French Foreign Legion Laurie fox Pessemier Acrylic on canvas panel 9.5 x 13 inches SOLD
Happy Fete Nationale!
Happy Bastille Day! Nobody here
actually says those things – most of the Parisiens in our neighborhood are off
on vacation, anyway. We’re having a
little indoor picnic (card playing afterward) with R and V. Indoors, you ask?
We had seventeen students yesterday, painting outside in the
Luxembourg Gardens. Seventeen? We do
it because we like them -- they are the most civilized crowd I ever have. They come from the Choate Rosemary Hall Summer
Program, from Connecticut. Nonetheless,
I am dog-tired afterward (we ate lunch outside in the garden on top of it) from
being outdoors so much.
Bridge at Giverny Laurie Fox Pessemier Acyrlic on linen 11 x 16 SOLD
It wasn’t only this painting class – I had guests early in
the week, whom I LOVE, but I walked even further than usual on Monday and
Tuesday. While sauntering with them along the Seine I
had the first tip off of the Bastille
day parade – the jets, spewing red white and blue smoke, were practicing overhead. Then
the World War II planes, the helicopters – you get the picture. I love the parade and hate to miss it, but
people stand six deep along the Champs-Elysees and oh, my aching feet.
Lily Pads Blair Pessemier Acrylic on linen 15 x 19 inches SOLD
Friday night prior to the seventeen students, we painted
after hours at Giverny. The sun is at
just the perfect angle when we make art between six and eight. I had slipped a pan of Osso Buco into the
oven before we left at two, and it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious at 10 PM. I laid potatoes on top.
Saturday was the BEST
day to be painting in the gardens – on 13 July the French Foreign Legion gets
together and awards medals there. The “Legion Etrangere” is an amalgamation of
folks – many who still don’t really speak French. They are guys who are escaping their own,
often oppressive countries. After seven
years of hard work for la France, they
will be full fledged French citizens.
Blair and I thought of it once, got the hat, but just couldn’t picture
ourselves in the Sahara.
At ease in the Luxembourg Gardens Laurie Fox Pessemier 11 x 16 inches Acrylic on linenSOLD
Our first tip off the Foreign Legion was imminent, was when
several extraordinarily fit men, in uniforms, with bright red epaulets (French word!)
and crisp white Kepis, stood, guns in hand, watching our young painters. All were in awe of each another. Soon, a contingent of uniformed musicians marched
down the main alley, turning toward place Auguste Compte, playing the Marseillaise. Once assembled, the awarding of medals
transpired. My painters painted.
At the end of the show, the entire group, including the
axe-bearers, in leather aprons (think Lizzie Borden) marched by us. It really put me in the mood for a picnic.
Laurie and Blair Pessemier
No comments:
Post a Comment