If you were lucky enough...

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” 
― Ernest Hemingway

  

Luxembourg Gardens in th the Fall  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen 10.5 x 16"  27 x 41 cm 

I missed a call at 11:30 last night.  Just as I picked up the phone our friend set his down – I could hear a TV in the background.     The telephone wasn’t working this morning, and when I reset it, it was full of messages. 

To say the least, I was shocked at the events of last night in Paris.  I have a lump in my throat, and I am literally “touched to the heart” by what has happened.   I have thought of Paris all this week – in fact, we contacted a gallery there about having a show at the end of March, 2016.   It would have been the time to renew our French carte de sejour, but I can see the error of pursuing that direction (we might still have the show, however). 

​Quai Voltaire  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen   10.5 x16"  27 x 41cm 

I feel remarkably fortunate not to have been in Paris at this time – we live under a lucky star – we were not in Paris for the Charlie Hebdo attacks, either.   We knew after those events of last January that our days in the City of Light were numbered.   Thank you Gary, and all the people who have helped us settle into our home in Rocca Malatina, Italy.

So, today’s Art Notes is a tribute to Paris. 

Kids by the Fountain at Luxembourg Gardens  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  15.5 x 9 framed  20 x 23 cm 

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Paris is the most beautiful city in the World.   From the Luxembourg Gardens, where generation of Parisiens relax beneath the trees, to the Seine, which divides the city into the Right and Left Banks, gorgeous buildings, trimmed trees and convivial cafes define a civilized life.

​Men Playing Chess  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acryiic/linen  12 x 16" 30 x 40 cm

We found Paris on our way to open an “art” bed-and-breakfast in Portugal in 1993.  Once we were in Paris, we only left for time to retrench.  That meant finding a way to open a business to earn money and live in Paris legally.

Along the way we met French citizens and people who immigrated to France and liked it as much as we did.  They all made our life happier. 

​Institut de France/Seine   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/panel  12 x 12"  30 x 30 cm 

We worked at a French restaurant for years and learned to cook French standards – coq au vin, magret de canard and pommes sarladaises.

​​Notre Dame  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  13 x 16"  33 x 41 cm   

We learned to speak French (Blair better than me) and it opened a whole new way of thinking.  Now we are learning Italian.  I read someplace that learning new languages can stave off Alzheimers for at least five years.

​Henri IV   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen   10.5 x 14"  27 x 35 cm  

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We visited other places around Paris, throughout France.  We had the incredible privilege of painting in Monet’s Gardens, after hours, and where Van Gogh painted in Auvers.

We went out for coffee and croissant or pain au chocolate every morning.  We went to the market twice a week.  We had the most romantic apartments in the world.   Paris, we love you.

Laurie and Blair Pessemier

Paris: last snow of winter    Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on linen  14 x 9 SOLD

Snow in Paris

 

Snow on our corner   Blair PESSEMIER   Oil on canvas  15.5 x 15.5 inches SOLD

 Footsteps in the snow   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic on wood   7 x 19 inches  

Blair PESSEMIER Luxembourg Gardens Medici Fountain in Winter Oil on linen 10.5 x 16 inches

Blair PESSEMIER Luxembourg Gardens: Ice Oil on linen 16 x 20 inches   SOLD

  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Luxembourg Gardens: Bleak Midwinter Pink Light Acrylic on canvas 9.5 x 14 inches

 Laurie Fox PESSEMIER From the roof of PRINTEMPS Acrylic on canvas panel 12 x 12 inches   SOLD

The View from my Window, Paris   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  13 x 16 inches 

 Scene by the River   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   Acrylic on linen  16 x 11  SOLD

 River and Bridge Blair PESSEMIER Acrylic on linen  15 x 18   

 Lighting Candle with St. Genevievre   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood 13 x 6.5 inches 

 St. Anthony of Padua   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood   10 x 6 inches

St Alexandre's   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  13 x 7 inches

