Tuesday, November 02, 2021

Artnotes: Wild and Free

 

View this email in your browser

Tower Ile Rousse Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 12 x 15 "  30 x 40 cm  450.00
When friends offered to meet us in Corsica this past week, we bit.  It’s been a dog’s age since we went anywhere, and they were coming all the way from Long Island, USA via Paris.
Olives on the route to Casperia  Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 13 x 18"  33 x 46 cm  450.00
This wasn’t our only chance this week to see old friends.  Another girlfriend, C, is a woofer, once a year, at an olive farm near Perugia.   She asked us to come over (just 1 hour/20 minutes away) to say hi.  We did, eating lunch with her and her boss at a big table beneath the grape leaves.  We ate saffron and zucchini, both fetched from the yard, over pasta.  It made me want to plant my own saffron – I wonder if it would grow in a pot?
Napoleon   Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas  16 x 8"   40 x 20cm  375.00
Corsica was truly incredible, a mix of Cap Ferrat and Appalachia.  We stayed in the birthplace of Napoleon – l’Ile Rousse.  Napoleon has always been a fascinating image to me.  Regardless of what good or bad he did, he was an incredible force in our civilization.  What good he do?  He made education available to all, he rescued France from a post-revolution floundering; he reconciled Church and State in a way that exists even today.  Bad? If there were statues of him in America, they would tear them down. Over a dining table with French, Corsican, American and Icelandic people, we talked about the elements of all of those countries.  In fact, this was a highlight of our trip:  to talk again with people.
By the Sea at Ile Rousse   Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas  12 x 16"   30 x 40cm  475.00
Corsica was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  1000 foot cliffs, comprised mostly of red granite, give way to a sea near directly below ranging in color from blue-purple in the shade, to blue-turquoise.  We drove from Ile Rousse to the Scandola Nature Reserve.  We booked rooms at the  Hotel Roches Rouges in Piana (thanks to the suggestion of our hostess) , which was the very essence of Corsica:  outrageously beautiful elements, juxtapositioned with funky stuff.  But the VIEW!!!  Holy smoke. The 1920s architecture was similarly fabulous.   And we weren’t the only people who felt that way; the place was nearly full on Thursday, with some guests arriving by helicopter.
Piana   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic canvas  12 x 12  30 x 30cm   SOLD
 
The thing I actually liked the best about Corsica was that animals roamed free:  mountain goats, pigs, wild cows. They acted like they owned the road.  Our traveling companion drew pictures of the goats with horns of all shapes and sizes – and there were elaborate watering stations every few kilometers that they might drink from.
At the Hotel Roches Rouges  Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas  12 x 16"   30 x 40cm  475.00
Blair and I rediscovered plein air painting – 2 pictures each in 3 days. I was so happy to let myself go, wild and free like the goats, once again.  


INVITING All Artists to present their Work: 


Pessemier's Sunday Salon
Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary

Rome 8PM ; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles  11AM



 

No comments: