View from Upstairs at Hemlock Lodge Blair Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16
Kids in the Yellow Raft Blair Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16 inches
Playing in the Lake Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16 inches SOLD
Harika in the shade Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16 inches
Lobster Cooked Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 14 x 16 inches SOLD
Trees at the Badminton Courts Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16 inches
Kids playing on the sand Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16 inches
ARTNOTES: Upside Down
Wow. Why is it upside
down?
Our biggest project this vacation has been to turn the
upstairs of Hemlock Lodge into a Camera Obscura. Imagine being inside of an old box camera and
you get the idea. We blackened the
window and door panes to eliminate all the light coming into the room, and then
cut a peephole giving way to the view of the lake and hills beyond. I hung a white canvas on the opposite wall
and VOILA! a picture of the sky, hills, and lake, complete with motorboats and
skiers racing by. All of this is upside
down (like Blair’s painting of the scene).
I am like a conjurer or a circus side show: people are astounded by this trick. It isn’t really a trick but a feat of
optics: the lens in our eye works the
same way. I have attempted to sharpen
the picture by sizing the peephole, but I think it is a problem of distance
from the window to the wall. So, it is a
slightly nearsighted look at the view.
Meanwhile, we paint other things, trying not to sweat on the
canvas. Lobsters, trees, kids at the lake.
It is terribly humid here, more
oppressive than it has ever been since Blair and I have been coming to the
Lodge, twelve years. We relish the
car’s airconditioning – as does Harika.
We sleep in the range of the fan.
Last night we had a cricket as
loud as a car alarm. Each time Blair
turned on the light to find it, it stopped.
He thought it was attracted by the sound of our fan. I am not sure. I find relief as I float in the lake.
I actually like the feeling of sweat on my upper lip. I love the contrast of sweltering and then
jumping into the water. I get
goose-bumps, even thought the lake temperature is 70-something degrees (f).
We listen to the radio:
bluegrass, blues and R+B, while making puzzles on the porch. Harika barks at passers-by. We rock in the rocking chairs.
The biggest contrast
of all is that of here and Paris.
(ps. my camera isn't sufficient to photograph the inside of the camera obscura)
