Artnotes: A Beautiful Life

 

Cow in the Field   Blair Pessemier  acrylic/canvas   12 x 16"    30 x 40 cm   395.00

We went to the Rock-n-Beer festival in Rocca Malatina last weekend.   We were seated at a table with an “English” family who turned out were from Spain and didn’t speak a word of English or Italian.   Two young ladies joined us shortly afterward – they were from a neighboring town, so this was clearly the “foreigners” table (in fact there were a huge number of partiers – a crowd of 500+ in our town of just 500).  The two women were Italians maybe 25 years old from Savignano sul Panaro.  One was getting her masters degree in cinema marketing – she loved Hollywood movies and had the verve and blond hair of Marilyn Monroe.  Her friend was likewise charming, but it’s hard to hold a candle to Marilyn.   We have been trying to go out every day and talk to two people about our artwork, and that day was a slam dunk.  Other days are more challenging, but if we can just keep it up a little, we’ll be ok. Chairs and Green Table  Laurie Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30 390.00 Blair has been working on a 90 second presentation of his project, Asea No Longer, hoping to receive a substantial grant to realize its construction.   I attached it to this email.  I am compiling all my materials about our trip to Germany – I am not certain anyone cares about the art, the ideas, the history, but I am looking for places to publish my findings.   Meanwhile, we are redecorating our gallery weekly to reflect our Artnotes – I am hoping we will be discovered, like the artist in “The Trouble with Harry”. See Blair's 90 second video of Asea No Longer As we left the beerfest, a carful of revelers noticed our choice parking place – a man burst from the passenger door, waving his arms and shouting.  He wanted our space – it was terrifically amusing after a month in an understated part of the world.  There are times I really love Italy.   Flowers (8.5 x 11)    Laurie Fox Pessemier   120 each 200 pair 4 for 325 A crazy man with a giant mower infiltrated our adjoining property this week.   It was a test of my Italian under duress, and I am not sure it qualified as talking to one of the two people a day.  He had a mower one sees at the roadside, chopping small trees with blades suspended at the end of a folding arm.    Berlino was performing his 6 foot high jumps directly beneath it, the terrible man with machine egging him on.  I ran out there screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs in Italian to stop it and get away from our property.  He retorted in kind, but only after he drove all the small burrowing animals into our yard, a darling small mouse nearly running over the top of my bare foot.   I try to give all the birds, animals and insects a small sanctuary on our acre – I love them all. Rose of Sharon   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/newspaper  16 x 10.5 "    .40 x 27cm    390.00 Today I went into the back yard to rescue the plants which hadn’t been hacked by crazy Guido of the industrial mower.   I found a lovely, spindly clementis vitalba (old man’s beard), growing over my sloe tree (the badger ate every last sloe while we were away).   I put it in a vase, and made a permanent record of its short beautiful life. sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Seeing

 

Pink Poppy  Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/black paper  11.5 x 8"    29  x 21 cm   120.00

It’s gone from the Flood to Dante’s Inferno this past week.  We are over 90 degrees in Rocca Malatina, and 100 in Stimigliano.   I take Berlino for a walk well before 7, when the oven turns on and the wildlife runs for shade – we were just a few feet away from a deer the other day.  His friend was in the bushes, harrumphing – it was the first time I heard deer talk.   I am desperately seeking lodging in the much cooler Munich area for the month of July, where we will paint and study the Blaue Reiter group of painters (and drink beers and eat wurst with Berlino in the beer garden).  Remember Rain?  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30  490.00 I have been trying to get my chapel in the back yard finished before it’s too hot.  Sadly, it’s in the sun from about 11 AM until 4 in the afternoon.  I am not mentioning the two scorpions I found there, one as large as a shrew or small mouse.   Were these factors not bad enough:  the building is too short for me to stand up in.  I feel like Alice in Wonderland. About Bavaria   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  16 x 16"  40 x 40  550.00 I recall Alice as a true Wonderland experience.   I was given a ViewMaster picture viewer as a child, and the story of Alice in Wonderland was one of my first reels.   I could look through the oculars and there she was, wearing a blue dress with white pinafore, and the rabbit was standing next to her.  It was a super-clear, extraordinary photograph, and I would sit for long periods, studying the details: the bench, the garden, a gazebo.  I also had a reel of world cities, equally mesmerizing, with castles and mountains.  What’s the big deal, you ask?   Because I was near sighted as a child, I could never see the details of anything – who knew?  I could stand on the bridge in the center of town and not be able to make out the ripples in the river below.  I could never read a license plate.   To see the 3-dimensional Golden Gate bridge in the ViewMaster was a MIRACLE.   Finally, after extreme humiliation at the blackboard in school (my class of 48 students laughing at me uproariously) I got my first pair of glasses, age 10. Four Faces  Laurie Fox Pessemier   8.5 x 11 (approx)"  21 x 29cm  120 each 2 for 200.00 Seeing is a big deal as an artist.  We tailor our work according to our eyes.  I had a workshop painter (we were at Giverny) who was furious that her doctor corrected her eyesight while fixing her cataract.  She used to remove her glasses to see those fuzzy bright colors we enjoy painting so much.  Monet’s eyesight played a role in his waterlilies – and we artists paint similarly.   Both Blair and I remove our glasses from time to time to not focus on the details, but to see the big bright picture.  We both do enjoy seeing properly with our glasses on, but we’re not sure we’ll let the doctor “fix” our eyes if we need cataract repair.   I might.  I can always buy cheap clear glasses and smear them up a bit. In the Good Fortune Pitcher   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17 x 11.  42 x 29cm    210.00 I try hard to capture unseeing, as well as a childlike attitude, in my paintings.  Forgetting what is learned is harder than learning it. Dancing Wild  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/vintage paper     11 x 8.5"  27 x 21cm  120.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, include Portraits by Blair Pessemier. Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier If you’d like to visit/take a painting workshop: https://www.pessemierworkshops.com See all of our work at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed (made in USA). sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Chasing Scorpions

