Peacock at Magnani-Rocca Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas19.5 x 16" 50 x 40 cm 650.00
We went to the Miro show near Parma this week. It’s an hour and a half drive from our house, through the “pianura” – flat farmland at the edge of the Po valley, before it gives way to the Appenines. We drive by Maranello, where Ferraris are made (the hotel is painted Ferrari red), and by the track for learning to drive them. We slip through Sassuolo, the area given to manufacturing beautiful Italian ceramic tiles. We pass infinite fields chock full of black-red and pale-green grapes, the leaves leaning toward yellow and red.
Grape Vines near Castello Serravalle Blair Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 10 x 16" 25 x 40cm 450.00
I love to go to the Magnani-Rocca Foundation. It is an historic house set in a beautiful garden, with peacocks and sculptures. I like the permanent collection almost as much as the shows, and each time I find something which touches me. This time, I spent time with the early Renaissance Marys.
Tunisian Peacock Laurie Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 14 x 8.5" 35 x 21 cm 290.00
The Miro show was great. Joan Miro was a prolific painter, Spanish, spending much time in France. He produced a huge number of “poetic” works, from paintings to book illustrations, to lithographs. For those who don’t know him, he painted kind of primary color-filled “balloons” – birds and people, often outlined in black. There are asterisks and circles, too. Happy stuff.
A Miro from the Show at Magnani Rocca
I was surprised to learn he went to school for accounting. I, too, went to school for my MBA, as did Blair. Miro had a nervous breakdown from this alien experience. I didn’t have a nervous breakdown, but it did inspire me to get as far away from Connecticut and that school as fast as I could.
Gaga Flowers Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/canvas 22.5 x 15" 57 x 38 cm 550.00
Things I learned from that school experience were perhaps my most valuable lessons in life: that there are things you are meant to do, and not meant to do. If you do the right thing you can be happier, and make others around you happy. The second lesson I learned was that not everyone thought like me.
Castello di Serravalle Landscape Laurie Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 9.5 x 14" 24 x 35cm 290.00
I was given an assignment at the school to describe my life at age 65. I reported I would be living in a large house, giving art shows, with my husband (there were actually elements I detailed closely)-- honestly, it is like what I am doing now.
Peppers from Giuseppe's Garden Laurie Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 17 x 25" 41 x 63cm 290.00
Miro said, “I work like a gardener… Things come slowly… Things follow their natural course. They grow, they ripen. I must graft. I must water… Ripening goes on in my mind. So I’m always working at a great many things at the same time.” So goes my life, too.
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