Artnotes: Orange and Blue

  

 

Artnotes: Orange and Blue

How much time does it take to prepare for an art show?  Lots.  We’ve spent nearly all of the last week getting ready for “Orange dans l’Azur”, scheduled to open the 5 March.   Hence, our painting has fallen a bit by the wayside as all of our energy goes to getting the pictures stretched, sending out invitations, framing, planning.  And Artnotes is a day late.

I feel the days getting slightly longer now:  the sun wakes us up at about 7:45 and sets at 6:30.  We can easily go for a walk at 5 in the afternoon and not be in the dark.   The sun is higher in the sky.  As I type artnotes, a day late, the sun is streaming through my living room window.

Mardi Gras Luxembourg   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  10.5 x 16 inches 

We had six painters with us in the Luxembourg Gardens yesterday:  students from Choate.  “Fifteen minutes,” I tell one of them.  “What?” he exclaims.  “It’s quarter to one”.  He’s been painting for nearly two hours.  “I thought I was just here fifteen minutes.”  I feel so happy that painting has the power to transport a 16 year-old into another time.  Of course, an iphone can do it, but with painting, it’s all taking place in the mind.   I would like to have more young students – they are the most imaginative and most appreciative.  I can make a big difference in their lives. 

Beneath the Bridge  Laurie fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   16 x 20 inches 

I went out painting a couple of times this week –  under the bridge down by the Seine.  Rain has swollen the river to a raging muddy mess – not quite over the banks.  I paint from my window, and with the students in the park, of course.  

Rainy morning from my bed   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  10.5 x 16 inches

All this makes me all realize how enriching our time in Villefranche-sur-Mer was:  our paintings were better, we broke new ground in painting size and mediums.  We vow to travel more.   We have rented out our apartment for the latter half of October, and plan to go to Biarritz or Grenada.  I think we need to have the upending experience of displacement to shock our brain into seeing in new ways.

Tunisia near the Park  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas 18 x 22 inches 

Meanwhile, please come to our opening on the 5 March from 6-9 PM, if you are in Paris.  Or stop by the Gallery at 102, rue Cherche-Midi, in the 6^th arrondissement between then and the 16 March.  And experience a little of the cote d’Azur.  Orange and Bleu.