Artnotes: Two Second Flutter

 

25 January 2026   Roccamalatina, MO   ITALIA Join us for Sunday Salon  25 January (see below) Po Delta  Spoonbills  Laure Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  11 x 6.5  16 x 28 cm 150.00 Berlino had a great week – his fun and accomplishments outshine ours.    He caught and released a shrew after carrying it down the path.  He’s a bird dog, careful not to ruffle the feathers, and the shrew appeared to be healthy and unharmed.  Not so untouched was I, who tried to pry it out of his jaws (will it hurt me?) before my nonchalant dog just dropped it. I lost my hat and my headlight in a puddle.  He’s learned to pee in the water gulley by by suspending himself between the path (back legs) to the hill (front legs):  lots of area covered with this technique. Eurasian Nuthatch   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  7.5 x 10”   19 x 25cm  90.00 I record bird calls on the walk:  8 that day. Not so bad considering the fog and light rain.  I miss the birds when they are not present.  It is not unusual to hear 20 different songs in as many minutes in the spring and summer.   Merlin (Cornell’s bird app, courtesy my friend Jennifer) said there were 171 likely birds in the Guiglia area this day.  I was happy with eight and painted pictures of two.   In the larger picture (Emilia Romagna) there are hundreds (390) more birds just an hour or so car drive away, including spoonbills, flamingoes, ibis and osprey who all pass through the Po Delta.  Glossy Ibis Po Valley    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  6.5 x 11”  16 x 28cm   150.00 We entertained for lunch this week:  cauliflower soup, duck breast with a cherry gastrique, and pommes sarladaises.   0 kilometer sourcing:  actually, maybe 20 (how can they ever say 0?).  We have some great food raised in our area.   Our guest made an apple cake (her apples) for dessert.   It wasn’t an Italian menu, but neither are we.  Zero Kilometer (Pike Place Market memory)  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas    18: x 22"  46 x 55   490.00 I am trying hard to make it through all this “indoor” time.  Bernie and I go out to walk in the morning, but frankly, I am tired of being holed up in the house for much of the day.  I read poems about being indoors looking out the window.  Poet John O’Donohue from Ireland is good for that one – I am anticipating reading his books that I just found today.   Crab  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas    9.5: x 13"  24 x 33  390.00 There is a silver lining to the shut-in-ness.  Yesterday, I spoke with three friends on the telephone (or zoom). I visited with others during the week; Blair, too    I really need to talk and hear my correspondent cast a light on what is being said.   They tell me how they deal with the horrors of the world; what they think is important for food, for beauty; books that open a new perspective;  their totally shocking point of view (and sometimes my own which I hear for the first time).   And during that talk, I feel that same two-second flutter in my chest when I know how much I love them.   It is the feeling I felt when we first connected.  Or maybe, just maybe, today is our connection. Po Delta Migrating bird (Stork or Heron) Laure Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  11 x 6.5  16 x 28 cm 150.00 We drove the short distance to the junk store and bought a Chinese dish, two potholders and a stuffed badger for Berlino for all of 8 euros.  He tears it apart in record time, but that beast beneath the fig tree has been bugging him for a year.  Hmmph. Eurasian Green Woodpecker      Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  7.5 x 10”   19 x 25cm  90.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier or Blair's @poeticfences See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and frames Support our art with a donation at:  https://donate.stripe.com/4gMaEW1XwfT041t1BCcEw00   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: Italian Cloudbank

 

Drinking Angel at Freising    Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  11.5 x 8"  30 x 20 cm   110.00

