24 pictures for slow looking

Wandering
in pictures.

Busy, gentle pictures for tired eyes. Begin with whatever you notice first, then let your eyes drift: a smaller creature behind it, a raindrop, a far-off light. There is nothing to find and nothing to finish.

A painted jungle of palms and broad leaves with a grey monkey among white lilies, a russet monkey by the water and two orange monkeys hanging in a tree. Painting · Henri Rousseau, 1910 Tropical Forest with Monkeys Monkeys rest and dangle among lilies, red leaves and feathery palms in Rousseau’s quiet painted jungle. A painting of a calm tropical river glowing under a hazy sun, framed by dense forest, a fan palm and a mossy fallen trunk. Painting · Frederic Edwin Church, 1877 The River of Light A wide jungle river lies still under a hazy sun, its banks heavy with old trees, palms and vines. A painting of a winding vine with two red passion flowers and buds, two hummingbirds on the right, and mist and mossy plants below. Painting · Martin Johnson Heade, about 1870 to 1883 Passion Flowers and Hummingbirds Two hummingbirds keep company with red passion flowers on a vine above a misty forest valley. A tall waterfall falls into a pool in a green rainforest gully of tree ferns, with fallen logs and mossy stones in the stream in front. Photograph · Beauchamp Falls, Great Otway National Park, Australia The Fern Gully Waterfall A waterfall pours softly into a still pool, ringed by tree ferns, mossy cliffs and fallen trunks. A misty limestone cliff rises behind a shore of tall rainforest trees, reflected in a calm lake in the foreground. Photograph · Cheow Lan Lake, Khao Sok, Thailand Mist over Cheow Lan Lake Cloud drifts down a limestone cliff into the rainforest, and the still lake holds every tree twice. Tall dark tree trunks draped in hanging moss stand over a green floor of ferns and leafy plants, with a thin fallen log across the front. Photograph · Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington Where the Moss Hangs Down In a temperate rainforest, moss hangs from every branch and ferns fill the soft green floor. A coral reef slopes down the left side of the picture while hundreds of small orange fish and some slender silver fish swim out into deep blue water. Photograph · Elphinstone Reef, Red Sea, Egypt A Thousand Small Fish on the Reef Wall A steep coral reef in the Red Sea, with clouds of little orange fish drifting into the blue. Underwater in a kelp forest, a dark fish with a rosy middle and a white chin swims past tall golden-brown kelp, with sunlight coming down from the top right. Photograph · Channel Islands, California, USA Among the Tall Kelp Golden kelp rises toward the light off California, and a few fish wander slowly between the stems. Looking down into a shallow tide pool packed with round green sea anemones speckled with shell fragments, with pink seaweed, olive rockweed and grey rock around them. Photograph · Yaquina Head, Oregon, USA Green Anemones at Low Tide A rock pool on the Oregon coast, crowded with green anemones, seaweed and tiny shells. Seen from above, a pond is covered with round green and copper lily pads beaded with raindrops, with a single pink water lily open near the middle. Photograph · France Lily Pads After the Rain One pink water lily rests among round leaves still covered in raindrops on a quiet pond in France. A waterfall pours in thin white threads over dark mossy ledges into a stream, which runs past bright green moss into a clear pool with a slow swirl on its surface. Photograph · Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia, USA The Mossy Pool Below the Falls A slow swirl turns in a clear pool beneath a mossy waterfall in the West Virginia woods. A shallow wetland crowded with hundreds of brown wading birds, white egrets and gulls, with a grassy bank and hazy coconut palms behind. Photograph · Changaram wetland, Kerala, India A Wetland Full of Birds Hundreds of wading birds rest and feed together in the soft haze of a Kerala wetland. A sunlit green meadow runs down between red, orange and gold autumn trees towards a valley filled with white fog, with blue mountains beyond. Photograph · Synevyr National Nature Park, Carpathians, Ukraine A River of Fog in the Carpathians Early sun on copper beeches and dark firs, with a slow river of fog filling the valley below. Harvested rice terraces curve around a hillside in golden and green steps, with pale grass plumes in front and forested, terraced slopes beyond. Photograph · Longsheng, Guangxi, China The Terraces After Harvest Curving rice terraces after the harvest, edged with pale feathery grasses on a quiet hillside. Moss-covered boulders and thin mossy trees line a rushing river, while low sun shines through bare woodland in misty beams. Photograph · Höllental, Frankenwald, Germany Morning Light in the Mossy Valley A winter sunrise slants through bare trees onto mossy boulders beside a running river. Dark grass stems and seed heads are silhouetted against a soft orange sky, with a dew-covered spider web between them and misty trees behind. Photograph · Börnste, Dülmen, Germany Grasses and a Web at Dawn Seed heads of grass stand dark against a peach sunrise, with a dewy web strung between them. A grey-brown alpine marmot sits upright in sunlit grass beside a mossy rock, surrounded by small yellow-green flowers. Photograph · Grand Muveran Nature Reserve, Swiss Alps A Marmot in the Morning Sun An alpine marmot sits up beside its rock, eyes half closed, among wildflowers and green grass. A narrow road leads straight into a wood where every branch is coated in white frost, with a few brown leaves and mist at the far end. Photograph · Dernekamp, Dülmen, Germany The Lane Under Hoarfrost A quiet country lane runs beneath trees white with frost towards a misty clearing. A wooded glade crowded with birds of many kinds, including ostriches, macaws, swans, geese and herons, around a pool fringed with reeds. Painting · Roelant Savery, 1622 Where All the Birds Gather Ostriches, parrots, swans and herons share one green glade beside a reedy pool. A Flemish country road with horse-drawn carts, walkers and pigs, a large wooden windmill on a hill and a wide plain with a distant town beyond. Painting · Jan Brueghel the Elder, early 1600s The Road Past the Windmills Carts, horses and walkers take their time on a country road below two windmills. A branch of pink and white apple blossom on a pale grey surface, surrounded by butterflies, moths, beetles, blue flowers and seashells. Painting · Jan van Kessel the Elder, 1661 Butterflies on a Blossom Branch A sprig of apple blossom lies on a pale table, visited by butterflies, beetles and shells. A large bouquet of many kinds of flowers in a round wooden tub on a table, with a few fallen flowers and butterflies on the tabletop. Painting · Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1606–1607 A Hundred Flowers in a Wooden Tub A tall bouquet of lilies, tulips, irises and roses glows against a dark wall. A Japanese woodblock print of a long wooden bridge in heavy rain, with a few walkers under hats and umbrellas and a raft on the river beyond. Woodblock print · Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857 A Sudden Shower on the Great Bridge Rain sweeps across a wooden bridge as walkers hurry home under hats and umbrellas. A hanging scroll painting of snow-laden willow branches above a pool, with a mandarin drake on a snowy rock among red camellias and a second duck in the water. Painting · Itō Jakuchū, 1759 Mandarin Ducks in the Snow Snow drips from willow branches over a quiet pool, where two mandarin ducks keep company.

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The libraryEvery story, in orderQuiet thingsGames with no scorePromptsOne question is probably enough

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Almost nothingDrift ModeOne step closer to sleep