And across the ocean in Paris -- Henriette Sonne

Buy Two Get one 1/2 price
12 paintings in 4 series
Each painting is approximately 12 x 12 inches
Henriette Sonne © 2010

Ta Da! Flourish of trumpets. My friend Henriette
Sonne has a show on at the Louvre this weekend.
She was invited to exhibit at the “Carrosel Du Louvre”
at the Louvre in Paris. The exhibition runs from the 5 - 6 of
June 2010.

When we talked the other night I told her that
I would write about her on Saturday.
She was painting energetically the other night
as the Norwegian sun barely set by midnight
(we talked on Skype from 10 until midnight her time)
crazy but we hadn't spoken for six months.

Back to the show at the Louvre. Is that cool or
what? I am devoting this space to her tonight.
This is the official explanation of her work:

"Her current series is about consumerism. It is a reflection of
how we purchase products generally. Consumers like a good
bargain and are often tempted by the offer of “buy two, get
one 1/2 price”. The artist Henriette Sonne reflects on why we
do this. We know that nobody is giving anything away for free.
The cut is either in the quality, or the price we think we save is
included in the first two and a 1/2 that we purchase.

Have we as consumers become victims of our own enthusiasm
or gullibility?'

To see more of Henriette's fabulous art click here.

It was another super day at our show here in
Toronto, but I'll write about that tomorrow
night.

Have a getting-two-happy-moments-for-the-price-of-one day.

A wonderful opening

Andrea Lekushoff and me in front of her
portrait with her son Mother and Child

What a great night. Everything cooperated. I wish I got a picture
of Gill and me together, but we were really busy the whole
night, so I will tomorrow. The rain that threatened
stayed away, and so many people came to the show that we had
to keep refilling the supplies on drinks and food. The evening
was filled with touching moments. The woman in the painting
Mother and child saw the painting for the first time, and loved it.
So did her husband, Dave. That was sweet.

Jim Courtney who writes about Skype
visited the show and posed beside
my Skype painting of Tamara.

And the night went on like that. I will have commissions for
the coming months, and exciting happenings. Jim Courtney the
Canadian Skype blogger was there when I arrived. I'd drawn
him a year and a half ago when he attended the Consumer
Electronics Show in Los Vegas, Nevada via Skype, but this
was the first time we met. I was in very high heels and he
towered above me. Skype is quite magical, because we had a
connection immediately in person, because of meeting over
Skype.

In the show I had a small portrait of my friend, Tamara in
Holland, and I did that from Skype. So Jim wanted to be
photographed with the portrait, and it later sold. Thanks
Tamara.

A somewhat blurry photo of my friend and
stylist Audrey, with her friend Lizzy,
on the left, and my friend
Helena on the right .

Wave after wave of wonderful people came in and it was
very exciting. Thanks blog friends. Meeting Jim
showed me that we will definitely be happy when we
meet.

A clearer shot of me with Audrey

If you're in Toronto, we're sitting the show from
noon to 5 p.m. every day this week, and having a closing
party on Thursday.

Have a -time-for-the-art-to-have-a-party day.

The show goes up

A few of Gill Cameron's paintings in the
Wychwood Barns show.
(There wasn't enough time to take
pictures tonight -- but I quickly
snapped this shot of
Gill's stunning, watercolour landscapes.)

Aside from the odd small adjustment the show at
the Wychwood Barns is up and ready for our
opening Friday night (June 4), tomorrow or
today depending on where you live.

And you know what? It's absolutely beautiful.
We filled every possible corner of the gallery
space. I don't know exactly how many paintings
that is, but I'll tell you tomorrow. It's funny
because you can see your work in the studio,
and around your house and think -- yep that's
really not bad, but housed in a large, elegant
space - wow!

Gill Cameron's work and mine show so well
together -- heightening the effect of our
art. It's really quite wonderful. So come out
if you can and see what we done done --
because it is really great!

Not to toot our own horns or anything. But it
really is something to see.

It was a grey, rainy day here and what do I see
parked outside my Printer's shop?
A London, England style taxi. It
was like something out of one of your
favorite children's stories.

Have a getting-ready-to-party-with-the-art day

The point of place

This has been an exceptional year for travel for
me, and I sometimes feel that I could make my
home anywhere. But I've lived in Toronto my
whole adult life, and in this house since before
Sam was born.

A gorgeous garden on Bernard Avenue in Toronto that we pass
on our way to buy flowers every weekend.

Tonight I have been getting organized to hang
the show I'm having with Gill Cameron tomorrow.
So sorry there hasn't been time to paint anything
but edges.

Speaking of home. Many Canadian artists paint the
edges of their canvasses and hang them on the wall.
I've noticed that artists in the southern states favour
big gold frames. When I was a watercolour painter
I framed in gold, and still like the look of those frames.
In California a friend told me, they do not
paint their edges, because they want to see the
painting process. If they frame, they frame in
bleached wood she says. Here most frames are
made of painted black wood for oil and acrylic.

The park a short walk from my house -- such
a wonderful place. Steven and I used to
ride our bikes to this park when we first
met. We walked our son Christopher through the
park as a baby in his pram, and Sam through
the park in his stroller. We've had family picnics,
community picnics, and many, many walks in
this glorious space.

But I'm wandering. It's time to call it a day.Today's photos
are some of the delights of the city I call home --Toronto.

