Spring (inspired by Botticelli) Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/oil pastel/canvas 36 x 23.5″ 92 x 60 cm 695.00 I alternate between thinking I will ace this upcoming Italian language test and imagining dismal failure. I can carry on a fairly lengthy conversation and then I don’t understand the simplest question. When I came to Italy, I only imagined speaking Italian — not writing, or conjugating all … Continue reading Artnotes: Retirement
White Rhino Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/oil pastel/canvas 27 x “41 70 x 104cm 795.00 Sometime I like animals more than I like people. Animals (excluding humans) are honest, don’t start wars or attack other animals just for the fun of it (well, maybe cats). Animals rarely misunderstand my good intentions, and I can often just admire them from afar. So it’s a natural, I guess, … Continue reading Artnotes: At the Zoo
16 April 2022 Stimigliano, RI Italia Poppies Laurie Fox Pessemier 10 x 14″ 25 x35 cm Acrylic/cardboard 350.00 Why is it that nothing happens for months and months, then suddenly in one week, everything exciting transpires? Mario’s House in Stimigliano Blair Pessemier Commission This week we shared a fabulous painting workshop with a young woman. We painted still lifes, portraits, landscapes and abstracts. I took chances on new ideas and … Continue reading Artnotes: Exhilarating
Italy is going into a total lockdown once again. We are planning to drive to the big house tomorrow, because if you are going to be stuck at home, it may as well be a big one, with a yard (ask Harika). The contagion is worse there, but it’s bad here too. If you’re not going out, what difference will it make? I can clip … Continue reading Artnotes: A Dark Hour
Enrico Bruschini gave us his book, In the Footsteps of the Popes, a guide to the Vatican, a few weeks ago. Since then, we’ve been itching to put his recommendations to work. So on a particularly slow morning, we decided to drive to Rome and see St. Peter’s. We’d both seen it in the 1970s, but not been there since. Classic buildings never change, but this … Continue reading Artnotes: A Putti Toe
Blair tripped on the top step of six risers. Why is that so funny? Laughing, I did the same thing. Maybe not as funny; clearly that top step was a half and inch taller. Then the fellow in the booth of the gated community had the last laugh. “Villa 52 is to the right.” A woman with long ash blonde hair, greeted us as we … Continue reading Artnotes: Handmade
We had just gone to bed last night (early!) when I heard a woman chanting outside our window. This was Good Friday, and the parish of Stimigliano was parading the dead Jesus statue around the town. I had seen the statue, an alarming polychromed slightly-larger-than-lifesize affair, on a black platform, with handles, in the church earlier in the day. A statue of the crying Marie … Continue reading Happy Easter!
I am sure the twenty-one people who signed up to paint a 12 x 12” square for the putting it all together project are wondering where their picture is. Well, I am still trying to figure out how to cut up the image on the computer. When I did this, all I had to do was the math and take out a pair of scissors … Continue reading Artnotes: Sifting Through
“Will it be cold down there?” I asked. “On the contrary, it is very warm and humid”. I have never been interested in seeing catacombs, but here we were in Rome, and there was a parking place just in front of the door to the Catacombs of Priscilla. A year ago when we went by there, I thought it was some kinky brothel; in … Continue reading Artnotes: Down Below
At St Peter’s Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 24″ 40 x 50cm 400.00 On Monday, we mailed a package from the Vatican Post Office in Rome. I got out of the car this time, and was distressed to see the marvelous piazza of St Peters chock full of chairs and barriers. It is one of those incredible spaces that depends on its pavement to be … Continue reading Artnotes: Acknowledgement
Artnotes Italy 