Artnotes: A Laugh in the Night

 Etretat Manneport   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  11 x 16"  27 x41 cm

 Chaumiere   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/panel  11 x 16"  27 x41 cm

 Tree in the Woods   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  16 x 13"  41 x 30 cm

le Havre after de Stael   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  9 x 13"  22 x 33 cm

Jetty after de Stael   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/wood  7 x20"  17 x 50 cm

 Falaise Etretat   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen 9 x 13  22 x 33cm

 Trees near the house    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen   13 x 18"  33 x 46 cm

Jetty St Valery en Caux   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  12 x 12"  30 x 30 cm

Stand of trees Brotonne Wood   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  28 x 72"  71 x 183 cm

 Across the park  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/wood  7 x20"  17 x 50 cm

 Balustrade with Diana Statue   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  14 x 20 " 35 x 50 cm

Balustrade another day   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  12 x 16"  30 x 41 cm

Queen Carol   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/wood  13 x 5"  12 x 33 cm

Artnotes: a Laugh in the Night

With three days in a row off this week, we hopped in a rental car for a trip to the Normandy woods.   I used to recall driving near the Foret de Brotonne, and gazing into a deep dark forest.   It was not quite as good as I remembered, but we did manage to paint a couple of tree pictures while we were there.  

We slept overnight in a chaumiere:  a thatch-roofed cottage.  It was on a property with sheep (Harika seemed shocked at their size -- maybe she’s not a Pyrenees sheep dog after all) and chickens, apple trees and towering poplars.  The house was a solid structure, neat as a pin, everything in working order – and no sirens, car accidents or singing drunks all night long.  But it wasn’t as romantic as our own home.

At first I was thrilled, but then I felt uneasy with the silence of the place.  I have always disliked living in a single-family house, and miss the comforting noise of a neighbors step in the hall, a door closing, a laugh in the night.    

The days have blended together recently.  I can’t slow down enough to think, to pick out the details of life. I seem in a mad dash toward making a living, and in doing so am barely aware of what’s going on around me.    I might try mind-mapping events – I do that sometimes, and a friend recently  sent his own mind-map memory of his visit with us.

I painted this week with a student who just couldn’t  ‘let go of the string’. She is a good painter, but so aware of what’s she’s doing it couldn’t soar into the magic realm.  It hearkens to my own insomnia, and the inability to break the thinking process.

The Andre Malraux museum at le Havre was featuring a deStael show.  The museum itself is fabulous – flooded with natural light, right on the water.  DeStael was wonderful as ever – he provides that step between life and abstraction in color and form.  It was such an ideal show, we sat outside afterward trying to see the same way as him.

We drove to St Valery en Caux, where stormy waves broke over the jetties:  we walked in pouring rain.  We visited Etratat, with its stony beach and white cliffs.  But I felt most happy when we left the woods and went to Trouville. Harika and I ran on the sandy beach.  I really love the ocean.