Looking for inspiration? How's this for magnificent.
Zoey and I came upon this stand of wild Irises in
the marshes in the ravine the other evening. I was
transfixed. So yes this is my home -- Toronto.

Have a making-your-home-where-you-are day.

I know what to paint

Henriette painting
Charcoal on bond paper
14 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I just starting experimenting with how
I'd work from my Skype images
and the paper was not perfectly
flat because I use it as a kind of
provisional palette, and the
paper underneath gets wet.)

A couple of days ago I looked at the two 30 inch x 30
inch canvasses hanging around my studio, and
thought I want some paintings on those. When
I stopped in at my paint store I asked a fellow who
works there, who I've been talking to about art for
ages if he'd pose for my Water Image Series, and he
said yes. He has a great face, filled with the character
and joie de vivre you'd expect in a young artist.

So he'll be the subject for one of the canvasses, but
what about the other one? The answer came today.
I was talking to my friend Henriette on Skype, and
the whole time we talked she was painting. Just
back from New York and seeing the William Kentridge
series of powerful drawings of his wife getting into
the bath, I suddenly thought it would be cool to do
a series of large portraits of Henriette painting.
(The idea of a series has always appealed to me
and more so since I read about the work of Larry
Rivers a few years ago. The power is what attracted
me to Kentridge's drawings, and the close up in
portraiture is another form of power.

Henriette sure is painting. She has paintings in a
show at the Louvre in Paris this weekend. So she's
a mega painter. She has two young children under
two, took part in the Florence Biennale, and just
had a successful show in London, England.

While we talked she worked away at a new series
she's developing, and off in the distance through
the window in her living room, the
Norwegian night gradually descended -- only
never really did, as is its habit at this time of year. And
I had great memories of being in Sweden and
enjoying the late evening sunshine when I was there
with Steven in 2006.

Have an aha-that's-what-I'll-paint day

Getting organized -- again

Spring Flowers
watercolour on watercolour paper
20 x 25 inches
Barbara Muir © 1994
(Here's another piece from my
sister's collection of my
paintings. I switched from
watercolour to acrylics because
I couldn't get the intensity I
wanted with watercolour.)

Most painters, like good soccer players, and hockey stars
start painting at about one or two years old. In fact we all do --
every human being has the urge to push paint around,
draw something, model something in clay, or plasticine
as soon as they get the chance -- starting as babies.
But something happens to a lot of us along
the way to stop us from keeping on with it.

In writing -- another art form -- I know from asking my
students that the event cutting off creativity frequently
involved a teacher. As a teacher I realize that perhaps
the remark that stopped the creative process might have
been meant very innocently. But children just getting
their artistic legs under them, and many adults too,
give up at the first sign of resistance, or lack of acceptance
or praise for what they're up to, or (ouch) criticism.
It is very, very hard to teach without ever criticizing.
I'd like to learn how.

So I began painting, or more likely drawing at about three,
and painting at four when I entered kindergarten. Painting
and singing were the two things I liked about kindergarten.
I missed my mom, and the sound of her singing, and
clattering about in the kitchen making cookies and bread
and supper. I missed playing with my dolls and making up
scenarios, and what's stuck with me my whole
life is, I missed doing nothing. That's right nothing.

Only now that I'm an adult, and take a camera or sketch
pad with me when I'm doing nothing, I realize that I never
was doing nothing. I was either looking, reading, or thinking.
All perfectly acceptable habits for an artistic child, or adult
for that matter.

Get to the point you're saying. The point is that before a
big show, it's time to get organized. And how do you do that?
I've found that an invaluable tool is the giant list clamped onto
a big piece of foamcore. It's light, and colourful, and I can prop
it up on the kitchen counter during the day, and put it away
at dinner time. Then all day I can cross off tasks, until finally
I am at the opening, and the bulk of the work is done.

As for the painting, which is by now both passion and habit.
I have been doing some, and it looks like I might have about
50 pieces to put in the show coming up on Friday. That's good
news. But after all I started painting when I was four, so
by rights I should have some work put aside today.

Have an I've-been-doing-this-my-whole-life day.

Two busies

Oranges in a glass bowl
8 x 8 inches
acrylic on canvas
Barbara Muir © 2010
(not quite finished. Some decisions still
need to happen. But close.)

Parents of young children know there's a time when
kids start dressing themselves and you have to explain
what works. "Two busies don't work!" you explain, just
like your mother did for you when you wanted to wear
your green plaid pants with your orange and sherbet
striped sweater.

Now of course this is all the rage. And sometimes it's
really effective in painting. But other paintings need
some simplifying. This painting of the oranges in the
antique glass bowl on the vintage tablecloth did not
work. After staring at it for a few days I got out my
paintbrush and decided to begin to tone down -- no
change the tablecloth. I could hear my mother's
voice in my head as I did.

So what do the editors feature in the Globe Fashion magazine?
Guys mixing Glen check (never one of my favorite
suiting materials) with checkered shirts and a
different check patterned tie! Aye my grandmother
is no doubt twisting around in heaven and poking
her best friend telling her to take a look see.

But guess what -- those guys with all those patterns
look great! So much for rules. In this little painting
the rule helped. It's not quite finished, but it's
breathing.

Have an enjoying-a-doubly-busy-time day.