From the Pont des ARts Blair Pessemier Acrylic on linen 16 x 13 SOLD
Plaza St Sulpice Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on linen 13x 16
Students painting Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas panel 12 x 12
Statue Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on linen 13 x 16
Diana Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on linen 11 x 16
Boat vendor Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on wood 13 x 5 inches SOLD
French hen Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on wood 19.5 x 7 inches SOLD
Statue Blair Pessemier Acrylic on linen 15 x 18 inches
Surveaillant Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic on wood 13 x 4 inches
Artnotes: Change of Season
Artnotes: Change of Season
I wrote an article about Christmas in Paris this week. I
tried listening to carols on the radio/Internet but just couldn’t relate. In fact, there isn’t much for French
carols. There must have been a
subliminal message somehow, because I got onto the track of making Christmas
cards.
It might have been the birds at the “Bio” (organic) market
here last Sunday. One of the features of
our apartment is that we live right on the corner of the Boulevard Raspail
market which runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. This Sunday I begrudgingly went there because
I needed small onions and mushrooms for my coq au vin (non-organic, but how
non-organic can a rooster be?). I
avoid the bio market because the identical fish sold on Friday are sold for a
dollar more on Sunday – you get the picture.
I paid a fair price for the
onions, but got mildly soaked on the mushrooms.
The redeeming feature was that the market was expanded to include the
sidewalk of the Seine-bound lane of the boulevard, and stands filled the
sidewalk . There were pens of chickens and ducks, geese and guinea hens; tiny lambs (grey) and goats. It was all so beautiful, I dashed upstairs
and got my paints. I painted a nice
guinea hen and a goose (sold before I got a photo) – both of them made me think
of Christmas: seven swans a swimming,
six geese a laying, blah, blah, gobble? I got the idea to make cards of the twelve
days of Christmas, using the birds.
Christian, our butcher, has beautiful game birds at the
moment: pheasant and grouse, mostly. I
haven’t had any guests of the game bird eating variety: a recent diner wigged out because I left the
head on her fish. We had to go into the kitchen, remove the head and re-present
the dish. Honestly.
Fall is clearly upon us, and there are likewise fabulous
mushrooms in the market. I bought some
cepes and girolles last week, which were heartily received alongside a salad.
The potimarrons (a chestnut-tasting pumpkin) has been refashioned as soup. I painted it, and carrots, as well.
Painting is using lots of orange these days, a mixture of
primary magenta and lemon yellow. Twelve
of us painted on the Pont des Arts and environs last Saturday. I sold two of my paintings to a passer-by. This has been my best group of high
school students, and we are going to
have a show of their work at our studio on 23 October.
After spending a marvelous Saturday morning with a new
student (who received our painting workshop as a gift), we are encouraging
fellow painters to join us this coming Saturday.
