Painting inspiration

part 1: Consider a painting filled with many characters engaged in a central action, like Bruegel's "Peasant Wedding." Think about the focal point and perspective of the work of art, the effect of the setting, colors, shapes, textures, the story that the painting is telling, the relationship of the characters and what affections and tensions are developing.

 part 2: Take the voice of one of the characters [if you want] and invent that character's past, his/her feelings at the present, and possibilities for the future." [I also mention that you as the writer can describe the effect viewing such a painting might have on yourself or a character.]  

Quoted from: "The Peasant Wedding (For a Group), Mary Swander." /The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach./ Edited by Robin Behn & Chase Twichell. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.