Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Steven and I dancing with

glow sticks in our

 kitchen St. Patrick's Day party

I love this photo from years ago of me and Steven dancing in
the kitchen with glow sticks we bought for the St. Patrick's Day
festivities we have whenever possible with our family.

Today we had dinner with each other, and our son Sam was on the
phone.  We drank a little bit of green champagne. As different
as it was celebrating alone, we had so much fun talking to Sam
as he wished us the luck of the Irish.

I love how this photo is like abstract art.  We put  up a garland of
large Shamrocks last night, and the kitchen looks very festive.

If you like celebrating St, Patrick's Day, I hope you had a great time.

Here's a quote from a former blog:

"No I am not Irish, but way back some of my ancestors
fled France for Ireland, and then Ireland for Canada.
So in fact I'm more French than Irish.

One year when my children were small we bought them 

green toys and hula hoops, and green candy and had green

ginger ale, and green champagne for the adults, and a tradition

was born." So Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Have a loving your life day.

Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day and Painting

 

Lucky Shamrocks

acrylic on birch,

5 x 5 inches

 Barbara Muir © 

SOLD ♥

Today I've been painting like crazy, and picked up our beautiful
invitations to the Colour of Light exhibition in April at the
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. I will be handing those out
wherever I go until the are last opening is over.

Meanwhile Steven and I are also getting ready for a Happy St. Patrick's Day.
It will be a small dinner this year -- just Steven and me, but we're decorating 
tonight. This painting (sold) shows shamrock flowers which are delicate,
not the hearty, shiny green people decorate with for March 17--

St. Patrick's Day.   My mother said that the Poindexters, our "Irish"

relatives were Huguenots, who fled France for Ireland, and then fled Ireland 

for Canada settling near what is now Perth, Ontario. By that time they were 

Pounders. I don't know any relatives with this name. 

Those ancestors lived in harrowing times fleeing persecution and famine.  
Our family made up of Scottish, English, Irish, French and Italian on my side,

and Dutch and Indonesian on Steven's side started celebrating this

day when the children were little.  And because children have

fabulous memories you can't have a special celebration once, so

we continue to celebrate every year. And will again tomorrow!
Green champagne and some green food -- salad or broccoli. I hope
you have a good one.

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow..  

Bedazzled again

 

Boy in a red tie on a starry night

watercolour quick study

watercolour on Arches watercolour paper

10 x 14 inches

Barbara Muir © 

(I think it was the quick part of

Laura Starett's idea of the

20 minute study that appealed

to me. Time is so short this week.)

I posted this painting in 2010. That's 16 years ago, and a lot has
happened since then, but I like the fact that I did the painting 
in 20 minutes.  So cool.  My beautiful older son as a kid.

I am working on something that's taking weeks. Maybe that's
appropriate, but the speedy person inside me is impatient.
I will get it finished.  So much detail.  

Sixteen years ago in this day I was dazzled by the night sky. 
Today Steven and I went for a long walk by Lake Ontario. 
There was a very strong wind, and the waves were magnificent
-- leaping against the shore.  Magnificent.

Have a loving your life day!

Happy Pi Day

 

 Stand Back for the Pie

Acrylic on canvas

24 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 

So happy to realize that it's Pi Day, because I love featuring this painting.

Today we went to the market and enjoyed getting our various tasks 
handled driving and walking through sunlight on brand new snow.

Yes it snowed again yesterday. Tonight is movie night, so I wll happily

quote a former blog for Pi day:

"On this date I usually feature this painting, because not being a 
math freak, Pi reminds me of pie, and Steven makes the best
cherry pie I've ever tasted. I may forego having pie today. 
Tempting though.  We had a little conversation about the
math behind Pi at lunch today.

In 2022 this painting won first place, and I won $500 
(American) in a contest with the San Fernando Valley 
Arts and Cultural Center in California in a virtual exhibition.
That was fantastic. So exciting!

