The kitchen as garden

Parrot tulips in in the kitchen
black marker on bond paper
8 x 10 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

This past week our kitchen has been insane
with flowers. (Okay I'm tempted to add dude!)
I spend a lot of time with teenagers in my
work and their way of talking rubs off. (Add
another dude here. As in Dude!)

The kitchen table
How are we supposed to eat with all
of these flowers? We manage just fine.

How would I rephrase that as a grown up?
Friends have been awestruck by the riot
of colour created by our floral friends this
week. Ah forget it. What happened? The
flowers from last week didn't die. We thought
they would, so we bought more, and last
week's beauties stayed with us. Plus I actually
planted pansies in the pots at the front of
the house and you've got to pick those
every day (dude!) and bring them in.

So tonight's drawing is of the most gorgeous
red parrot tulips in my kitchen. I wish I
had time to paint them, but it's early to bed
tonight -- it's my early class tomorrow.

Parrot tulips in pots on the hutch.
These are my favorite tulips.
But of course I love most tulips.

I started the third painting in my water
series tonight. That is I painted on the
orangey/brown ground, but realized that
I was way too tired to draw my next image
on the canvas. So I'll wait until tomorrow.
I am dreaming of this series now. It's pretty
exciting!

Have a maybe-we-should-get-some-flowers day.

Looking back helps me learn

Megan at The Stork Restaurant
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

I am marking thoughtful essays today. I've been at it
all day, and will not be stopping until bedtime. So
I thought I might put in an older painting here, to
give my hungry blog something to look at. It makes
me think about how I used to paint, and how I
paint now. This was done in 2003. It is a portrait
of my son's fiancée Megan, and I may have shown
it to you before.

I like the portrait very much because it reminds
me of the night we spent celebrating Christopher's birthday
in a wonderful restaurant that no longer exists.
Megan and Christopher were so young! They still
are and it's hard to imagine that they've been
dating for such a long time.

Looking at how badly the original photo was
cropped I realized that I've learned so much from
blogging. Just the daily need for images has
taught me how to crop, and photograph (not
always expertly) and how to get the photo
to look as much as possible like the original
painting. Blogging makes me think in a graphic
and design format every day. That's a tremendous
help to me.

So this is just a fast thank you. I have to get back
to marking, but this end-of-term marathon will
end in a day. And then it's painting full time
except for school time, until exam week. I am
looking forward to that time with a skip in my
step. I'll have soul with a capital "S". (I think
that's a Tower of Power song.)

Have a-thanking-the-universe-for-spring-on-this-planet day.

Quick sketch on a marking night

Sketch for Water Image Three
Black marker on bond paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

Wahoo! I've finished marking one set of final essays,
and in the main they were a pleasure to read. So I can't
say much, because I teach first thing in the morning.
I did a fast sketch of the next model in my water series
to celebrate. Very quick. When I get to the painting her
hair will make a lovely pattern. She is originally from
India, and wants to have the Indian Ocean behind her.
We looked it up on my son's ancient garage sale globe.
The map of the world has changed I think. I'm
excited to get going on this one, and to have all three
paintings moving towards the finish line at the same time.

Have a loving-what-you-do day.

P.S. Ferocious chorus of robins when the dog and I
took a short walk at dusk. Forsythia bursting, Magnolia
on the 5th of April! Folks this is global warming. People
are so happy about it, which is understandable after
winter. But Hello! These signs are a month and a half
early.

Happy Easter

Water series Image Two
Stage Five
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I started work on the beach, and have to
think a bit about where I'm going now. Do
I keep the same thin strip, or change from
lighter sand, to darker sand and hold
onto the connecting horizontal bands?
Questions for tomorrow.)

Today was a day of high contrasts. Steven and I began

the day early for a Sunday, planning how to help

the Easter Bunny fill the baskets and hide the
chocolate eggs for our grown children. We are
a pretty good team by now, and we filled, and
wrapped the baskets in short order. I'd found some
huge bunnies which we set out at each place. This is
all part of our expected ritual. Then we blindfold the
children. (This started with my sister for some reason
years ago. The reason has been lost but the tradition
is intense with our kids.) We lead Sam blindfolded
down from his bedroom to the basement where
Christopher and Megan were then herded all three
up the stairs blindfolded. In the kitchen we twirled
them each around three times, counting, one, two,
three then they could take the blindfolds off and look
for eggs. Christopher said that the blindfolds now
remind him of Gitmo. The morning had begun.

The crazy looking Easter table before breakfast
and the Easter egg hunt. Zoey the dog would
really like both the eggs and the toy bunnies.

