Across the portrait line. And summer's last fling.

 Portrait detail (Title to be announced)

Acrylic on canvas

Barbara Muir © 2013

Here's the second face in the commission I finished
yesterday.  This girl is a power house.  Clearly
great teachers have inspired her.  Here's to being
that kind of quality teacher. 

Steven and I are taking wonderful walks with the
dog every evening.  There is always something to
see and you forget that when you don't walk outside.
Yesterday we watched a kite in the park soar so high,
we thought it might interfere with low flying planes.
It was amazing.  It was so high I could hardly see it,
like a very, very high flying bird.

Tonight under a beautiful moon in a clear blue sky,
we saw a rabbit sitting on someone's front
lawn.  It was there when we turned to cross
the bridge over the park, and had moved
one lawn over when we headed home.
Seeing wildlife in the city makes me happy.
We saw a fox in our local park last week.

I start a new and very exciting series for a show this
fall today.  I am beyond thrilled about it.  Complicated
and evolving in my mind by the minute.  It is the best

when I feel like I love painting.  A young man who works
in Gwartzman's Art Store where I buy my canvasses, said
he likes to paint every day, "it's like breathing."  A good
sentiment.  Let's keep doing both.

Have a -seeing-the-magic-under-the-blue-moon day.

First face and a delightful conclusion

Portrait detail (Title to be announced)

Acrylic on canvas

Barbara Muir © 2013

I have been working for the past while on a commission
that's been a pure pleasure.  I'm a firm believer in showing
my clients completed work, so it stays under wraps until the
reveal.

Imagine my thrill on bringing the client in to see the
painting today, and realizing that I've not only created
a painting, but it's made someone's day, and will
add to the family's story.

I decided to give you the painting one face at a time
for the next three days, and reveal it in its entirety on
Thursday.  So set your watches, program your calendars,
watch this space, and enjoy how the whole thing comes
together.  I know I did.

Have a bringing-more-happiness-into-the-world day.

Understanding Oldenburg and a great series

 Untitled (Work in Progress)

Stage 5/6

(starting to refine it)

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

As a young art student I was drawn to Claes
Oldenburg's work but didn't really get it.  Now
I do. Every day objects, and this case breakfast
are quite beautiful.  Oldenburg is known for
impressive, large public sculptures, featuring the every
day -- a typewriter eraser, a spoon holding a cherry,
and one of my favorites an ice cream cone
crashing into a building called Dropped Cone.

I don't know what I'll call this painting when it's
finished, but it's the other side of the table
from the bowl of porridge.  If I keep going on with
this series, the food will turn into characters and
start to speak. What would it say, "there I was
under a beautiful stainless steel lid, when
suddenly I was right out in the open, and a couple
was staring at me as if I was a work of art!!!"

Untitled (Work in Progress)

Stage 3/4

(Making decisions and

painting)

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

That's how a perfectly served hotel breakfast
strikes me.  It's a work of art, like a vase of flowers,
or a beautiful room (or an ice cream cone crashing
into a building).  There breakfast is, and I defy you
to look out the window and concentrate on anything
else.  Even though in this case the view was a
spectacular panorama of old Quebec City, which
is very beautiful with it's historic buildings and the
St. Lawrence River and mountains in the distance.

View of old Quebec out the window

(Funnily enough there's a sign on the window

asking you to pull your sheer drapes during

the day)

I am still working on this painting, but I thought I'd show
you some of the stages.

Untitled (Work in Progress)

Stage 1/2

(drawing and fleshing

in the ground)

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

While I'm working I've been listening to an
awesome free series of audio seminars
called The Push Up Entrepreneur.  I've had
a lot of painting work this week, but I listened
to KC Baker yesterday and was so inspired,
and today I listened to Ali Rittenhouse, and
John Lee Dumas.  It is certainly a fantastic
and educating experience. I'm learning a lot, and I'm
very grateful to Angie Rice and Silvie Matthews
for organizing this free online series.

Have a loving-what's-in-front-of-you day.

A hit of pansies and transforming the chair

 A shot of pansies

Acrylic on canvas

3 x 5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

My entire  front garden died when I was in Nova
Scotia.  Very sad, and I haven't had time to replant.
But some very straggly pots of yellow pansies made
it through the heat and flooding of July, and are the
only decorative note at the front of the house.  (I
promise to fix this next weekend.)

