Ballerina   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches

Ile de la City  Blair PESSEMIER    Acrylic on canvas  13 x 22 inches

ARTNOTES:  Three Surprises

Why why why did LinkedIn send out 778 invitations to connect with me this week?  I have no idea.  I was just trying to connect with one person, who I don’t really know, to sell our 3D Interactive Hospitality Management services.  Is that ever a far cry from teaching plein air painting? 

Not that teaching plein air painting is my penchant.  Painting: YES;   plein air: yes;   teaching:  half and half.  2-1/2 out of three isn’t bad.   For me teaching is a dangerous thing:  I realize I can seriously damage someone’s creativity if I am not careful.  Honestly, does a bridge need to look like a bridge, or a boat a boat, or a building a building?  No, they don’t.  So I like to think of myself as a guide to helping one connect with one’s muse – and in doing so create a provocative work of art.

While I was guiding our youngest “stagiare” on the banks of the Seine, what should appear but a ballerina?    Blair was painting on a slightly elevated area near us, as the ballerina, wearing a black tutu, skimpy leotard and pale pink tights and shoes, jumped onto her toes near him.  “Look”, I exclaimed, as she swung her very thin arms and expressive fingers over her head.

It’s what I like best about Paris, and best about teaching, even:  anything can happen.  Pure magic lightly touches down on the cobblestones.    The ballerina’s photographer asked if he could photograph her with Blair, who eagerly agreed.  L, my student, and I, were surprisingly involved in our own work (at this point she made the bridge light purple, which was what the picture needed).  It wasn’t until the dancer took to pirouetting, en point, in front of me, at the edge of the quai, I decided to paint her.

We had three sets of guests this week, from America and Germany.  We drank wine, and ate delicious dinners (cold pea cream soup, langoustine ravioli, quenelles of pike, veal, stuffed quail, profiteroles with hot chocolate) listening carefully for a special message from afar.  There are many messages:  mostly stuff about life, that I hold for a day I will need it.   I am so lucky to have far reaching relations on account of artnotes.

I sent my mother roses on the “find a grave” website (I am subject to becoming morbid when left alone too long), and immediately afterward a letter came in the mail, expressing condolences, with yellow rose petals inside.  My mother was a big fan of roses, and St. Teresa, the “little flower of Jesus” kept my mom in roses.  Shorty sent off many a novena on my behalf, like it or not.  I had a fight with St. Teresa in her basilica in Lisieux, France some time ago over my mother and Alzhiemer’s.   But all is forgiven. 

Lots of people I hadn’t heard from in years became contacts on LinkedIn.  It wasn’t such a bad thing after all.  It’s hard to have magic when one is in control.

Tour Eiffel:  Mother and children   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas   11 x 14

 Tour Eiffel:  Base of the tower   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  13x 15

Tour Eiffel   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood 4 x 6 inches (framed 8 x 10)

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Pink Dress  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

  Luxembourg Gardens:  Beagle  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

  Luxembourg Gardens:  Giggle  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

  Luxembourg Gardens:  Lunettes  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

  Luxembourg Gardens:  Striped Shirt  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

 Luxembourg Gardens: Diana     Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10"

 

Luxembourg Garden:  Bee house    M. Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 14 inches

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Waiting out the rain in the cafe    Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12 inches

 Luxembourg Gardens:  view from the balcony  Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas 15 x 18 inches

 Luxembourg Gardens:  across to St. Etienne   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Rain on the bench   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12

 Luxembourg Gardens:  kids playing    Laurie fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood 7 x 20 inches

Luxembourg Gardens:  Class at play   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood 6 x 10 inches

ARTNOTES:  Never Lonely

I can’t believe it’s another week since I wrote artnotes.  We’ve had a busy week – guests, many paintings, a weekend full of art lessons.

I am making the adjustment from painting with my friend Y, to painting with my darling Blair.  Sometimes we can bring out the worst in one another, or the best.  Somehow we’ve managed to paint together four times this week.

We went, with Harika, first to the café La Palette.  It’s a bit of a meat market, but what could be better than men and women looking and acting their best?  Hand gestures, good hair, SMILING.  It’s funny, from the outside looking in.  That’s the role of the artist.  It’s always been my role.  I prefer to look into a closed shop, or restaurant, or a night time window across the street, than actually being “inside”.

Without Harika, we went to the café at the mosque the next day.   Men with trays of hot ultra-sweet tea come by tables to take your order.  Just putting my lips on the edge of the glass makes me as happy as champagne.  The place is more populated than it was a few years ago, by all nationalities.  The hubble-bubble pipe is more present: I could smell different, delicious tobacco.   There were two veiled ladies beside us, one toking heavily on the narghila.   An affectionate couple in the corner confirmed the relaxed atmosphere of the place.  I took out my paints and made images.

I took Harika to the park on Wednesday: she lies beside me while I paint.  Blair painted an exceptional “boules game” in oil,  in another part of the park.  She and I did a series of people paintings on wood.  Two people are lying in recliner chairs near us.  I feel a little sorry for them, with nothing to do.  Are they thinking? 

We brought two students to the Luxembourg Gardens on Friday.   They were very different:  one about 45 and charmingly reserved, the other 16 and charmingly confident and direct.   What we all had in common was art, and we painted up a storm:  in about 5 hours of painting, we produced, among us, 13 paintings.  A (very good) painter we painted with a few weeks ago would say:  “I can only give birth once a day”.  Altogether yesterday we produced a litter.

