Cafe Bullier Blair Pessemier Acrylic on linen 12 x 12" 30 x 30 cm
Cafe near Montparnasse Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9 x 13" 22 x 33 cm
Pont Neuf Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 14 x 20" 35 x 50 cm
Ile de la Cite with Pont Neuf Laurie Fox Pessmeier Acrylic/wood7.25 x 10.25" 18 x 26 cm
Arch of Pont Neuf Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 11 x 14" 27 x 35 cm
ARTNOTES: FALSE START
On the banks of the Seine, I set to drawing Henry IV on his
horse. Not only are horses difficult for
me, but this horse seems to have a funny hoof.
No matter, it looks like I am drawing two men in a horse suit, with a
too long gumby leg up front. Henry seems
to have a hunchback. I move on to
another subject.
It’s been a week of false starts – we needed a car to go to
Auvers-sur-Oise with a painter on Wednesday, so I rented a compact for a week
(1 day 42 euros; 1 week 91).
It rained all morning in Auvers-sur-Oise. Harika, who LOVES the country, chose the car
after the “Vincent walked here” dousing along the path between fields and
church. Too wet to paint, Blair and our
colleague visited Vincent’s room in the Hotel Ravoux. I dried my wet pants and socks in the car. Still too rainy to paint, we took our fellow
artist to lunch. Our hostess, bedecked
in rat fur capelet tied with black grosgrain ribbon, welcomed us. A sort of Edith Piaf gone to seed, she has
been operating the restaurant for fifty-five years. She has an assistant, another vintage woman,
in the kitchen. The place is lined in
peeling imitation-van-gogh murals executed by one of her contemporaries in an
early year. They are now covered with
newer paintings, on canvas, but still with a Vincent theme. I ask about the bringing in Harika: “I’ll beat her if she doesn’t behave,” she
tells me, poker faced, and winks. We
have a big assorted appetizer plate, one quail, two rabbit legs, and a giant
mound of au gratin potatoes, an aperitif, wine, apple tart and coffee: 48 for the three of us, and we’re on our
way.
Eventually, the rain lets up and we
paint Van Gogh’s city hall.
Next day, we intended to go to Nimes, by car. I searched the internet for just the right
place to stay, to no avail. We went
anyway. Two hours out of town, we changed
our mind. We stopped to visit the town
of Auxerre, to walk Harika and stretch our own legs, before turning back.
Auxerre was a place I never thought of visiting. It has a strong waterfront presence on the
river Yonne. A gallo-roman city, again it
thrived again in medieval times. We
visited the church with a beautiful Joan of Arc window, and the ancient abbey. Joan of Arc freed Auxerre from English rule in
1429. Auxerre is in the region of
Burgundy, and is famous for chablis (a much nicer wine than what we think of as
chablis in the USA).
On Friday, we visited an exhibit at the Beaux-Arts museum in
Rouen. The theme was gothic
cathedrals: gothic seems to have a
revival every so many years, so we saw works ranging from original bits of the
churches, to “cathedral” themed decoration from the 1800s, to the pictures
Monet painted of the cathedral in Rouen at different times of the day. Marquet painted images of Notre Dame in Paris
in the 1910s; Lyonel Feninger in the 20s.
Saturday was the fete of Joan of Arc, who was burned in Rouen in
1431. Posters and announcements were
everywhere.
We drove on, to the country, in hopes of seeing flax (linen)
in bloom. It has a delicate blue
flower. We were two weeks too early.
Painting by the Seine on Saturday was a mix of cool and
damp, with a little sun. The rain held
off until noon, allowing us time to paint a picture of the Pont Neuf, the oldest
bridge in Paris.
City Hall Auvers Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 14 x 14" 35 x 35 cm
Normandy Fields Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/wood 7.5 x 13.5" 20 x 34 cm
Woods at Fontainbleau Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/wood 19 x 42" 48 x 106 cm
Forest at Fontainbleau Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 14 x 20" 35x 50 cm