Stretch   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/paper   11.5 x 8"  29 x 20cm   120.00

Finally we’ve had a few rain-free, warm days and I’ve started work on my chapel in the back yard.   I removed the old tires to the garage.  Did you know in Italy we are required to change our tires from summer to winter, and are regularly stopped by the police between 15 October and 15 April for tire checking?  People have started to use “all weather” tires a bit more, but up in the hills here, a true snow tire is de riguer, because we get snow and it isn’t always plowed on the smaller roads. On a Thin Rope   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/paper   11.5 x 8"  29 x 20cm   90.00 It’s amazing what one finds in an old shed – only one scorpion, thankfully, and I didn’t kill him because they eat mosquitoes which were already prevalent.  There were at least twenty great big crickets (I took this as an auspicious sign), easily mistaken for spiders, but fortunately I wasn’t over-reactionary.  I swept out the bad stuff, but left the crickets. There is ivy growing through the roof and around the room, which looks quite lovely.  It’s not wet in there, and I plan to install a prayer rug we got from Mustafa of Morocco.  Originally he said his name was Ali, but then he said Mustafa:  I doubt either was true.  He doesn’t come by this house like he used to at the other one.  I miss the peddlers – a grand collection of immigrants who would keep me up to date from the other side.   Wild wild Flowers  Laurie Pessemier acrylic/paper  16 x 11.5 " x40 29cm   125.00 I installed a pair of wooden Moroccan window screens, from a Mashrabiya (ladies window).  The building, although covered with moss and quite charming looking, is in fact, mostly cement block, with a red tile (and ivied) roof, which makes it hard to drive nails.  I am debating my next step:  to hang pictures or to glue them to the walls? Greek Woman   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  116 x 11.5 " x40 29cm   125.00 Meanwhile Blair weed-wacks (strims?) islands of rich grass and wild flowers in the yard.  It’s our goal to have the maximum number of butterflies, so we are judicious in our mowing. So, you say, is this all that you do, happy hands at home?  Yes, as we await our next guest on Saturday, who will want to go here, there and everywhere.  I pray I make it through. Crouched Woman   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  16 x 11.5 " 40 x 29cm   125.00 Today is 1 May, Workers Day in Italy.  I like working on my project, although the day is to honor workers by not working.  Bologna, our closest large city, is the center of the worker’s movement and 1 May is always a big deal there.  There was a place in Bologna, when we first moved here (10 years ago, today, but who is counting?)one could by a worker’s lunch in a box,  sit and eat it at a long table next to another worker; I am not sure that survived the pandemic.  There are numerous other lunch places offering moderately priced food, and a hearty wish for “Buon Lavoro” (good work!) as you leave.  Article 1 of the Italian Constitution of 1947 reads: "Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labor."   One must be a citizen to work, however, which leaves me chasing scorpions out of my chapel, all on my own time. Venus  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  16 x 11.5 " 40 x 29cm   125.00 NOTES: All of our work is now available as reproductions, on paper, canvas and framed.    Sign up for Artnotes by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

 

Artnotes: Fast Potato

 

