Artnotes: What a Difference You Make

 The Bath (after Bonnard)  Blair Pessemier  Oil/canvas  40 x 36"  100cm x 90cm  

 Peonies from Ludovico's Yard   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/peonie petals/paper  17 x 25  41 x 63cm

 Bedroom Window  Blair Pessemier  Oil/canvas  40 x 36"  100 x 90cm \

two snapshots:  harika and the cow  6.5 x 8"  Laurie

One of my best friends died this week.  I didn’t see him as often in recent years, but his example and our devotion never faltered.  He was the man who launched our artwork career, along with his partner and wife.  In 1999, we sent our first paintings to his showroom in High Point, North Carolina, where we started selling to interior designers.  The rest is history.

It was a gesture he could offer, and we could accept.  That’s all it takes: to do what you can to give someone else a chance.   And the recipient needs to catch the ring, right now!

We had great times with Bill and his wife.  They used to come to Europe and travel with us, in the fall.  We went to Avignon, Normandy, Alsace.   We’d visit them at least once of year in the south, and they came to a party we threw in Seattle one New Years Eve.    We had many magic times together, meeting yet more people we added to our list of friends.  Bill used to ask people on the Paris subway, “what do you like most about living in Paris?”

Last week, we traveled to Trevi, near Perugia, to see a girlfriend, Barbara, who took our painting workshop in Paris years ago.  She took the week long workshop to build a portfolio to present at her art school interview.  Now she is a full-fledged artist with shows in Vienna, Milan, Bratislava.  It is wonderful to commensurate with other artists:  we see thing similarly.   What is just a peeling finish on a wall to most people is lovely juxtaposition of blue, yellow, lavender to us.  It makes us treasure the red purple pansy that sprung up in a crack in the grey-green concrete.

We are currently awaiting someone to trim our yard. My allergies are beyond the pale, and it would be nice to have a Memorial Day picnic in grass below our knees.  If I ask the gardener who comes with the house to do the work, he will show up while we are eating and quit halfway through.  The man-for-hire is now two hours late, which is par for the course here in the land of the perpetually tardy-if-they-show-up-at-all.  Blair and I are about to buy more yard tools.   That way we can hire immigrants to do the work and barbecue together afterwards.

Barbara will visit Rocca Malatina in August.   We’ll paint the Sassi, and hay being harvested.  We’ll visit the Castello at Vignola and the waterfall at Labante.  Hopefully the grass will be cut.