More coffee please

Now that was good!
Journal drawing

Black marker on notebook paper

6 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 

Coffee has been a big theme today.  I enjoyed visiting
with the friends in the neighbourhood who get together
for coffee.  And I spent the rest of the day painting,

running on coffee after coffee so I could keep going.

I feel pretty happy about the day, and I like this drawing 
of a hotel room service breakfast, which as you know
is one of my all time favourite meals.  And of course

there is always lots of coffee!

Have a loving your life day! 

I'm grateful for my wonderful mother

Isabel Muir
by Christopher Muir

Christopher Muir © 

This is the anniversary of my mother's death.  I miss her so much!
Here's what I said in a former blog, with the date updated: 

"My mother died 12 years ago on this date.  It was Thanksgiving Day. We were
in Ottawa where she lived, and were in the hospital with her the night before
she died.  Our family who were in the city, had lunch together, then we drove
home to Toronto for another Thanksgiving dinner. All in her honour.

The beautiful portrait photo I'm showing you is by my son, Christopher.
I love it because it shows her strength, her beauty, and the nature she protected
with letters, her voice on call-in radio on CBC, in protest marches even when
she had a serious chronic lung condition, and with donations.

Here's what I wrote about her in a former tribute:

"A couple of weeks before she died, I sat with my mother, who
was totally blind, helping her fill out cheques to organizations she
believed in that protected the environment -- wolves, whales, parkland.
Those weren't her only passions -- she gave to women's shelters, money
for hurricane and famine victims.  Small amounts to be sure -- but this
mattered.

She was a good, kind and supportive mother. What shone through with
 her was her love for her family, her intellect, (she had a Masters in
 Bacteriology), her concern about the future of the planet."

We miss you Mommy.  You made the best Thanksgiving dinner.

Have a loving your life day. 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend -- and thank you family

 

Thank you family and friends
Photo: 
© Barbara Muir

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and today we went 
on a long, beautiful drive to celebrate with family.  The best time.  We
brought some parts of the meal, and the whole thing was delicious.

And so much fun.

A bit tired tonight, as we just got home.  I love Thanksgiving and feel so
grateful for my family and friends.  Thank you all of you.  It is one of my
favourite holidays as I'm sure I've said many times.

Have a loving your life day!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving weekend

Today's flowers from the garden

Watercolour and black marker on 

watercolour paper

6 x 9.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 

I’m a firm believer in gratitude — being grateful for the
people in my life, and for what life has given me. That’s
why I love Canadian Thanksgiving, a celebration that happens
this weekend. 

Canadian Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest.
We give thanks for a great harvest, for our unusually
blessed lifestyle, and in honour of that, eat a meal
together. It is not about religion, or history, or which
culture you grew up in.  And that's what I love about it.
Everyone can share in the harvest.  Everyone can get in
the spirit together, and we all understand the meaning of
the holiday.

Judging from the run on turkeys, that part of the meal may
be the same in many homes. 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

What kind of coffee cup do you like?

 Coffee with milk in

a cup

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 

(This painting seems perfect

for today.  And I like that it

went to live in

Texas with my friend, 

the artist Susan Carlin.) 

I'm pretty sure I drank this cup of coffee in a restaurant.  On
a normal day I drink at least 3 large mugs of coffee, and my
preferred mugs are straight up and down, with maybe a slight curve
at the top and bottom of the mug.

What do you like?  I like white coffee cups.  Though my favourite
ones are hard to find now, and they were horizontal turquoise and

white striped mugs.

At night when I'm watching TV with Steven, and I've had more
than the three cups of coffee, plus a couple of decaf coffees, I drink
sugar free hot chocolate. 

Of course in Europe everything is different -- espresso mainly.
But coffee -- I love it.  It is the fuel I run on. Speaking of which -- walk 
time, and then back to painting.  I had a great day painting.

Have a loving your life day!

Let's invent one -- International I'd like to paint day

 

See what I mean?

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019
SOLD ♥

I've spent most of the day today working on organizing journals
and sketchbooks.  Needless to say I have quite a few. I'd

love an International holiday called, I'd like to paint day.
I'm pretty sure we can invent one.  Let's make it today!

So I thought I'd write this before I begin to paint.  The painting
above started out as a simple landscape.  Then I saw this adorable couple
in the park, and had to add them in.  The result? Pretty good.

