Fall Collioure France    M .Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  18 x 22 inches  SOLD

Ranunculas/Olive    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  8 x 20 inches

 Artnotes: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

  

One of the best things about Artnotes is that it inspires other people to write or to paint.  I receive wonderful examples of “non-painters” paintings – I find it funny people believe they can’t paint, then they pick up a brush and voila: terrific.  After reporting how I write 15 minutes every morning, I got many emails from friends saying “I am going to do that”.  These testimonials are one reason for going on with Artnotes, celebrating its 13^th year in 2011. 

I’ve been combing the archives to find many of my episodes.  They go back as far as 3-1/2” discs I am not sure I can still “play”.   Our trip to “le Piscine” in Roubaix, for example, which must have been January or February of 2006 (or was it 07?); or a description of a trip to Matisse’s museum in his home town near Cambrai (we saw a Chagall show there) are lost.  I guess it’s just impetus to visit those places once again.   These are trips I’d like to offer on my “not-just-Paris” tours.

Sunday, we had a wonderful surprise in Paris:  an American singer singing Christmas carols in the subway at St. Michel.  Leander,  a young, talented singer with a guitar (his girlfriend on bass) played a variety of carols – Blair and I heard Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (first time this season!), Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bells…    He had a joy and passion rarely seen in a public performance.  It made me think of Jimi Hendrix, or Janis Joplin, who today would be told by their managers to subdue that fervor.   I could feel the sparks in the air.  It was such a contrast to the somber, dull Metro.  I borrowed a book from the library this week:  Debuffet,  whose best work (in my opinion) was paintings he did of people in the Metro.

We walked home among snowflakes, which have only stopped intermittently this month.  Harika has taken to barking ferociously at this cold, wet snow when she bursts out the front door of the building.  It sends passersby to the edge of the sidewalk, and even affects people across the street.  I am not sure what I can do about it, other than hope for sun and warmer weather.

Today is Christmas Eve, and I am cooking for two friends who will have dinner with us tonight (as I write one just canceled because of the snow. Darn!).  Blair made cookies and a pie yesterday.  We’re looking forward to friends stopping in over the holidays and beyond.

This is our first Christmas in France, having spent every Christmas for the past 56 years with my family.  It will be a big change for me.  I am trying to look forward to it, but get a little lump in my throat when I look at it too deeply.   I guess I’ll just sing JINGLE BELLS a little louder.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

 Harika Block Print  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER    Ink on paper   6 x 8 inches

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year Paris   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER    Ink on paper  8 x 10  inches

Snow on Boulevard Raspail   M. Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  14.5 x 13 inches

   

 

ARTNOTES:  Reflection and Resolution

 

Glorious, beautiful snow is falling again in Paris.  I think I have seen more snow here in the past month than in the many years we’ve lived here.  It doesn’t “stick” because the streets aren’t cold enough:  the layers of wires, and metros, and sewers beneath Paris are as much as six or seven stories deep.  And in lots of areas those French ancestors are buried in catacombs.  It’s a part of the city I have yet to explore, but will wait for a hot day.

Meanwhile, I am seeking new “views” of Paris to paint and write about.  This past week we visited three wildly divergent galleries.  The first, on our way home from an appointment, was the new Gargosian in Paris.  Cy Twombly, one of my favorite painters, was featured.  We rang the bell, they let us in, and shortly afterward chased us out because staff was washing the floor.  I really questioned their sales technique, but maybe they are not there to sell.

On Tuesday evening (it was snowing then) we attended an opening  for a Korean painter, Sung Young Min, featured at a Japanese gallery “Grand E’terna” on the fashionable rue Miromesnil in Paris.   This is a gem of a gallery, as noteworthy for its architectural “shoehorning” as it is for its artwork.  It has a minimal entry hall with dramatic staircase leading to a vaulted downstairs hall.    Loosely abstracted Iris were the subject of these paintings in diptych and triptych format.  

