Artnotes: A Beautiful Life

 

Cow in the Field   Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas   12 x 16"    30 x 40 cm   395.00

We went to the Rock-n-Beer festival in Rocca Malatina last weekend.   We were seated at a table with an “English” family who turned out were from Spain and didn’t speak a word of English or Italian.   Two young ladies joined us shortly afterward – they were from a neighboring town, so this was clearly the “foreigners” table (in fact there were a huge number of partiers – a crowd of 500+ in our town of just 500).  The two women were Italians maybe 25 years old from Savignano sul Panaro.  One was getting her masters degree in cinema marketing – she loved Hollywood movies and had the verve and blond hair of Marilyn Monroe.  Her friend was likewise charming, but it’s hard to hold a candle to Marilyn.   We have been trying to go out every day and talk to two people about our artwork, and that day was a slam dunk.  Other days are more challenging, but if we can just keep it up a little, we’ll be ok. Chairs and Green Table  Laurie Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30 390.00 Blair has been working on a 90 second presentation of his project, Asea No Longer, hoping to receive a substantial grant to realize its construction.   I attached it to this email.  I am compiling all my materials about our trip to Germany – I am not certain anyone cares about the art, the ideas, the history, but I am looking for places to publish my findings.   Meanwhile, we are redecorating our gallery weekly to reflect our Artnotes – I am hoping we will be discovered, like the artist in “The Trouble with Harry”. See Blair's 90 second video of Asea No Longer As we left the beerfest, a carful of revelers noticed our choice parking place – a man burst from the passenger door, waving his arms and shouting.  He wanted our space – it was terrifically amusing after a month in an understated part of the world.  There are times I really love Italy.   Flowers (8.5 x 11)    Laurie Fox Pessemier   120 each 200 pair 4 for 325 A crazy man with a giant mower infiltrated our adjoining property this week.   It was a test of my Italian under duress, and I am not sure it qualified as talking to one of the two people a day.  He had a mower one sees at the roadside, chopping small trees with blades suspended at the end of a folding arm.    Berlino was performing his 6 foot high jumps directly beneath it, the terrible man with machine egging him on.  I ran out there screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs in Italian to stop it and get away from our property.  He retorted in kind, but only after he drove all the small burrowing animals into our yard, a darling small mouse nearly running over the top of my bare foot.   I try to give all the birds, animals and insects a small sanctuary on our acre – I love them all. Rose of Sharon   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/newspaper  16 x 10.5 "    .40 x 27cm    390.00 Today I went into the back yard to rescue the plants which hadn’t been hacked by crazy Guido of the industrial mower.   I found a lovely, spindly clementis vitalba (old man’s beard), growing over my sloe tree (the badger ate every last sloe while we were away).   I put it in a vase, and made a permanent record of its short beautiful life. sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Asea No Longer

 

Artnotes: The Next Trip

 

Morning Walk Roccamalatina  Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas   12 x 16"    30 x 40 cm   395.00

There are no greater or lesser civilizations but a succession of flowerings.  Every nation has its day.  Claudio Magris, Danube Where do I start?  I guess at the end.  We drove back from the Munich area early this week, in a sea of traffic:  cars from Germany, Austriam and Netherlands headed south for sunshine.   We left Bavaria a couple of days early, because more rain was predicted.  It’s positively glorious here in the Apennines of Modena, and I’ve painted outdoors and replenished my vitamin D.  Murnau Schloss  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  20 x 16"  50 x 40  490.00 You know you are in the right place, at least for the moment, when you can’t wait to return from vacation.  Seeing the house (my dead plants), opening the door, and turning on the tap all seemed divine.   My old clothes don’t seem quite so dowdy, and looking in the freezer makes me happy.  I’ll be making jam soon.   I have ever so many more spices here and made katsudon for lunch (had to fake the dashi). Bee Keeping  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  24 x 18"  61 x 46cm   550.00 Two books I’d been waiting for arrived while I was away.  I am reading about the Danube and already planning a new foray there in 2026.  Can I rent a boat on the Danube?    Roses (15 x 11) and Fan (8.5 x 11)  Laurie Fox Pessemier   120 each 200 pair I cut off a great number of depressing news sites from my social media.  There’s something about visiting a place with such a long history as Bavaria (we covered the Bronze Age to the present) that makes one realize that although there are tremendous difficulties along the way, there can be better times ahead. Flowers from the Walk    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/newspaper   24 x 16"  . 61 x 46cm    210.00 And who would have though Germany could have been so interesting?  I picked it mostly because it wouldn’t be too hot.  A friend was supposed to join us and didn’t, so we each had studio space.   I love the museums in Munich and the city itself.  Rococo churches and deep woods, fresh water lakes and beer gardens kept us all busy, including  Berlino who also liked his fenced yard.  Rococo!!! On the way home, we stopped at a museum in Buchheim and visited the Max Pechstein show – he was a die Brucke painter, an expressionist of the same era as our Blue Rider Group.   He will figure into the story of our trip, to be published some time in the fall (at least digitally).   We managed to produce about a dozen or so good paintings over the month, and I did a few dozen works on paper.   Travel is such an eye opener.   I can’t wait for the next trip. sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Italian Cloudbank

 

Drinking Angel at Freising    Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  11.5 x 8"  30 x 20 cm   110.00

