Artnotes: Winter in Italy

 Thanksgiving in St Malo (view at Dinan)  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  14 x 20  35 x 50cm

 Christmas Rue de Rivoli  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/ 15 x 21.5"  38 x 55 cm SOLD

 Snow in Connecticut  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/panel   11 x 14  28 x 35 cm

 

 ​Steve (portrait commission)  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  12 x 12 NFS

Winter in Italy

I’m scouring the vacation rental sites for a winter home in Venice.  I know, it will rain, it could be cold, but I love the idea of painting Venice in the fog.   I am just back from seeing my Dad in Winsted, Connecticut, with 11 inches of snow and freezing temperatures.  Venice might be ok.  But then there's Siracusa, Sicily....  sunshine, the sea, history. 

We had originally hoped to return to Cervo, where we spent the last two weeks in October.  No  response – a lot of people in Italy take a Christmas holiday and our frescoed apartment is likely rented.

I loved the snow in Connecticut and painted a picture from inside my father’s apartment looking out.  It was an extraordinary snow – everyone there said so too.  It was a wet snow which coated the branches of the trees all the way around, and it stuck.  There were  no dingy gray  limbs showing, and the white on white makes the most lovely shadows.   The sky was darker than the earth.

The snow kept me from my shopping rounds on Wednesday – only in America can I buy size 10 shoes and stockings which are long enough.   Paris has this crazy idea that one size fits all and no decent woman would have feet larger than an eight and a half.   They also think I should be skinny, but I guess I don’t have that French woman “je-ne-sais-qua”.  I like to think I have that American love-of-life look.

I had lunch with my marketing guru, Steve Feldman, at the Venetian Restaurant in Torrington, Connecticut.  We  talked about more ways to sell paintings on line.   I am thinking about letting people take the paintings, off-stretchers, on approval, and return those they don’t want.  There will be a shipping label for returns:  to  and from Paris.   Nothing ventured, nothing gained -- and he’s always steered us right.  We’re alive and prospering.

We had the standard Thanksgiving family get together – my brother-in-law had a fresh turkey from friends who raise them.  It was head and shoulders above our usual grocery store fare.  I made a butternet squash and coconut casserole, creamed peas and onions and bought a couple of dozen oysters to put us in the mood.

​

I LOVE the US, when I am there.  I speak English and can really connect with friends who share my same vocabulary, not only of words, but of cultural concepts.   But then there's Siracusa.