Artnotes: Samuel Pepys

 

Bulbs  Laurie Fox Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 15 x 19"  38 x 48cm  450.00

Perhaps my favorite book of all times is the Diary of Samuel Pepys.   Pepys wrote the diary between 1660 and 1669.  I prefer reading letters and diaries more than any other kind of book, because the writer is honest (at least from his point of view) about what is happening and how he or she feels.  Pepys was far from perfect, and makes no bones about it. Why am I writing about Samuel Pepys?  Because he recorded the London fire of 1666 as it was happening.  He buried his treasured wheel of Parmesan cheese in his back yard, along with his silverplate and coins.  He records being in London as the fire progresses; he was meeting with King Charles when the decision was made to pull down houses to stop the spread of the fire.  When I saw the tragic news about Los Angeles, I immediately thought of the Fire of London.  That fire lasted four days, and destroyed the homes of 70,000 people. Candles and Nativity  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  14 x 11"    35  x 28cm  375.00 Friends of ours, in the path of the LA fire, lost all of their belongings.  I know that tragedies occur around the world every day, but this event, and our friends brought it so much closer to me.  I feel sad and worried for all the victims, especially our friends.  I can’t imagine starting completely from scratch again, and the length of time this will take. At the Chinese Cafe  Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas 11 x 14"  28 x 35cm  450.00 In 1955, not long after I was born, there was a flood in our town.  Our house and all of its belongings were washed away.  It was an event my parents never forgot, and my father spoke of it to me up until his last dying days. I don’t remember the flood, but my father would talk to me as if I recalled it as clearly as he did..  I didn’t mind, and I think it actually shaped some of my attitudes towards material goods and living in the present.    I sometimes say my parents never recovered from the flood – but they did, at least physically and financially -- they went on to live normal middle class lives.  But the event never really went away, as with any gigantic trauma.    early sketches from the church in Guiglia We’ve been trying to paint some pictures in nearby churches in anticipation of our Naples trip (if you participated in last week’s poll, Naples won hands down with three people for boats in France, and two for coffee shops).  They are not perfect, but moving in a different direction.   It is not compulsory we stick to churches and historic buildings, so expect a painting of a pizza house or two.   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

Artnotes: Laugh Laugh Laugh

 

Berlino's Epiphany    Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/paper   10 x 17 "   26 x 63cm  250.00   or I'd paint your dog!

I just love this time of year.  Italy is on vacation (I’m not), and we still have a few more days before we get back to work.  The Epiphany is Monday, 6 January and the Befana (witch) brings toys and candy to all good children.  It’s all harmless fun here: I am for that.

It's still Christmas at our house

Meanwhile, I review the good and bad from 2024, and contemplate which resolutions I am going to commit to my wall.   The first resolution is NO HATE.  I simply can’t bear it, and although there are events, people and places I avoid, I will not hate them.  Nothing good ever comes of hate, just like nothing good ever comes of anger, which is another feeling I will avoid in 2025. My favorite bits of 2024 were painting with my friend on Monday mornings, having the Sunday Art Salon, and making up shows in our Gallery in Roccamalatina.   I loved, loved, loved our winter trip to Pompeii and afternoons with Berlino at the beach.  I loved it enough to wish I lived near Naples.

Resolutions

Right now, we’re trying to negotiate our art project for this year.  We had thought about going to France to paint boats in Sete (not far from Montpelier), but it doesn’t seem quite engaging enough for me.  An alternative could be painting interior spaces (churches, restaurants, pizza parlors?) in the Naples area.   What we are leaning toward now is painting in coffee shops:  on small surfaces, like those crunchy Italian coffee napkins.  Because most of our work is only seen online these days, it really doesn’t matter how big it is.  We could make a true “coffee table” book.   Please cast your VOTE Boats in France, or 2) Churches in Naples  or 3) Coffee shop pictures.

Coffee Cup on a Bar Napkin  Laurie Fox Pessemier

I am supporting others to achieve their dreams:  do it now, it’s later than you think. I am going to decorate every chance I get -- we already bought this beautiful new side table (12.50 euros).   And above all, this year I am going to LAUGH, LAUGH, LAUGH, mostly at my silly self.

