Journal Sketch
marker on drawing paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2024
On a beautiful and hectic day -- Inktober saves the day. Here's a
drawing I drew with my morning coffee. I tried not to fuss over
the simple beauty of her face, but of course I did.
Hope you had a great Monday. So much going on. I'll see you
again tomorrow. For now I'm so grateful for this month's preoccupation
with line drawing and Inktober.
Have a great week.
Have a loving your life day.
It’s Saturday night, which is movie night at our house. So I generally look
at my blog, find a painting I loved, and talk about that. Tonight I wanted to
say, which painting would you choose to talk about in your work if you
could pick any painting you wanted? So I went on my website and looked
through my landscape paintings, and found this one that’s right for this time of year.
It was a spectacularly beautiful day today – Just warm enough to wear a sweater,
not hot and not cold. The light was brilliant, and trees are turning magnificent
colours of red, gold, orange, and brilliant yellow just stunning. We drove to the
market and home entranced -- feeling so lucky to live in this beautiful city.
That's a great feeling.
This painting sold in New York at the beginning of the pandemic. It was such a
treat that someone loved it as much as I did. Wishing you a great rest of the
weekend and a happy Saturday night.
Have a loving your life day.
Last year on this day, I was talking about the wonderful feeling of
drawing a portrait. I did this quick sketch this morning.
What is magical about drawing a fast portrait sketch is making
the person come alive in your own style sometimes in just a few minutes.
It’s been a long day of art all day. After the quick portrait sketch, I was
working on a painting, setting a figure in place, painting in the background.
I’m really enjoying this painting -- way too early to show you.
Then, in the late afternoon, some of us got together to create a banner
for Halloween. The youngest family members are very creative, and
made the most beautiful piece of art that will stretch across the house
when we’re celebrating Halloween. For sure all the neighbours will
decide that 'Yes these people have candy!"
Have a loving your life day.
Sunset at the farm
Acrylic on birch panel
5 x 7 inches
Barbara Muir ©˙
Working on painting today -- on all the prep work -- references,
prepping the canvas -- you name it, and if you're an artist you
know the drill. I came upon this little painting in my studio --
the rooms have just been radically cleaned. The painting is not
quite finished, but I like the joyous feeling it suggests.
I spent an hour and a half in line today -- and I'm grateful to
the sweet people who held my place so I could sit down
for part of the wait. It was all worth it when I got to the
kind woman at the desk who renewed my health card,
and driver's license -- complete with the obligatory new
photo in five minutes flat.
So here's a happy sunset painting. I hope you saw
the Hunter's moon tonight. Quite spectacular.
Have a loving your life day.
If we're visiting Nova Scotia we go to Annapolis Royal even if it's
just for 15, or 20 minutes before we get gas for the long journey back
to our school house between Wallace and Pugwash. We love our friends
at the German bakery, and loved meeting Heidirose and Dieter, who are the chefs
and bakers, and their daughter Susanne who frequently runs the restaurant.
Heidi is also an amazing artist. If we have time when we're in the area
we love to drop in for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or to pick up some
pastries. Yum. If you visit Annapolis Royal give yourself a treat.
Go and see Heidi's art, and eat their delicious food.
This beautiful painting caught my eye, and Heidi has graciously
agreed to let me show it to you. In fact she shared some poignant
stories about her life in East Berlin growing up, and how hard it
was being accepted in Canada, and let me buy the painting.
It's beautiful
Thank you Heidirose for wonderful conversations, for your
incredible bravery, for lots of laughter, your amazing art, and
delicious food.
Have a loving your life day.
Today I saw this painting scrolling through my blog. I went to
see my friends who meet for coffee every Tuesday if they're
not working, and I was definitely not awake enough after one
coffee. So of course when I came home after a second delicious
cup of coffee at my friend's house I was thinking about
how much I love coffee. This painting went to my wonderful
friend, the artist Susan Carlin, in San Antonio Texas years ago.
And I'm glad she has it.
The day after Canadian Thanksgiving is a day when you need
coffee -- to get back on track. I drank at least four cups and
have been organizing, drawing and working on a new
painting most of the day.
If you celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend I hope you
had a great time. Steven and I had a wonderful dinner with our whole
family and two young guests. So much fun. And then of course tonight
-- turkey dinner #2.
Have a loving your life day.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Families and friends
from coast to coast have spent the weekend gathering
together to express our gratitude for the bounty of
the harvest, for each other, and for the planet.
We had a big family dinner, turkey and the trimmings
plus salmon for one family member, plus super
veggies and so many dessert choices. Pies --
pumpkin, cherry, blueberry and apple crisp.