Finally, Blair and I walked over to rue Bourgogne to the Peinture Fraiche Galerie on Friday to see a show someone from my painting group invited me to.  While I never found her work there (150 Petits Formats – little pictures), I discovered a couple of marvelous artists working in a format nearer to my size.  One, Dominique Pochon, made images from scraps of colored metal  and wood, framing them likewise with recycled material (NOT wretched plastic, which seems to be the recyclage of choice these days).  These were little jewels of paintings one could fit into a bookcase, or on a narrow wall.   Another artist, Genevievre Greyfie, created small portraits and still life using just the oil paint colors of grey, shaded from blue to putty, and black and white.  They were “poetic” as the galleriste described them.    They were completely different from what I would do, but pleased me terrifically.

These forays made me think about my own artwork, which I am prone to do at this reflective time of the year (I am a resolutionist!).    I am trying to paint bigger, although my apartment (no atelier) limits the size of my expression.   So I am thinking of writing more articles about  art and architectural shows we see here in Paris, and  send those articles to newspapers and magazines.   It has been my experience that magazines and newspapers don’t pay for those kinds of things, but they will promote “us”, and were they to want a specific article,  they might hire us (for money) to write it.  I will become an expert, and maybe get to speak about art or architecture in Paris.  (this isn’t an entirely original idea, my girlfriend Y lent me a book suggesting this)   Meanwhile, I greatly expand my network of people interested in ART:  others’ art for sale, our art for sale, gallery shows in and around Paris or wherever we go, tours, workshops?  We are Art and Architecture experts, who happen to paint and run workshops themselves.     Please keep us in mind, and tell your associates!

My resolution for 2011 is to make my living with my art, whatever it takes, starting today!   There will be other resolutions made (walk Harika twice a week in a rural setting (Bois de Boulogne or Bois de Vincennes), for one), and some will stick.  I love the idea of wiping clean last year's slate and making a new picture for 2011.

Snow on Boulevard Raspail    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas   8 x 24h inches

Artnotes:  The good life

I am back to writing for fifteen minutes every day, in the morning.  “Bonheur du Jour” is the French term for this writing foray.  I enjoy writing these missives although this week has had no “event” to write about.  I guess the snow is something.  It is so beautiful, so unusual at this time of year in the city of Paris.  Today the sun is shining, melting a lot of what ails us – although the sun is not even high enough in the sky to come in my sixth floor window.  It is blocked by a building the same height as ours, across the very broad street. 

That building has the funniest sign at the door:  “centre des troubles anxieux et de l’humeur”.  This doctor treats anxiety and humor.  I think he must have a library of joke books, and after assessing the patient, decides on just the right joke to read him.  Would the doctor laugh alongside?  I think more people laughing makes laughing and good humor easier.

The snow made me laugh yesterday.  And two glasses of scotch to keep warm.   Blair and I danced in the living room, to Gloria Gaynor, Barry White, Al Green and Abba.  We love to dance in the house, but  this is one of the first times we’ve danced here.   Years ago, when we lived in the Seaview apartments in Seattle, Carol, our neighbor, used to invite us over and we’d dance in the daytime.  She even had “dance parties” for the people in the building.  I think the guy downstairs from her was less keen on that.

Friends Flo and Andy had dance parties here in Paris.  Andre would pull out wine from his cellar, and we’d have a meal and dance afterward.  It was big fun. 

Harika isn’t much of a dancer :  two left feet.  I don’t need the humor doctor, thankfully.

The sun makes me feel like a new person.  We walked around the outside of the park today, because it wasn’t open.  Harika tried to squeeze through the grate, but wasn’t able – too many delicious dog cookies.  (I am making organic dog treats to sell in the market here, hopefully).   I was exhausted, because I was wearing the fur coat Blair bought me in Italy.  It’s beautiful but it weighs at least 8 pounds – I hesitate to say “10” but it might be.  I feel like I am carrying  the world on my shoulders.  The good times are killing me.

 Early morning Senate Luxembourg Gardens     Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  24 x 12h inches

Before the dinner rush    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas   15 x 24h inches SOLD

Christmas Tree before Lights    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  8 x 20h inches