So this little painting honours those cheery little
plants, struggling to improve the first impression
our house gives out.  I had fun painting it,
and have to say I really like these flowers.  Good job
girls I say.  (They are not really girls, but I like the
sound of that.)

Last ditch art project

It's hard making ourselves work on improving the
place when we're in Nova Scotia.  I was busy
painting, and Steven was reading and waiting for
me.  Then both of us ate a lot, and walked on the
beach.  When was there time for crafts?  Well on
the second last day, inspired by my friend, Diane
Mattinson, who has transformed many things
with a quick coat of spray paint, we changed the
look of an inherited-with-the-place chair that
had always bugged us.

The chair partially painted.

The old burnt orange looked

sad.  White is the new colour.

Now it looks positively glossy with pride.  I
think the July issue of LivingEtc, a gorgeous
housing magazine, pushed white, and we
succumbed.  Steven was going to let me do it.
He carefully covered the legs and arms with
cut pieces of newspaper, and then could not
resist when push came to shove.  A shout out
to you Steven for an awesome job.  (Now about
the wicker furniture on the back porch here!)

The final product - sprayed 

white with leather spray paint

A vast and happy improvement

making all the rest of the furniture

jealous.

Have an enjoying-the-art-in-everything day.

The Iconic House -- one symbol of Nova Scotia

 The house on the hill

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

When you love a place the way we love Nova Scotia,
and travel there by car -- certain landmarks
help you know you've arrived.  This house is one of
them for me.  You see it coming along Highway
6, the Sunrise Trail, from Amherst.  It's at the top
of a hill, and it appears over the brilliant green of
summer grass.

This year I photographed it frantically as we drove
by, and then when I was painting it the angle was
different than my mind's image, so I wasn't clear
that it was "the house."  Driving by another day,
I thought, "that's the house in my painting, oh and
the house on the hill," and the house was all the
more real to me because I'd been staring at it,
deciphering its appeal.

This is it.  A simple white farmhouse. Those
white buildings set against vivid green grass,
and blue, or scowling grey skies might as well be
the fans waving flags at the finish line of a race at the
end of our 2,000 kilometer (1,242 mile) journey.
They say, "lucky you.  You're here in Nova Scotia
again."

I think I'm finished this painting.  It was just
missing the tree.  Light influences everything we
paint.  In our part of Nova Scotia the sand is a
coppery red.  The colour changes wildly with the
time of day, and many of the roads and paths
are the same colour.  That was my ground and
it wants to pop through here and there, so I let
it.

Have a finishing-your-happy-work day.

The glorious summer of paint -- Shh it's a secret

 Served to perfection

Acrylic on canvas

10 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

Last week I confess we stole away for a super
retreat at Megan's parents' cottage.  (Megan
is my son Christopher's wife).  It was so much fun
and I wish I'd taken even more pictures so I
could do a whole series based on that incredible
spot, and the wondrous weekend we spent there.

I have been painting, but am working on a big
commission, and this seems to be my reality this
summer, unable to post because it's all hush hush.
So I thought I'd take some time this morning to finish
some details on a painting I started a while ago.
Even though it is of a hotel breakfast, it almost
looks like the wonderful breakfast Megan's Dad
and Mom served us.  Fresh cooked Irish steel cut
oatmeal (theirs was cooked with dates) with
blueberries and strawberries.  Plus, and this is huge --
endless cups of some of the best coffee I've ever tasted.

For a non-morning person, I am a major fan of
breakfast. I love how it looks, and how it's
often accompanied by delicious sunlight.

Have an eating-a-wonderful-breakfast day.

A Moving Commission starts its journey

Loving our Toronto home

 Acrylic on canvas

12 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

SOLD ♥ 

The sweet part of painting commissions is that they
frequently center around an emotional request.  As
I care a lot about my painting, and like to work
on projects that have meaning, that makes me
happy.

The client who commissioned this picture was
inspired by the house paintings I did for a client
last year.  The twist in this case is that the family
who wanted the painting is moving from Toronto
to Calgary for a year, and wanted a portrait of their
 house to remind them that they will be coming back.

12 x 12 inches is not a large space for a house
and four running figures!  Quite the challenge.
But what a treat today when the mother and
father of the family came to pick the painting
up to get it packed for its flight, and they both
loved it!  Hurray!  I felt like I had wings too,
and could fly alongside the plane.

But there is work to do.  So I am here.

Props to the wonderful family who bought
this painting.

Have a making-people-happy day.