Sunday, June 15, 2014

Artnotes: Eggs-actly

House at Yerres   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen 12 x 12  30 x 30cm 
 Balustrade   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  13 x 16"  33 x 41 cm
 Palm Tree  Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  16 x 13"  41 x 33 cm
 Blair painting en plein air   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  14 x 11"  35 x 27 cm
  Evening colors Yerres    Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  16 x 25"   41 cm x 63cm
 Man on Bench   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  12 x 20   30 x 50 cm
 Tree in River Yerres  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 20"  30 x 50 cm

Artnotes:  Eggs-actly

Over 300 people visited our show in Yerres last weekend.  One  of us painted outside the 18th century gatekeeper’s cottage:  the “hook” to draw people in.   We put our big yellow ART flag in the limbs of the little leaf linden out front and made a sign.  Browsers walked down the wood and stone path to the yard where we had about thirty works on display.


Beneath centuries-old trees on the banks of the river, we visited with people from all over France.  Harika lounged in the grass and we all hoped for a breeze, which obliged every so often.  I painted a picture of the house.  Sales weren’t robust, but we had a terrific time.   We drove back to Paris on Tuesday, relaxed and sated with country life.   Harika had to be dragged back into our apartment.

It has been pretty warm in Paris, and we bought an airconditioner, which will hopefully work once successfully installed.  Because we have “French” windows, we can’t really vent it there, so we have stuffed the exhaust hose up the chimney of the fireplace.   Now we need to “block”’  the bottom to prevent the heat from re-entering the room.  Nothing is ever simple here.

We had just one workshop painter this week, our last easy week of the summer.  We painted in the Luxembourg gardens, where we were plagued with chatty Americans wanting to visit.  Clearly not artists, they simply couldn’t understand that painting requires concentration – and that the joy of the experience lies in how far away one can be transported on the brush.  I must hone my technique for gently chasing people away.

Last night, over a cold dinner (my southwest facing kitchen is brutally hot, so I cook early in the day)  we visit with American and French friends.    On the way to painting this morning (just us), I tell Blair how glad I am that so much of my life was spent without a cell phone.  I love visiting around the dinner table.  I know how to say hello on the street, and read people’s expressions and body language.  I can’t always write a note or a letter that says how I really feel.   

While painting on the grass before Napoleon’s tomb, I visit with two Germans.  There are broken eggs all over the area.   He bemoans, “these kids” who are just wild.  But I tell him it’s only eggs.


 Portrait of German girl near Seine    Blair Pessemier   12 x 12  30 x 30cm  sold


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