Loving the kitchen china

Kitchen China
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 48"
Barbara Muir ©
SOLD ♥ 

Here's one of the paintings that sold last weekend in
Artwalk. I don't think I've shown a proper picture
of it before. When we had our kitchen renovated,
one of the things we designed was a big hutch to
hold my collection of antique china. I am a big
fan of late 19th century, white china, with a touch
of gold. Over the years friends and family have
added to this stock, and I'm now at the point where
I can't take one more cream jug, although I might want to.

This cabinet gets decorated for every holiday. It looks
just beautiful and the contractor designed the lighting
to show off our collection. I've painted lots of still life paintings
of my china, but in this painting I connected portraits and china.
My model came into the kitchen, sat down and had some
chocolate cake that Steven had just baked, and that was that.
A painting was born. I thought it might have been
too whimsical, but last weekend it found a new home --
so in a way, part of my home, has become part of
someone else's home. I love that idea.

Have a spreading-the-joy kind of day.

It is so cold!

It's so cold -- how cold is it? So cold that people like
me who spent the summer on crutches, are wondering
where the summer went. In Toronto it rained for
most of the summer. Two weeks ago we had our
hottest day, and turned the air conditioners on.
Today we have the furnace on and an electric heater
in the bedroom -- sorry universe.

We are cold. I worked all night trying
to get two paintings ready, but in the end found
this tiny still life I quite like -- so here it is.

Still Life Apples and Sunflowers
3" x 5"
acrylic on watercolour paper
glazed

It's small, but it still packs a nice abstract, juicy
colour punch. After a night of not quite getting
it right, it made me happy to find it. It was hard
to photograph because I glazed it to a fare-thee-well
-- tip take the shot before you glaze. Ah well.

Have a do-nothing-at-all-day.

The birthday season

In our family and extended family October marks
the start of the birthday season. Tonight we went
to my friend's daughter's family birthday party, as
we have every year since she turned six. I love
Claudia like a daughter, and as I don't have any
daughters, that is a wonderful gift to me. I've painted
her several times, and she's definitely one of
my favorite models.

Sam, my youngest is home from university because
his university has been on strike so he came to the party,
and we all had fun. At one point the conversation got a
little hot over the election -- strangely enough
people are more excited about the American
election, than our own.

We decided to shelve the topic so we could just
enjoy each other. The truth is that as soon as
both of our countries' elections are over, everyone
will go back to being people -- just people.
That's why I say I'm from the art party, because
anyone who paints, draws or likes to enjoy art
can join, and then we can all be friends.

After the Dance,
Sam sketch
30" x 30"
acrylic on canvas

I have a couple of paintings I'm working on
that I'd like to put in the blog, but I haven't
had time to get them ready today, so I'm
showing you a large sketch painting I did
of my son Sam, when I was teaching private
art lessons. It is like a class sketch, because
I painted beside my student, and used the
painting to illustrate my lesson. Looking at
it now, there are areas I'd want to refine, but
it is a fairly good portrait of Sam, who was
our good-natured, if somewhat reluctant
model.

Have an apolitical, loving everybody, peaceful day.

No debate about this one

I finished my painting of the woman and her cats. Of course
I could keep going. I could keep touching it up for
20 years probably. But my goal is to retain some looseness
while capturing the essence. These cats are so lovely,
I'm glad their owner likes the painting. That makes
me happier than almost anything else.

A woman and her cats
acrylic on canvas
36" x 24"
Sold

And they are a touching threesome -- the cats love their
owner, and her love for "the boys" as she calls them, is
obvious. The cats are brothers from the fluffy cat school.
Very furry. So this is it. I can breathe a huge sigh of
relief and move on to the next one. I'm proud of my client
and me for weathering through our two broken ankles, hers
first, which crossed off most of the winter, and then mine,
which cut into our summer sessions considerably. We are
strong and valiant women. Her ankle is almost better, and
mine will be almost better in six more months.

I am not watching the debates, because I've already seen
the Canadians debate in French, and I'll enjoy the American
one through the lens provided by Jon Stewart and Stephen
Colbert.

Have a relax-somehow-things-always-turn-out-day.

Election heat

Here's another class sketch from a few years ago,
done in acrylic on rough watercolour paper.
I was trying a turquoise blue ground. I soon
discovered that blue was not the best background
colour for me, but it works all right with this
particular face.

I had a very long and rewarding day at school
today, and came home to paint. But my brother
told me that the French election debate was
heating up, so Steven and I watched both
the French and English shows of the debate,
switching back and forth between them.

Art Class sketch
acrylic on watercolour paper

The Canadian election is definitely not as high
profile as the American one, but as far as I'm
concerned it's just as interesting. Although we're
much smaller we're facing many of the same
problems. Yet with the economy still in
crisis, our brave debaters raised the topic of art
and support for artists again. That's because the
province of Quebec recognizes the central role
the arts and culture play in their thriving tourism
industry. But the driving economic force in the
country has been oil, and in an election the concerns
of the oil patch trump art hands down.

The main thing here is art, and I've got to get back to
my painting. I hope you're having a good time
with yours.

Have an art-is-the-best-party day.

Dipping into the files

I had to mark papers tonight, which is its own kind
of pleasure, but I didn't have time to go to art class.
Plus I admit I spent three hours at the hospital
today waiting in the Fracture Clinic, and I am
exhausted. So I'm showing you an older work.
This is a class painting I did on smooth Arches
watercolour paper with acrylics. I always liked
it, and couldn't understand why it didn't
sell in shows, even when the price was almost
a give away.

Woman in argyle sweater
acrylic on watercolour paper
18" x 20"

But now I think I get it. She looks worried or
cranky. And no one needs cranky on their walls.
I know painters paint angry paintings, but that push
has to come from their souls. Mine is not an angry
soul. I do get upset about things, but in
essence I work hard at being cheerful, and
see that as an essential talent. I'll talk to you
tomorrow, meanwhile enjoy whatever art you make.

Have a letting-the-happy-through day.

Running on happy inspiration

Yesterday was quite the day -- bright and sunny, and our house
looked like the gallery/studio it was supposed to be. Never mind
the missing baseboards in the basement, or that pre-construction,
re-renovation look. My family and friends cleaned the place up
so well that the only indication of excessive creative verve was the
close to 40 paintings on the walls (I think at last count it was 37).

The reference photo for this image was taken
at one of our parties. The woman is our friend
and she's holding a neighbour's baby.
I like the expression on both of their
faces, but there's lots of work to do,
so you'll see it again.

After a little nap I thought of all of you out there who paint
every day, and I pulled my paints out of their oddly tidy
hiding place so I could begin a new painting. I wanted to
show you the first stage before I worked on marking papers
last night. But the camera wouldn't cooperate. Tonight
I've been delivering purchased work, so no more painting, but I
took a look at this effort and decided that it's a pretty good
beginning.

I started on a red ground, which gives the painting it's
punch. The rest will happen as I think about it more.


Have a seeing-what-happens day.