Artnotes: Live and Let Live

 

Water Iris  Blair Pessemier   Orignal  Acrylic/Canvas  20 x 8"   50 x 20 cm  490.00

The jury is still out on my art print (reproduction) idea.   A few people like the idea of us making prints of our work, but others are against/aghast.  So, we’re taking it slowly.  We sold two last week, and have ideas to sell floral prints at garden stores.  Would Monet have sold his water lilies until hell wouldn't have one?  (judging by the gift shop at Giverny, one would think so).  I don’t know that the switch to reproductions is as critical as it seemed:  first there were tariffs, then there was an artwork exclusion, then a below $800.00 exemption; no tariffs, a 90 day delay.  I can adjust to anything once established. Oregon Grape    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  24 x 16"  61 x 40cm   275.00 I had plenty of people to talk to this week.  We cooked lunch for people twice, went out to lunch in Modena.   My cooking skills are still present, despite less entertaining.  I made a rabbit in a tarragon cream sauce on Monday; spicy red fish stew on Thursday (with an agretti, mussel and crumbled egg yolk salad, which was perhaps the best dish of all).  In Modena, I ate really pretty good burritos – the first time in probably 20 years!   I spoke to friends on the telephone – we are all in agreement that SPRING feels wonderful.  We’re even thinking of going to a baseball game in Bologna tonight. Parrot Tulips    Blair Pessemier   Orignal  Acrylic/Canvas  20 x 8"   50 x 20 cm  490.00 Blair and I have been painting flowers, mostly wild ones.  I found a particularly interesting one at the far end of a walk with Berlino, in a marshy area -- it was too precarious to pick, particularly when holding onto the end of the leash.  “Let ‘em live”, as the sign to watch out for highway workers in Connecticut reads.  The flowers continue to thrive, and today I used Google Lens to identify them:  Butterburs or Coltsfoots.  They are reputed to be good treatment for bronchial problems.   I’ll continue to cough. Diving for Treasure   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  24 x 16"  61 x 40cm   275.00 Packages arrived this week in anticipation of visitors.   Sheets, a bit off color from the ones depicted online; paints, again slightly off color, but usable; canvas; and 200 tall white candles (actually, we rarely used them with visitors, but light our evening dining room with them).  Three other packages from outside Italy were lost and are in process of being replaced or reimbursed.  There’s a spate of strikes throughout Europe, and the post office is always an eager participant. Knot     Laurie Fox Pessemier  Original Acrylic/paper   9 x 12"  23 x 30cm   90.00 I’ve adorned my chenille fly curtain with laurel branches to further dissuade insects from entering the house (they hate bay), and am thinking of adding fake flowers, too. Kerria Japonica Laurie Fox PessemierOriginal Acrylic/paper  24 x 16"  61 x 40cm   275.00      We are offering all of the above work in reproduction format, as well.  On Paper, most pieces are 40.00; on canvas 80.00 .  Framing is also available within the USA. Blue Elephant   Blair Pessemier   Orignal  Acrylic/Canvas  18x 15"   45x 38 cm  390.00