The painting tells the story of a beautiful fall day in a
gorgeous park on Lake Ontario.  The woman is telling
the young man that this is why she brought him here -- to see
this incredibly magnificent scene.

We are not seeing the bright fall colours for the most part 
here.  The hot summer weather just cooled off yesterday.
But here's hoping.  Meanwhile -- back to work for me.

Have a loving your life day!

This sketch was for a painting

 

Sketch study for kitchen table painting

marker on bond paper

8 1/2 x 11 inches

Barbara Muir ©

I was scrolling through my blog and saw this, and thought, 'Aha! So that's how 
I solve my current painting -- do a drawing of where I want to go.'  It sounds 
so simple, but sometimes I have complete clarity, until I don't.  Tired,
busy, a lot going on -- I might come into my studio and go, "Wait a minute!
Now what?"

Solution -- plan.  So I will.  I love this simple drawing because it describes
certain times in our lives when the kitchen table is crammed with objects
that are significant to us.  The big Victorian sugar bowl, the small glass 
mini-candle holder, the bottom of a silver candlestick, and stems of flowers
in a glass vase. Plus a cream jug with pansies on top of a cookbook. Man
it's almost like the dance of the kitchen table.

Our kitchen table is the center of family life, so it does mean a lot to us.

Have a loving your life day!

Looking back to the beginning

Kitchen China

Acrylic on canvas

24" x 48"

Barbara Muir © 

SOLD ♥ 

I've been painting today, and every time I walk into the studio
I feel as happy as I must have been when I painted this
painting.  I started blogging in 2008, and I am so grateful
to my son who helped me start the blog, and my friend who
urged me to create one. So of course I was painting before 
that, but as I've said before blogging has changed my life as an
artist -- all in positive ways.

I was interested to see that Alyson Stanfield thinks we should 
bring back blogging. I'm still enjoying it, and still enjoying 
people's reactions.

Here's a bit of the story behind this:

"My model came into the kitchen, sat down and had some
chocolate cake that Steven had just baked, and that was that.
A painting was born."

Have a loving your life day!

My happy self

Let's talk
Inktober drawing

black marker on paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Mur © 2019

Easy to go down the rabbit hole (get depressed) in these hard

and bizarre times.  This image I drew from a portrait of me
as a little girl that my father, an excellent photographer took,
made me happy.  Quite an achievement for a drawing! I was feeling
very blue.

I also worked on a painting for an upcoming show and that

made me happy.  Plus just sitting on our back porch looking at

the flowers and trees, and my backyard neighbour waving at me --
it all gives me hope.

Have a loving your life day!

Smiling still matters

Nicole

Inktober sketch before Inktober existed

Marker on watercolour paper

12 x 9 inches

Barbara Muir ©

(Skype drawing from the 

Consumer Electronics Show

2009)

Double happy family birthdays today so I didn't get time to do an Inktober 
drawing.  I love this one. World Smile Day was Friday 
October 3, this year, and I did make a few people smile. We are deluged
with appalling news -- write our MPs, protest if we can, sign
every petition asking for an end to racism, wars -- cruelty of every
sort.

But the power of a genuine smile for family, friends, new friends and
people helping us, and who we are helping, still matters.

This drawing is from a great commission I had to draw people via
Skype (now it would be Zoom) for the Consumer Electronics Show.
A delightful assignment.

Have a loving your life day!

Miss you Chloe

                         Before the Dance in the White Dress                     

 Acrylic on canvas

 24 x 24 inches

 Barbara Muir © 2008

After the Dance in the White Dress
Acrylic on canvas
 24 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 2008

My niece Chloé died suddenly on this day 8 years ago.
She was beautiful, kind, intelligent -- a wonderful young
woman.

She posed for these two portraits in my Dance Series, and
I will be grateful to her for doing that forever.

Miss you Chloé. We loved you so much.

Love the people in your life! 

The beauty of flowers

Joyous Anemones

an Inktober drawing

Black marker on
Canson Mixed Media paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2020

What with one thing and another we didn't really finish our garden 
this year.  But the anemones, which a friend warned me are 
invasive (thank goodness for that) are at the height (taller than
me at 5'4 inches -- probably six feet) of their glory.  So incredibly
beautiful that every peak out the back door, or coffee on the back
porch makes us think that somehow things will turn out right.

