Sunday, November 7, 2010

More from Pops

 
 A great day on the farm
W.W. Muir
Oil on board
16 x 20 inches
(date unknown)

Much as I love my father now, in retrospect I didn't
know him very well, the way children know their
parents today.  He'd been brought up in a formal
environment, and although we ate meals together,
and as a young adult I loved his humour, I
did not have the kind of closeness with him that
I might have enjoyed today.  But looking at his paintings
the other day when I visited my mother in Ottawa,
I noticed such a joyful, and playful spirit in his
work that I felt the closeness to him that I
feel when I look at paintings by some of the greats
like Monet and Mary Cassatt, who I only know
through reading and seeing their work.

The painting by my father I'm featuring today is of
our little farm in Flesherton, Ontario.  My Dad only
owned the farm for a year, but he really loved it,
and that spirit is evident in this joyous painting.

Have a loving-the-people-in-your-past day.
P.S.  When I say formal, I do mean formal.
We frequently called our father, "father" and
only started calling him Daddy as young adults.
It was a big deal when my father started wearing
jeans on the weekend in the last few years of
his life.  A sea change.

5 comments:

Linda Popple said...

It's interesting to see your father's work. The two of you share a wonderful sense of color .... saturated and rich. I hope that you post more of his work.

Nicki said...

It is fun to see the work of your father, he certainly had a playfulness to his work. It must be a wonderful, yet possibly melancholy experience for you to reflect like this. I'm sure you miss him.

XO Nicki

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Linda,

Of course I'll share the few pictures I took at my mother's house by and by. He did have an amazing sense of colour, and was also such a superb photographer that my son believes he inherited his photographer's eye from my Dad.

Take care,

Barbara

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Nicki,

I don't feel any melancholy, quite the reverse looking at my father's art. But we rarely take the train to Ottawa, and I felt a huge lump in my throat at the Ottawa station, because my father used to stand nervously at the top of the spiral walkway waiting for us.

XOBarbara

Laurel Daniel said...

I love seeing your father's art. Thanks for sharing that. What a great legacy... and you say your son is now a creative too??? The joy lives on! XOXO

Portrait Artist

My photo
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission a portrait, or purchase one of my paintings please contact me at: barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
A major highlight in my career? Drawing Oprah Winfrey live via Skype for her show "Where in the Skype are you? Galleries: Studio Vogue Gallery, Toronto, Canada. The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Gallery at the Porch Door, Kingston, Canada. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!