Artnotes: Bye Now

Wild Ones   Laurie Fox Pessemier PAPER PRINT   24 x 16"   61 x 40cm  40.00

This week we visited MAST, a Bologna Museum of Art, Industry, Science and Experimentation.  For the next two months they are featuring a show of a photography by artists capturing industry and work.  It is a yearly competitive event by MAST – we saw some photos from prior winners.   This year four of the five winners were women.   A well dressed young woman (a miniature Gina Lollabrigida) who worked at the museum explained the different exhibits to us:  she was smart, and wanted to practice her English (thank you!!!). Atomic Elephant  Blair Pessemier  CANVAS PRINT   16 x 20"   40 x50 cm  80..00 There were three of the five presentations I really liked:  an Australian man documented his grandmother, who emigrated from Poland in 1970.  She was involved in shipping in Poland, but couldn’t get a job in that field in Australia, so she became a beekeeper.   There were many photos of both Australia and Poland, her houses, her beekeeping garb, her family.   I get so inspired by different sorts of art – she had fashioned a beekeeping outfit I want to reproduce (as a mosquito net) when I get a sewing machine. Red Oranges  Laurie Fox Pessemier  PAPER PRINT  24 x 16"   61 x 40cm  40.00  The second show was about an Iranian woman from a difficult situation who worked in aviation and healed injured birds in the USA.    The third I liked was about people working at an abandoned African factory, which was readapted for processing oils. Iron Rhino   Blair Pessemier   CANVAS PRINT  11 X 14"   28 X 35 cm 80.00 I feel myself, like I am in a state of adaptation to this positively insane tariff situation.  I am going to start working with an American company to produce our art as prints, and sell them, quite affordably.  Maybe that is good.  You can pick a picture you like, this company will produce it (they can even frame it), and I will send you a document authorizing the reproduction.  It works very easily with my works on paper – those large newspaper images can be produced on fine paper, exact size; likewise the figure drawings.  The paintings can be reproduced on canvas, sent to you, framed for a fraction of the cost of the original.    I am looking at this situation as an OPPORTUNITY.   You can own our artwork, and we can keep working.  You’ll notice the new approach today, in this Artnotes.    Buy now and “bye, now.” Artists Shoes    Blair Pessemier  CANVAS PRINT  12 x 20"  30 x 50cm  80.00 All of these images are available as originals, but will take longer to ship.  The canvas paintings are in the 500 range; the large paper images, 275.00.  What do you think of the print idea? 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.  NO POLITICS please. 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: Fast Potato

 

Baseball Players   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/pen/paper 8 x 11.5"   21 x 29cm    90.00 each or 4 for 200.00 Baseball is one of the things I miss about summer in America, and I am writing this on opening day 2025. I enjoy live baseball of all sorts – young people, local teams, farm teams, college ball.  I imagine finding my place in the stands, sitting in the setting sun, watching the warm up.  I can smell popcorn and hot dogs as I write; cheap beer.  I listen to fellow fan chatter.   Maybe we’ll go to a game in Bologna this summer.   Blair and I followed a college league team one summer (https://baseballpainting.blogspot.com/)  –  it was an early foray into figure painting, which occupies me right now. Eurospin Ranunculas   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   18 x 15"   43 x 38 cm  475.00 Orange Ranunculas   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17 x 24"   43 x 61 cm  275.00 Our yard and the adjoining fields look like Ireland, they are so green.   The yard is full of some rather creepy puff balls which turned out to be (according to google lens) pine tree truffles.  We did not eat; mice did.  The wild flowers are coming on, and I’ve made a planter of wild primroses and pinky/purple flowers (lungwort).   Our ranunculas from the Eurospin are outstanding. The week has been taken up with sending out painting files for potential shows.  I am always a bit skeptical when they want me to talk about the painting – why did you paint this, and what are you saying.  In fact, I am sitting at my easel letting my muse work through my own hand.  I think most artists, visual, literary or musical are doing the same.  Take that, AI.   Magic is involved. We just got back after 4 weeks in Stimigliano, the potatoes I left in a cool, dark place had sprouted enormous eyes (why can I never stop that?).   I thought about planting them, but potatoes aren’t pretty in the yard.   I decided I could toss the potatoes, baseball style, out into the field beyond our house: like spring training, and later I’d see if they grew.    One potato, two potato, and on the windup for the third, Berlino stood in the path of my 95 mile-per-hour fast potato.  I clocked him in the snout, and he cried out in pain.  I immediately got down to his level (after chasing him -- he was scared of me!) and took a look.  No blood, but I did find some nasty tooth decay, which had nothing to do with the clobber.   Lungwort  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper  8 x 11.5  21 x 29cm  90.00 A trip to the vet ensued, and a cleaning/extraction.  In fact, it turned out the tooth which looked so poorly was a baby tooth that had never fallen out.  With sparkly white teeth and minus a milk tooth, the bill was the cost of a family of four in the bleachers at Fenway.   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.  NO POLITICS please. 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 Next Hand

 

Red Ranunculas   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  16 x 14"   40 x 35 cm  450.00