“I want to write a funny Artnotes,” I tell Blair.  But nothing funny has happened for a while.  Maybe that’s not true.  Funny were the Nuns running a coffee shop out of an Airstream trailer this week, next door to the Basilica in Freising.  It was pouring rain and the two bruisers would dash out from a secure building to the Airstream, after which we dashed with our macchiati (the only good coffee we’ve had in almost a month) to the nearby pavilion to drink it.   And the church was DIVINE. From the Window at Murnau Laurie Pessemier  acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30 cm   385.00 Funny is Berlino walking up to other dogs who seem to think he’s invisible.  He approached a Labrador, even, who didn’t as much as bat an eyelash at Bernie’s big beautiful presence.  He tried a daschund: no dice.  These dogs were TRAINED to mind their own business.   A crestfallen Berlino ignored the next daschund and walked to the car.  Nuts. Flea Comb   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 13 x 9"  33 x 22  385.00 Funny is driving to the wrong flea market.  We did that, last Saturday.   The flea market we go to is near a large horse farm.  There is a smell, and then the horses.  We walk toward the colorful booths, the cheerful banter.   The flea market we ended up at was the one at the old Olympics site – the efficient GPS picked up on the term flea market (never mind it wasn’t active this day), and not the one we last visited.  If that’s our biggest mistake on the trip, BRAVO! Horses by the Flea  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  24 x 18"   61 x 46cm  490.00 Sometimes I like getting lost – that thrill of being mixed up.   It’s like wandering down a street, and finding a pigment store.  Yesterday, after visiting the Brandhorst museum, I walked across the road and voila, a store selling powdered paint pigments.   Flowers on Vintage Paper Laurie Pessemier Ink/paper  8.5  x 11" 21 x 29cm  120.00 each. The show, Five Friends, featured the work of Cy Twombly (a favorite), Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham (dance) and John Cage (music).   The group collaborated on many projects and was continually inspired by the same events from the 50s, 60s, 70s.   These were the stars of my own art education, and I looked at the work with nostalgic affection.  Inpirations like the man on the moon; the Kennedys; the giant jump into abstraction and beyond.  All of the art shows we have seen have been the result of a number of artists being at the same place in the same time and making “music”.    Funny Flippers  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 4.5 x 8"  11 x 20cm  75.00 It would be terrific to be in a throng of like-minded art people – in a way, the Salon attempts to do that, and there are some folks I feel right on with.   I can’t wait to start up the Salon again (it has been off for July), and maybe this fall do some outreach to increase our numbers.  Maybe we can even collaborate on projects or have a show together – the Italian Cloudbank? The Silver Lining   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 10.5 x 16"  27 x 41cm  385.00 HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier. Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our painting at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes

Artnotes: Even if it Rains

Here Comes the Sun  Laurie Fox Pessemier  acrylic/paper  17x 23.5"   40 x 63cm   275.00

The wisdom of old age isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.  What one takes for wisdom might just be the scales falling from our eyes (that can be good or bad), or heaven forbid, depression.  The passion of my youth is wavering.  I have had to limit the time I spend reading the news – or I will truly believe things won’t work out. Deckhand  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   18 x 14"   46 x 35cm   475.00 I can never remember a stretch of time this long in Italy with such poor weather.   “My mood ring is just too scary to look at today” (to quote a friend).  I lie in bed each morning, planning the day – I thought I’d empty the shed out back, but it’s just too cold and damp.   Even Berlino has to come in and warm up every so often. Woman in Chartreuse and Red  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  11.5 x "8  29 x 20cm  50.00 What has been an exciting, positive and passionate introduction to my art life has been painting the figure, online.  The models are good, women and men, various ages – and there are one, two and five minute poses.  Of course, I can extend things with the miracle of the computer, but I try to stick to the regime.  I am getting ready for the summer, when I can paint at outdoor cafes – capturing those two minute espressos at the bar.    I am offering them for sale – 3 images for 100.00 (or 50 each/price includes shipping worldwide).  Boys or girls?  Neutral or colored?  I printed up brochures for our painting workshops this week.  I am going to try to offer them up here in the Roccamalatina area – we seem to have more and more tourists up here trying to beat the heat.  And we will offer services in Modena and Bologna, as well as Rome, in the shoulder season (it’s just too hot there in summer).   We need to earn some money, just in case. 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. 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