Baseball Players   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/pen/paper 8 x 11.5"   21 x 29cm    90.00 each or 4 for 200.00 Baseball is one of the things I miss about summer in America, and I am writing this on opening day 2025. I enjoy live baseball of all sorts – young people, local teams, farm teams, college ball.  I imagine finding my place in the stands, sitting in the setting sun, watching the warm up.  I can smell popcorn and hot dogs as I write; cheap beer.  I listen to fellow fan chatter.   Maybe we’ll go to a game in Bologna this summer.   Blair and I followed a college league team one summer (https://baseballpainting.blogspot.com/)  –  it was an early foray into figure painting, which occupies me right now. Eurospin Ranunculas   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   18 x 15"   43 x 38 cm  475.00 Orange Ranunculas   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   17 x 24"   43 x 61 cm  275.00 Our yard and the adjoining fields look like Ireland, they are so green.   The yard is full of some rather creepy puff balls which turned out to be (according to google lens) pine tree truffles.  We did not eat; mice did.  The wild flowers are coming on, and I’ve made a planter of wild primroses and pinky/purple flowers (lungwort).   Our ranunculas from the Eurospin are outstanding. The week has been taken up with sending out painting files for potential shows.  I am always a bit skeptical when they want me to talk about the painting – why did you paint this, and what are you saying.  In fact, I am sitting at my easel letting my muse work through my own hand.  I think most artists, visual, literary or musical are doing the same.  Take that, AI.   Magic is involved. We just got back after 4 weeks in Stimigliano, the potatoes I left in a cool, dark place had sprouted enormous eyes (why can I never stop that?).   I thought about planting them, but potatoes aren’t pretty in the yard.   I decided I could toss the potatoes, baseball style, out into the field beyond our house: like spring training, and later I’d see if they grew.    One potato, two potato, and on the windup for the third, Berlino stood in the path of my 95 mile-per-hour fast potato.  I clocked him in the snout, and he cried out in pain.  I immediately got down to his level (after chasing him -- he was scared of me!) and took a look.  No blood, but I did find some nasty tooth decay, which had nothing to do with the clobber.   Lungwort  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper  8 x 11.5  21 x 29cm  90.00 A trip to the vet ensued, and a cleaning/extraction.  In fact, it turned out the tooth which looked so poorly was a baby tooth that had never fallen out.  With sparkly white teeth and minus a milk tooth, the bill was the cost of a family of four in the bleachers at Fenway.   Sign up for Artnotes by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: The Next Hand

 

Red Ranunculas   Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  16 x 14"   40 x 35 cm  450.00

“What if it’s wonderful?” I ask Blair, my only audience.  “What if when our money is worthless, friends and family live in a separate world, we are at our wits end, and we do something completely different? And it’s WONDERFUL?”    Tell me another one, Pollyanna.  Figures, Words    Laurie Fox Pessemier  8 x 6"   20 x 15 cmAcrylic/paper  90.00 What seems like a million years ago, when our business went kaput, our dog died, and everything we imagined and worked for had changed, we moved halfway around the world to Paris with almost no money.   My first few days there I woke up thinking I’d never be lighthearted again, and then, somehow, the sun came out, the birds sang, and we were smiling.  It got better and better and better.  Blair and I started painting again.   We felt that lightness that comes from being free.  We embarked on a new, better life. You can’t do anything when you are clinging onto the past.  Let go of the flotsam and jetsam, and when you see it, swim toward a new shore. The Show   Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas  13 x 16"   33 x 40cm   475.00 I have been reading Vlacav Havel’s letters from Prison.   He was a poet/playwright dissident who led the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.  A bit of a Pollyanna, like me, he accentuated the positive aspects of his hard labor prison time.   He wrote, and thought while enduring horrible conditions.  I regret the poems and plays he never got to write; but yes, he later became president of the Czech Republic (1989-1992) leading and inspiring so many  people. Human    Laurie  Pessemier  Acrylic/paper   9 x 12"  24 x 30 cm   90.00 Another remarkable story of this ilk is from Italy, the Island of Ventotene.  Mussolini set up prison camp (actually on an adjacent island, Santo Stefano), from the remnants of a Bourbon jail built two centuries earlier.  700 opponents of Fascism were housed here, including Altiero Spinelli, who, with some fellow prisoners, wrote the “Ventotene Manifesto” in 1941.  This document became the basis for the European Union in 1984, adopted as the   “Draft Treaty Establishing the European Union”, or the “Spinelli Plan”.    It is very timely right now, as the enormous population of the EU is forming their defense. I am looking for that next hand to grasp, for the next turn in the road. I am writing and painting and remaining ultra-aware of future possibilities.   It will be summer again. Rolling Over    Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/paper 9 x 12"  24 x 30 cm  90.00 Sign up for Artnotes by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  NO POLITICS please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 7PM; NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM  (NOTE -- we are accomodating the US time change this week )