 Port en Bessin Green Light  Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  16 x 20 inches  $450.00 SOLD

Port en Bessin  Red Light Green Light    Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches  $325.00  SOLD

 

 Boulevard Raspail  Laurie FOX PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  10 x 6 inches   $200.00

 

Luxembourg Gardens:  Trees Guynemer  Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches 

 Driving home at night   Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches  SOLD

Artnotes:  Remembrance

“Les Marines de Port-en-Bessin” the invitation read, “10 Novembre 2011”.  Blair and I and our old friend Quentin had an expo in Port-en-Bessin in February 2005.  At that time, the museum/cultural center took one of each of our nautical scenes.  And for the next two weeks those paintings are once again on exhibit in this historic World War II town on the Normandy Coast.

We couldn’t pass up the chance to go the the vernissage, the following night.  We rented a car and cast out at 9:30 AM the next morning.   Harika was in complete agreement --  another opportunity to play on the beach.  Whooppeee! 

We sat down for a lunch of mussels and lamb chops at a beachside restaurant in Trouville, about 25 miles from Port-en-Bessin.  Trouville has a long, sandy beach, and men were paddling on surfboards as the tide receded.  Harika frolicked on the sand as we ate outdoors.  It was brilliantly sunny, counteracting the nip in the air.   In mid-afternoon we drove West to Port-en-Bessin, where we would paint. 

It was the most wonderful day, with a super low tide.  We could see remnants of World War II wrecks, and could walk out nearly to the end of the jetties at Port-en-Bessin.   Men were harvesting pentoncles (bay scallops), with wooden-handled nets.   Some were in giant boots, others bare-legged in the icy sea.

Blair painted from above, but Harika and I opted to sit  by the water.  A short while into the painting we were chased off the beach by the arrival of a pit-bull:   he sent the two of us plunging, me in my good shoes, across fields of seaweed alive with sea snails.  Paints and canvas akimbo, Harika leaping, we made quite a site.    I could imagine the other dog snickering at us from behind.

One half of the beach at Port-en-Bessin  is the scallop-shell graveyard.  The chalk-on-the-blackboard sound of shells beneath our feet results in Blair carrying Harika over the rough spots.  The other half of the beach (on the other side of the locks which keep the fishing boats afloat) is an enclosed bay – this is where we painted.  The light is extraordinary this late afternoon, and the pools of water amidst the sand are mirrors to the sky.

The last time we showed paintings at Port-en-Bessin the Mayor of the town sang the “Star Spangled Banner”, a cappella, in our honor.  He was there again on Thursday night, but we assured him he didn’t need to sing.  He was cheery as ever, but a tear filled his eye when we informed him of the demise of Q.  Quentin was a veteran of World War II, and participated in memorial festivities in Normandy a couple of times.

It was appropriate to be at such an historic setting as the Normandy beaches on the Eve of Remembrance Day.  There are fewer and fewer witnesses to the big wars of Europe.  Museums, cemeteries and cultural centers keep the flame lit.  In Port-en-Bessin this weekend there was a big scallop festival and circus., in conjunction with Veteran’s day.  We left the vernissage early, to drive back to Paris by night.

 The Street Where I Live   Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  16 x 20 inches 

Place des Vosges  Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches SOLD

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Color in November    Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches 

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Toussaint   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  7 x 11 inches SOLD

A collection of people:  waiter (SOLD), barman (SOLD)  approximately 6 x 10 inches 

 Cimitiere Montpartnasse:  Trees   Laurie Fox PESSEMIER   15 x 18 inches

 Tree at Montparnasse   Laurie FOX Pessemier   12 x 12 inches  

 Cimitiere Montparnasse:  Trees along the allee    Blair PESSEMIER   22 x 15 inches 

 Reading the paper in the Luxembourg Gardens  Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches 

 Luxembourg Gardens: Jewel tones 31 October   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on linen  11 x 16