In a former post I shared this information on Pi Day:

Last night Jimmy Fallon did funny routines about his
audience reciting all the numbers of Pi. And they were
still at it 20 years from now -- it's a long number.

"According to the Huffington Post Pi Day is named after the
Greek symbol π which is the ratio of the circumference of
a circle to its diameter. The first three digits in Pi are 3
 (this is the third month) and 14 (the fourteenth day)
= 3.14 or Pi.  What better day to eat pie if you get the urge.
 And any way you slice it you will not be alone in your
pie indulgence.

I live with a mathematics fiend, (Steven) who has been
known to sleep with a Calculus text beside his bed at the
ready should he feel like reviewing it with his morning coffee.
He also makes a mean cherry pie -- the point of the
painting. The pie."

Have a deliciously-happy-Pi-day. 

Here's our invitation to the Colour of Light show in April

The top piece is the front and the bottom the back of the invitation we'll be 
handing out next week.  The show is free and in a beautiful space -- The
Heliconian Hall, at 35 Hazelton Ave. in Toronto, and runs fromApril 3 - April 29.
The opening dates, with food, coffee, and beverages are listed above.  Please
note the building is not a church. It became a women's art club in 1909.

Vivian East is a fantastic painter, and does wonderful drawings.  Henrietta Walmark
is a photographer who captures breathtaking images.  And you can see my work here,

and on my website -- barbaramuir.com.

I hope we'll see you at the show.

Have a loving your life day!

What does the blog give me?

 

McIntosh Apples
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 

Writing my blog is one of the things I do every day.  I'm not on Substack,

and so far I don't have a podcast.  Writing my blog is one of my daily practices.

I've posted for 4,402 days, so it's a pretty constant process.

Today I worked all day, and could work all night on a complex scene. So I'm
grateful to the blog for popping this beautiful image up as I scrolled through.
No idea where this is. For a while I did a lot of small paintings, inspired by 
Edward B. Gordon's magnificent daily works.

I consider the daily blog to be one of my best practices. It certainly makes
me happy. And you make me happy when you read it. So Thank you so much.

Have a loving your life day!

Kindness is key

 

The cards  --
(some of the cards
I've written every night
for 1460 days --
which Steven has saved.)

Alyson Stanfield says talking about being busy is not important, and
I agree, but sometimes the reality is work takes up a huge percentage
of our time.  And that's a good thing.  Today I am still working on my
big painting, and it is not ready for me to show you.  So talking to
some of the kindest people I know got me thinking about kindness.

Scrolling through my blog I found a former post that is still significant
 now. I am still writing these cards, and Steven still wants me to
continue.  So I do.  Why?  I love the man.

"Kindness hit me as a principal requirement in my life when I
experienced such high levels of kindness at the 2009, and 2015 
Florence Biennales. I've been lucky to be treated kindly for most of my
life, but people at the Biennale, as one of my friends described
it, raised the bar. They did everything they could to help
each other, and life long connections happened.  We all still care
about the people we met there.

So I wondered -- what are your kindness practices? One of mine
is to write a note for my husband every night to leave in our middle
bedroom where my husband gets ready for work in the morning. 
Because I was a night teacher for almost a decade, I am in the
habit of going to bed much later than my husband, and he gets
up much earlier than I do.

This practice started in January 2022, when both of our cats
-- the 14 year old Tortie point Siamese, Fiona, (who has since
died sadly) and the three month old Tortie point Siamese kitten,
Monet, stopped eating. The kitten had gastroenteritis, and the
older cat had a gum infection.

I started writing the notes to let Steven know whether or not
they'd eaten their night snack, and then as they got better, I'd
write about what happened in the day, and thank him for all
of the nice things he'd done for me.  And guess what happened?
He didn't want me to stop -- so I haven't. And he has saved every
one of these notes that I write on cards that feature my art.

What are some of the things you do to add more kindness
 to your life?"

Have a loving your life day!