Artnotes: Italy's Superbowl

 

16Lips  Laurie Fox Pessemier  acrylic/paper  17x 23.5"   40 x 63cm   275.00

The press is comparing Italy’s San Remo Music Festival to the US Super Bowl.  Puccini would be proud.  It’s interesting what countries value.  America is like Greece at the time of the original Olympics, or maybe like Roman Empire at its heyday with the gladiators.  Strength (and strategy?) above all.   Maybe it is more a function of that country’s place in the world at the time.  Japan had Samurai, and Saudi Arabia Camel Racing.   Poland has a Chopin competition. Traveling Together on the Train   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   13 x 16"   33 x 41cm   475.00 It’s snowing today, Valentine’s Day.  A Valentine’s Day past, we ate lunch at the “Bivouac d’Emperor” in Waterloo, in the snow.  The chubby little proprietor was playing Christmas carols, and his waiter was having a fit.  We found it most entertaining, and ate Belgian fries with mayonnaise and a hearty stew. Normally, we’d dine out today (a heart shaped pizza?), but I got five stitches with the removal of a tooth (in Bologna) this week; it was truly a hammer and tongs experience. I made meatloaf and we had Champagne for Valentine’s Day. It’s my first solid food and the stitches come out on Friday next.   Berlino is amazed at the snow – I am worried about my wild daffodil blossoms.   It is beautiful, in any case.  Slippery and unlikely to stick because the ground isn’t frozen.  Spring Flowers  Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/paper  17x 23.5"   40 x 63cm   275.00 It’s an optional holiday here – no big deal, but Maria had on a pink sweater at the café this morning, and the church of San Valentino in Stimigliano is open for its single day of the year.   I wore my red octopus dress – what’s says Valentine more than an octopus? Valentine Flowers  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   16 x 10.5"   41 x 27cm   475.00 The sun should come out on Saturday and melt all this frosting.  It’s still winter. We went to Bologna this week – it’s a wonderful city, with great windows beneath lovely porticoes.  You can always paint outside there, even if it rains. Sketches   Laurie Fox Pessemier   There are lots of these sketches:  nudes, women and men; loose portraiture; detail bits.  I can send you photos of all of them, if you are interested.   Without shipping, they are 25.00 each; please add 35 more for shipping, up to 15 pictures. 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: Seeing Beauty Everywhere

 

It’s another enormously sunny day in Rocca Malatina.  Harika is in the shady car, aka her dog house, getting her morning beauty rest.  I am fighting the mosquitoes and praying for cooler weather.

Italian Dinner at the Lake   Blair Pessemier 12 z 20"  30 x 50cm  525.00

We went to the most fabulous luncheon party on Ferragosto on 15 August.  It was one of those magical, beneath the trees, long-tabled affairs that scream:  ITALY.  Casual, yet elegant.  Umbrellas, chaise-longes, dogs cadging tidbits, views like a picture puzzle.   Antipasti, a pasta course, vitello-tonnato, cinghiale, and of course, dessert and coffee and digestivi – a perfect meal, rolled out by everyone there, but mostly courtesy of our hostess and her friends.   Italians, and their Roman predecessors, love the month of August, and Augustus, in about the year 17, made it a permanent party.

Demijon on the Landing   Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/paper 25 x 17"  63 x 41 cm   350.00

Here in late August, I finally have two cucumbers on my plant, now, after a least 50 blossoms.  I actually used some of them in cooking.  My two tomato plants have only produced three tomatoes, which are not yet red, despite being planted (as plants) back in May.  It was a similar “all hat, no cattle” situation with them, but their blossoms were too feeble to eat.  I didn’t get any heavenly-blue morning glory flowers (Blair considers them weeds, anyway), nor did I get any sweetpea blossoms, which truly are a weedy flower (two separate plantings of each, fussing with the seeds).  Kale and Spinach, planted from organic seed, were very strong, and we ate every French Radish, from the same gift box.  Carrots sluggish, but not nearly as sluggish as the ones I planted 4 May and still don’t have any. Nasturtiums are passable. My petunias have been stellar, as are my geraniums.  Both of those came from plants.   Gardening is clearly not one of my strengths.

My thoughts are on traveling whenever that may be possible once again. We are thinking of taking the Silk Road from Uzbekistan (Nukus (museum)) to Samarkand, to Western China.  It will be a more-than-month excursion, but I am longing for something completely different.  I am focusing on getting into condition, having an open mind, and seeing beauty everywhere.

Portrait on Old Music   Laurie Fox Pessemier    Collage    12 x 9"  30 x 23 cm  275.00

This week Blair will present his sliverware at the Sunday Salon, along with a painter from Toronto, and another from the DC area.   How about you?

Accordion   Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/music   12 x 9"  30 x 24 cm  275.00

Calling All Artists to present their Work at Pessemier's Sunday Salon Sunday, 8:00 – 10:00pm Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85625088767?pwd=WldKRk9VbUVITWtRS0FFK2JwdGEwQT09 Description:Laurie Pessemier is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85625088767?pwd=WldKRk9VbUVITWtRS0FFK2JwdGEwQT09 Meeting ID: 856 2508 8767 Passcode: 887182 If you would like to remote paint with us, sign up on www.pessemierworkshops.com