Sunday, March 16, 2025

The fascination of process


Sweet Sunlight and Coffee
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023

In the final painting, the character recedes and is important but less 
visible.

Planning sketch
marker on Fabriano paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023

I found this cool drawing from 2023 when I was prepping to do a painting of the
interior of a café. I completely forgot that I ever did a drawing first, that’s not
always part of my process. But there it is. And it turned out quite differently in
the painting.

In my a current painting. I’ve been working with a model in my studio. That’s
a very exciting way to paint – so direct. In fact, the model inspired the entire
painting's direction by telling me what she’d like to see, and where she wanted to be.

So my process changes all the time. I painted a tiny bit today, but the most exciting
thing was going down to the lake and walking along, staring at that beautiful blue, and
listening to the waves -- so wonderful. Before we went to the lake there was very
heavy rain, and we saw a rainbow as the sun came out.  A pretty wonderful day.

I hope you had a great day.

Have a loving in your life day! 

2 comments:

Flora said...

Noone paints light like you! I love this painting and appreciate seeing the reference for it. I wish I could come to your show!

Barbara Muir said...

Thank you so much Flora. I wish you could too. It's a big deal for me. As I explained to Steven, it's like a wedding for my art -- 102 feet of wall space!
Yikes!

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: The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!