Artnotes: Next Week Your House

 

First Tulips 2026  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper 15x 22”  38 x 55cm   290.00 I have been cooking up a storm this week.  In fact, on Saturday (today! As I write), I am bringing oxtail stew to a friends house to enjoy with three others.   My friend Jan and I have gotten on a local product craze, and we’re finding so many good sources.    She’s bringing a starter, and Blair is making dessert.  https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Roman-Oxtail-Stew-Coda-alla-Vaccinara/ Wishing for Spring  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   16 x 12”   40x 30cm  390.00 On Monday, I made a rabbit with oranges.  I know rabbit is not something Americans usually eat, but it is a delicious meat, light, not fatty.  Berlino likes it, too.  The recipe that inspired me (I never really follow to the letter – I am not a baker, where chemistry rules) was a result of the glut of citrus we get in Italy at this time of year.  Honestly, there is nothing like the lemons and oranges one gets from a small, local tree.  The lemons are like nothing else I ever tasted.  We are in the “blood orange” phase at the moment, and I got 6 pounds for just 3 euros at the local store.  I understand the recipe can be equally good with chicken.  https://www.casachiesi.com/project/orange-braised-rabbit Rainy Venice  (Vaporetto)   Blair  Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  14 x 19.5”  35 x 50 cm  490.00 We went out for Chinese food after a disappointing art show at the MAST in Bologna.  The Modern Art foundation is an architecturally beautiful facility, often with terrific exhibits, but this one was one of those depressing-with-a-message affairs.  The Chinese food made up for any shortcomings.  I will be eternally grateful for my friend Larry who says, well, if you had a good meal it wasn’t a total loss. In the Chinese mode (with New Years right around the corner) I made a mushroom, cabbage and sardine stir fry served over rice.  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/760726920-soy-glazed-mushroom-rice-bowl?smid=share-url    It was really good, but I still would rather go to the Chinese restaurant with pot stickers and chopsticks, whiny music in the background.   The cook is a small round man, with that straight spiky hair natural  only to Chinese men, I am thinking particularly Northern China.  When we went again on Friday (It’s less than 30 euros for the two of us), he was all by himself with 10 diners, and lots of to go orders.   Still, he did a great job – a Tofu master.    I know that China can’t possibly resemble a Chinese restaurant, but I would really like to go there.   When Berlino passes, we will  spend  3 months in China.  Well, provided he passes first.   I won’t worry about all the little issues that might creep up – I’ll be 80 by then and what’s a little food poisoning?   I am thinking maybe we could do a house/apartment exchange.   I have always wanted to travel the Silk Road, but that may be too ambitious.  One never knows. Still Life with Oranges and Chinese dish     Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper 17x 25”  41 x 63 cm   290.00 I made “coppone” – pork cut from around the neck of the pig.  We know it preserved as “coppa”, preserved with spices.  It is a very marbl-y piece of meat, which I cut into steaks and prepared with oregano, thyme, and sage (they are growing like wildfire this rainy season), peppers, shallots and mustard.   It was really delicious, with mashed potatoes and green beans.   Did I mention that Berlino gets the leftovers? Door to the Scorpion Chapel Although I originally thought I’d wait until after our mobile oxtail lunch to send out artnotes, I can’t hold myself back.   Next weekend, your house? Man with Red Beard   Blair Pessemier   acrylic/canvas   14 x 10.5”  35 x 27cm    390.00 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: Room for Interpretation

 

Orchid and Shadow Diptych  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas (together) 16 x 20”  40 x 50cm   590.00 I can’t wait to get up in the morning, longing for the darkness to lift.   I get up, around 4, open the window wide, look up at the stars (when it’s not rainy or foggy).   Of course, I can’t quite see the Milky Way, but there are twinkly bits.   There’s frost on the grass, light green brine.   Sometimes an animal dashes past, back to a den before sunrise. Berlino can’t wait to get up and outside, either.    He rustles, licks, chews, and shakes – we’re up now.  Blair lets him out, feeds him, usually by 5. Then he trucks up the stairs and hunkers down with us for the last hour or so before sunrise. Elephant Candlestick    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  7.5 x 10”   19 x 25cm  90.00 I lay there and play dead, like a normal human.    But my mind is racing ahead:  today maybe I can finish the Scorpion Chapel mural; I want to cut back the lilacs; and what about sardines with lunch?  I let myself go.   Maybe there’s an art show to see:  in fact, there are three.  One, a photo show at MAST still has a  month to run. Clay Bust    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  7.5 x 10.5  16 x 28cm  19 x 25cm 90.00 We choose a great exhibit in Reggio Emilia, at the Marramoti Museum, a free and extraordinary art collection sponsored by the founder of Max Mara.   There was a terrific exhibit by Polish born Rom woman Malgorzato Mirga -Tas.  Her work, a most unusual fabric installation, celebrates the community of Rom people in Reggia-Emilia and Bologna, where they have had a presence since 1422.   The Rom people have a basis in Catholicism, which makes Italy an apt home.   Although they live in their own community, they are integrated into the education and social system.   They have a particular love of horses, and this art show emphasized it.   It is a combination of fabric art and poetry:  The Big Dipper will Foretell the Future of the Roma.   It touched me to the heart. The show was of life sized work directly applied to its own walls.  It depicted people who were being themselves, at home in their own skin.  It made me feel “belonged”, too.  I find myself loving these more edgy, unusual exhibits.  I still like things to be beautiful to the eye, but I need to feel more deeply.  Our other choice was to see a Marc Chagall exhibit in Ferrara.  Chagall, of course, is wonderful, but I have seen so much of it.  And how is it that Sotheby’s can reduce everything to another expensive black accessory?  So many millions (ca-ching, as they prepare to sell the Chagall murals from the Met). Crab in Water  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   16 x 16"  40 x 40 490.00 This eccentricity of the odd has crept into my daily life, as well.  Blair cajoles me when I make him go to the rundown Chinese coffee shop in Roccamalatina instead of the pretty, chic café in Guiglia.  The Gorizia (in Rocca) is dingy yellow with dusty red trim; fluorescent lights and hundred year old ancestor statues.   I tell him I can imagine Mott Street in July (I’ll take Manhattan, for those who don’t know the song), pushcarts rolling by.  When really it is truly a dingy place full of old Italian men dressed in shades of grey.  But it’s there, and there’s room, lots of it, for interpretation. Chalk Horse     Laurie Fox Pessemier 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