer Lanne

Musical Theatre by Rebeca Cano Cookie Dolls

Marie Antoinette Theatre

Reflective Mirrored Orb. Woodland Reverie Photoshoot

In The Shadows. Manteau Noir IG

Painted Coulisse for Woodland Reverie Photoshoot

Deconstructed Backdrop on Linen by Jennifer Lanne

Beautiful Wear Kimono Wrap by Market of Stars

Artist Jennifer Lanne in Barn Loft Vignette

The Swoop of a Good Curtain by EveyD on Devianart

Theatre de Celestins

Theatrical Scene in the Barn Loft

velvet, my love

Worn Velvets, Beauty in the Fade

Down the velvet rabbit-hole I go.

Call it an obsession or passion or even law of attraction, but anything velvet induced shamelessly draws me in like a moth to a flame.

I could look at a mega-pint of sumptuous velvety images, feel buttery swatches or just hear the word “velvet”, like honey dripping in my ears, all the live-long, sing-song day.

Could it be the saturation of the colors againat the subtle variation of sheen and shimmer against the matte? or is it the the plush and pile? Dullness and the depth?

Maybe the richness in the history of lavish…

yes, and how that exudes some kind of portal back in time where the closeness of fashion and decor displayed in tandem trimmed and drippy with embroidery and embellishments.

Velvet was the standard of decadence.

Nipped-in waistcoats, accoutrements tipped with florets and millinery blossoms, tête à tête lounges shimmer and faded with embossed and cut velvets.

It‘s taking the most utilitarian and pragmatic object and slathering velvet over it that suddenly it’s transformed into a sea of laid back calm and top-drawer luxe.

How could anything be more lovelier than the vision of a deer‘s antlers in velvet ?

It just isn’t fair how velvet just has it all.

All salty and sweet, habitually rich and riddled with dappled flaws.

So clever.

It’s a thistledown of silken pampering and tantalizing Victorian.

A kismet collision of vixen and priggish.

It’s equal parts a thicket of sheen and pasture of deep hues.

Mind you, I haven’t forgotten the “Velvet Elvis” stage or “dogs with poker” tapestry, but it’s graciously forgiven.

I don’t need a season or a reason for velvet.

It hits me hard whether the weather.

Spring , summer, autumn, winter. I will carry it, don it, sit upon it.

So now that I’ve made my case for velvet I am literally making cases with velvet.

Silk-velvet, printed velvet.

Call them clutches, pouches or pochettes.

Either or, no matter.

I, for one cannot get enough.

To be tasked to pick a favorite would be cruel.

Each design beckons!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them.

-Jennifer

Folklore Pochette with Amber Silk-Velvet

Green And Teal Velvet Tufted Chairs Jacques Garcia via pinterest

Gilded Botanicals Garland Anthropologie

Coquette silk-velvet pochette

Vintage Velvet Notions & Trims Inspo

Doe & Hope Velvet Chair

"Timeless" Landscape Velvet Pochette

Worn Velvet Display by Rebecca Purcell

Velvet attire via Magnolia Pearl Inspo

Silk-Velvet Pochettes by Jennifer Lanne

French Finds by Corey Amaro to adore

Jennifer Lanne “Folklore” Velvet Pochette

Brocaded Velvet Fragment via The Cleveland Museum Of Art

Chartreuse Green Velvet Inspo

Timeless Pochette

"La Boheme" Velvet Pochette

Jennifer Lanne “Sugarplum” Pochette

Tufted Pink Velvet via pinterest

"Bon Vivant" Velvet Pochette