St. Sulpice:  Saint    Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches 

 On Tap  Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on wood 6 x 10 inches  SOLD

 Patron  Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on wood   6 x 13 inches 

 Luxembourg Gardens:  First Trees without Leaves   Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic  on canvas  10.5 x 16 

Luxembourg Gardens:  Chairs    Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on wood  6 x 10 inches  $250.00 SOLD

Baby Bird   M. Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on paper  21.5 x 29 inches  $175.00

 

Luxembourg Gardens:  Bees    M. Blair PESSMEIER  18 x 22 inches    SOLD

 

 Luxembourg Gardnens:  woman with bicycle   Laurie FOX Pessemier   10 x 12 inches 

 Eiffel Tower:  Yellow Tree  Laurie FOX Pessemier  12 x 12 inches 

 Giverny:  Fuschia Tree  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches

 Montmartre:  Vines   M. Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic on wood  7 x 10 inches   SOLD

 Luxembourg Gardens::  Lavender Trees  Laurie Fox PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 "  SOLD

 Notre Dame Park:  Romance    Laurie FOX Pessemier  Acrylic on canvas  12 x 12 inches 

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Fall Weather   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on canvas  11 x 16 inches 

Ile de la Cite   Blair PESSEMIER  Acrylic on canvas  21.5 x 15 inches 

 Pont Neuf  and Henry IV   Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas12 x 24 inches   SOLD

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Orange Sweater   Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on wood  10.25 x 5 inches SOLD

 Luxembourg Gardens:  Queen   Blair PESSEMIER   Acrylic on wood  9.5 x 7 inches

 Montmartre:  Vineyard   Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on wood 5 x 9.5 inches 

Giverny:  Creek   Laurie FOX Pessemier   Acrylic on canvas  18 x 15" 

ARTNOTES:  Smell the Flowers

A friend called on Sunday night to see if we’d like to paint at Giverny, Monet’s gardens, on Monday.  It turns out that the gardens are open after hours (and before hours 6AM) to painters.  If we arrive after 5:30 in the evening, we can paint until 8.  We packed up our supplies and headed away from Paris at 4.

We paid our (artists’) entry fee as the guards chased out the stragglers.  Blair set up his easel in the main garden, and I crossed beneath the road to the pond.

Giverny is a wonderful place, but in summer is chock-full of visitors;  this painting opportunity was like a dream.  It is a good reason to take my painting class – you, too, can inspect the dahlia up close and personal.  I took this week’s two students to paint: both chose the water lilies.

I am looking at a deep yellow petal-ed flower, its edges beginning to turn brown.  In this fading light the withering  border looks purple.  A small snail makes his way toward the center of the flower.  I suspect this flora to be a sort of sunflower variety.  The sunflowers are magnificent – the entire garden is a riot of yellow and purple.  For the first time ever here, I can smell all the flowers as the dew begins to form.  I can almost taste the nasturtiums which line the main allee.  A pink rose shocks my eyes with its brilliant color.

I feel tremendously lucky to have had this experience.  It’s not that I don’t like painting in the nether-reaches of the garden on a regular afternoon, but this day I am one with the water lilies.  There’s a photographer also present –  she sells her photos in New York.  She sometimes arrives here very early to capture the fog on the pond.

The sun streams across the water – picking up just the edge of a lily pad.  I can’t do it justice in my painting.  The reflections in the water and the water lilies are really too much for me.  I paint quickly, almost madly, trying to freeze time as the light changes.   Every time I visit this place to paint, I bite off more than I can chew.  Monet was truly a master.  I am just a page.

Blair has more luck – painting in oil – with his overview of the flowers.   Our painting companion makes several gouaches – she paints longer than we do.  Blair and I collapse on a bench, in a daydream :  after just one hour and a half I am “all in”.  I want to go home and drink red wine and plan on another day with the flowers.

On Tuesday evening, our students are happy.  We pack up our tools and take one last longing whiff of the flowers before the trip back to Paris.