Monday, September 16, 2019

Artnotes: Young Eyes

                Wens   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/Paper  17 x 25"  41 x 63cm  175.00
Blair's working on a new portrait:  final Painting next week  www.portraitsinrome.wordpress.com
Sphinx Moth from the Front Porch   Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  13 x 17"  31 x 41cm  100.00

Butterfly from the Garden  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  13 x 17"  31 x 41cm  100.00
Our car, the Villa Borghese, is back in action.  Blair took a cheap flight to Paris and then drove the car back to sunny Italy.  All in about 36 hours.  I am almost ashamed to admit how happy I am – it was a constant worry, the 50 days the car was out of commission.  Not for the car, really, did I care, but it was something I had responsibility for, and was awry.

Upon its return, we jumped in the car at once (actually Harika got in beforehand and spent a day sleeping in the back seat) and drove down to the Rome area where we will see two young friends today: at the Borghese Gardens.   I am writing from Stimigliano, to the tune of a donkey’s bray, punctuated by the shots of the “cacciatore” hunting rabbits and wild pigs.  The full moon made it like daytime and the hunter’s sounds began at 5AM.    Yesterday, we saw a very wonderful building for sale here in the walled borgo.   It is too much work for Blair and I but it is tempting, with two giant terraces overlooking the Tiber Valley.

Traveling is so pleasant.  I see things I’d otherwise miss:  a bicycle race, a field of sunflowers, a wedding.  We went to Vescovio to walk Harika on grass, and there was the photographer (our new neighbor here in Stimigliano) photographing families who had been at a wedding.  All the ladies above 12 and below 65 were wearing high-heeled, pointy shoes with ankle straps.  The women were of all shapes and sizes and colors of hair,all ultra-feminine in style.  The men wore jackets of varying cuts, but an almost tuxedo-like black, slightly oversized, was most favored.  Some jeans, some regular slacks.  Surprisingly few tattoos, except for a woman in a sheer dress of a terracotta shade, who had a sort of flying horse on her calf.  On our bench, we were in the center of it all, and Harika was disgruntled to leave, believing that the mass of folks had come to see her.
All the kids there were exhuberant.  I think that because everything is new for young people, they stay happy for a long time.  I try to find things that are new for me, so I can see with young eyes as much as possible. 

In my own backyard in Rocca Malatina, where I have spent a little too much time lately, I had one of those new, magic experiences.  On Wednesday, I saw gazillions of gnats flying around (in several clumps of a few hundred bugs each - swarming, really, or like starlings murmurring) in the yard.  It happens every fall...but today about 50 martinets arrived (like swallows) followed by a bunch of dragon flies, the two groups like airborne sharks, eating all the bugs.  It was something to see.
Not like seeing the sea, which is next on my agenda.  There, I can only imagine what is going on underneath.

Want to see with young eyes?  Paint with us on our 2020 tours:www.pessemierworkshops.com

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