Two views: morning by the Seine

 Pier and Flag   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on linen  15 x 22 inches 

Across the Seine  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  15 x 18 inches

Shadow   Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  9 x 10 inches
SOLD

 Sunrising on the Seine   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  9 x 16 SOLD

 Notre Dame LFP   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas   15 x 18 

Black and White   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  13 x 16
at the Westport River Gallery, Westport, CT  USA  http://www.westportrivergallery.com/

 Poplars by the Seine   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  10 x 16 inches 

 Secret Garden Paris   M. Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 16 inches  

St. Park   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 16 inches     SOLD

 Coffee and the News  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood   7 x 10 inches 

Cognac   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  5 x 12

 Vines on Montmartre  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 

Lapin Agile  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood 10 x 6 inches

JOYEUSE    Blair Pessemier    Acrylic on wood  4 x 20 inches

Last week a friend went to the “Epees” (sword) show at the Cluny museum.  “Did they have Joan of Arc’s sword?” I quipped, thinking it unlikely.   “Yes, they did!”  Not only that, but  Roland’s sword  “Durandal”,   Charlemagne’s “Joyeuse”,  and el Cid’s “Colada”.    Blair and I had to go see for ourselves.

 Cluny, the National Museum of the Middle Ages, was the only major museum in Paris we hadn’t visited.  I just never got around to it, and most guests prefer the Musee d’Orsay or a blockbuster Impressionists’ show.  We arrived too late on Friday, so we went on Saturday at noon:  no line.

Cluny is actually the “northern thermal baths” of Lutetia, a gallo-roman site (the only significant one) in Paris.  They were constructed in the 1^st century – and used for two more centuries.  It’s pretty breathtaking when one enters the “frigidarium”, where the Sword Show was staged.   People in odd shaped shoes (we saw them, the shoes, that is) were walking there 2000 years before me.  The building itself was older than any sword in the collection – including the hilt of Clovis’s father, Childeric’s sword.  It was this sword that defeated the Gauls and “made” France.

Swords are as much mythical and symbolic as they were useful.  People named their swords and attributed them with magical powers.   Some could fly, and everyone remembers the mystery of Excalibur.   I was surprised at the size of some of the swords:  Joyeuse, Charlemagne’s sword, must be three feet long (Blair says 40 inches – officially it is 38.54 inches) – one can see it in the portraits of King Louis XIV, XV and XVI.   Joan of Arc’s sword had a smaller grip, and was double edged – she brandishes it in her famous equestrian statue.   The show included the skull of someone who’d recuperated from several sword blows to the head before their death.  There were guides to how to wield a sword, and you could actually handle a sword:  I thought it was heavy, but Blair was impressed with how easy it seemed to use.

In a word, it was a very stimulating show.  And I got to see the Unicorn tapestries and all the marvelous portable arts of the Middle Ages.   It is a favorite period in art history – with so many rich crafts (okay, not everybody wants a reliquary, but I think how neat they are to carry/house things – a place to store chili peppers, for example).   There were ivory treasures and silver pieces; crowns and column capitals.  As we left young boys were climbing into the well in the courtyard. 

We’ve had a hard time getting back into the swing of life in Paris since the summer.  We’ve had many distractions, and finding time to paint has been difficult:  it’s not that we don’t have free hours, but there is a mental “open road” one needs to achieve before launching creativity.    

The sword show, and more importantly, the Cluny museum put me into the mind of making things again.  It’s our chance at immortality.

 Smoking at Cafe Nemours   Laurie fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood 5 x 13 inches SOLD

 Autumn Bois de Vincennes   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  9 x 16 

Fall, Bois de Vincennes   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  11  x 16 

 High heeled Boots   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  7 x 13 inches  

Harika in the Park   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  10x 16 inches 

Artnotes: Glasses

Our building is framed by neon eyeglasses on both sides.   Going up the hill toward Montparnasse is a pair of red round rim glasses; walking away from our building toward St. Germain are a pair of sea green pince-nez. 

Blair is ordering eyeglasses online.  He went to the optometrist for an exam, and his glasses, here, will cost at least 560 Euros, or 775 US dollars.  We can get them online for $112.00.  But we have to measure his pupillary distance.  He wants to do it himself, but every time he looks in the mirror, his eye shifts.  He tells me how to hold the meter tape, convinced I am trying to blind him.  I tell him it’s 58 mm, he thinks its 62; we compromise at 60.

The man who made my glasses had me put clear glasses on, then made a dot where my pupil was and measured between them.  It is the tack we eventually take.

The glasses are such a good price I am thinking about getting a pair myself, although I have these terrific 60s frames.  With the mail-order glasses one must select an online frame.

While the bus was stopped on the way home today, I watched two men in the eyeglass store trying on frames.  One was a large headed big man, probably a customer, observing himself in heavy black frames.  The other guy, a handsome long-haired fellow was wearing a rimless variety, plucking frames from the walls.  I thought he had a universal head  that would look good in any frame.  That’s probably why they hired him.

There are lots of eyeglass stores in France.  Eyeglasses are covered by the country’s social security system, and in this myopic society everyone needs to see more clearly.  While contact lenses  prevail, I would venture everyone owns at least one pair of glasses.

Every occasional I paint without my glasses on – it is an interesting phenomenon.  Colors look brighter.  Sometimes I think my paintings are what everything looks like without corrective lenses.  It leaves a little to the imagination. 

I believe Harika doesn’t see well.  She often barks at a baby carriage or a rolling suitcase, mistaking it for another dog.  She shies away sheepishly when she realizes her folly.   Her hair is usually in her eyes – a fine line between a sunshade and an obstruction.    Once a little girl asked boldly, “how does that dog SEE?”

I got a marvelous book from the library on eyeglasses.  Of course, it claimed eyeglasses were invented in Franc e (but did credit Benjamin Franklin with developing bifocals), and had pictures of glasses used by Louis XIV.   There were all sorts of interesting methods of using glasses:  embedded in fans, for instance. 

I love to LOOK.  As the trees are changing, I see the many shades. 

Notcha feeling Punk   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood   5.5 x 10 inches

 Turquoise     Laurie Fox PESSEMIER    Acrylic on wood   5 x 10 inches 

 Shoulder  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood 7 x 10 inches 

 Yellow Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  4 x 10 inches 

 Luxembourg Gardens  Yellow Trees   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches SOLD

Luxembourg Gardens Fall   M Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  15 x 18  inches 

 

Nightfall Highland Lake Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches 

Women on the Dock Highland Lake   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  14 x 18 inches 

Highland Lake Marshall and Henry  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches   SOLD

Two Fishermen in the Farmington River  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  11 x 14 inches   SOLD

From the Boat Launch at Burr Pond   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  11 x 14 inches  Sale pending

 

Riverton  M Blair Pessemier  Acrylic on wood   6 x 20 inches   Sale pending