It was a delicious dinner with wonderful
company.
Have a loving your life da
I always enjoy thinking about what makes me happy, but this weekend is about
reflecting on what's great about our lives:
1. I'm grateful for my wonderful family. Thank you for your love.
2. I'm so happy to have wonderful, kind, supportive, funny friends.
3. I'm grateful for my health.
4. I feel so lucky to be an artist, and to be part of a vibrant worldwide
arts community.
5. Every day the news makes me more, and more aware about how
lucky I am to live in Canada.
6. I'm grateful for my street and all the great neighbours who
live here.
7. I'm grateful for my garden -- which is at its peak now.
8. I'm grateful for our three animals -- two sweet cats, and a dog
who is going to take us out for a walk now
9. I feel so lucky to be part of a community that includes you,
and I thank you for your support here.
10. And up at the top of the list -- I'm grateful for my kind,
and loving husband.
Have a loving your life day.
Okay, I admit that this was a difficult subject. I was using a very high contrast
black-and-white photo as a reference. I may try again. I think charcoal might’ve
suited the subject better. But here it is an Inktober drawing and a challenge.
I read somewhere recently that even if the drawing, sketch, painting isn’t working
– keep on going. So I did. I’m laughing now, and the main thing is I did the sketch
in about 20 concentrated minutes, and yes, I might try again. But as you know --
tomorrow is a new day.
Have a loving your life day.
Journal Sketch
marker on journal paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2024
We're on day 7 of the Inktober concept -- ink drawings for the
month of October. It's been a busy day and I haven't finished
a new drawing to show you, so I'll show you an older one that
makes me happy -- from this summer.
The subject is a wonderful man heavily involved in the arts.
And that is all for tonight.
My question? What can art do? Art can reflect the incredible
beauty of the world, comfort us, calm us, and make us
understand the reason to keep creating, keep being loving,
keep trying to help the planet. Quite a big role actually.
Try listening to some classical symphony music today.
Uplifting is too mild a word for it.
Have a loving your life day.
Two of the great pleasures in our lives are our cats --Fiona and
Monet. They are both female Tortie Point Siamese cats. Fiona just turned
17, and Monet is 3. Their birthdays are both on October 4th as far
as we can determine, and every year we sing to them (and so does
our dog Sally), and give them some kind of special treat (roast chicken
is their favourite and take their photos in front of little cakes --pretending
that they will eat birthday cake, which of course they won't! (Cats can't
eat cake.)
So today we tried to do the cake thing. We knew it was two days late, but it was
the first time we had the time. We may have another try at it, because the cake
crumbled, and one candle went out prematurely. But we sang, and they got
their roast chicken treat, and seemed very happy.
Have a loving your life day.
Got my boot earrings on
Inktober drawing
Marker on drawing paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2024
The theme for today's Inktober drawing is boots. That made no
sense to me, and then I thought, "what if I do a portrait of someone
wearing boot earrings?" But I didn't want to do cowboy boot
earrings (believe me there are lots of them), so I thought I'd
draw a person wearing work boot earrings.
A bit awkward to figure out, but I'm okay with it. I do
ink drawings in October, but I don't usually follow the theme.
I'm more interested in making myself draw most of the time,
than in doing what's expected for Inktober. Still I love the
idea of trying to make a drawing every day. And I will
when I can.
Have a loving your life day.
In our family October heralds a host of celebrations. After Thanksgiving
(Canadian) on October 14, we have 4 family birthdays in 3 weeks!
One thing I love about October is Inktober. I don't know if I'm
following the official rules, but here's a marker (ink) drawing that
I did today.
I hope the beginning of your October has been great. Mine has.
Have a loving your life day.
It was a beautiful day today -- the kind that inspires people to make art. I have
(almost) finished my very complex painting. Yay! So we'll see. And I was happy
to see other people having a great day making art. So happy and delightful.
Have a loving your life day.
Saturday is always a crazy busy day. We go to the market for food
from the wonderful farmer in the morning or late morning. Then
we run around doing a number of tasks for most of the afternoon.
Tonight is movie night in our house, and I can’t tell you what we’ll
be watching because we haven’t decided yet.
The paintings tonight are a few that you’ve seen many times, that I'm
very happy with. They are about the time into their adult lives. I called it
the Dance series.
Ideally, Saturday night would be a great night for going to a dance,
but instead, we may just have to have a couple of short dances in the
kitchen before the movie.
Have a loving your life day.
Today was a quiet Tuesday Monthaversary of our wedding -- something we notice (like the
Monthaversary of our first date) every month. All day it was very rainy -- unlike the
photo. We sat on our back porch with the dog and two cats enjoying the sound of the
rain and watching the birds navigate it.
