Come out to the first opening of the week!

Higher Love

Acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 2018

Tomorrow night from 7-- 9 p.m. the Don Valley Art Club is
holding its spring show opening at Todmorden Mills in Toronto.
100 artists are displaying work in the exhibition.  There will
be drinks and food, and free parking and free admission.

I have a painting in the show that I really like.
(Always a good feeling when you are an artist.)
It is a painting of the pond behind the Brickworks,
or inspired by a particularly beautiful day there.
Everything I'm mentioning is in Toronto, so if
you're not familiar with Toronto, or Canada, rest
assured that these are quite wonderful, popular
places.

If you do plan to come out to the show to see me, I
will be there for the last half hour because I am
teaching a class tomorrow too, and have to keep
my students happy!

Have a coming to the art show day.

Hey universe -- thank you! More from the pansies

Pansies break on through 

Acrylic ink, watercolour and marker

in watercolour paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

I'm sorry if you're getting sick of pansies, because I am

not. When Sunday was so warm men wore shorts, the
pansies said,"finally!"  just like every other person in
Toronto on every street.  And to celebrate they popped
out some bigger beauties in the pots on the front porch.

I started teaching a fast track course tonight, such great
students. So I'll tell you more tomorrow about a show
I'm in this weekend.  I'll be at the DVAC opening Wednesday
night at Todmorden Mills in Toronto that I'm dashing to after class.
See you there from 8:30 until 9 p.m.   I have one piece
in that show, and I think it's a beauty.  See my Saturday
blog for details.

Then on Saturday May 11 I'm going to have a number
of pieces in the grand opening of Gabrielle Fischer
Horvath's studio gallery in Niagara Falls. I just
found out about that yesterday! And I'm so excited.
I will give you the details on that tomorrow.

Things are moving and shaking. Super happy news all round.

Have a shaking up your world day.

Super day in the city

Pansies toast the spring

Acrylic ink, watercolour and black marker

on watercolour paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

Wow.  Went for a walk in the park today and the colours
were incredible.  High, pure sky blue, soft bright green
buds of leaves on the trees, and people most definitely
high on life.  Couples walking holding hands of all
ages and descriptions.  Love was in the air.

The sweetest thing I saw was a young couple who'd climbed
up into a tree and were perched up on a big horizontal branch
smiling down on the world, and proclaiming it a magnificent day.

So here's another pansy painting to honour spring in
her magnificence.  The radio announcer says the main
thing you smell in Toronto now is cigarettes.  Not here, it was
barbecues -- everyone's dinner wafting across the backyards.  And
the main sound aside from birds, was the excited laughter
and happy screams of children playing tag.

Have a beautiful day today.

The Illuminations Show Opens on Wednesday

Hi everyone, 

I am going to have a landscape in the Don Valley Art Club show
at the Papermill Gallery, at Todmorden Mills, opening Wednesday,
May 8 from 7 - 9 p.m.  I teach that night, and will be there after class
from 8:30 - 9 p.m.  Please come to the opening.  There are 100
artists participating, and it is going to be magnificent.

If you'd like to see me there please wait until the last half hour.
I'm looking forward to it.

For more information read the note below.  This information
is from the Don Valley Art Club website.

Have a really wonderful day.  This is all for tonight.  We went
to see the movie Long Shot, and it was very funny.

Good cheer is what happens when you let it

Saint Hilaria -- saint of humour and good cheer

(disguised as a portrait of me)

Watercolour crayon, watercolour pencil, watercolour, 

acrylic ink, regular pencil, markers, acrylic pens.  

9 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

Okay.  Great day.  I am going to be working extra hard in
the next month and a half with a bunch of projects.  And
miraculously today I am somewhat organized for it, and
ahead of the game.

I was reading the other day about the root of the word
hilarious (one of my favourite words because of the
feeling of laughing so hard you can't stop -- the best).
And I found out that the Romans had holidays called
Hilaria - maybe after bad things had happened, but as
part of spring celebrations.

So with all that is happening that is cheerful, and
happy, I painting myself as Saint Hilaria.  As a teacher
I am not entirely bad at making people laugh.  My
husband said, "isn't it princess Hilaria?", and I said "no.
But okay.  If you like."

This was inspired by the fact that David Hockney painted
himself often, that many painters are using stencils, because of
my love of Florentine art, heavily loaded with halos.
I used so many things that I can't list them all in the caption.
Watercolour crayons, watercolour pencils, pencils, watercolour
ink, acrylic pens, markers.  So there you have it -- Saint
Hilaria, otherwise known as me.  One variation.  It does
not really look like me, but tomorrow is another day! LOL.

Have a truly hilarious day (which by the way is guaranteed for
me if my family and friends are in a good mood.)

P.S. This has nothing to do with Alec Baldwin's wife, Hilaria.
She is lucky to have a great name.

Remembering Water for Life -- in the Month of Good Cheer

Reading on the dock

Acrylic on canvas

24 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 2013

One of the major highlights of my life last year, and especially

last May was the Water for Life International Exhibition at

the Niagara Falls Museum of History in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The theme of that show was about getting clean water to everyone.

And for me it was also about saving our rivers, lakes and oceans, 

which has been a feature of my Ocean series, that I've shown

in Florence, Paris and in New York City in the past decade.

I love this little painting, of the delight children feel when they get

to play, and hang out near water.  A young man came to the

door the other day for Save the Children, and he invited himself
inside to analyze my work in the hallway.  It was an interesting
conversation as he tried to figure out what colour of grounds I'd used
to begin the painting.  I think I've documented all of that here on the blog.  

In my mind Saving the Children, and saving our water from plastic,

and chemical pollution are the same project -- which adds up to

saving the planet.  We have to ask politicians, governments and 

businesses to change their ways right away.  The time is now.

And in the Month of Good Cheer, nothing would make me

happier than if you wrote your government officials, business

leaders, grocery stores right now and said get rid of plastic entirely,

and make the priority of everything you do about saving the

planet.

Have a saving the planet cheerfully day.

Celebrating the month of Good Cheer

Pansies lead the cheer

Acrylic ink, watercolour and black marker

on watercolour paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

I like the idea of setting up expectations for the month of
May to be a Month of Good Cheer. And in that spirit I went for a
walk with a friend, and her sweet dog in the May wind, organized
notes for my class, worked on this painting, and took reference photos
for a larger work. In general I made the decision to be happy.

It's a bit like deciding on a direction you want to go with a
painting.  The happy decision to paint something you love
is always a good beginning.  And here we are -- May first.
In Canada the start of spring really beginning.

Wishing you a glorious month of over the top good cheer.