Waiter Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 19. x 8 50 x 20cm
Kone and Djeneba Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 14 x 14" 36 x m36cm
Blossoms Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 18 x 13 45 x 33cm
Blossoms Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 18 x 13 45 x 33cm
Chickens not peacocks Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 15 x 18 38 x 45cm
In the Yard Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 15 x 18 38 x 45cm
Where did the week go? I feel like I accomplished
nothing. I did make our reservation to
go see my father in Connecticut in June/July.
He’s in a rest home at the moment, with a broken pelvis. We are hoping he makes it back to his
apartment by the time we visit, otherwise we’ll be bathing with the spiders. If only to remind me, I noticed a daddy-longlegs
(a questionable spider) hanging on the wall above my shower here in Rocca
Malatina yesterday.
We went to a marvelous art show this week: the work of Alberto Pasini, an artist from
the Parma area. He visited Persia in
1855 with an official entourage, and made the sketches and paintings from that
trip into his life’s work. There were over 100 images in all, but 6 of
monumental scale, shown at the Salon in Paris in the 1860s.
The exhibit was spectacular on many levels. As our friend G, who accompanied us, said,
“…just the clothes from times past were so much more interesting and beautiful
than today.” Colorful cottons and silks,
worn in dramatic style made the people in the pictures seem fantastic. Camel trains with colorful tents; a caravan
waking at dawn; fruit and vegetable
markets, all provided extraordinary subject matter.
Pasini’s eye lent itself to dramatic perspectives, of which
he was a master. A scene on the steps of
the blue mosque in Instanbul is large enough and perfect enough to step
into. Huge landscapes, with clouds casting shadows
on the plains beneath, were chock full of human and animal vignettes which enhanced
the picture (not always the case). The
brilliant sense of sun and shadow was the inspiration I most came away
with: was the world brighter, crispier
175 years ago? Maybe.
The air was terribly polluted yesterday in the Pianura
Padana (the Po Valley), where Parma sits.
I had to use my inhaler, something I’ve only done once since leaving
Paris. I am lucky to live at a higher
elevation, which is less affected by the smog.
Besides the horrible effect on health, the pollution changes the sky
color to a more whitish-beige-blue. When
modern pollution enters an area it is hard to see those beautiful colored skies
Pasini or even the impressionists painted.
I recall the day a photographer attending my painting workshop in Paris
said, “what has happened? Why is the sky
is so dull?” And I realized then, that
the light I had moved to Paris for was no longer.
The light around Rome remains quite lovely, especially in
the surrounding hills, like Stimigliano.
It is very golden/yellow. It is
such an important thing to a visual artist.
Of course, being able to breathe has its own merits.
The grounds of the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca are beautiful by
themselves. The enormous trees were just
in bud, and the peacocks were displaying their plumage. After a delicious lunch, we visited the
foundation’s permanent collection, including Renoirs, Morandis, and Cezannes,
before climbing the hills back to Rocca Malatina, an hour away.
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