I'm working on a painting I'm enjoying.  Decisions come swift and
happily.  Plus a wonderful person helped me organize a critical 
set of shelves in my studio. How satisfying it is to see a little 
order in the chaos of my creative space.

One of the smartest things Steven and I did a couple of years ago,
was take a year round white wicker couch off our neighbour's lawn
when she was throwing it out.  We put it under a couple of 
trees with low branches. And when we sit there in our small
yard we have a fantastic view of the huge gorgeous trees growing
up the street, and a feeling of complete privacy.

Nature really does help us in this very strange time in the world.

Have a loving your life day! 

I love Inktober

 

Me as a child
Self portrait journal sketch

Marker on journal paper

5 x 7 inches
Barbara Muir © 2024

I learned about Inktober a few years ago. I've never officially joined,
and don't need prompts, but I love drawing or sketching with a marker.
This sketch is of me as a little girl.  I like it. I think you can
see how shy I was, and also a hint of my determination to keep
going.  That's something that comes and goes, so I appreciate
that it was there when I was a little kid. I think I'm two or three
in this drawing inspired by a small photo taken by one of my parents.

Today I had a wonderful day working on a painting for a future show.  I'd been
thinking about it for a week, so it was so much fun to draw it on the canvas,
and then start painting. Wonderful.

At the end of the work day Steven and I went down to walk by the lake.
It was magnificent there, and it was a beautiful walk.

Have a loving your life day!

Here it is -- my quick art group sketch

Art group sketch

Acrylic on canvas

16 x 20 inches
Barbara Muir © 2025

Here it is.  It's been a crazy busy day, so I didn't have time to do more 
than put more gold on the halo.  Thank you to the wonderful
model last night -- Michra Joseph.  I felt so motivated.  I was on fire
with delight for the 35-40 minutes I had to paint her.

Have a loving your life day!

A Magnificent Day

 

A beautiful day at
Sir Casimir Gzowski Park
Photo
Barbara Muir © 2025

Steven was delighted to find out this morning that he had a day off.  Today 
is a holiday in Canada in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

So we went down to sit by the lake and enjoy the beauty. 

Tonight we had a super model at our art group who is actually a professional
fashion model Michra Joseph.  If I spelled it wrong Michra, please correct
me.  She is a fabulous model. I had about 35 minutes to get a portrait done,
and it is close to complete, but I don't have time to spend a few more minutes
on it tonight, so I will tomorrow and I'll show you then.

Have a loving your life day!

This painting went home today

 Apples on a fancy dish

watercolour on Arches 

watercolour paper

with black marker

12 x 14 inches

Barbara Muir © 

This painting -- done quite a few years ago -- went home today
to a sweet collector, The Blue Jays won yesterday, and I tidied a
couple of bookcases with excellent help.  We took the books to local
small book libraries set up on neighbourhood lawns.  And all in
all an awesome day.  

Now the studio gets tidied. And I begin some exciting new
work. 

Have a loving your life day

The opening for Georgia Fullerton's exhibitiion at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Happiness Expression

Gouache and ink on paper

Georgia Fullerton © 2025 

(This is one of my favourites.  Forgive

the bad photo with the photographer

reflected in the glass.)

Georgia sharing her happiness about

her solo show with the audience

earlier today.

Today Steven and I went to Oshawa to see the opening of Georgia
Fullerton's exquisite exhibition Being In and Moving Through at
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.  

It was a super opening with visitors from Georgia's university
days, art collectors, fans and gallery visitors.  Georgia delivered
a great, moving, funny, warm speech, explaining her 
inspiration, and process, and thanking everyone who had helped get
the exhibition up and running -- including her daughter India 
who was in the audience, and proud of her mother.

If you're in the Oshawa area, make sure to visit the exhibition.  It's
a beautiful show in a superb gallery.

Have a loving your life day.

My delight with people dancing into life

 

Before the dance with the cat, Before the dance in the red dress, The Promise

Acrylic on canvas, each one is 36 x 48 inches

Like most Saturdays, today was crazy busy. We went to the market 
to get food from Jens, the wonderful Marvellous Edibles farmer in
the late morning. Then we ran around doing a number of tasks. We
gave a quick birthday wish to a close friend, and kept doing our
Saturday routines.

Tonight is movie night, and we haven't picked a movie -- but I
hope it's funny.

The paintings tonight are a few from my Dance series.
They're about the time when young people move into their adult
lives. 

