Saturday, March 25, 2017

Artnotes: On Tuesday


 Begonia   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  19.5 x 8"  50 x 20 cm

 Daffy-dills   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 12"  30 x 30cm

Baroque Tree in Bloom   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  ​12 x 18  30 x 45cm

Trees by the Tennis Courts  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   10 x 14"  25 x 35 cm​  

Carrots  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  8 x 19.5 "  20 x 50 cm

Artnotes:  On Tuesday

Three people, on foot, were stopped in our driveway.  We were coming home from a walk with Harika.

Buona Sera, I shouted – after 3PM in the afternoon one says, Buona Sera (good evening).  They all smiled and went on to ask, because we were English speakers, would we be interested in trading English lessons for Italian lessons? 

On Tuesday we went to see the gas company about our bill – in our broken Italian we protested the outrageous price we are paying for heat.  The lady behind the desk pointed out that our consummation was nearly double the year before.  How could that be?  We had our windows sealed, some replaced, and made other heat-retaining measures.  You need to have your furnace looked at, she told us, in her perfect Italian.  And she took 800 euros, one third, off of our second bill.  Hooray.

The family wanting to speak English came by on Tuesday.   We toured our house, and assessed one another’s capabilities.   On Thursday, we tackled the subject of “the kitchen”:  names of appliances, how to read a cookbook.  The girl read aloud, in English, a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which I made according to her instruction, and we all ate.

We went to an opening of a show of marvelous etchings by our Italian teacher’s late husband, held at the Accademia di Belle Arti Bologna.  The Accademia is the most beautiful building, built in the first half of the 18th century.  The main event room, which we occupied, was painted in very pale pink and blue.  The columns remained white, as did trim.  It was a departure from what we might have seen in France, and a refreshingly lovely treatment.   Baroque.

We took a cab to the show from the parking area, after having walked a half mile in the wrong direction.  I love to take taxis, and it was a sparkling clean electric cab.   I inspected the driver – he refused two calls while we were in the car; he charged us just 5 euros, even though it read 5.65 on the meter.   When we are in cab, Blair can look around, as well.  One can’t drive in Bologna, anyway, as it is a “no car” city, except for residents, buses and taxis.   We are strongly considering renting an apartment in Bologna for a week, so we could just study the city, and paint.

Bologna is a uniquely lovely place:  tall loggias, terrazzo sidewalks, everything in color.  On Tuesday night I saw a man in a café, with his dog on his lap, which would have made the nicest painting.

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