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

Artnotes: Angels We Have Heard

 

The Juke Box (Abruzzi Pizza, Seattle)   Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 12 x 16"  31 x 41cm  450.00

We made it through Christmas and the New Year is upon us.  I no longer know the proper greeting for the season in Americanese, so I haven’t sent cards or wishes.  Instead, I send you this love letter every week. We had a marvelous celebration on 25 December with new friends:  an American-Jewish man who grew up in Iran, and his Romanian wife.  We brought half of the dishes (Turketta and Tortellini in Brodo), and ate at their house here in Stimigliano.    We can say Merry Christmas or Peace, or whatever we like, and kiss them both – they are artists, like us.  We don’t have to make believe. Wreath on a Gold Ground  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  12 x 16"    30 x 40cm  475.00 I am 70 years old today.   I can hardly believe it, and am hoping for 20 more trips around the sun.    On the way to buy a newspaper this morning, we found a package in the little local lending library – “look,” I said to Blair, “a birthday present”.  And it was, a (fake) Valentino wallet and scarf – it made me think I’ll be getting rich this year (and staying warm – it’s barely above freezing).  Our friend who stocks the library insisted on making me another special present – a necklace.  I feel very lucky.  We made a foray to Perugia this week and visited the National Art Museum of Umbria.  It was the perfect Christmas visit – medieval Madonnas with gold backgrounds.  I was surprised to see dates on the paintings as early as the 1200s.   There was a show  called “the age of gold” and it spanned from the 1200s until the present.  Fabulous. Seattle in the 1980s    Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas 18 x 12"  45 x 30cm  450.00 I have been celebrating this birthday for a month – it makes up for all the years we don’t celebrate at all, sandwiched between Jesus’ birthday and the birth of a New Year.  Meanwhile, I am rushing through my Christmas CDs in the car, the only place I still have a CD player.  In the 2000s, Blair and I used to drive around the eastern USA peddling paintings out of the trunk of a rental car, decorated with a wreath on the grill, listening to Soul Christmas music. One of my favorite songs ever is “What Are You Doing, New Year’s Eve?”   I sing  “Angels We Have Heard on High”, at the top of my lungs, with only the slightest provocation.  Ask Berlino, who cringes. Catalog (selected pieces) of the Maypole Show.  Click to open

Artnotes: Shhhhh

 

Stimigliano View from House     Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/canvas   12 x 18 "  30 x 45cm  475.00

“Carlo’s making a movie at the church,” Gianfranco said on Monday morning.  We walked by to check it out.  Carl asked if we wanted to be extras, and perhaps imprudently, we said “YES”.   Carl says filming is just all about being quiet and waiting.   The rest of the morning was spent sitting in the church at the “funeral” of an Italian guy… The deceased comes back from the dead to deliver a soliloquy.   We ask him if seeing himself dead is troubling.   Oh, no, Italo tells us, in fact if you dream of your own funeral, it means you will live a long life.

Small Altar   Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/wood  13  x 5.5"  33 X  14cm  190.00

Carl has a film school in Rome, and he and his wife, Carmen, just bought a house here in Stimigliano.  His students are up here making a movie, much simpler than filming in Rome.  They are the most delightful group of people we’ve run across in a long time – from three continents, to boot.

San Bernadino   Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/cardboard      11 x 9"  . 27.5 x 22cm   150.00

It was a tough role for me – we were in the front row of the church, and we were supposed to look grief-stricken.  I hope I never have a reason to really look grief-stricken, because I am too much of a Pollyanna.   I almost always see the bright side. Both Blair and I hadn’t spent this much time in a church for a while, and we examined all the details.   There are different saints here, like San  Bernadino (all I can think of is Route 66), Cosmos and Damien;  some the labels were too far away to identify.  I painted San Bernadino in here one cold day a couple of years ago.

Photo in the Church

We have a guest from Seattle, who fortunately chose that day to sleep in – when we finished up, we dashed to Farfa, and the Trattoria da Lupi, where I had the best bean and pasta dish EVER.  We also found a table in our antique merchant’s workshop, which might allow us a mini remodel here in Stimigliano.

Waiting for a Fish   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  10 x 20"   25 x 50cm  475.00

We finished up our roles, outside of the church on Wednesday.  Our guest took the opportunity to make her own movie of the process.  Everything worked out.  Shhhh.

