Happy Monthaversary Steven

The two of us in Quebec City

watercolour and marker on

watercolour paper

9 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 

It's been an extremely hot Monthaversary, and it's late. I want to watch our
favourite French from France TV cop show with Steven.  We took a lovely
drive today through gorgeous countryside, which prompted us to talk about
our first date, and our wedding, and all the very intense memories we have
of when we fell in love. Pretty special.

I like this painting for the affection in it, which is something we are very lucky
to enjoy. Wishing you a joyous day with whoever you're spending time with.
It's a hard world right now.  Find happiness where you can.

Have a loving your life day.

The Anniversary weekend--week

Me and Steven

Photo

Wallace Muir ©

This is a special weekend for me and my husband, Steven. Tomorrow --
June 22 -- is our Monthaversary of our first date. Each month we drink
a toast, to one another and say Happy Monthaversary. 

On Tuesday, it’s our Wedding Anniversary.  Predictions are that it will be
very hot, so if possible we'll spend lot of time near the water.
That is one of the most romantic things we can do.

Have a loving your life day.

More on Fiona

 

Fiona 

Acrylic on mounted birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

Our friend the artist Ian Fancey in Nova Scotia helped us name Fiona.  We 
wanted a name that sounded a bit like a Siamese cat meow.  Fiona did the
trick.  She was such a beautiful, kind, intelligent cat.  Yes we are sad.

And a very rapid death of someone you love teaches you that you should

appreciate each moment.

Meanwhile the wars continue -- defining the cruelty and stupidity of our

world leaders, and the military -- killing children lining up for food. 
Fiona is just another reason to be sad.

Have a appreciating that you're alive day!

The main story — our beloved Fiona died

 

Fiona the cat, holding some long notes.

Her love of the piano was quite impressive.
Fiona loved music.  She was an amazing cat.

There isn’t much to say. Our 17 3/4 old cat Fiona, would not eat her breakfast
 this morning, lay down on the floor in front of the table where she normally ate,
 then lay down by the water bowl, then went down to the dog bed in the basement.
 About 1/2 an hour later she died.

Steven and I and her animal family — Sally the dog, and Monet the cat are all sad.
We know Fiona had a good life, but we missed her the second she stopped breathing. 

I wish I’d done more paintings of her.

I will put one on tomorrow.

Have a loving your housemates day!

Let's let June be the Month of Love -- and it starts with loving and accepting yourself!

For David Lobenberg

Self portrait
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009
(I did this portrait for David Lobenberg's

June Paint Off in 2009)

I was talking to a friend the other day who was feeling down about the
tragic news coming into his news feed every day, and we talked about
how to get back to happy.  This year I imagined a technique called

the Love list in my dreams one night. How does that work? Create a
simple list in your mind of 20 things you love about your current life.

I list things like my morning coffee made by my husband, the beautiful
flowers from my neighbours in the kitchen, a phone call with a friend
in The Netherlands, a note from a friend in France, the view out the window.

In the spirit of trying to be happy with one's life, I found this great
blog about self portraits, and loving yourself, and thought I'd share it
tonight. 

"You can read about David Lobenberg's contest here. A fact of a
portrait artist's life is that if there is no one else available to paint,
you always have you, so of course I've painted and drawn myself
 many times. Some of these images stick and make me happy.  

When I taught Positive Psych one of the first things we said

to students was that if you don't know yourself, you won't love 

yourself, and if you don't love yourself you can't love anyone else,

and you won't be happy.

This was totally not acceptable when I was growing up -- loving 

yourself smacked of narcissism.  But in fact nothing could be 

further from the truth. If we love and accept ourselves, the world 

is less about us, and more about the people we love.  It's when we 

don't love ourselves that we go around hurting other people, don't end up

doing what we love, and generally don't enjoy our lives.

I credit Louise Hay, excellent therapy and Frank Daley, who

was my boss, and wrote the book Who are you and what are you
doing here? for helping me get that concept.  It is an excellent 
idea.  When you love yourself, you love others."

Have a loving your life day.

 

With my art group

Art group sketch

Acrylic on canvas

16 x 20 inches
Barbara Muir © 2025

It was a jam packed day -- meeting with neighbourhood friends for coffee,
then going with Steven to buy flowers for our front garden, and the planters
on the bannisters of our back porch. Plus we planted a bit of one of our side
gardens.

Then I was off to my art group, for a wonderful session with a great model.
So many excellent artists were there tonight. 

Home for a fast dinner, and now I'm writing you. 

The sketch I'm showing you tonight took maybe 30 minutes what with
 set up, a break and take down.  It needs work, and it was a complete
pleasure to paint with an excellent model.

Have a loving your life day!

Working on a number of things for Let’s Play show

Flowers for the table (work in progress)
Acrylic on canvas

12 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2025

I hope you’ll come out to the opening of the Let’s Play show at
the Heliconian Hall on July 7, at 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto. I’m
working on a number of pieces for that show and here is one of
them. It’s a work in progress – almost done.

The theme of the show is clear in the title --  it’s about play, or
having fun. This painting is about the joyous feeling you get when
you put the flowers on the table that are going to be part of a dinner
party.There they are. And in our case, the bowl of lemons is also a
centerpiece. That is force of habit and we love the look of it.

Have a loving your life day.