Paintings by Blair + Laurie Fox PESSEMIER: Artnotes: Renewal

Landscape from Balcony Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 13 x 16" 33 x 41cm 280.00

We want to wish everyone a happy Easter. It is just a weird Easter here, home of the Roman Catholic Church, and no celebration! There is something so RENEWING about this holiday, it seems a shame to let it pass unnoticed. We had groceries delivered on Friday, so at least I can make salmon today, and we saved out a bottle of good wine. We wish you a wonderful, flowery, resurrecting spring.

Easter Bonnets? Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas panel 13 x 19" 33 x 47cm 150.00

Moving the “release” date to 2 May here in Italy was a big emotional setback for me, who had started planning each and every day until I could go back to Roccamalatina on 15 April. Now, who knows? The province of Modena may have progressed to a second wave of infections.

Portrait: Woman with Cat Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas 6 x 6" 15 x 15cm

In addition, I have a black eye and I resemble a Neanderthal… Saturday (after a sleepless night), at 6:30AM, I tripped on the one step in front of our house and plowed into the edge of our front door, firmly fixed to repel 15^th century invaders. The speed at which my head swelled made me fear it would burst. We got lots of ice cubes (that American ice cube fetish is good for something) and I soaked my brow (impact was about 3 inches above my left eye). Nonetheless, it isn’t pretty.

My pessimism this week matches my black eye. I haven’t painted, but this confinement has encouraged me to further reinvent my approach to the world. I made two significant gains.

Equal Time for Dogs Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/canvas panel 8 x 7" 20 x 18cm

First of all, I have begun creating serious art shows on line. Not the Etsy (which serves me well), or Saatchi type of thing, but curated, sophisticated, literary themed shows, website based. Blair has suggested Magenta as our first theme. Secondly, I talked with a friend in San Francisco about giving his daughter art lessons via Zoom. This may or may not work, but it encouraged me to get Zoom up and running. It seemed a lead-pipe cinch, encouraging me to begin Zoom workshops: inexpensive, easy, get-togethers in which we all paint together. If you are interested, you can be a Beta tester.

Roses and Lace Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/canvas 16 x 20" 40 x 50cm 250.00

Our groceries arrived and I made a delicious pot of curried mussels. I like to think the people in the store carefully choose the items they send us: they care. Of course, everything is in on our list, but the potatoes and eggplants are excellent, the peppers perfect. They select the mussels and salmon, and pork roast. I made strawberry jam from strawberries really too fresh and too good to use for that purpose, but it is delicious. Blair made scones.