Artnotes: SOMETHING

 

7 March 2026   Roccamalatina, MO   ITALIA Join us for Sunday Salon 8 March (see below)

In the Ruins   Bliair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  16 x 24"  40 x 60cm  490.00 I made the mistake of looking at my telephone at 4AM (when Berlino needs to go out).  I was expecting a message from a friend who lives on the West Coast, USA – he didn’t write but I (accidently, you know how the screen lights up) saw how Netanyahu is threatening Europe with retaliation if they show sympathy to Iran.   Honestly, what ever happened to human sympathy and kindness?   I went back to bed but didn’t sleep. Wild Daisy Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  12 x 8.5"  30 x 20cm  90.00 Instead, I thought about the books and records I had when I was young.  “How the Circus Learned to Smile”, “Bongo”, “Beep-beep, Outta’ my Way” were among my favorites.  They were instructive, funny, sometimes beautiful (of course, I had all the classic fairy tales, too, like Red Riding Hood and the Three Bears; The Christmas Tree).  My absolute favorite thing was being read to, mostly by my father and my Aunt Franny.  In Beep-beep, the character is sick of being pushed around and acquires bigger and bigger conveyances, starting with a bicycle (beep-beep, outta’ my way, I’m a bicycle, horn tinkling) and ending with an ocean liner (giant foghorn honk), that can’t get him to the store.  Eventually he learns how good it is to be kind and patient, to let people pass, and to be able to get around easily.  I also learned that being a little bigger is advantageous as long as it doesn’t go too far.  I had a significant collection of “Golden Books” with cardboard covers, “gold” bindings, and colorful illustrations.  Years later I would go to the Beardsley Memorial library, or the school library. I could read by then, and I took out books which had hard covers and illustrations made of real lithography (those thickish crayon drawings, usually just filling up to black outlines – the paper was a little fuzzy and porous).    Eventually we got an encyclopedia (the Golden Encyclopedia), a volume of which came free weekly with shopping at the First National Store.  That kept me busy till the next issue. Peace March (Buddhists in USA)  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  24 x 8"  60 x 20cm  490.00 Where do people learn to be sympathetic, kind and generous now?  These are truly characteristics which need to be pointed out -- taught.   In fact, what seems most “taught” on my Instagram is to “manifest”.  That is, set your eye on the prize, and kick everything (everyone) else to the side.  There are actually mini-lectures about not worrying about other people, but how it’s your job to set your quantum physics psyche on where you are going and it will change the world.  Well, it seems to have worked, just take a look around! Our gallery is a giant ocean of fish -- Under Water.   Almost finished. I am reading about the life of a Polish man, Josef Czapski, who lived through World War II.  Despite all the horrors, he continued to be kind, generous and true to himself (he did not kick others aside).  He was a hero.  There are no heroes now, just bullies dropping bombs from above.  Who were their mothers?  Why weren’t they taught to be better?  Why do we let them take over? New England House Portrait  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel   10 x 14" 25 x 35cm  290.00 In response to all this I am trying to teach AI to be kinder.  It’s where AI gets its ideas, its “personality” --from people.   I can tell the Bot about how good it feels to give up your seat on the bus, pay someone’s tab, help out your neighbor.  Imagine, if we could make AI be the kindness of the world?   That would be SOMETHING.                         Violets from the Garden   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  12 x 8.5"  30 x 20cm  90.00

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes

Artnotes: One Great Thing

 

Sea Monster     Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/cardboard We hear more birds every day when we walk Berlino.  I bring “Merlin”, my birding app from Cornell University (they have several thousand birdsongs online, you can listen).  We are hearing: European Robins, Eurasian Blackbird, Song Thrush, Eurasian Green Woodpecker, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, three Tits:  Marsh, Eurasian Blue and Great;  Eurasian Scops Owl, Little Owl, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Chaffinch and Goldcrest; Magpies, the Jay, the the Jackdaw.   We usually hear about 10 or 12 birds per day, the owls earlier, followed by robins, and eventually the jays and corvids. I am looking forward to going to the coast to see and hear the migrators, like flamingoes and ibis, some of which make permanent homes there. Similarly, there are more flowers blooming daily.  We see forsythia, violets, Christmas rose, snowdrops (a variation, in fact), yellow primrose, lungwort, veronica, wild daffodils, we are just days away from tulips, hyacinth and crocus.    Rose   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17 x 12”    42 x 30cm  190.00 I am working on a new installation in the gallery, “underwater”:  painting walls and making fish, accumulating materials to create a human fish bowl. Blair has made a sea monster.   I feel madly enthused when I work on the project – it is a giant distraction, commanding.  The gallery is a folly.  We have no visitors, it makes no money (luckily we only pay 50 a month for it).  But we really enjoy staging these exhibits, more like installation art than a classic painting show.  It is not so different from the studio at Stimigliano, where I work more than I open the door to visitors.  In both cases, it’s something we love to do, and if not now, when?   I am following my bliss. Wall with Octopus beneath the Sea A friend talks to me about boredom; I avoid it, which is easy to do when you have a dog who would like a walk any hour of the day or night.  Like me, G is in retirement age, and is rarely bored.  He loves to go out, drink tea in cafes, chat up tourists, English speaking.  He tells me about an American woman that day complaining about how boring Modena is.  Boring is not a place or time, it’s the inability to see the beauty, the thrill, the essence of life.  I also think there are times to be bored, which can provide inspiration for the next step.

