We had a lovely party and wish you all a very Happy New Year.
I look forward to sharing great creative adventures with you in
the new year. Let's all be kind, and healthy and stay happy.
Have a loving your life day.
I'm tired tonight from 2 weeks of hustling for the season. Funnily
enough we put up our outside tree today! It is warm enough --
although it's raining -- that the fellows in our neighbourhood who
have backyard parties in the summer, are out laughing and talking
in the rain. A wonderful sound.
This is my top nine I made myself for 2020. 2022 was a hard year,
but things are looking up and we're going to have some (careful)
fun this weekend.
Have a loving your life day.
Wonder Water Image #1
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014
This new year coming has got my brain packed with new ideas.
And they've come flooding in. Yes! I say. One thing I'd like
to do (out of the list of something new every other minute)
is get back to painting portrait commissions of people
posing in my studio. If my subjects were rapid tested and
so was I before each session, I think it would be okay --
if we were all up to date on our vaccinations. That's our
world today.
Here's a portrait of a favourite model.
Have a loving your life day.
I've read a lot of articles lately about finding out who you are.
This painting is based on a photo of me at a young age, sitting
on the dock at the cottage my parents rented against a backdrop
of my son's mother-in-law's view at her cottage.
The painting hangs inside our front door -- and reminds me, the
grown up, supposed adult, to know this is my essence -- a
happy kid who loves to play, and read, and loves beauty. Being at the
cottage when I was a child was the easiest place to find equilibrium,
because the setting was beautiful, and my parents who were lovely
people, but also critical, and back in the city highly disciplinarian
were happy, and distracted. In other words no one paid
attention to me except my aunts and uncles down the path, and
my cousins. So fun was possible and available.
Have a loving your life day.
A couple of weeks ago I bought three Amaryllis plants, not
in bloom. If you are even slightly down about the state of
the world, or are anxious about the coming new year, this
flower is the antidote. It takes a long time to move from
bud(s) to bloom. It soars up like a green arrow, with leaves
surrounding it, and then the magic begins.
And it is impossible to look at these beauties and not feel
an enormous joy, just for the luck you feel getting to see
this. For anyone entering the room it is a feast for the eyes, and
for an artist it is an ecstatic eye full, and absolute proof that
the world is good.
Let's leave it at that. Happy Holidays.
Have a loving your life day.
California scene
Acrylic on panel
5 x 5 inches
Barbara Muir ©
A hard fact of our family life is that a huge chunk of our
family lives in California. We have visited, but with COVID
not for years, and we have 9 family members there.
I remember the first time I visited California -- it was for a
course by Skip Lawrence and Toph Shink. It was
amazing.
We left Toronto in weather so cold they had to de-ice the plane,
and arrived to see lemon trees thick with lemons outside our hotel
room. Everyone complained of the cold, which we snow bound
Canadians thought was very funny. It was so wonderful. We'd love
to go again, and love to see our family there.
Have a loving your family day.
Well today is Christmas day. And after an evening and morning
of celebration we had the day to ourselves. So we took some
bread down to the very hungry birds at the park we love on the
lake, and gave them what they call a holiday dinner. It was sooo
cold, that even though we were very warmly dressed, we were
too cold to go for our favourite walk.
Instead we drove to a lookout we love, and watched the high
waves crash against the breakwaters. So beautiful to watch.
Then we drove to another park near Ontario Place where the
waves were sending spray up 50 feet in the air -- astounding and
sooo exciting to see.
A Happy Day. We had a quiet and delicious dinner, and sat on
the couch after dinner singing. Happy Holidays to all of our
family and friends. Thank you for being everything that was
wonderful about this past year.
Have a loving your life day.
