There are periods of our life where nothing transpires -- no business activity, the weather is humdrum, and our art muse goes to sleep.  The lackluster month of July was like that, with many of our friends off on vacation.   During those days, “Solitaire” takes over.  I see my fortune like the game: losing, strategizing, making mistakes, hitting an obstacle, and ultimately winning – so I can go on to something else.  Like the Tarot, but without so much importance.

Ten days ago, a friend’s daughter offered us her atelier to stage an art show.  We snapped into action, printing invitations and mailing them in a mere thirty-six  hours.   The posters were on the street midweek.  And the “Magic Mystery World” theater has been home to paintings by Blair, Odile and me this weekend.

It’s been as if this whole month of September has been “shot from a gun”, with trips to London, lots of visitors, and the show.  The activity has given us new energy – getting up early, walking lots, thinking up new ways to make a life.  The weather is suddenly crisp and we walk fast to get back into the sun to warm up.  Dogs run and yip, as the ponies trot along rue Vaugirard to their post in the Luxembourg Gardens.

Hanging our sixty-one paintings took a couple of hours, but the result was great.  One painting enhanced another, and the studio took on the feeling of the sea.  I sat nervously wondering if anyone would come.

The game of Solitaire is known as Patience in England, and here in France it is called “Success”.  It took me a long time to understand why, when the cards were on the table, visitors would talk about success.   Later, at a friend’s house, I saw a book on “99 ways to play success” – it was a book about Solitaire.

Our Vernissage was Friday night, well attended.  We served champagne, and the aged Mme. Martin told Blair he looked like Bill Clinton.  Only after she identified all of my painted fish, she was sure she had seen before at the Monaco aquarium.  A former French professor, she can't understand a single word I say.

Forty people came and went, and three paintings were sold.  I used all the glasses from my house, and had just enough.  The theme was “En Mer” (in the sea), and we served cold shrimp over ice in a bucket, and little sardine toasts.  Odile’s sailboats and Blair’s  container ships floated above my sea creatures.

The Magic Mystery World is a glass roofed structure with full length windows on the alley it fronts.  It was once an artists’ studio, in the same block were Modigliani, Cezanne, and Giacometti created their immortal works.  The artist next door was a friend of Yves Tingley and has some of his work, along with that of Jackson Pollock (could be a forgery) and Cesar.  We made posters and sidewalk signs to direct customers to us; rue Campagne Premiere is a street we didn’t know before now.

We sit at the studio and wait for customers to turn up.  Old friends drop in and see our work they’ve not seen before.  People we’ve never met stop in and talk about painting.   A man rushes in and wants to know why things aren’t framed.  A dog passes and pees on our sidewalk sign.  People rave over our book about Dunkirk and tell us about harbors we should paint next. 

I struggle to find time to write artnotes, and know it is yet a part of the game:  Solitaire, Patience, Success.

Laurie (text) and Blair (painting) PESSEMIER

Unloading Containers (from imagination) oil on linen 15" x 20"