Magenta Ranunculas Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 17 x 25" 43 x 63 cm
Flower in Mistaken Spring Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 25 x 17" 63 x 43cm
Ranunculas from the Market Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 25 x 17" 63 x 43cm
Ranunculas on Turquoise Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 17 x 25" 43 x 63 cm
Fields in Winter Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 8 x 19.5" 20 x 50cm
Santuario St Famiano Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 27 x 46cm 11 x 18"
This feels like the longest winter of my life. Yes, I am warm in the apartment near Rome,
but I want to be playing outside. And
now we are facing the icy blast from Siberia:
I planned on it being warmer. I
hope my outdoor painting workshop in the Borghese Gardens next Sunday will be
possible. The show must go on.
I like winter, at first, when the trees display their
beautiful limbs senza leaves. All the mosquitoes die – yippee. There is so
much brilliant angular LIGHT. The sky
directly above is unimaginably blue. At
night the stars are fantastic. But as
we drag into February, and I am still painting flowers in the house, or
painting from photos, I get cranky. All
this, as Rocca Malatina sits under a near meter of snow.
So, I spend time sorting books in my library. I find great happiness in alphabetical
order: it is a fact. I have been thinking about truth, and facts
and physical laws. To watch Richard
Feynman explain how drops of water all cling together to make surface tension
makes me relax. I can count on it.
I watched a video this week from the Intercept, where Glen Greenwald
and James Risen debate about political allegations and the need for proof. I respect Glen Greenwald’s sentiment that
proof is necessary in journalism – in everything really. But I’d rather be outside watching the crows.
Everything seems so uncertain at the moment. We are approaching an election here in Italy
next Sunday, the 4th. I am hoping to
paint-through-it. The former president, Berlusconi, could
actually win, even though he is 80-something and cannot serve because of a
felony. Another candidate is just 31
years old. Everyone is promising the
population more money. The Fascists here
are the real thing. It’s most
disconcerting.
Meanwhile, I try to live my life the best way possible. We picked up another 30 boxes of books in
Florence this week. We hired a man from
Nigeria to help us load them all in the station wagon, precariously
parked. Among the books is a guide to
Florence architecture. It is such a
beautiful city, I look forward to studying each stone in chiseled, unmoving detail.
