Giverny: Fuschia Tree Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches
Montmartre: Vines M. Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 7 x 10 inches SOLD
Luxembourg Gardens:: Lavender Trees Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 " SOLD
Notre Dame Park: Romance Laurie FOX Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches
Luxembourg Gardens: Fall Weather Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 11 x 16 inches
Ile de la Cite Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 21.5 x 15 inches
Pont Neuf and Henry IV Laurie FOX Pessemier Acrylic on canvas12 x 24 inches SOLD
Luxembourg Gardens: Orange Sweater Laurie FOX Pessemier Acrylic on wood 10.25 x 5 inches SOLD
Luxembourg Gardens: Queen Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 9.5 x 7 inches
Montmartre: Vineyard Laurie FOX Pessemier Acrylic on wood 5 x 9.5 inches
Giverny: Creek Laurie FOX Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 18 x 15"
ARTNOTES: Smell the Flowers
ARTNOTES: Smell the Flowers
A
friend called on Sunday night to see if we’d like to paint at Giverny, Monet’s
gardens, on Monday. It turns out that
the gardens are open after hours (and before hours 6AM) to painters. If we arrive after 5:30 in the evening, we
can paint until 8. We packed up our
supplies and headed away from Paris at 4.
We
paid our (artists’) entry fee as the guards chased out the stragglers. Blair set up his easel in the main garden,
and I crossed beneath the road to the pond.
Giverny is a wonderful place, but in summer is chock-full of
visitors; this painting opportunity was
like a dream. It is a good reason to
take my painting class – you, too, can inspect the dahlia up close and
personal. I took this week’s two
students to paint: both chose the water lilies.
I am
looking at a deep yellow petal-ed flower, its edges beginning to turn
brown. In this fading light the
withering border looks purple. A small snail makes his way toward the center
of the flower. I suspect this flora to
be a sort of sunflower variety. The
sunflowers are magnificent – the entire garden is a riot of yellow and
purple. For the first time ever here, I
can smell all the flowers as the dew begins to form. I can almost taste the nasturtiums which line
the main allee. A pink rose shocks my
eyes with its brilliant color.
I feel
tremendously lucky to have had this experience.
It’s not that I don’t like painting in the nether-reaches of the garden
on a regular afternoon, but this day I am one with the water lilies. There’s a photographer also present – she sells her photos in New York. She sometimes arrives here very early to
capture the fog on the pond.
The
sun streams across the water – picking up just the edge of a lily pad. I can’t do it justice in my painting. The reflections in the water and the water
lilies are really too much for me. I
paint quickly, almost madly, trying to freeze time as the light changes. Every
time I visit this place to paint, I bite off more than I can chew. Monet was truly a master. I am just a page.
Blair
has more luck – painting in oil – with his overview of the flowers. Our painting companion makes several
gouaches – she paints longer than we do.
Blair and I collapse on a bench, in a daydream : after just one hour and a half I am “all in”.
I want to go home and drink red wine and
plan on another day with the flowers.
On
Tuesday evening, our students are happy.
We pack up our tools and take one last longing whiff of the flowers
before the trip back to Paris.
