Artnotes: Neptune on the Rocks

 

Leo   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/oil pastel/canvas   42 x 24"   105 x 60 cm 750.00

On Wednesday we had to go to the art store near Rome to buy stretchers for a painting.  I have been selling some of my large animal pictures, and I don’t stretch them until after they are sold.   We go to THE most wonderful art store in the world:  Agostinelli.    Not only do they have great art supplies suitable for the most professional and the least professional, but they have a museum across the street. An Art Museum you assume?  Not at all.  It is a museum full of the most bizarre junk you’ve ever seen:  a rubber diving costume, at least 300 clocks, a hundred or so chandeliers, a meteorite, a sedan chair: you get the picture.  After a perusal, your order for stretchers and canvas is ready across the street.

Aardvark   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  16 x  20"   40 x 50 cm  550.00

From there, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to the sea.  We drive about 10 minutes, past Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome (if you haven’t gone, you must!), to the town of Ostia.  It is truly one of my favorite beaches because it is NOT pristine nor idyllic.  It IS a beautiful sea, transparent turquoise, and the beach is populated with wonderful people and things.

We found a great parking place, right across from the big stone pier.  All along the pier were young men and women billing and cooing; older couples, arms entwined; a dog standing on the railing of the pier with his master holding on.  An older man with a boom box picked out a Frank Sinatra tune on his electric guitar.  My eyes filled with tears from the sheer romance of the moment.  And the light?  A soft golden yellow provided everyone with shiny hair and a tan.  About 11:30 I spotted a fish restaurant across the road, featuring baccala (salt cod) and crema di cecchi (chick pea cream).  The waiter, a gregarious fellow, hailed us in, despite the early hour.   He visited with us as he set up the other tables, recounting his work all over Europe as an accountant (I HATE Accounting, he says forcefully) and how he came back home to Italy just two months ago.   He was wearing a terrific shirt with hundreds of little printed sailboats and thick accounting glasses that made his eyes look enormous.  He had seen a lot, up close and far away.  He was surprised we wanted the baccala dish– tourists don’t order that, he chided.

Flying Chimp    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic, oil pastel, canvas    24 x 24"  60 x 60cm  575.00

It was truly the perfect day, despite Berlino’s refusal to come along (he sleeps in the mornings).  I can’t explain why I feel this way, but I love the less than ideal places like this, with people who have dimension (often angular) and where love abounds, right on the street.    The yellow miniskirt, the long legs in impossible tall sneakers; the cattywampus statue of Neptune teetering on the rocks out in the sea; the endless umbrella-ed tables on the sand, a waiter shooing away kids and seagulls.   It’s a well written story in which the hero isn’t all good -- really, he’s perfect.

Sign up for Artnotes by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com

INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM