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.
