Artnotes: Sewing Up a Storm

 

It’s been two week of holidays, events and extremes.   We had a workshop-lite companion over the last extended (Easter) weekend – a challenging event because her suitcase never arrived (we picked it up at the airport as she left for the next leg of her journey)!   I shared my clothes that were too small on me – herself being about 6 inches shorter than me. Geranium, Trees dark Trees light  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  11.5 x 8"  90.00 each We managed to paint a few good canvases.  I worked on acrylic on paper heralding the flowers of springtime.   We visited the Palazzo di Te in Mantova, reveling in the room of the Giants.   The highlight of the trip was a day in Venice.  It was shortly after that Blair came down with E. Coli.  It is not clear it had anything to do with Venice; we have a dog that eats many untoward things one must pry from his maw; and a garden that used to be a horse yard.  Blair is looking brighter today. Apple Blossoms  Laurie Pessemier acrylic/paper  10  x 14"   25 x 35cm   125.00 We hadn’t been to Venice in five years or so.  Since our last visit, the Campanile at San Marco has been reunovated so one can climb it  (we didn’t).  The cruise ships are gone, which is quite a relief.   The Vaporettos were crowded, our visit coinciding with Pasquetta, or Easter Monday, the “lay” holiday in Italy.    Mostly, we rode around on on the deck of  the boat,  had lunch with the orchestra playing at the square of San Marco, and building and people-watched.  There is nothing more beautiful than those Byzantine arches alongside their Renaissance counterparts.  I so want to live in Venice, where people from all over the world have sat elbow-to-elbow since the days of Marco Polo.    The glockenspiel wasn’t active, as the Pope had just died that morning.   Many Italians take his passing very hard.  He was the last voice of compassion in a dog-eat-dog world.   Friends are going to the funeral today. Deep Purple Iris    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  11.5 x 8"  90.00 We had a second guest on the heels of the first – his flight was severely delayed and with Blair’s horrible condition (4 days in bed and counting), it was a mighty stretch for me to be a good hostess.   Of course, Berlino loves company and uses it to his advantage to spend as long as possible outdoors, requiring a chase to render him indoors for the night. My sewing machine arrived, and I made curtains (not very good) for the guest bedroom.  I’ve been sewing up a storm between meals and laundry and dog-walking.   I am thinking of sewing up a collection of flowers. NOTES: All of our work is now available as reproductions, on paper, canvas and framed.    Also, I am sending this out as a "salon" reminder.  If you don't want to receive Artnotes, please let me know and we'll figure out something else. 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: Happy New Year

 

Daffs  Laurie Fox Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 16 x 13"  41 x 33cm 450.00

Well, it really is SPRING.  Happy Nowruz to all my Persian friends.  I have to say, it makes sense to think of the new year starting when the trees and flowers come back to life.  I guess I could make this my New Year.  Really, what difference would that make? I read recently about a family that stayed on Daylight Savings time all year round.  Of course, they had to adjust for appointments and such, but really when I hear all the anguish friends go through, even retired ones, over the time change, that seemed like a sound idea.  Me, I just sleep when it’s dark, unless I have a more exciting engagement, which hasn’t happened for a year now.   This program works for Harika, too.

Apricot Blossoms  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  22 x 15"  55 x 38cm  620.00

Which brings me to the new 3 minute art show we’re preparing:  April in Paris:  Chestnuts in Blossom.   It takes us about three weeks to put it together, selecting work, stretching it onto canvas.  Maybe we’ll add a piece or two to existing stock.  I fear April in (real) Paris might be a trifle bleak this year, with yet another lockdown there.   Life has changed forever.

Plum Blossoms  Laurie Fox Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 16 x 8"  40  x 20 cm   450.00

Blair and I have been painting flowers and trees around our yard.  It’s best to paint outside but it has been frigidly cold.  The sky is that very dark mountain blue, that makes it seem you can see all the way to heaven.

Cherry Blossoms in the Neighbor's Yard   Laurie Fox  Pessemier  acrylic/canvas 16 x 12"  40 x 30 cm   450.00

The idea of heaven above and hell below seem very remote to me. I am freaked out by Dante’s description of the levels of hell and despite a half-dozen tries, I have never made it through that entire section of the book.   As a child attending catholic school, I was fascinated by the idea of hell.  My best pal, Rita, and I tried digging a hole to hell in my back yard.  We added water to ease the excavation, executed with large spoons.  When we were not more than 5 inches down, I was stung on the arm by a wasp, no doubt dispatched by the devil.

Violets in the Wall  BlairPessemier  14 x 10.5"  35 x 27cm  375.00

The bees are barely out because it is so cold, so I have taken to pollinating my fruit trees myself.  It’s an alternate use for the paintbrush.  Happy New Year.

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Artnotes: If you don't like the Weather....

 Almond blossoms   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  15 x 15"  40 x 40 cm   sold

 ​Blossoms in March    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  12 x 15"  30 x 40 cm

 Snow in the Trees    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   12 x 15"    30 x 40 cm

 ​Violets growing in the Rock   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas 10 x 14"   25 x 35cm

 ​Through the Chapel Window   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/panel   12 x 12"  30 x 30cm

Winter and Spring   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas   9 x 12"   24 x30 cm

Artnotes:  if you don’t like the weather…

My father always jokes, a la Mark Twain, “if you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.”   This is soon to be the global mantra.

