Walking in a dream

Untitled (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

16 x 16 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

The gift of landscape painting -- is that what you love is
around you all the time.  It was the most beautiful
and long spring this year, and is now a magnificent
summer.  This painting is of crabapple trees a short
walk from my house that felt like a fantastic party in
pink at the height of their glory.

Our winter was so grey it was recorded as one of the
longest winters without sun in some time.  So to step
out of the house and see this was like a spectacular
present -- a miracle.

I have loved working on the painting, and it's almost done.

Have a loving-what-you-see day.

Pop Up Art Show opens tomorrow -- Come on out!

I have three pieces in the Independents Show opening
tomorrow night.  Come on out to 1340 Queen Street
West between 7 and 11 p.m. tomorrow night and I'll
see you there.  Admission is free -- it's a big show --
wonderful work, and this is the party we've been
waiting for.  See you there.  One of my paintings is
in the bottom right hand corner of the ad above.

Have a going to an art show evening (tomorrow).

Happy Anniversary Steven My Love

The two of us in Quebec City

watercolour and marker on

watercolour paper

9 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

Today is our wedding anniversary, and I just want to
thank my wonderful husband for the sweet life we
have together.  I am one lucky woman. I love you
Steven.

A couple of days ago a friend on Facebook posted a
piece about treating each day as your last, and got
me thinking about the opposite, treating each day
as your first!  Eh?  Not a bad idea.  I've been doing
that ever since and enjoying every day so much.

 I wake up in the morning and think -- this is my
first day on the planet, and okay I'm a grown woman.
But wow I'm married to a gorgeous man, who loves
me.  I have a super family -- two wonderful sons,
a daughter-in-law I love, my son's girlfriend, who I
love, and baby Alice who visited today who I love.

Everything in my life seems fantastic -- almost magical
viewed this way.  And of course that is how artists see
all the time -- in some ways. We are quite often high on life,
but this idea takes it to a new level.  Wonder at everything.
And back to this day.  What a treat it is to love someone
with all of your heart, and to be loved back equally.
A miracle. I am so grateful that that's been my reality.

I have been absent from the blog because I agreed to teach
a 7 week course a couple of evenings a week, but it took up
 all of my time.  Don't worry I am coming back.  I had a
wonderful time teaching, and learned a lot.

Meanwhile -- this is our anniversary, so I'm posting a
portrait I did a few years ago of the two of us.  It doesn't
look like us really, but the mood is there.

Have an enjoying-your-life-as-though-it's-brand-new day.

On the days between -- my love to you!

Before the Dance in the White Dress

Part of the Dance series

Acrylic on canvas

24 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 

(Thank you to my sweet niece Chloé for posing for this one)

I am probably the most cheerful artist you know.  Or one of
them.  Not because of a life free from problems, or because
I am wildly successful, or even because of art itself.  I just
simply am.  Right now the loudest sound in this huge city
other than my typing is a Robin chirping on the back porch.

That could be why I am happy right now.  Or is it the kitchen
table with it's little silver tray crammed with white cream pitchers
filled with purple and yellow pansies?  Or the dog wondering
if I will eat more soon, and if so could she maybe have a taste?
Or could it be that this is one of slowest, wettest, most beautiful
springs in recent memory -- that new spring green just lasts and
lasts captivating me. Or is it -- yes it is -- knowing that you are
out there with your wonderful creativity, your affection, your life
lessons, and inspiration.  Thank you.

Art sometimes is slow in coming.  I am working on a very happy
painting now, but it is not a fast painting.  And when I don't write
I miss you.  What to do?  How about showing you a painting from
my Dance series of a few years back that I am very proud of.
This series was about young people on the edge of life in "Before
the Dance" paintings, and grew to include people "At the dance",
and even "After the dance." I'll show you what I'm working on soon.

Have a loving-your-life day!        

An iconic Nova Scotia landmark -- home in Ontario

The House on the Hill #2

Acrylic on canvas

18 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017
SOLD ♥ 

This house -- is a perfect example of a Nova Scotia
clapboard farmhouse.  It's a sight I crave when I'm not
in the province. This particular house means that we
are almost there -- almost to the small town of Pugwash,
almost to our school house -- almost home to Nova
Scotia.

I have never met the owners, who would probably be
flabbergasted that I've painted their house more than once.
In fact this painting needs to have a #2 added to its name
because I sold a different view of it last year with the
same name!

What is particularly happy news for me is that the sight
of that house meant Nova Scotia, and nostalgia for a
beloved place to the buyer too.  So even though the
painting will live in Ontario, it will bring the beauty of
Nova Scotia to the collectors who now own it.

A very happy ending all round.  Thank you owners of
this iconic house.  Your house makes me happy every time
 I see it.

Have a loving-what-you-see day.

Sometimes everything happens perfectly -- grace in action

A Perfect day

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017
SOLD ♥ 

One of the things that makes me happiest about painting is
being able to create an image of a place, person or still life that captures
what I feel in the first moment of seeing what I'd like to paint.
As the painting goes on, even if the process makes it appear
simpler, the thrill is in the Aha, of "Yes! that's what I wanted to do!"

This painting has that, and it made me happier than I can describe
properly when a woman came to our This Magic Land show, and
stood in front of this scene caught up in her feeling about place.
The Maritimes landscapes are magical to her, and we share that
feeling.  So she took a photo of my work and went home to see
where it might fit.

Next day she came back eager to buy it, and had to wait until the
show came down.  At which point I packed it up for her, and off she
went.

I love how that worked -- how I felt moved by the scene, and she
did too.  I loved how we talked about the Maritimes, and about the
peace we feel there.  And I love that my perceptions meant enough
to her that she took the painting home and put it up in her house.
In this artist's life that is grace in action.

Have a finding-the-art-you-love day.

Home again, home again to a wonderful new home

In the right place at the right time

Acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 2016

SOLD ♥ 

This painting is a world traveler that's been to places
I've never been.  My lovely artist friend in the Netherlands,
Miranda Brouwers got me into an exhibition called
Kunst in Drimmelin in support of a nature reserve called
the Worp.  The whole painting experience was a delightful
example of international co-operation.  My friend wanted
a painting with my blue skies of her beloved spot.  She
sent me many photos, and I researched the look here in
Toronto at a marsh that looks quite similar.  The result --
my happy painting -- In the right place at the right time.

The painting traveled to the Netherlands rolled up in a tube,
was stretched by Miranda and exhibited in a beautiful church.
It came home just in time for another exhibition.

At the This Magic Land show the weekend before last it
sold to a collector who loved the painting featured on our
invitation, and enjoyed its back story too.  I was so delighted
to deliver the painting to a collector who commissioned a
poignant work years ago of her mother and father.

I know she and her partner will enjoy living with the painting
as much as I loved creating it.

Have a doing-the-work-you-love day!