Spring Trees by the Seine Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 8.5 x 13" 22x 33cm
Tree and French flag Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 13 x 9" 33 x 22cm
Tree Coetlogon Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 10.5 x 8.5 27 x 22cm
Muskrat at Yerres Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 10.5 x 14" 27 x 35
Pont des Arts with Love Locks (soon to be eliminated) Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 15 x 18" 38 x 46cm
Cherry in April Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 15 x 18" 38 x 46cm
Spring Trees near the Institute/Seine Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 8.5 x 13" 22x 33cm
Artnotes: Lush Life
After a successful five-painter escapade by the Seine on Tuesday, we
took a rental car to go to Amiens. Our friend
Richard (http://www.ipreferparis.net/2014/04/day-trip-to-amiens.html) is always game for an adventure, and I
wanted to go back to Amiens to see the Hortillonnages – floating islands in the
Somme. I had no idea what to expect.
First we visited Jules Verne’s house (doesn’t that seem just
right before going on the adventure of the floating islands?), which was
interesting. It was like stepping back
in time (uh-oh) to the 1880s, where someone with a most vivid imagination
lived. It was Jules Verne who was responsible for the
wonderful “cirque” (circus) building in Amiens; Verne was a major civic (and
financial) force in Amiens. While the architecture
of Amiens is dominated by the cathedral (very impressive, wonderful Gothic,
rivaling Chartres) there are marvelous little brick houses of the 19th
century that line the canals and streets.
We ate in such a building, and knew we were near the islands when we saw
scullers row by.
We followed them to scores of small islands attached to the
main path and each other with small gated (all different) bridges. These are mostly city-sized lots, growing
flowers and vegetables – people dining outdoors waved as we passed. The whole thing began 2000 years ago when the
Romans harvested peat from the area. Islands
formed and turned out to be terrifically fertile gardens.
Lush living green foliage has been my penchant of late. Blair and I are still looking for that house
at the edge of the river where Harika and I can breathe. We found a terrific one in Yerres, home of Caillebotte,
the impressionist painter. On Thursday
we went to a major show of his work, on his family estate. Yerres was great – thick moist air, almost no
dust, amazing in a place just twenty minutes from Paris. We played along the river that day and the
next, when we looked at our dream cottage (the owner doesn’t want a regular
renter, at least during the summer when he hopes to get 100Euros a night). I long for this cool, mossy life.
I told the owner of the house I wanted to live there so I
could breathe. He pulled an inhaler out
of his pocket; out of my bag, I pulled a painting of the river by his house.
