Commission Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 18 x 12 45 x30cm
Nuclear Plant Commission Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 24" 41 x 60cm
Pear Blossoms Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 12" 30 x30cm
Dinner Included Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 32 x 47 81 x 119cm
The Universe must have been reading last week’s Artnotes,
when I talk about not feeling included:
we have had a multitude of engagements this week. One was completely in Italian language, one
half and half, and today we spoke English with some of the most sophisticated
people I have ever met. Right here in greater
Rocca Malatina, Italy!
Our Italian lunch was at a great house only to be found in
Italy – it was an old vinegar factory, with a grand porch that was ever so
slowly renovated into a beautiful entertainment room. I love the scale of houses here – big square
spaces. This family had some of the most
wonderful paintings I’d seen in a long time, and it inspired me to come home
and paint. Too bad I ate so much lunch
it had to be postponed until the next day.
I got out my biggest canvas and set up the dining room like
a dinner scene. I invited people over
who cancelled the last minute (actually they told me it might not work out), so
now everyone in the scene has the gestures of Blair, or friends from pictures years
ago. The ideal dinner party: drama, refinement, beauty and ease. We now have 7 pounds of coq au vin, and are
steadily working on it.
We had English guests to dinner, who came to our show over
the last weekend (did I tell you I was a success? Last minute someone with a hotel showed up
and bought 4 small works). An Italian
English couple joined in, and we ate and drank with abandon.
Today we went to a house in the area for tea. The man is a great collector with interesting
objects from Central and South America, Turkey and Afghanistan. Of course there were fine Italian paintings,
and lovely furniture, again in in a house built in that marvelous, grand square
Italian architectural style. I felt a
bit of a fool for bringing my 10 cent print of Monte Cimone, but the thought
was there. They were planting a jasmine
tree, guaranteed to smell delicious on hot summer nights.
Blair is busy with commissions, which he really likes. He painted someone’s mother, and a nuclear
power plant in Saudi Arabia (this is the rejected one, which I actually liked
the best).
I was outside
painting blossoms and talking about negative space on your painting minute this
week, anticipating a workshop student this coming week. Way to go, Universe!
