More flowers in the kitchen

 

Holding our heads high with pride

Watercolour on Arches watercolour paper

6 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2012

The week is nearing a close, and our kitchen table is
filled with the models from this week, white cream
and milk jugs filled with the garden's bounty --
mostly Nasturtiums, with a red geranium, some
Cosmos, and even some purple geraniums which
I haven't painted -- yet.  This focus on flowers
seems fair, and as I sip my tea, I'm thinking about
the series I'll start when the deep frost hits.

Meanwhile, here's a quote from my current
reading material -- The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery.  This is a hint about where
my painting may go, and also just exquisite prose,
something I am wildly addicted to.

"Then let us drink a cup of tea.  Silence descends,
one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and
take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light.
And, with each swallow, time is sublimed."
(From The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel
Barbery)

Check out this great show

A dear friend, Gill Cameron had an opening tonight
at a gallery on the Danforth in Toronto. I just love
her work, and she showed with another artist, Chris
Cooper, who paints the same wild, Ontario
landscape, but in oil, so their work displayed very well
together.

Gill had some new work that just blew my socks off.
She is an absolute genius with colour, abstraction,
light, watercolour and joy in the landscape. Her style is
100% original and gorgeous.

Her openings are always buzzing with people, good
conversation, wine and goodies. The show was
the perfect treat to end a long and busy week.

I'm including the invitation. If you're in town
by all means go and see it. If there's anything left
to buy, snap it up.

Have a getting-to-see-great-art day.

Capturing fond memories

Here's a painting of our friends in Nova Scotia, Ian and Marilyn
Fancey. Almost everything in the painting has changed. They are
sitting in front of their century old farmhouse, which they sold
a couple of years ago. Taking care of the large acreage got to be
too much of a hassle, and Marilyn was lonely out in the country.
Sometimes in winter the icy roads made it treacherous to venture
into town, only a fifteen minute drive away.

At the farmhouse
watercolour
14" x 16"

The kids reflected in the window are my sons, who loved to play
at the farm, and watch TV. We don't have a television at our
schoolhouse, so a trip to the Fancey's place was always a treat
for them. The little boy in the reflection in the window, is my
son, Sam -- who graduated from high school last week, and is
now 6' 3". All those Nova Scotia summers helped no doubt --
clean air and seafood.

The little dog, Tess, sitting on Marilyn's lap is no longer in
this world, and we miss her when we visit. Before we met
Marilyn and Ian, we had never really been card players.
But they are absolutely astonishing cribbage players. Now
any visit includes potato chips, instant coffee, and hours
of cribbage, punctuated with lots of laughter and endless
jokes.

I don't paint in watercolour anymore, although I think about
it fondly now and then. I just like the feeling of painting
in acrylic so much more. Someday when I have time, I'll
do both, but for now I'm sticking to perfecting my skill
in one medium.

Have a fondly-remembering-great-days-and-enjoying-the-present-one day.