Stay Happy -- it helps

Steven and me dancing in the studio
(former living room)

Photo

Chris Muir ©

I know it's the wrong time of year, but it's the right time for this.  There's been 
some sad news this week, and we're trying to hold on to joy.  Tonight
we had dinner at our favourite IKEA (I kid you not the salmon is so good)

and met such nice people.  Three great friends, parents with babies, a

woman organizing a new set up.  And later in Loblaws I met a fashion
designer.

On the way home the great song Imagine by the Beatles came on, and I

nearly cried, but I didn't. Peace is what we need.

Have a loving your life day!

Keep going

 

Wonderful news

Watercolour and marker
on watercolour paper
9 x 11 inches
Barbara Muir © Revised 2025
went home from the Off The Wall show
SOLD ♥

Austin Kleon is coming out with a new book soon, and I recommend
reading everything he's written about creativity. The book Keep
Going (see link attached to his name) would be ideal for the present
moment, when the news seems to be more horrific daily.  As an artist
painting in my studio I do feel powerless about the famine and murderous
war in Gaza, and now the U.S. Israeli war involving the whole middle
east -- which seems beyond insane. It feels like we've learned nothing.

But as artists we do have a purpose.  Mine is to highlight the beauty and
joy and kindness I see. That's pretty simple, and some people would
think simplistic.  But that's it. If we are not living in a war zone we
are lucky. 

Have a loving your life day!

Trying to let March be The Month of Exuberance

Irises in bloom

Photo
Barbara Muir © 2021

(When I first posted this photo my artist
 friend Daniel Bordi had been
talking about the importance

of details on Instagram. I

am working on a large
Paris scene that has so many
details I need to take deep
breaths and walk away every now

and then.  And as Daniel
Bordi said, sooner or later
they will add up to art.)

It has been a good day. I had to fast while I was painting 
because I had a medical appointment.

And yes as I drank the allowed water I thought of people
all over the world who are experiencing famine because
of insane wars and cruel policies.

These Irises are one of my favourite flowers.  And as I've
said before flowers hold out hope.  In my own world, in

my studio, March is the Month of Exuberance and has to
be as I'm in a show in April with two other amazing
artists. 

Now it's out for short walk to try and be in the now.

I wish you a very happy day tomorrow. Your work and
your exuberance make me feel great joy. A pretty amazing
accomplishment in these strange times. 

Have a loving your life day! 

Super busy -- and I love resting between bouts of painting

After the nap

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 

I did have a nap today after painting all day -- in this bed.  Trying to
stay positive -- the curly part in this drawing fell off this morning.
The bed is a heirloom, probably 100 years old, but it seems like
me reading is too much for it.  Now the exciting part of figuring out
how to put it back together.  I'm glad I married a carpenter (one among
his many other skills!)

I labeled a piece about the drawing The Art of Exhaustion, and I'm
going to share what I wrote in that post tonight:

"Is the art of exhaustion a real thing?  I don't know.  I've been painting
all day on and off, and when I stop, I've been lying down or reading --
and sinking into exhaustion.

What I've been working on is not ready to show you. So Please accept a
drawing I quite like of my bed after a nap," (before today's temporary
damage.)

Have a loving your life day.

At the lake today
Photo
Barbara Muir © 2026

I want to talk about happiness tonight because we had a
great time down at the lake today watching a spectacular sunset.

And we took a short walk even though it was -6 Celsius (cold).

When taught Positive Psychology I learned that happiness was

a learned emotion. True it helps if you grow up around very
happy people, and it also helps if you're a person who seeks
out that emotion.  An an exercise I did with my
class  helped students (and me) think in positive ways.  

It's called:
10 Reasons to be Happy 
1. I just had a fabulous dinner that Steven prepared.
2.  It was a beautiful day and we walked down by the lake and saw the
geese flying in and landing on the water.
3. I am happy because I have a loving husband.
4. I am happy because I have a loving family.
5.  I am happy because I have kind, funny friends around
the world.
6.  I am happy because I'm an artist, and I love making art.
7. I'm happy that I meet amazing people wherever I go.
8. I'm happy that I live in Canada -- so happy about that.
9. I'm happy that I've learned how to be happy, and am
still learning, and think I will learn more and more for the
rest of my life. And I'm grateful for all that my and Instagram
friends and blog friends have taught me on the subject.
10. I'm happy that I've learned to love myself enough to
choose only to be with kind, funny people.
11. I'm happy that I don't believe in horoscopes, superstition
or most dogma. (A very nice woman who just met me asked me what my 
horoscope was yesterday. I told her that I once almost didn't get an assistant

editor job because the manager thought I had the wrong sign.  He cared
so much that he did my horoscope and found out I had another sign rising.

I got the job, and from then on have had zero interest in the subject.  It

seems crazy like all of the other systems used to divide us. The boss it
turned out was very kind and I liked working for him.)
12.  I'm happy that I love to read and I have more than one
wonderful book.
13.  As usual I'm so happy that I could keep going here all night, but I
won't.
14.  I'm happy that I learned how to make mental lists of 20 things I love --
small things --like the lemons in the glass bowl on the table in front of me.

That makes me happy. 

The world is increasingly fraught, and we artists have to stay
focused on our purpose. Happiness helps that. 

Have a loving your life day! 

Missing my father on his birthday

Portrait of my father 
black marker on bond paper
7 x 9 inches
Barbara Muir © 

Although this has been a great day making art with family artists,
it's also a hard day in some ways.  My father is in my thoughts.
His birthday was today, and he has been gone too long. I don't
think anyone in my family ever made a big deal of my father's
birthday. Too bad because my immediate family is very celebratory. 

What I've said in former years on this day with some revisions says it all:

"Happy Birthday to my father, who died way too young. I found an
old journal of mine talking about his love of photography, and how
he bought himself the best equipment.  I passed some of his gear
on to my older son, and to a neighbour who was studying photography
at Metro Toronto University. My father's photography is amazing and
does stand the test of time.

Girl pretending to smoke

 a chocolate cigarette

8 x 10 inches

Photo

W. W. Muir

(One of my all time favourite

photos by my father. He worked
almost exclusively in black and white.
His colour photos are good too.

Chocolate cigarettes are not

cigarettes -- just candy. And yes
you can still buy them.  They
call them candy sticks and they're

wrapped in white paper, and look
like cigarettes.  And no that girl
is not a smoker as an adult!)

And his art was also wonderful. I only have one painting, which is in our
front bedroom, and every time I look at it, I marvel at his talent, with
no instruction whatsoever. He read books about art, and that was
how he learned.  I wish he was here.  He was a complicated
man, a harsh disciplinarian in our younger years, and a staunch 
supporter of me and my art, and writing when I was starting out."

He would be delighted that I'm having a show with two friends
this April.  I hear him encouraging me every time I go and stare
at his beautiful painting of flowers. 

Have a loving your family day.

Thinking of spring

 

Robin earns his stripes

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 

This painting seems right for tonight, because tomorrow's the last day of
February and in March everyone is thinking of spring. Today our immense 

snow banks are melting a bit, it was a slightly warmer day, and very
beautiful.

We had a super time, and are so happy it's the weekend! Yes!

About the grim world news all I can say is help if you can,
and if you can't contribute financially to help,  please do
everything you can in your power to help create 
positive change.  

Have a loving your life day!