The following dozen or so are paintings by Blair and Laurie Pessemier done on site in Cassis, France the week of 30 January. Well, there's one Paris one in there, too....

View from the Calanques M. Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 16 x 13 inches
View from our apartment Cassis Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches

Tower Cassis Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 8 x 15 inches

Ranunculas Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 8 x 15 inches

Quickly before the storm Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches

Petanque Cassis Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches
Old Sailor M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on Canvas 12 x 14 inches

Hotel Cassis M.Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 14 x 12 inches

Winter morning Luxembourg Gardens Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches

Across the bay Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches
Harika on the Rocks Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x12 inches

Impression Chateau on the Hill Cassis Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches

Bar Le Port Cassis Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches

Cassis Tree in Winter Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvasboard 12 x 12 inches

We're back in Paris with a show going on at the Petit Lux, 29 rue Vaugirard 75006. Sold two paintings so far!!!

Trees Normandy Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6 x 10 inches
View from the Hotel Reynita, Normandy Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6 x 13 inches

Ferraro's Market Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Ducks Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches

Orange Bark Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 18 x 24 inches

This is the tree Harika most likes to chase the squirrels into. It used to be it was short enough the squirrel would have to be there, but this summer it grew to the height of the church roof....

Purple berries, yellow leaves Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 24 inches

Tree Trunk M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on canvas 24 x 48 inches



We've been traveling and planning art/food tours in Paris! A show in Wooster, Ohio is also keeping us busy.

Three blue M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches

ARTNOTES: Finding the Heart of High Point Market

High Point Market was a success for a few key showrooms with design and heart. Yes, heart. People don’t buy furniture from companies: people buy from other people. It is the belly-to-belly connection which seals a sale, and makes the customer want to come back to that showroom again. It’s one thing to buy a book on Amazon.com, but it’s another to see the lavender in the background of a painting. A fellow salesman described a painting to me: “I can see how the brush laid the paint on the canvas and each stroke takes my breath away.” It’s not the same online, ordered from abroad.

Business, in general, seemed to be slightly brisker than in April. A good friend, at an uptown showroom, sold two 40-foot containers of furniture the first day. People who came to market came to buy, and all the invitees we saw, but one, bought a painting from us. Traffic was off, is all.

This market we were once again camped out at the far end of the complex. Last spring, the showroom owner announced we would relocate to a more mainstream location; it wasn’t until August we learned they opted to stay put. We couldn’t back out –like telling someone you’ll come to dinner, you can’t change your mind when you find out the menu is hot dogs. As Vinny says, there are three keys to success: location location location. We should have quit the hot dogs, manners be damned.

Our location was so remote, some “go-vans”, which shuttle folks around market, didn’t know where the Atrium was. One day, in a lucky catch of a van, I hopped aboard to travel north to friends in the “designer” district of the furniture market.

“What do you think is happening there?” the driver asked me, pointing to the sidewalk, mid block ahead. “I think that woman has fallen,” I replied and suggested we help her out. Sure enough, not only had she fallen, but she was nine months pregnant, and in labor. “Would you mind?” the driver asked, “if we bring her to hospital?”. I encouraged the move, and helped the woman get into the van. The driver mounted the “out of service” placard, and we sped in direction of the hospital. I never found out if it was a boy or a girl.

Market visitors like us stay in the home of High Point area residents, as there are a limited number of hotel rooms in the city. This time, we stayed with a friend, a school teacher. She asked me if I would consider teaching a fourth grade art class.

I have never thought of myself as a teacher, but business was slow, and I needed excitement and inspiration. Sure enough, at 8:05 on Monday morning, two dozen smiling fourth-grade faces filed into the room. The class had been studying the many applications of art in life: interior design, graphic design, architecture, teaching, ART.
“What is a professional artist?” the teacher asked. Hands raised: one who paints all the time; an artist who sells their paintings! The super smart class asked about what my paintings sold for. “Did you ever sell one for more than a thousand?

Questions continued, as I set up my easel. “What shall I paint?” I asked, looking out the window. ME was the universal reply. So a painted a number of students, at their tables, in the classroom. It was a modest 12 x 24 inch canvas. I had about thirty minutes to complete the work. I rushed: no eyes or noses, one boy’s shirt, another boys hair; a girl with a hand on her hip. I was compelled to finish the painting and have it look good. “I’ll give you $24.00 for it!” someone exclaimed.

Forest View Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches

By the side of the road Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches


Blue M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on canvas 12 x 12 inches

Rock at Burr Pond Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 24 inches

Pink Mules M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on canvas 36 x 24 inches

Trees near Bishops Orchard M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on Canvasboard 14 x 11 inches

Birch trees at the Branford River Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 11 x 14 inchesBurr Pond Sunday M. Blair PESSEMIER Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inchesMeeting house Branford Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 16 x 20"

This is just a quick little artnotes before we take off for the South.

We didn't find the little place to live in America that we were looking for, but we did meet a nice gypsy family living in a historic house in Madison, CT. They emphasized interest in "storing" our goods for us. The wife was very beautiful and the son drew pictures scotched-taped to all the walls.

We went to New York and lunched with a long lost schoolmate of Blair's. Afterward we visited a friend running at a gallery there, and drank champagne. She left us the rest of the bottle, which we drank in bed on Saturday morning.

I made two art history videos, one of which I posted on the website. The other one is mostly of the ground -- "due to technical difficulties" will not be shown until later.

I've applied for jobs, none of which have materialized, and I've enjoyed painting outdoors over the last week or two. I tell myself this is our life now, not what we're going to do or where we are "going". We are the "they" we've been waiting for.

We took my parents out for a celebratory meal because it was Sunday and we quit feeling sorry for ourselves. Then we painted in the freezing cold at Burr Pond; Harika dug.

There was a light show in Branford on Saturday night, at the town hall. Harika rolled in a dead mole, and had two baths. We got our teeth worked on. Blair made vichysoisse, and I made butternut squash soup.

We're piling all our pictures in the car and driving away.

Art History: New York Harbor 1945