Matchboxes for our winter fair on 1 December.

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

Artnotes: The Biggest Fish

 

23 November 2024  Stmigliano, RI ITALIA Tevere  Blair Pessemier    Acrylic/canvas   14 x 20 "  35 x 50cm  490.00  We’ve been walking, walking, walking this week – Berlino misses his terrain in Roccamalatina, so we’ve tried to make up it to him with several outdoor forays per day.   Our collective favorite is the “Tevere Point”, which takes us along the Tiber, behind the railroad station at Poggio Mirteto.   Choose your shoes      Laurie Fox Pessemier The walk is about a kilometer each way, with mirror-like images of hills, trees and castles reflected in  the river.  It puts me in the mind of picture-puzzles – you know, those classic natural scenes with barely distinguishable fall tones. Dogs    Laurie Fox Pessemier      Berlino saw his mistress from the shelter, “Pasqualina and Friends” twice there this week, walking her own dog and some of the shelter’s inmates.   Berlino loves (almost all) other dogs, and there are always a few along the path. Moon Rise  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  15  x 22"   38 x 57cm   490.00 There are a good share of fishermen lounged along the banks, too.  One such fellow lives with his wife in a hidden house right across from edge of the water.  He has four dogs, and passel of chickens, all hidden behind chicken wire and corrugated metal fencing.  This we know as we exchange greetings.  How’s the fishin’? Blair enquires.  He motions for us to follow and shows us a 20+ pound carp he’s caught.  In fact, this isn’t a particularly large one, as they can grow to as much as 90 pounds.   It is the desired fish for a Central European Christmas dinner, and I suspect he may have some of that heritage. Photo of man with carp We are quite happy to be back in Stimigliano – we’ve been commiserating with neighbors and getting ready for the fair – I think of it as a Christmas fair, but it hasn’t been sanctioned as such (there is lots of politics in these little towns, I am glad to be included, in any case).   I am addicted to making these holiday ornaments, and make a couple a day. I made a slightly larger head of Berlino, backed by a golden retriever.     I can see myself getting bigger and bigger pieces of cardboard to paint on:  a whale.  Merman       Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/paper     9 x 13.5"  23 x 33cm  90.00 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

Artnotes: The One that Got Away

 

Dugout Torrington Twisters    Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   24 x 20 "  60 x 50cm  695.00

One of the wonderful things that happens with painting is that someone sees your work, and connects.  It’s a legacy of sorts.   This week one of the Torrington Twisters saw a painting we did when we followed the baseball team in 2005 and contacted me.  How wonderful.  (write me and I'll send you a pdf of the book)

Baseball Ornaments by Blair (Laurie working on others)

It made me think of how one of the players said, “What could be better than playing baseball all summer? My friends, they’re all working, but me, I am just playing ball.”   When I read those lines now, I think about how I was so lucky to be painting pictures all summer.  And it continues.

I am so glad I chose art as a profession.  I will never be as rich as Jeff Bezos, or even someone who works in the Post Office, but I have had an incredible life, painting.  I have an Associates Degree in Art, and a Bachelor’s in Art History (and an unfulfilled MBA – that was a terrible experience) – I’ve been an art librarian, and art teacher and an artist.  I got to enjoy my entire “working” life, and I still do.  The person that contacted me on Instagram coaches a college level baseball team/workshop in New York.  He is still at baseball, like us, still at art.

Persimmon Still Life      Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper 20 x 28"   50 x 70cm  350.00

We went out to lunch this week with a former architecture classmate of Blair’s.  They talked about their favorite projects, who else in the class did great stuff.  It’s apparent that number of architectural “finanancial” successes from their school is limited. But it is similarly clear an overwhelming number love architecture and are really happy.   Blair and I, too, see the romance in things other people don’t.   It really isn’t about filling up the gas tank on your yacht; it’s about sitting by the river.

Fish Ornaments on a Rod   Laurie Fox Pessemier

I found a big bunch of old fishing poles at the “rigattiere” (second hand dealer) on Friday.  There’s a good half dozen, some bamboo, others plastic or fiberglass – they are so beautiful!  I think of how many summer days they spent by the Tiber river and the stories they heard.   Did you hear about the one that got away?

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