Paintings by Blair + Laurie Fox PESSEMIER: Artnotes: Counting the Dogs

Azalea Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 20" 40 x 50 cm 575.00

We made the trek North this week, to celebrate Easter in our Roccamalatina house. The cherries were in blossom as we drove up the hill, and in our own yard we have a variety of surprise blooms, including tulips and hyacinths; plum blossoms and quince; Oregon grape and another mystery yellow bloom I will have to identify with Google Lens.

We received books and other goodies from the post; a threat to shut off our electricity for a small overlooked bill from nine months ago, when we first moved into il Casone. Someone ran into our fence and it is bent out of shape – fortunately, Berlino hasn’t figured out how to circumvent it yet. The Cuckoo is "cuckooing".

The Horse in Striped Pyjamas Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 33.5 x 33.5" 85 x 85cm 750.00

“You live in il Casone?” the woman with the gallery space inquired. She tells us she grew up here and knows the house as such. Blair and I have decided to rent what was once a butcher shop here in Rocca Malatina, making it into a gallery. It is a tiny place, but with a full window on the street, and it costs less than our last storage unit in Connecticut. Anyway, we arranged to take the store, on a month-to-month basis, starting in May.

The space next door is currently occupied by a gallery – a man who has his late mother’s collection of paintings, prints, watercolors. Together we are establishing an art district in our town of 500 inhabitants. Crazier ideas have worked, and we are thoroughly optimistic about meeting people, making sales and having fun.

Succulent Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 20" 40 x 50cm 550.00

Berlino met a new dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback (a lion hunter), through the fence on Saturday. We invited him and his owners, from Munich, to visit in our yard. We are going to have Easter dinner with them here at il Casone, today. We will be seven diners in total (nine if you count the dogs).