Showing posts with label 1000 blogs. portrait stages. Barbara Muir. Toronto. Canada.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1000 blogs. portrait stages. Barbara Muir. Toronto. Canada.. Show all posts

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Shine your light in 2011

 Ready for joy
(work in progress -- and the name may change)
Acrylic on canvas 
drawing in charcoal
Barbara Muir © 2011
(Starting a painting for an upcoming show.  I'm
referencing the drawing I did about a week or so
ago -- shown below.  The feeling is exactly
what I want to portray, and seems right for
the hopeful start of a new year.  Here you
see the orange/rust ground, the charcoal drawing 
and the background coming in.)

  
The orginal drawing 
Ready for joy
Charcoal on bond paper
Barbara Muir © 2010

Stage two filling in the background.  I wanted to
create a sunny upbeat feeling.
Ready for joy
(work in progress)
Acrylic on canvas 
drawing in charcoal
Barbara Muir © 2011


  Stage three, the underpainting blue goes on
the hair and sweatshirt.
Ready for joy
(work in progress )
Acrylic on canvas 
drawing in charcoal
Barbara Muir © 2011

Happy New Year to all my blogger friends.  I've had
a wonderful Christmas and absolutely delightful New
Year's Eve party, and I'm filled with ideas.  One thing
strikes me about my conversations with artists in the past
few days -- and that is this -- we have so much difficulty
believing in ourselves.  So let's step away from that for a
moment and if we're going to resolve anything on this first
day of the new year, let's resolve to see ourselves as brilliant,
to be the people spreading the joy and light, to shine our
magnificent creative lights in our own lives and in
others lives.

1,000 blogs today
I've been listening to this James Taylor song off and
on for the past day or so (listen to it here).  And I love
what he says.
"Shower the people you know with love, show
them the way that you feel, things are going to
work out fine if you only will."

Maybe that's what the blog world can do at its finest,
shower the people you know with love.  I am at 1,000
blogs.  I was trying to think of a contest, or a give away,
or some special thing I could do to celebrate.  But it
seems to me that this is a celebration all on its own.
When I started I could never have imagined this
milestone.  So like the turning of the year, the getting
to 1,000 is a numbers game yes, and also a sign of
hope.  You keep me going with your wonderful art,
your kind thoughts, and your inspiring words.

I say here's to the next 1,000 blogs, and to three more
years with this great community of creative people.
(It took me about three years to write 1,000 blogs.)
Thank you to everyone for the riches you've showered
on me in so many ways, and Happy Happy New Year.

I'll post more stages of the painting tomorrow.

Have a noticing-how-good-you-are day.

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!