Making Halloween happy

The Halloween Production Line
prepping the bags for delivery
Photo
Barbara Muir 2020

Happy Halloween everyone! This year it was a toughy. Why? No one was
allowed to go trick-or-treating in Toronto. As someone in our family has a
birthday on Halloween, that made us particularly sad. This coronavirus is
tearing everything apart. And at the same time it challenges us to think in
different ways, and try new things -- always wanting to keep everyone
safe and healthy.

So the picture tonight shows what we did because the kids couldn’t come
to our door.  We love seeing the neighbourhood children and their parents
dressed up in their costumes. There's always such a happy feeling on our street on
Halloween, so we thought we better do something to make the children
happy.  How? We spoke to the parents of the children we know, and asked
if would it be okay to give them bags of candy?

And in every case the parents said yes. We went to work preparing the bags.
I drew pumpkins on them, and we wrote the children’s names and Happy
Halloween.  This afternoon we took them around, and dropped them off.  We
wore our masks and gloves, knocked on the family's doors, and stepped back
social distanced on their sidewalks.

And when our family came to celebrate, we had a small candy hunt. Not the
wild and crazy fun we're used to, but still fun. And so was the party in our
winter coats in the backyard. It was so great to see our family!  What was cool
was that other families in our neighbourhood were having freezing cold 
Halloween parties too, and we could hear the laughter of small family groups. 

 Happy Halloween!

The start of a drawing

Untitled (work in progress)

marker on
Maison de Haute

 Couleurs Charvin paper

8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020

I started working on a drawing today that has been too complicated for me
to begin. But today talking to my brother I felt relaxed enough to start.
So that’s where it’s at tonight. I  began to understand the very sharp contrast
that I’m working on from a tiny photo from years ago. 

And this is how far I got. There was so much going on today that I didn’t
have more time to work on it. That happens sometimes. Wishing you a
wonderful weekend, and a very happy, if somewhat constrained Halloween.

Well here in Toronto children are not supposed to go Trick or Treating from house
to house like they always do.  Which is what Halloween is about.

Happy Halloween anyway.  Every house is decorated to the max to make
the children happy. I admire that spirit in my neighbours. 

One of the best jobs in art

 

Nicole 
black marker on watercolour paper
12 x 9 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009 

The drawing I'm showing you today was commissioned by a New York 
firm who asked me to do Skype portrait drawings live for the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  That was both an exciting and daunting project. 
Luckily I had prearranged that I would do one sketch during the show,
and another more formal sketch afterwards. This is the second more
polished version.

When the Skype session with the show began there was one small, but
rather critical problem.  There was no light on the first person I was supposed
to draw!  I'm glad I didn't know at the time that my process was being
shown on a giant screen to everyone there. 

The lighting problem was solved, and I met some wonderful people.  The
drawings could certainly qualify as Inktober drawings so I'll share this
one with you today. Nicole and I instantly got along, which is extremely
helpful when you're trying to capture a portrait.

What I love about being an artist is the constant learning.  Maybe my
work with Skype in its very early stages, prepared me for the Zoom
reality now.  We were working with huge, excellent computer screens, and
sometimes shaky Internet, but we made some art. 

Thank you to everyone involved. 

Thank you Inktober

Sunflowers
Inktober drawing
Black marker on Canson
Mixed Media Paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020

We’ve now been in a state of on and off lockdown because of COVID-19
for almost 8 months. I just realized tonight that it’s been that long. So
I’m grateful to Inktober for getting me drawing. Some days like today when
it was beautiful, sunny, and even warm in the sunny parts of our backyard,
I can almost forget that we are living through this strange, nightmarish time.

But on the grey days, and now very cold, grey days, trying to do a drawing
because it’s Inktober has distracted me in quite a wonderful way. And seeing
other people's amazing drawings on the same theme has inspired me. Today
I finally sat down to draw the sunflowers I’ve been meaning to draw since they
came into the house a few days ago. 

People talk about the therapeutic aspect of being involved in art. Today as I
drew these simple flowers (mine -- not the flowers which are so spectacular)
I actually had that feeling of peace. So I like this drawing, even though I know
it’s far from perfect.

