Saturday, October 06, 2012

 From the Pont des ARts   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic on linen   16 x 13  SOLD
 Plaza St Sulpice   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on linen  13x 16
 Students painting  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas panel  12 x 12
 Statue   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on linen  13 x 16
 Diana    Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on linen  11 x 16
 Boat vendor   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on wood  13 x 5 inches SOLD
 French hen  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on wood  19.5 x 7 inches  SOLD
 Statue   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic on linen  15 x 18 inches
Surveaillant  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on wood  13 x 4 inches

Artnotes:  Change of Season

 
I wrote an article about Christmas in Paris this week. I tried listening to carols on the radio/Internet but just couldn’t relate.  In fact, there isn’t much for French carols.  There must have been a subliminal message somehow, because I got onto the track of making Christmas cards.


It might have been the birds at the “Bio” (organic) market here last Sunday.  One of the features of our apartment is that we live right on the corner of the Boulevard Raspail market which runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.  This Sunday I begrudgingly went there because I needed small onions and mushrooms for my coq au vin (non-organic, but how non-organic can a rooster be?).    I avoid the bio market because the identical fish sold on Friday are sold for a dollar more on Sunday – you get the picture.   I paid a fair price for the onions, but got mildly soaked on the mushrooms.


The redeeming feature was that  the market was expanded to include the sidewalk of the Seine-bound lane of the boulevard, and stands filled the sidewalk . There were pens of chickens and ducks, geese and guinea hens;  tiny lambs (grey) and goats.  It was all so beautiful, I dashed upstairs and got my paints.  I painted a nice guinea hen and a goose (sold before I got a photo) – both of them made me think of Christmas:  seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, blah, blah, gobble?     I got the idea to make cards of the twelve days of Christmas, using the birds.

Christian, our butcher, has beautiful game birds at the moment: pheasant and grouse, mostly.  I haven’t had any guests of the game bird eating variety:  a recent diner wigged out because I left the head on her fish. We had to go into the kitchen, remove the head and re-present the dish.  Honestly.

Fall is clearly upon us, and there are likewise fabulous mushrooms in the market.  I bought some cepes and girolles last week, which were heartily received alongside a salad. The potimarrons (a chestnut-tasting pumpkin) has been refashioned as soup.  I painted it, and carrots, as well.

Painting is using lots of orange these days, a mixture of primary magenta and lemon yellow.  Twelve of us painted on the Pont des Arts and environs last Saturday.  I sold two of my paintings to a passer-by.  This has been my best group of high school  students, and we are going to have a show of their work at our studio on 23 October.

After spending a marvelous Saturday morning with a new student (who received our painting workshop as a gift), we are encouraging fellow painters to join us this coming Saturday.   


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