Both of us were working on projects, so we sat together during breaks. And although we
were very, very tired at the end of the day we went to Ikea (I love their salmon dinner), for
dinner. Good choice, there was almost no one there. We have not been fans of crowds since
COVID, which is resurging.
We declared our love for each other, and now it's time for a bit of TV. Dinner was delicious,
and we do feel extremely lucky to be married to one another.
Have a loving your life day.
We got introduced to the idea of owning a dog through an ad in the
grocery store where we shopped every week. Our kids asked us to
get the dog. They would walk it. So before we knew it we were
bringing home a puppy, and had entered the world of dog people.
I grew up with two different dogs, but before Zoey I thought of us
as cat people.
Zoey died 11 years ago today. We went to the vet to have her put
to sleep, but she died before the vet could begin. We were
grateful. A month or so later we got Sally -- a very different dog,
who is also wonderful.
Here's some great rules from dogs:
Seven things that dogs know:
1. Move forward -- the good stuff is all in front of you.
2. Each day is a good day, as long as you can go out in it.
3. There is no right season for turkey.
4. The best couch to sleep on, is the one you aren't
supposed to be on -- wait until no one is paying attention.
(We can't let Sally on our couches or beds, she will scratch them
and ruin the fabric trying to make a bed.)
5. Every day is a play day.
6. Let the people you love know you're ecstatic when
they come in the door.
7. If you can't have a run, walk, and if you can't
have a walk, sleep.
It is our Monthaversary of our first date. As I've said before it was a very jovial beginning
to our life together -- going out for dinner to a restaurant that used to be on Yonge Street
in Toronto. Steven and I have been together since that first date. We fell in love instantly.
How lucky we have been.
I found a very serious blog I wrote in one of my early years blogging, and it seems right
for tonight. Wishing you love and creativity.
em.Market Flowers
Photo
Barbara Muir © 2024
Yes I did paint today. We also went to the Brick Works market, and I bought
these beauties. I have been too busy to arrange them. It is the last day of
summer, and we went to the lake, and saw our duck and seagull friends.
The Gardener Expressway is shut down this weekend, and I think every
Toronto resident was out in their car. The trip to the lake took hours.
Worth it? Yes. We did quite a bit of singing in the car.
Happy end of summer. She was a hot one. Still we had so much fun!
Have a loving your life day!
In the kitchen researching for the doctorateBlack marker on bond paper12 x 14 inchesBarbara Muir © 2010
I know I've shown this drawing more than once. It's because
I really like it. It's of a young woman named Julia who lived
in our neighbourhood.
Here's what I wrote about the drawing in a former blog:
Sometimes what happened last year repeats itself. You know that. It's
been another very busy day, and this painting I posted a year ago seems
like the perfect image focusing on beauty. Our house is always full of
flowers. And the garden is magnificent right now. These are flowers I
painted in the Maritimes 15 years ago.
Have a wonderful day.
There are some days as a painter when you hardly get to go outside. Today
was like that. And it was a beautiful day. I'd go out for a couple of minutes,
and then back to the studio. Yes. The painting I'm working on is coming along.
I love this painting, and I love what it captures -- the beauty of the breathtaking
drive past farmland along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. I am
ready to get out into the countryside again. Yes!
Have a loving your life day.
Ever since I met Alessandra, Mascitti, (who was the wonderful co-ordinator
for the Russo brothers when they exhibited artists like me in the Carousel du Louvre
exhibitions) I have wanted to change my first name from Barbara to Alessandra.
I won’t be doing this, but when I write a note to my husband, I sign it Barbara
and then in a separate space Alessandra, Gloria Galletti. Galletti (many different
spellings) was the family name of my Italian great, great, great grandmother. And
Alessandra Gloria Galletti is the name I wish I could have.
Few people understand this because my regular name -- Barbara Muir --has been
good to me, so they believe, (understandably) that I should be happy with it.
And I am. But if I could wave a magic wand and change my name -- enough said.
I met an artist the other day who completely understood what I meant. She has
decided to sign her artwork with the name, Amaryllis. Her real name is Maria,
but she finds that that name is not exciting enough. We bonded instantly.
This new friend calls me Alessandra and I call her Amaryllis. Which is funny.
She pointed out that so many actors and musicians have made up new names
for themselves, and asked was there any reason we couldn’t? I suppose I have a long
list of reasons, but the whole conversation was fun.
I was looking for a self portrait to illustrate tonight's blog, and this sketch
seemed perfect. I don't ever even remember wearing my hair up, and of course
I'm blonde now -- so she does look like a different person.
Have a loving your life day.