I am reading the best book:  Time Lost, Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp. Jozef Czapski, an artist and writer, talks about Proust to his fellow military officers while imprisoned in Siberia in the early 1940s.  He does this from memory (there are no books in the camp), and fortunately, another prisoner keeps a record of the lectures.  These were eventually passed on to Eric Karpeles, a writer and artist himself, and in 2018, he published this translation and accompanying story.    Czapski moved to Paris after he was released from prison (Russia changed sides) and lived there for 50 years, dying (at 97) just the time Blair and I arrived.  Gosh, I would have loved to have met him. Sea Life from Scrimshaw Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  15 x 22.5”  38 x 55 cm 290.00 I am equally eager to read about Karpeles, the author, and the books he wrote, Paintings in Proust, and Almost Nothing: a monograph on Czapski.    One great thing leads to another:  how could I be bored?  Red Rose  Black Ground  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17 x 12”    42 x 30cm  190.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier or Blair's @poeticfences See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and frames Support our art with a donation at:  https://donate.stripe.com/4gMaEW1XwfT041t1BCcEw00   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes 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, no sales pitches, 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: Just a Spec

 

Year of the Horse   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/paper 20 x 26” 50 x 65cm   290.00 Another week in Roccamalatina.  Blair and I are thinking of far flung trips; moves, even. Are we too old for the latter?  Possibly, but living someplace without a car and a city with walkable art shows would be nice.  We no longer know so many people living abroad; it’s been our policy to live where we know at least one person. Primrose from the Grocery Store  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  17 x 12”    42 x 30cm  190.00 We’ve been working in our yard this (75%) sunny week.  The roses are snipped back and our first wild daffodils bloomed.  I saw a mammoth bush of forsythia in flower today, on the way to coffee. Yellow bursts out first. Wild yellow primrose line on our morning walk route.  I saw a honeybee and got a mosquito bite. Just a Guy (ater Harry Marinsky)  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  39.5 x 28”    100 x 70cm  290.00 Berlino had two training lessons this week, the first most successful.  He walked with Stefania and her dog Benjy, for an hour.  Stefania thinks some of his comportment issues are because we don’t give him enough exercise – she’s committed for an hour, two days a week.  I am good for a daily thirty minute walk, possibly a little more.  Blair is stronger in that department, but neither of us have ever been big walkers.  Berlino seemed to share our sentiments, as we found him, whimpering near the gate, on his second foray with the trainer. I did an indoor project in the house this week – I painted our white chimney in a mossy green Venetian finish.  Really, I just watered down acrylic paint of the chosen color and slapped it on.  It looks expensive.  The wall will hold my big Venus drawing.

Venus  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  39.5 x 20”    100 x 50cm  290.00 Coincidentally, we ended up at the “Venus” museum in Savignano (about 20 minutes away­) today.  We saw a Venus (of the Willendorf style) from the high Paleolithic period, 25,000 to 35,000 years ago.  It was dug up in 1925 when someone in Savignano was excavating for a barn.  It was really quite suprising and beautiful.   The most beautiful was a lapis lazuli Venus found in Lazio.  She was only the size of my thumbnail:  charming.   We were actually there to see the museum of the Elephant – a mammoth skeleton 2 million years old.   It is mind boggling to consider.  It was likewise unearthed nearby, around 1980.  It has provided information about elephant tusks, and other pachyderm phenomenon.  I had actually painted a picture of it many years ago, from a newspaper story, and it was so wonderful to see in person. All this made me feel small, a spec in the age of the earth.  That’s a relief. Mammoth   Laurie Pessemier   acrylic/paper   17 x 25”   x 41x 63cm    290.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier or Blair's @poeticfences See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and frames Support our art with a donation at:  https://donate.stripe.com/4gMaEW1XwfT041t1BCcEw00   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes 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, no sales pitches, 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