“What if it’s wonderful?” I ask Blair, my only audience.  “What if when our money is worthless, friends and family live in a separate world, we are at our wits end, and we do something completely different? And it’s WONDERFUL?”    Tell me another one, Pollyanna.  Figures, Words    Laurie Fox Pessemier  8 x 6"   20 x 15 cmAcrylic/paper  90.00 What seems like a million years ago, when our business went kaput, our dog died, and everything we imagined and worked for had changed, we moved halfway around the world to Paris with almost no money.   My first few days there I woke up thinking I’d never be lighthearted again, and then, somehow, the sun came out, the birds sang, and we were smiling.  It got better and better and better.  Blair and I started painting again.   We felt that lightness that comes from being free.  We embarked on a new, better life. You can’t do anything when you are clinging onto the past.  Let go of the flotsam and jetsam, and when you see it, swim toward a new shore. The Show   Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas  13 x 16"   33 x 40cm   475.00 I have been reading Vlacav Havel’s letters from Prison.   He was a poet/playwright dissident who led the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.  A bit of a Pollyanna, like me, he accentuated the positive aspects of his hard labor prison time.   He wrote, and thought while enduring horrible conditions.  I regret the poems and plays he never got to write; but yes, he later became president of the Czech Republic (1989-1992) leading and inspiring so many  people. Human    Laurie  Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   9 x 12"  24 x 30 cm   90.00 Another remarkable story of this ilk is from Italy, the Island of Ventotene.  Mussolini set up prison camp (actually on an adjacent island, Santo Stefano), from the remnants of a Bourbon jail built two centuries earlier.  700 opponents of Fascism were housed here, including Altiero Spinelli, who, with some fellow prisoners, wrote the “Ventotene Manifesto” in 1941.  This document became the basis for the European Union in 1984, adopted as the   “Draft Treaty Establishing the European Union”, or the “Spinelli Plan”.    It is very timely right now, as the enormous population of the EU is forming their defense. I am looking for that next hand to grasp, for the next turn in the road. I am writing and painting and remaining ultra-aware of future possibilities.   It will be summer again. Rolling Over    Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/paper 9 x 12"  24 x 30 cm  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.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 7PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM  (NOTE -- we are accomodating the US time change this week )

Artnotes: My Kingdom for a Map

 

Ed Pickard   Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  12 x 16"  30 x 40cm  550.00

“[I’d trade] my kingdom for a map”, I tell Blair as we listen to GPS send us down another impossible road.  Granted, the town of Spoleto is medieval in its layout, and GPS doesn’t like all this stone.  30 minutes later (spouting “I’m never going anywhere with you again”), we exited the car. Figures Alive  1 , 2  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  90.00 We took eight long escalators and then an elevator to arrive at the Rocca Albornoziana, the castle-fortress atop the Duchy of Spoleto.  I wanted to see a particular fresco displaying figures against a dark background.  I am in constant pursuit of figure painting/drawing inspiration.  We had to go up three more flights of stairs to the reception desk, and then another to the fresco.  But oh, it was worth it.  At the Restaurant  Laurie Pessemier acrylic/paper  9.5  x 13"   24 x 32.5cm   125.00 Have you been to Spoleto?  It’s the home of a summer festival of music and art, which composer Gian Carlo Menotti started in 1958 (Amahl and the Night Visitors).  I do not know anyone who has ever attended it, but whenever we go to Spoleto, I think what a great thing it must be.  Art is everywhere, and there a music venues and posters and photographs from festivals past.  In fact, I think I could live in Spoleto, but I am not sure how many people actually LIVE there, the festival attracting tourists every summer. Painting with Yukie:  Dish and Lemon  Laurie  Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17x 23.5"   40 x 63cm   275.00 The town itself is marvelous.  We’ve been to the cathedral, and walked all around the twisty-turny streets.  We hadn’t been to the castle on the hill, so that was our destination.   There were bits and pieces from as early as the 5th century, with big concentration from around the 11 century, the 13th and the 15th.    We saw great carvings, and interesting metal work – mining was prominent in these hills.   I still want to go to the cathedral of St. Salvatore, which claimed many of the Rocca’s remains for its interior; there’s also a Roman amphitheater we’ve not yet seen, underground attractions,  and some Roman temples on our list for when it’s not raining.   Many future trips remain. The fresco was terrific, one of many – and many with surprisingly dark backgrounds.  We saw frescoes with Berlino’s breed (spinone) of dog from the 15th century.   We were the only people there, except for a field trip of bored looking teenagers.  I like to imagine the hundreds of years of different people there, from the top dogs to the poor workers.  Imprecise stone stairs were taking their toll on my knees this cold day, and I wasn’t carrying a tray or bucket of water.    I had to hold onto my hat most of the time against the wind.  Like Mary Poppins, many new ideas blew into my head.   Trips like these just make me look forward to the next one. Girl  Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/paper  7 x 5"  16 x 13 cm  75.00 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.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 7PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM  (NOTE -- we are accomodating the US time change this week )