Thank you to everyone out there who inspires me, supports me, cheers me up,
cheers me on, even if you don’t know you’ve done that. You have! We will
get through this and it will be the biggest party ever when it's over. Won’t that be fun!

Have a great Thursday.

My best Inktober -- wasn’t

You can't keep a good man down

Acrylic ink and acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 2020

I learned a lot last year doing the Inktober sketches. In fact when the
Heliconian Club, one of the art clubs I belong to, had a figure drawing exhibition,
I decided to do a very large Inktober drawing

The people at my favourite DeSerres art supplies store helped me to figure out
how to do it, because unlike the Inktober drawings on paper, this one was going
to be huge on canvas and 36 x 48 inches. One challenge was that the canvas
surface is not ideal for drawing with ink. So I learned how to gesso the canvas
until it was even smoother than paper.

I am very happy with the drawing. It's the nicest portrait I’ve ever done of my
husband, who definitely deserves an excellent portrait. 

Have fun creating today. 

Today’s drawing

Before the party
Marker on Canson
Mixed Media paper
The 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020

I worked today on this drawing of a girl. It’s another Inktober drawing. Pen and
ink isn’t the ideal medium for a child’s portrait -- soft colour is probably
best. But it’s fun to try new things, and during this strange time we live in, we
are trying new things all the time.

Perfection is the enemy of art. I read all the time about people trying to get it right.
And I was trying to get it right in this drawing. But art is often about what didn’t
work, about distortion and interpretation.That doesn’t mean I don’t love perfect art,
I certainly do.

A good friend Laurel Daniels is having an exhibit of what I consider perfect art in
Texas, and if you are nearby and can go to the see the show, I recommend it.
She is amazing.

And for more wonderful art check out the artist Eleanor Lowden's beautiful,
 happy work on display now as part of the One of a Kind online show.

What I like about the portrait of this girl is that she’s happy, and we need all the
 happiness we can get right now. Take care.

Dreaming

The view from our hotel window 

© Barbara Muir 2015 

Today Steven and I had a super time seeing good friends on their front porch.
We were social distanced, brought our own coffee, and sat in the freezing cold
talking to one another and having a great time.

When we came home we started to look at pictures of our visit to France
five years ago when I was in the Carousel du Louvre in June, and four years
ago at this time of year. That was the most phenomenal October for art ever!
We went to New York City where I was in a show at the Amsterdam Whitney
Gallery, came home to Toronto on October 9th, and were on a plane on the 19th to
go and show in Paris, France at the Carousel du Louvre for the second time.
Wow!

Classy Halloween Store window for

Teuscher Chocolates near 30 Rock in New York City

Photo

Barbara Muir © 2016

So Steven and I spent some time looking at photos, and dreaming of a time when
we can live that way again. When we saw our friends today, we talked about how
travel is the most wonderful thing to do. And it's the best way to learn about other
people's lives.

The skating rink at 30 Rock

So different from Canada 

No one could skate!

Still so fun.

Photo

Barbara Muir 2016

The skating rink is in front of this 
gorgeous statue -- the symbol
of 30 Rock

I’ve been so lucky to travel to international art shows that I've been in. It was beyond
thrilling to have my art show in the Carousel du Louvre, which was attended by
so many people. Plus it takes place in the basement of the Louvre Museum, one
of the most important museums in the world.

View from our hotel room in Paris in 2016
Photo

Barbara Muir © 2016

So I am grateful to my gallery director in New York, and to the wonderful Gallery
directors at E Editore who organized the shows in Paris. Plus in the October,
2016 show I got to see my friend Miranda Brouwers, the artist who I met at the
Florence Biennale in Italy in 2015. 

Me and Miranda Brouwers in front of

her beautiful painting in

the Carousel du Louvre

Photo

Steven van Schaik © 2016

Me with my painting Dream Selfie

Acrylic on canvas

Barbara Muir © 2016

(Photo by Steven van Schaik)

In fact Miranda and I started something at the Florence Biennale in 2015 that we could
really use now, and that was the Happy People Group. In the long days of sitting
the Florence show we helped people become more cheerful by starting this group,
and teaching people to put their hands in the air for two minutes to lower their stress
levels. So hey let’s give it a go now, because aside from not being able to travel at all,
 there are one or two things going on that cause some stress at the moment.

Have some fun dreaming!