The week began with heavy fog, which cleared up by Wednesday morning, for Blair and I  to paint the almond blossoms and to lunch outside.  Not far from our house, we could see the Alps, 200 miles away.    That afternoon Blair bought two black cypress trees at the garden store (Ludovico, the gardener said, “ I’ll plant them next week.”) and I planted primrose and violets.    On Thursday morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow, which continued most of the day.  The eight or so inches froze, then we got the strongest winds  I have ever experienced, Friday evening through Saturday afternoon (Otto at the café assures me this is not normal).  Trees toppled, and the lids flew off our 4 foot tall terra cotta planters.  What happened to sunny Italy?

Friends from Corsica visited us on their way to Slovenia, and then on their way back.   The daughter had been making documentary movies in Slovenia for fourteen months, and worked in a refugee center.   She is the only person I know who has actually experienced the “refugee situation”, and it was surprising.   Competing NGOs and encouraging immigration were just part of it.   “Don’t believe the television”, was her advice.   As time goes on, I think the media is constructing our reality, from world conflicts to politics, and I am careful what I read.  Right now I am reading “Nabokov’s Butterflies”.

They brought us dozens of bottles of Bordeaux and cheeses from France.  I don’t mean to complain, but I have had difficulty with Italian wines.   I can taste the heat in the wine, and it makes it hard for me to notice anything else.  Italian wine and duck?  I don’t know.  Of course there is the Barolo, at near 20 a bottle, “the king of wines”.  G, from Iceland, brought us slippers that her mother knitted, and Corsican sausages.   We had feasts and lots of laughs together.

We took the Corsicans (Corsica is that blend of Italian and French – what could be better?)  to our favorite pasta joint in Modena:  Aldini.  It’s an upstairs restaurant, and fashionable diners eat delicious homemade food.    We get the combination of three pastas – if you are going to gorge pasta, may as well go all the way.  Tortellini in brodo; Tortelli with ricotta and spinach, Modenese style; we slipped in a Risotto, and finished with my favorite Lasagna.   Waddle waddle down the stairs and out.   We drank Sangiovese all around – a rather thin wine.

We took a walk through the woods that afternoon, eyeing the incredible amount of violets in bloom. 

Today, the bird sings outside our window to put a good face on things.  Bravissimo!

 Hummingbird Hawkmoth  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/wood  16 x 24"  40 x 60 cm

 The Italian Teacher   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/wood  24 x 16  60 x 40 cm

 View near Castello di Serravalle  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/panel  16 x 13"  41 x 33 cm

 First Daffodil   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/wood  12 x 16 30 x 40 cm

 View Spring Fields   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 20"  30 x 50cm

Tulips in February   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/wood  16 x 12"  30 x 40 cm  

Artnotes:  In Search of Paradise

When we brought Harika to the veterinarian for the first time, in La Marsa, Tunisia, Dr. B said, “you must take this dog.  Whatever you do (go back to France or stay in Tunisia), for her it will be paradise.”  We had not yet committed to the care of Harika for life, but wanted her to have some critical vaccines that many animals lacked in Tunisia.  Of course, the rest is history, and Harika does live in paradise, with her two acre yard, and fine meals, and a good night’s sleep every night, yes, on the bed.  She’s adopted the car (the Cream Puff) as her dog house and sleeps in the backseat a good part of the day.

Blair and I often think we are living in paradise, as well.  Just yesterday, we were sitting in the sun eating our lunch outside in the yard – Harika made a start, and a lovely, dark-ish woman came around the side of the house with a “box” of flowers on a ribbon around her neck.  It made me think of the cigarette girl of former nightclub fame – my mother dressed me up as such for Halloween when I was about 8, and I handed out candy cigarettes, in my leotard with white gloves.  This lady was selling orchids, done up with a bit of shrub, and little colored stones, in glass fishbowls.  It was like a dream – we live in a rural town of just 3000 people, and here was a flower lady, a la francaise, oh la la.

Of course, my romantic husband bought me an orchid, and the woman was delighted.  And I thought, THIS IS PARADISE.

I have been painting flowers this week, a daffodil I plucked from the side of the road on our walk, for one.  In that same area were violets growing in the grass – I picked a handful, with two inch stems.   Blair bought red tulips from up the hill in Zocca, and we had them on the dinner table on Tuesday when friends came over.

Our divine and wonderful landlady came by today with the carpenter, and they will make some changes to make our house warmer.   Finally, we tightly shut all the basement windows, replacing a broken one, and even the plants down there don’t seem to mind. 

A hummingbird hawkmoth flew into the living room one evening this week, addressing itself to one of the red metal roses on the chandelier.  It was sadly disappointed, and Blair was able to catch it as it lit on a branch, and then dispatch it into the fading outdoor light.  If you have never seen one, it is an amazing creature:  it looks just like a smallish hummingbird, but with antenna, and it darts around frantically, in search of paradise.