Artnotes: Au Revoir, Poseidon

 

The Tree:  Sloes     Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  11.5 x 19.5"  30 x 50cm  375.00

We went to the beach, the Dog Beach, at Porto Garibaldi, on the Adriatic coast this week.  Our happy clam of a dog ran down to the beach, looking here, there, sniffing.  I have to remind him its me on the other end of the line – he’s capable of dragging me, bodily, along with him, but refrains.  Luckily he is afraid of the water (what kind of bird dog hates water?  A field dog), but loves digging in the sand. The beach is eerily deserted, except for gazillions of chairs and tables in neat rows, accompanied by umbrellas.  The Italian coast is full of these “concessions”, where one must pay and pass through a doorway to access the sea.  These are not the romantic canvas Deauville umbrellas, either.  These are plastic chairs and tables in hideous bright colors so after you visit the water, you can be sure to get back to the appropriate blue-green “peacock” campground, number 68.  We are in luck today because the tide is low, and we walk alongside the water, Berlino careful not to moisten a toe bean. From our Romantic Canvas Umbrella, Deauville   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   13 x 16"  32 x 41cm  575.00   There are big breakwaters, to minimize beach erosion and insure even if you’re only 3 feet tall, you won’t drown.  Beyond that I picture Poseidon and the Tritons, Mermen (fish tails and human torso) blowing  shell horns to calm or incite the waves, wishing instead they could use their pickaxes to knock down the breakwaters.   Poseidon is too far away to see. The Triton  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper 17 x 23.5"   43 x 60cm  275.00   It is a hazy day, which I actually prefer, to blazing sunlight.  This is my favorite beach for colored, pastel light.  There’s maybe two miles of beach, then we cut back through the town, much shorter to the car.  We’re keen on coffee, and Berlino is in desperate need of fresh water.    I spot a place with a mean looking man chewing a cigar, walking with a mini-doberman.  I hear a snarl (was it the man or dog?) Closed. The next place doesn’t serve macchiati (espresso with a "stain" of milk).   I am so surprised these folks are so bitter.   Four years of my own youth was spent serving customers at an art gallery on Cape Cod, where my colleages and I loved the ever smiling tourists and vacationers, hell-bent on a good time.  We felt lucky to spend a summer on the beach. Poseidon's Easel from the Sea  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  17 x 23.5"   43 x 60cm  275.00   Eventually, we arrive at a place with other customers, and I sit down with Berlino.  Immediately someone snatches away the other chairs.  I protest, “my husband is just inside getting coffee”.  Blair returns, with a single scoop ice cream cup of water for Berlino, who drinks it in two laps.  We refill it four times.    I am convinced this must be the training ground for Gulag personnel in the off season.  It’s a good thing really.  I am not tempted to rent that place by the sea.   Au revoir, Poseidon, see you in the fall. The Tree:  Owl  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/cardboard  13 x "  33 x 23cm  325.00