Saturday night would be a great night to go dancing, but instead. I
did play Bob Dylan's She Belongs to Me and sang it badly on the 
back porch, accompanied by my singing dog, Sally, who
may in fact have been commenting about the fact that it was
5:58 p.m., and she believes dinner should be served at 6:00 p.m.
on the dot. That was as close as I came to dancing.

Have a loving your life day.

Happy Birthday to my friend Raylea, and the youngest member of our family

Happiness
Acrylic on Birch panel
5 x 7 inches
Barbara Muir © 
(Raylea was the model for this.)

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Raylea today.  I'm showing you one of my favourite portraits. Raylea modelled for this painting, and was
magnificent.  It's a big day for the youngest member of our family too -- a
very Happy Birthday day.

Wishing everyone a great birthday, and happy year. We enjoyed the fabulous
weather here in Toronto.

Have a loving your life day.

Thinking about the market

 

Pegann's flowers
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 

One of our happy habits as a couple is going to the Brickworks market on the
weekend.  I'm working on a flower painting now, based on a magnificent 
bouquet from the farmers we order from every weekend when we're home.

It is complicated, but a treat to work on.  So soon I'll be able to show you.

This painting is based on flowers from Pegann -- a woman who used to sell
at the market. I'm grateful that the Marvellous Edibles farmers now sell
flowers, because market flowers are fresh and magnificent.

It has rained like crazy today, which is good.  It was a dry summer. But
nothing compared to the Maritime drought, so I hope some of this rain 
is going over to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Have a loving your life day!

Happy Wedding Monthaversary Steven

 

Our dog Sally smelling the Cosmos

on our walk.

Photo:

Barbara Muir © 2024

A very rough day in the world, but our wedding Monthaversary so I 

made Steven a big card from one of my Nova Scotia ocean scenes,
and we had a sweet walk after Steven finished work.  We saw the artist 
Matthew Pazzol on our walk and congratulated him on his show
that I wrote up on the blog.

Then it was dinner, and now it's time for TV.  I didn't see Cosmos
like this this summer.  It was very hot, and that affected everything.

Please wave your magic wand and make our Morning Glories bloom.
Tons of leaves and I talk to them saying -- time to bloom! No response
yet. 

Have a loving your life day!

Back to my art group

 

Captain Giacomo

(art group sketch)

Acrylic on canvas

11 x 14 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020
(* Not tonight's sketch)

Tonight I painted with my art group.  It was great to be back. 
There were two 10 minute breaks in my one hour with the
group.  So between set up and clean up I think I had 30
minutes to get a painting done.  The model was wonderful,
and looked nothing like the sketch above.

But the painting is not finished enough to show you.  So 
this sketch surprised me at the time (five years ago),

because it worked out well probably with the same time
constraints.  My husband drops me off at about 7:30 and
picks me up one hour later.  Yes.  It is fast.  And I usually
get a not bad sketch done in that rushed time.

So if I can finish my sketch from tonight with no photo

reference I'll show you another day.  Meanwhile it

was a fun hour, and I painted all day on a painting that
is going well.

Have a loving your life day!

Thanks to inspiring artists like Pete Sinjin

Subway Overpass
Oil on canvas
21 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
Pete Sinjin © 2024

Before Steven and I left on our 16 day holiday driving to Nova Scotia
and back, I was very depressed about the state of the world, and it was
affecting my art. 

As soon as we were on the road It was difficult to get the Internet. While
we drove, we listened to a P.E.I. music radio station and sang a lot. Meanwhile,
what was moving alongside us outside the window were the most magnificent
landscapes that I’ve ever seen. This is Canada -- such a beautiful country.

The Maritimes were in serious trouble this year because of a very prolonged
drought and high temperatures because of climate change. But it was still
beautiful there. In Nova Scotia, we stay in a 1909 wooden schoolhouse with
no running water and an outhouse. It does have electricity and the building
itself is so beautiful. This past year an animal ate our last comfy chair, so
that wasn’t fun. But in a couple of days we totally adjusted and loved it there.

Ultimately, I want to thank Pete Sinjin who advised me to take lots
of pictures and to work on enjoying being inspired. It worked and thank you.

Today I worked on a painting of a bouquet I bought at the market from my
favourite farmers. I had fun all day. The painting isn’t finished and I’m
showing you one of  Pete Sinjin's paintings. We met last year beside the
Seine in Paris.  He is a wonderful person -- obviously times are hard for
anyone who cares about the world right now. Pete and his family live in
Brooklyn, New York. I love how Pete portrays New York, and how vivid
he makes it for people like me who love that city.  