On the phone I talk with my Dad about my nephew:  he is a great young pianist.  It is not clear he will pursue music as a profession, but we agree that to make music or make art is a gift:  he will never be lonely.  It is a wonderful door to open.

Laurie (text) and Blair (painting) PESSEMIER    www.paintfox.

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Sailing boats    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Man with hat   Laurie Fox pESSEMIER   acrylic on wood 6 x 10  SOLD

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Girl in dappled light   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   acrylic on wood  6 x 10

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Relaxing    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches approx.

Luxembourg Gardens:  Boules    M. Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  11 x 22 inches  SOLD

 Cafe Mosquee: ladies with the narghila   M. Blair PESSEMIER  Oil on canvas  18 x 22 "

 Cafe Mosquee   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  approx. 6 x 10 inches

 Cafe Mosquee:  Man smoking   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  6 x 10

Cafe Mosquee   Smoke   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10

 Ladies of la Palette:  Eyes    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6x10 inches  SOLD

 Ladies of la Palette:  Hair   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches

 Ladies of la Palette;  Blonde  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches

Ladies of la Palette: Necklace   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches

Metro   Blair PESSEMIER  Oil on canvas 18 x 22 inches

Cafe St Sulpice   Blair PESSEMIER    Acrylic on wood   approx 6 x 10"

 Bartender Cafe St Sulpice  Laurie PESSEMIER    Acrylic on wood   approx 6 x 10"

 Chubby Waiter  Cafe St Sulpice  Laurie PESSEMIER    Acrylic on wood   approx 6 x 10"

 Reading the Paper Cafe St Sulpice  Laurie PESSEMIER    Acrylic on wood   approx 6 x 10"

 Summer Night  Laurie PESSEMIER    Acrylic on canvas  11 x 14"

 Chess:  watching the Game   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx. 10 x 6 inches

 Chess:  next move   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx. 10 x 6 inches

 Place de Vosges:  Woman    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acyrlic on wood approx 6 x 10"

  Place de Vosges:  Woman   Blair PESSEMIER   Acyrlic on wood approx 6 x 10"  SOLD

  Place de Vosges:  Man    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acyrlic on wood approx 6 x 10"

 Chess:  Contemplation   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches

 Chess:  The Game    Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches  SOLD

 Chess:  Two fellows    Laurie Fox  PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches

 Chess:  the next player   Laurie Fox  PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches

 Cross Legged in the Chair    Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  approx 6 x 10 inches

 

 Trees and Chair  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acyrlic on wood  6 x 9.5 inches

 Notre Dame early morning   M. Blair PESSEMIER  Oil on canvas  22 x 18 inches  SOLD

Artnotes:  Royal Birthday Party

When friends asked if we’d like to go to Versailles for a picnic, we jumped at the chance.  It was Harika’s fourth birthday on Friday, and she needed a trip outside the city.  We packed our tiffin with  tomatoes and mozzarella, stuffed endive, and devilled eggs.  Our friends brought roast pork and tabouli, red wine and water.  There was cake for dessert, and we sang “Happy Birthday Harika”.  Her best friend, Urti, the fox terrier, helped her celebrate.

It is possible to enter the grounds of Versailles from the back side.  It used to be free to park there, but now Indians have the franchise to maintain the lots: 5 Euros.  The three cars in front of us (all carrying descendents of the king, no doubt)  fought the guy in the booth, but eventually paid.  We passed Marie Antoinette’s hamlet, and parked near the Petit Trianon.  Harika ran ahead to the big pond (sufficiently sized to land a 747, thanks to Louis XIV), where we pitched our blanket.

It’s been a long and sunny week in Paris.  The tilleuls (little leaf Lindens) are in bloom, and my eyes and nose are running to beat the band.  Our geraniums revel in the sunshine, blooming  like never before.  We water them daily, but otherwise it has been the driest spring since 1976, an outstanding champagne year.  It makes me want to go out there to inspect the vines.

I alternate between loving the city and longing for the country.  Our seven big windows let in a lot of light – despite lined drapery in the bedroom, the light begins around 5:30 AM and lingers until past 10 PM.  We’re sleeping less and midday at the dining table can be pretty warm.  Running the oven for dinner is not advised (it’s 10:30 in the morning and Blair is cooking a chicken).

We have lots of friends and things to do here in Paris, but the grass at Versailles felt good beneath my feet.  Harika ran around in circles and rolled in what we hoped was just the scent of tilleul blossoms.  A boy was flying a kite with his father, and his sister was robed like Marie Antoinette, plus a baseball cap.  Other dogs, mostly small, milled around the end of the pond.  One could rent a boat.  We switched sides of the pond to accommodate shade, between lunch and dessert.  

I had packed painting supplies for the group, and encouraged  everyone to paint.  Neither of our friends had ever painted outside before, nor used acrylic paint, particularly my five colors (I make all of my paintings with five colors only:  turquoise, magenta, lemon yellow, dioxyzine purple and white).  Three of us painted the same view of the Grand Trianon, and I made a portrait of Urti afterward.   It is always delightful to see such different outcomes:  one royal, one like the Dordogne (it must have been the red wine) and mine, in my regular style.  Blair didn’t paint because he painted Notre Dame at 5:45 Friday morning.

 Blair's Geraniums  M. Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  15 x 18 inches   SOLD

 Vase on Balcony  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  24 x 12 inches  SOLD

 Midnight North Africa   M. Blair PESSEMIER  Oil on canvas  16 x 13 inches

Decorative Maples  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  6 x 9.5 inches