Now that's what we call Cold. Brrr!

Fiona and me

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Happy one week in 2015. It's been an eventful
one. My drawing tonight is of me with my
Siamese cat, Fiona, who looks like a mouse
from above -- a very big mouse.  Fiona is like
a familiar to me, she both loves me
and scolds me on the rare occasions
when I step out of line in her opinion.
She finds the current Toronto temperatures
of minus 30 degrees Celsius with the
windchill disturbing, so is shown here trying
to warm up by snuggling against a
human.  Me.

Have-a keeping-warm-and-cozy day.

The blessing of family -- and flowers at the ready.

 Nasturtiums by the sea

iPad drawing 

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

It's been a long but good day -- spent mainly
at the hospital waiting for a relative to get
treatment.  At times like these -- and all
went well -- you know how lucky you are
to have family who care about each other,
laugh and joke and make hard times much
easier. I felt quite blessed to be part of a
loving bunch.

Tonight I didn't have time to draw, but found
this (as far as I know) unpublished drawing
on my iPad.  I'm sure I did it in Nova Scotia,
at the height of summer -- so it gives me
great pleasure to look at it today.  It is
incredibly cold here -- and it's been a
challenge staying warm even inside the house.
So the sight of bright flowers, sunlight,
water, and even some clouds made me
very happy.   I also like how using my
finger to draw on the iPad gives it a free
feeling.

Have a feeling-blessed-with-relatives day.

Change is inevitable

Two pairs of glasses!

(almost finished)

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Positive thinking people (I'm one) believe that
part of our problem with realizing the world
of our dreams is that we don't believe we can
change.  But as Mike Dooley, at tut.com
says, "Change, great change is inescapable."

Just try drawing your own face a few times
in a week, and you will notice this
phenomenon.  You may think, "who the
heck is that?" although most of us are
aware that our faces change.

Shawn Achor in his book Before
Happiness  says that out of the 11 million
pieces of information available to our brains
every second we choose 40!  So imagine how much we
change all the time, and how infinite the possibilities
are for changing more. He also says that
we start positive change by moving towards
meaning in our lives.  Art and my friends in art are
huge sources of joy in my life.

It's a cold, cold day here, and it's going
to be a freezing cold week.  Sales of
down coats are huge in this town.
Here's a self portrait I did of another
photo on my iPad. And yes, it's a very
different look for the drawings of a couple
of days ago. 

Have a welcoming-positive-change day.

A passion for roses

Untitled (Roses in process)

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

If anything can teach you patience in drawing,
it's taking on the challenge of drawing a rose.
Which is just like drawing a car, or a face, or
a champagne glass, only slightly more complicated.
How you do it is (ach here I am giving advice --
after I said we don't need any):
1. You work on what attracts you first, and
then move to the next bit.
2. You work on what seems easiest first, and
then work on the next easiest part.  

As you can see I didn't get time to finish this
today.  Drawing roses is a painstaking business,
and by the time you've drawn one rose, the rose has
changed, opened, stretched, decided it wants
to be different.

The models pose, 

and then change the pose.

Another wonderful day in the new year.  I
went to the Antique Market at St. Lawrence
market and picked up some things at the
$10 table.  Very nice man.  Plus a friend
gave us four lovely pressback Art
Nouveau chairs -- and we had to decide where
to put them.

I love chairs as much as I love roses.  And
probably should own an auditorium, so I
could easily house however many I wanted.

Have a drawing-what-you-love day.

Flowers sneaking in!

 Toasting to love and apples 

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Today's drawing initially was just going to
be of the apple (yes that's an apple --
a Macintosh apple - my favorite), and then
the champagne glass was there, so I kept
going. 

The apple tells the story of going to the
market today, actually two farmers markets.
Punctuated by a walk in the snow around
the grounds at the Brickworks. Very
pretty. 

The champagne glass was on the table because
we toasted Sam and his girlfriend on their
11 month-a-versary at dinner tonight.  True!

Then low and behold I moved some flowers onto
the table, and they began to get in the picture.
Roses.  They can take over.  They're so
beautiful and smell wonderful, and have an
appealing shadow.  But it's late and I had to
stop.  And there they sit telling me I better
include them properly tomorrow.

Have a letting-the-flowers-have-their-due day.

Give us a break! Happy January 2!

 Let's Have Some Fun!

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Happiness is one of my favorite subjects.
So I find it funny that both the end of the year
and the beginning are full of rules.  If you live
in Canada -- today on the second bright day
of a new year, you've been treated to rules
on how to get ready for your own death in the
paper!  Hello!  There are so many lists both
at the end of the old year, and beginning of
the new -- warnings about every aspect of your
life.

We need a break!  A solid, joyful, happy time
and a break from anxious, overbearing advice.

At least artists do.  So turn off the sad for a day
or two -- true the world can be a hard place,
life can be difficult, but have some champagne,
eat a candy, hug a friend (OMG I'm doing it).

I plan to try and have as much fun as possible
in 2015.  That's my resolution.  Today was a good
one.  We walked through a great part of this city.
Came home, ate Steven's wonderful turkey soup,
went for another walk and saw the gorgeous lights
still up to welcome this bright, new year, and
then watched a very controversial and funny
movie on TV here in our own house.  I hope you
get to see it, but I'm not saying what it was!!!
 I can see why this particular movie caused more
than a little bit of a stir!

Today's portrait is another self portrait of me just
hanging out.  I may add a bit more dark to it.
But for now, I have a great book and it is late!

Have a-forgetting-all-the-rules-and-having-fun day.

Happiest of New Years -- 2015!

Self portrait at the year's turning

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Dear Friends, Family, Artists, Art Bloggers, Collectors,
Gallery Owners, Happy, Happy New Year.  We have spent
the day in a slow, happy contemplation of the new -- such a
good feeling!  It does feel like a gift, and will be if we have
visions with meaning and can stay in the present.

Last night we had a wonderful party with friends in the
city at our house.  They brought masses of food and wine,
and today we nibbled our way through January 1.  I started
a little drawing yesterday and I think it's finished now.
It's a self portrait and I may do more, having noted
that both David Lobenberg and François Bard, do self
portraits, and Lynn Donoghue, a Canadian artist whose
work I greatly admire, did when she was alive.

I look serious in the drawing, (my husband says
deer in the headlights! ;-) but did it from a photo
on my iPad taken when I was actually ecstatically happy --
which seems a good way to start the year -- in a mood
of quiet ebullience.

Thank you to everyone who made me laugh, helped
me, showed me great art, bought my art, loved me,
befriended me, comforted me, taught me and learned
 from me in 2014. And thank you to everyone I helped,
got to laugh, took to great art, bought art, loved,
befriended, comforted, learned from and taught.
 Thank you to my son for recommending
the large Moleskine notebook.  A great treat to
draw on. Let's go forward with alacrity into this new
bundle of months.  Happy New Year!

Have a loving-this-glorious-beginning day!