Showing posts with label Portrait. woman with her cats. Barbara Muir © Toronto. Canada.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portrait. woman with her cats. Barbara Muir © Toronto. Canada.. Show all posts

Monday, March 6, 2017

The significance of portraits


Woman with her cats
Acrylic on canvas with gold leaf
36 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 
I am a portrait painter for sure.  I also paint
still life, and landscape and scenes with people,
but I started with portraits, and they are still a
major love of mine.

Today a collector called me to tell me that one
of the cats in the portrait I did of her with
her pets had died.  She said it made her
feel better seeing his portrait on the wall.  This
touched me profoundly.

I remember working on the painting so well -- the
woman was in the most beautiful blouse, and her
cats were arranged behind her shoulders and on
on her lap.  I took lots of photos with the cats
in the pose, then the subject came and posed for
me in my studio, and we used pillows to pose
instead of the cats.

The cats were big fluffy beauties, and I really wanted
to get them right.  The cat behind her shoulder died
a couple of weeks ago I'm sorry to say.  My photo
of the painting, taken when I had barely begun blogging,
is not so great, but I am proud of the work nonetheless,
and glad that it's given my client something to comfort her
at this sad time.

Have a loving-the-portraits-you-buy 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!