Begonia Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 19.5 x 8" 50 x 20 cm
Daffy-dills Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 12" 30 x 30cm
Baroque Tree in Bloom Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 18 30 x 45cm
Trees by the Tennis Courts Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 10 x 14" 25 x 35 cm
Carrots Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 8 x 19.5 " 20 x 50 cm
Artnotes: On Tuesday
Three people, on foot, were stopped in our driveway. We were coming home from a walk with Harika.
Buona Sera, I shouted – after 3PM in the afternoon one says,
Buona Sera (good evening). They all
smiled and went on to ask, because we were English speakers, would we be
interested in trading English lessons for Italian lessons?
On Tuesday we went to see the gas company about our bill –
in our broken Italian we protested the outrageous price we are paying for
heat. The lady behind the desk pointed
out that our consummation was nearly double the year before. How could that be? We had our windows sealed, some replaced, and
made other heat-retaining measures. You
need to have your furnace looked at, she told us, in her perfect Italian. And she took 800 euros, one third, off of our
second bill. Hooray.
The family wanting to speak English came by on Tuesday. We toured our house, and assessed one
another’s capabilities. On Thursday, we
tackled the subject of “the kitchen”:
names of appliances, how to read a cookbook. The girl read aloud, in English, a recipe for
chocolate chip cookies, which I made according to her instruction, and we all
ate.
We went to an opening of a show of marvelous etchings by our Italian
teacher’s late husband, held at the Accademia di Belle Arti Bologna. The Accademia is the most beautiful building,
built in the first half of the 18th century. The main event room, which we occupied, was
painted in very pale pink and blue. The
columns remained white, as did trim. It
was a departure from what we might have seen in France, and a refreshingly
lovely treatment. Baroque.
We took a cab to the show from the parking area, after
having walked a half mile in the wrong direction. I love to take taxis, and it was a sparkling
clean electric cab. I inspected the
driver – he refused two calls while we were in the car; he charged us just 5
euros, even though it read 5.65 on the meter. When we are in cab, Blair can look around, as
well. One can’t drive in Bologna,
anyway, as it is a “no car” city, except for residents, buses and taxis. We are strongly considering renting an
apartment in Bologna for a week, so we could just study the city, and paint.
Bologna is a uniquely lovely place: tall loggias, terrazzo sidewalks, everything
in color. On Tuesday night I saw a man
in a café, with his dog on his lap, which would have made the nicest painting.