“I want to write a funny Artnotes,” I tell Blair.  But nothing funny has happened for a while.  Maybe that’s not true.  Funny were the Nuns running a coffee shop out of an Airstream trailer this week, next door to the Basilica in Freising.  It was pouring rain and the two bruisers would dash out from a secure building to the Airstream, after which we dashed with our macchiati (the only good coffee we’ve had in almost a month) to the nearby pavilion to drink it.   And the church was DIVINE. From the Window at Murnau Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30 cm   385.00 Funny is Berlino walking up to other dogs who seem to think he’s invisible.  He approached a Labrador, even, who didn’t as much as bat an eyelash at Bernie’s big beautiful presence.  He tried a daschund: no dice.  These dogs were TRAINED to mind their own business.   A crestfallen Berlino ignored the next daschund and walked to the car.  Nuts. Flea Comb   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 13 x 9"  33 x 22  385.00 Funny is driving to the wrong flea market.  We did that, last Saturday.   The flea market we go to is near a large horse farm.  There is a smell, and then the horses.  We walk toward the colorful booths, the cheerful banter.   The flea market we ended up at was the one at the old Olympics site – the efficient GPS picked up on the term flea market (never mind it wasn’t active this day), and not the one we last visited.  If that’s our biggest mistake on the trip, BRAVO! Horses by the Flea  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  24 x 18"   61 x 46cm  490.00 Sometimes I like getting lost – that thrill of being mixed up.   It’s like wandering down a street, and finding a pigment store.  Yesterday, after visiting the Brandhorst museum, I walked across the road and voila, a store selling powdered paint pigments.   Flowers on Vintage Paper Laurie Pessemier Ink/paper  8.5  x 11" 21 x 29cm  120.00 each. The show, Five Friends, featured the work of Cy Twombly (a favorite), Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham (dance) and John Cage (music).   The group collaborated on many projects and was continually inspired by the same events from the 50s, 60s, 70s.   These were the stars of my own art education, and I looked at the work with nostalgic affection.  Inpirations like the man on the moon; the Kennedys; the giant jump into abstraction and beyond.  All of the art shows we have seen have been the result of a number of artists being at the same place in the same time and making “music”.    Funny Flippers  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 4.5 x 8"  11 x 20cm  75.00 It would be terrific to be in a throng of like-minded art people – in a way, the Salon attempts to do that, and there are some folks I feel right on with.   I can’t wait to start up the Salon again (it has been off for July), and maybe this fall do some outreach to increase our numbers.  Maybe we can even collaborate on projects or have a show together – the Italian Cloudbank? The Silver Lining   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 10.5 x 16"  27 x 41cm  385.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier. Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes

Artnotes: (out of) The Rut

 

19 July 2025   Kranzberg, Bavaria GERMANY NO Sunday Salon until 3 August

On the Walk   Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  9 x 13"  23 x 33 cm   390.00

Everything changed.  The Universe heard my plea for passion and joie de vivre, and VOILA!  It’s been an extraordinary week in the Munich area.  We spent time in the English garden with Berlino – just walking around, seeing other dogs, happy, fun people and eating lunch in the beer garden.  It was an unfolding of the week to come. Happy Dog on Vacation    Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/pencil/vintage paper  12 x 8"  30 x 19.5 cm  90 We saw an extraordinary show at the Franz Marc museum in Kochel am See.  The museum featured the world of the zoo, with terrific pictures by Marc, Macke, Klee, and many others painted between about 1900 and 1925.  Honestly, it was one of the best art exhibits I’ve ever seen – and I will write about it in a separate article later on.  It is a show I have not seen a single review of, and it makes me think maybe I could become the “reviewer of missed shows”, at smaller, off the radar museums in Europe.  We continued on to lunch in another more sophisticated beer garden on the way home – Berlino had the steak and I had one of the many fresh-water fish from nearby lakes. Kranzberg View  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  9.5 x 13"  24 x 33cm  390.00 Thursday, we spent the morning sketching at the Glyptotek, which houses crazy prince Ludwig’s collection of Greek and Roman sculpture.  We were positively welcomed by a woman who provided us with pencil sharpeners because we couldn’t bring our marker pens into the museum.  I protested our single pencil would become dull and my needs were addressed. From the Glyptotek  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/pencil/vintage paper  12 x 8"  30 x 19.5 cm  90 each That afternoon was the highlight of our week, with a visit to the Bronze museum right here in downtown Kranzberg, where we are staying.  We had the luck to be guided around by the most knowledgeable person.   It turned out that our part of Bavaria was key in the Bronze Age.  “At Bernstorf, a part within the municipality of Kranzberg, a Bronze Age fortification was found in 1904 by local historian Josef Wenzl. It was dated at around 1360 B.C. and is the largest known Bronze Age settlement north of the Alps. Most significant were finds of gold and amber objects which contained writings in Mycenean Greek Linear B.” (wikipedia)    We learned so much about the Bronze age, of which I frankly knew very little.  And that Kranzberg played such a key role in the development of civilization, linking East and West. Yelllow Cow  Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30   490.00 It has been astounding how long it took us to get into this vacation mode.  Now I see the charm of here:  how they leave a little wild flower patch in the yard for the butterflies; two different people at today’s flea market admired my “look”.  This, after I could barely move my mind upon arrival.   Talk about being in a rut!  I feel like a sore tooth pried from a 70 year old jaw.  It’s been a traumatic experience, but now I feel so much better l look forward to the wonderful future ahead. The Flea Market  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 10.5 x 16"  27 x 41cm  490.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier. Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lauriepessemier/ See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed, within the USA. Wild Poppies   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 10.5 x 16"  27 x 41cm  490.00 sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes

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