Our traditional holiday breakfast is champagne and orange
juice with iced coffee cake. But no one wanted that
drink today. This morning everyone ate coffee cake and
strudel, boiled eggs and toast, and they all drank coffee,
even Sam. Meanwhile the hunt had begun. Sporadically,
and eagerly they hunted for chocolate eggs in bursts,
with me and Steven offering silly hints. It was a lot of
fun as always.

Then we drove Sam to the bus stop, and Steven and I visited
Kensington Market and part of China town. We were tempted
by many restaurants, but went for a bit of a walk and
headed home for reheated turkey (still delicious).

Kieran Brent works on a painting
outside his Kensington Market area house.

In Kensington Market, in front of a run down house on a side
street, I saw an artist working on a great canvas. I asked if
I could take his picture, and he agreed. So let me introduce
you to Kieran Brent. He was working with a large brush,
and I like what he's done with the image so far. Kensington
Market has been a haven for artists since I went to OCAD
(a few years ago). It was great to see an artist confidently
working away in his front yard.

Half way through Easter

Sam after dinner
black marker on bond paper
20 x 14 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

We're doing Easter a bit differently this year
because Sam goes back to university tomorrow.
Both of our sons, and my son's fiancée love the
hunt for chocolate. Of course they're fast
because they're all grown up, but they are as
excited about chocolate eggs as small children.
My mother was surprised that we carry this
tradition on, but that is our tradition -- a big
turkey dinner together, and the hunt for eggs.
We just finished the big turkey dinner, completely
prepared by my sweetheart Steven.

So the older "children" are sleeping over
tonight to make sure they are part of the hunt,
because Sam has to go back to school early.
Like many of my students he can't believe
that there's school on Easter Monday. But
there is. As I pointed out to my class, many
people in the class don't celebrate Easter at
all. Reality check.

The studio ready for Easter

Sam is doing a degree in acting, so tonight
he offered to pose for me for a few minutes
in exchange for some time to run his lines.
I listened to his Shakespeare monologue, and
read the part of a corrupt cop in another
piece he's rehearsing, and got to do this sketch in
return. It was fun, and reminded me of the
days when he lived at home all the time.

Have a Happy Easter, or whatever you celebrate.

All about art

Water series portrait 2
Stage 4
acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I am not finished the background.
The sand will be the white, or
caramel coloured sand of the
Caribbean, and I may put in
surf if I can figure out how to
paint it in an abstract fashion.)

Today we drove to the other end of town, almost out of town
altogether to pick up my third model, a wonderful young
woman. Back at the house I took her picture in the pose
for the third painting in the water series, and she posed
for some other small paintings I may do when this series
is over.

We had a lot of fun, and she got to meet Sam, who is home
for the weekend from university and Zoey the dog, Timbah
the cat, and Fiona the cat.

Both Steven and I have grim colds. They remind me of the
cold we came down with in Florence, but the difference
is that we know which medicine to get here, and are
madly drinking special tea for colds, taking Cold FX and
today I got a combo that will stop the sniffling, which
really stops creativity in its tracks. Hurray.

So once that took effect I began working on the background
for the second painting. I want the lines of the water and
perhaps the tide pools to be at the same level in the paintings.
So I figured that part out and painted in the ocean and the sky.

This model wanted a Caribbean feeling ocean, sky and sand, so
the colour changes in this painting. I may leave the large bit of
blue over one eye when I work on the face a bit more, because
it is the colour of the sea too, and she is a water being in my
painting. Aha!

It's now very late, and I'm going to take the night time cold
medicine and go to bed. Lots of marking to do this weekend
too, so instead of my novel I'm reading final essays.

We are having our Easter dinner tomorrow night, because
Sam goes back to school on Sunday. So tomorrow will be
a very busy day. I'm not crazy about Easter, but my sons
like the bunny and the chocolate eggs, so we will cook a
turkey (I hope it's not as hot as it was today) and there
will be a hunt.

Have a celebrating-celebration day.

A fine finish to the day

Water series, painting 2,
Stage 3
Acrylic on canvas
Barbara Muir © 2010

It has been a very beautiful day here. I taught this
morning and my class was wildly excited about
the prospect of a long weekend. This joy reached
a fever pitch because it was an exceptionally
beautiful and warm day.

When they the class was released I went home to
handle a series of chores. Finally I got back to my
painting, and I am very happy with how it's
going. The girl's face is just a beauty. I learned
this technique of putting the blue underneath
from a friend in my art club, George. I really
like how it works in these water paintings. Because
blue reads wet, reads water.

I am having so much fun painting. But it's late.
More tomorrow.

Have a getting-a-really-excellent-rest day.