Come out to our show and Belated Happy Birthday Hugo!

The happiest view (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

36 x 60 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

This weekend my friend Gill Cameron and I are having a show at
the Wychwood Barns in Toronto -- with openings on Thursday
and on Friday night from 6 - 9 p.m..  Please come out if you're in
town.  We can't wait to see you.

I'm posting a painting that I'm working on -- just about finished. This one is
going on tonight in belated honour of Hugo Leemeijer in the Netherlands, 
who turned 15 last week.  I met Hugo and his brother Marnix with their parents,
my wonderful friends Miranda Brouwers and her husband Rolf Leemeijer last October 
in Paris.  Hugo and Marnix were amazing young men -- Dutch and -- totally
fluent in both French and English. So much so that Hugo and I got along very well.  
He always got my jokes, and groaned the way teenagers are supposed to.

Happy Birthday to Hugo. I wish him a super year, and I wish your whole
family could be here this weekend Hugo, so you could come out to our show and
see this painting when it's finished.  Meanwhile have fun on your
new boat! It would be very happy on the Atlantic ocean pictured here
near Pugwash, Nova Scotia.

Have a celebrating friends and art day. 

Please come out to our show!

Next week on Thursday and Friday evening from 6 - 9 p.m.
my friend Gill Cameron and I are hosting our 12th show
together.  The show title This Magic Land, is in celebration
of Canada's 150th birthday this year.  Both Gill and I are entranced
by the Canadian landscape, and it's unique appeal.  Our work
shows well together -- Gill's lush watercolours are magnificent.
And my acrylic work, mostly in bright colour adds to the theme
of loving this country and the planet.

Whether I'm painting landscapes, people or still life --
my hope is that I am bringing the beauty and joy I feel
capturing the visual world to the people who see my work.
That's also the feeling I get when I look at Gill's paintings.

Please come out and join us next week. We are having a double
opening.  Come Thursday night, or Friday night, or both
for super parties, and lots of fun!

Have a planning to go to an art show day.

A strong inner voice -- and the ecstasy of beauty

Untitled (Work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

I went for a short walk tonight in the freezing cold rain.
Spring is trying its best, but blossoms were blowing off
trees.  Someone else would find it grim.  Yet in the
few minutes I was out I saw raindrops on branches,
and jewels of light shimmering on pine trees like
decorations.  The visual hits kept coming.

As I walked I thought about the people we can encounter as
artists who try to make us feel like we don't know
what we're doing.  Or try to define us as a certain "type of
artist." It's a strange job.  My advice is cultivate lovely
people to support you -- I am lucky to have those people
and thank you so much. Plus work on getting a strong
inner voice.  Not always easy in the face of our own and
others' thinking, but vitally important.  Artists need to
talk themselves into it, into carrying on, into feeling
happy.  That voice matters.  The one that says -- 'yes
it's coming along.'

This painting is almost done.  There are a few things I'll
work on.  But it's doing what I hoped it would do --
express my love and wonder for the east coast landscape
I revel in each summer.

Have an enjoying-who-you-are day.

Friday -- and it was good

Nightfall Cherrywood

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 

I'm afraid I didn't paint today, but devoted the day to
my husband who had a remarkably rare day off.  We
are devastated by the news of more war, of and an
increase in world violence, and worry about what we can do.

Meanwhile, it was a gorgeous day here and we
took a walk past lawns vibrant with bluebells,
a pond with ducks, forsythia bushes and tall
glorious trees.

Here is a little painting I did in plein air on my front
porch looking across the street eight years ago.
It does capture the love I have for my city and my
neighbourhood.  The trees are not out like this yet,
but they will be soon.  So wonderful.

Have a beautiful weekend.

Spring transformation!

Pansy design -- Pansy paintings, Left and right (flipped)Positively pansies

Acrylic on birch panel, 5 x 7 inches, Barbara Muir © 2014

Center --We're Here, Acrylic on birch panel, 5 x 7 inches, Barbara Muir © 2014

It is funny to be writing about spring tonight when
it is sooooo cold.  We've had days this week when
a friend actually spotted someone lying on a Toronto
beach in a bathing suit sunbathing -- but that is not
today.  Winter doesn't want to let go.  It is the coldest
day we've had in weeks. Winter coat weather.

Still spring is winning.  Sorry winter -- a small walk
in the neighbourhood treats us to carpets of gorgeous
bluebells under trees, surrounded by bright yellow,
mauve and purple crocuses, and even tiny vibrant
purple irises. Forsythia bushes are bursting out in yellow.
That gorgeous tender spring green is quietly budding
in every tree!  Wahoo!

And Torontonians' confidence that spring is here to
stay is clear in joyous pots of pansies that flank front
steps -- so pretty and suddenly rich with colour
that our hearts melt in appreciation.

This was my last once a week evening class --
and I thought I'd celebrate with a pansy
painting design.

Have a three cheers for spring day.

Thank Goodness for Harold the Bunny

Harold and the Blue Eggs

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir ©

A few Easters ago thinking about the Easter Bunny,
who has played a huge role in my children's memories
of Easter -- I remembered my sweet bunny Harold
the rabbit, and painted this painting to celebrate her.
I am glad I can show her portrait each Easter when
it seems life is really hopping.

Harold was a bunny I owned in my last two years
of university.  She was very pretty, with hot ears,
and gave me a little extra clout of cool when I took
her to parties with me, very dressed up as I used to
be.  She didn't mind parties, but as her owner I had
to clean up the odd mess she'd make under couches,
very discreetly.

She got along with my cat, and lived a happy life.
That is she did until I moved in with a boyfriend
in a place north of Toronto, and she got out
and excited the landlord's loud barking dog.
She was not hurt I don't think, but she died of
a heart attack, because I didn't know you should
have brandy on hand as a tranquillizer if you
have a rabbit for a pet.

That may well be why that particular romance
with that young man didn't last.  My husband
grew up on a farm, and knows a lot about nurturing
animals.

Have an enjoying your animals day.

Fast sketch of the Worp

Trees at the Worp -- fast sketch

Pastel, oil pastel, coloured pencil on

Maison Haute Couleurs Charvin Paper

7 x 9 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

I was super moved my some photo reference I found
today of the Worp nature reserve near my friend Miranda
in the Netherlands so I did a fast sketch.

I used pastel (and I think they were mine at art school --
so are very old and dry), oil pastel and coloured pencil.
I was breaking probably every rule and rediscovering why I
like paint.

But I had a lot of fun, and heightened my incredible
admiration for pastel artists like my friend Marcia
Labelle.

Have a trying what you don't normally use day.