Check out his work and be inspired 

Have a loving your life day!

And we are -- Home again!

 

Flowers for you
acrylic on canvas
12 x 16 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I love the story of this painting.
The flowers were delivered in the winter
to our neighbours who weren't home.
I was asked if I would keep them
until the neighbours came home from work
by the delivery person. So I did, and
painted this painting during the wait.)

We have been on our holiday for the past 16 days, and traveled over 5,300 

kilometers in that time. 3200 miles. Wow! I was too busy traveling 
while it happened to talk about it.  So I just talked about things that
occurred to me. In code in a way I was talking about where we were.

Coming back to Toronto, and Ontario is a shock to us.  Despite all of the 
driving, we were living at a much slower pace, and because we didn't have
internet most of the time, we were cut off completely from the news.

Given how horrific and crazy the news is, that was an absolute gift.

Yes we went to our school house, and visited our friends in Pugwash,
Wallace, Bear River and Annapolis Royal.  Plus we went to Fredericton
New Brunswick, Quebec City, and Ottawa. It was wonderful.

Now back to work.  I have a million ideas, and many beautiful reference
ideas and wow I'm excited.

Thank you for sticking with me throughout my vacation.  And to everyone
we met along the way -- thank you for being amazing.

Have a loving your life day!

Thinking about what home means to me

First sighting -- coming home

(work in process)

Acrylic on watercolour paper

10.6 x 13.8 inches

Barbara Muir © 

Thinking about the meaning of home, I came upon this blog 
I wrote about home, which expressed my thoughts pretty
perfectly. In recent years Paris has become a place
we'd love to live -- just from visiting. But
that is not practical emotionally or financially. 

"I am  rooted in Toronto, Canada, but if
I visit another city or town, even in another
country, I can start to feel at home in
a week.  That's happened in
France, England, Sweden, Italy, and
the U.S.

But the place in my painting tonight
near Pugwash, Nova Scotia, in Canada's
Maritimes is in a different league.  I've
been visiting for 20+ years, counting
the views on the way out, like clues in a game
called "getting closer," and on the way back
to Toronto, in a profound series of goodbyes.

This view is poignant both coming and
going.  It is iconic of our Nova Scotia home." 

Have a feeling-at-home-anywhere day.

The beginning -- thank the cat

Sketchbook drawing of Clown the cat

marker on Bond paper

Barbara Muir ©

I have had cats for my whole life, which means I have been very
lucky.  My parents loved cats too, and I think we had cats before
we had dogs as children. But I grew up with both, and Steven
and I have a cat, Monet (a girl), and a dog Sally, (also a girl.)

Today we had breakfast in a French restaurant. Here is some
of a blog post I wrote in the past about French.  It leads
at the end to the cat in the drawing. Since I wrote this
post we have been to Paris five times, and I've exhibited 
in the Louvre three times.  Plus currently we've been
watching a French TV show from France with English
subtitles every night for six months.  That definitely
helps.  I had a sweet conversation in my stumbly French
with the server this morning. 

"I was raised for part of my childhood in Ottawa,
and we started French in school early.  I was sad
that some of my understanding disappeared through
lack of use in English Toronto. In recent years our friends
speak more Italian than French. But the roots of the
language linger in my baby girl unconscious.
I was probably five going on six when I first learned
some French words.

Every year we go to Quebec city on our way to Nova
Scotia, and on our way back home to Toronto. I know
enough French to know that I wish I was fluently bilingual.

In Europe children easily learn five or six languages, but
the English in Canada have been somewhat reluctant
to learn even one other language. Some people place
their children in French immersion schools. The school
across the street from our house is a French immersion school.

Falls seems to make us nostalgic. We were talking today
about the great animals we've owned and loved. Here's a
drawing I did of Clown the cat. Indirectly Clown brought
Steven and me together. He took care of the cat for me when
I was away on a trip, because his sister asked him to, and that's
how we met.

So this story loops back, because without Clown,
I wouldn't have met Steven, and without Steven we wouldn't
own a place in Nova Scotia, and without the place in Nova
Scotia, I wouldn't go to Quebec City twice a year, and stumble
through my poor French."

Have a loving your life day!