It all starts with thinking -- how a painting begins

No Contest -- Nature Wins!

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2016
SOLD ♥

I am at the planning stage with at least two paintings.

One is more formal and has required a lot of research,

which is not completely finished.  The other is out

there circling around my brain like the airplanes

circling the airport in Toronto, or the birds that

always fly off a building on St. Clair when I turn off the

street to head home.

Like those birds, my thoughts about a painting are 

many, beautiful and inspiring in my own head.  Every

time I see the birds (pigeons I think) doing their sky

dance I feel incredibly happy.  Even if one second

before they fly up I was sad or frustrated.

So my thoughts are trending in this direction.  Landscape

with a human element -- buildings, or city, or highway.

Not sure.  The main thing is this wonderful uplifting mood --

which leads to paintings like the one above.  That and love

of place.  And no question about it I love Nova Scotia.

This painting sold in New York City two years ago.

And as I'm heading back to exhibit there in December --

what works with the audience there fascinates me.

Have a loving your creative thoughts day.

Even more from the Heliconian Four Seasons In Climate Crisis exhibition -- on now

Four seasons: captions going clockwise: 

Blue and Yellow, 

A Good Day to Saunter, 

The Harvest and the Hunt,

and The Long Night

All four paintings are Acrylic on canvas

10 x 16 inches

Dougal M. Haggart © 2019

I wish I had thought of taking photos of everyone's work,
at the dramatic, and inspiring opening of the Four Seasons
in Climate Crisis Show at the Heliconian Club in Toronto,
35 Hazelton Avenue.  But at the time I was too entranced with
the dance performances, and musical pieces to think of it.

Although I may talk more about the exhibition -- it is
dealing with such a crucial theme -- I think this is the last
story about an artist.

Dougal Haggart created a lovely quartet of pieces representing
each of the four seasons.  Dougal explains that she, "grouped
4 small landscapes together linked by elements signifying the
season in the foreground of each painting." She adds that she
used her colour associations with the seasons -- "from no
colour in winter, to the exciting relief of the bright colour returning
in the spring."

The figure in A Good Day to Saunter is experiencing the
high heat of summer, and in  The Harvest and the 
Hunt the person is battling the cold winds of fall.

There is a delightful warmth to all four paintings.  Even in
The Long Night there is a well lit house in the distance
watched over by a white arctic fox on the hill. You feel
like you could climb down the hill and find some supper
and a warm drink.  That painting was inspired by an amazing
trip Dougal took north of Churchill, Manitoba in 2006 to see
 the polar bears. You can read about that journey and feast
on the photos here.

As we face a serious climate crisis, the paintings in the
Four Seasons in Climate Change Crisis exhibition serve to
remind us of what we will be losing if we don't save our
planet.

Have a caring about your planet day.

The Heliconian Four Seasons - another look

Artist Linda Briskin with her work Reclamation

A photo collage printed on vinyl

36 x 50 inches

Linda Briskin © 2019

To add to the drama of the piece

Linda placed rusting found objects

on the mantel beneath her work.

The Four Seasons in Climate Change Crisis, on now at the Heliconian
Club, is both a beautiful and disturbing exhibition.  Whether the artists
are painting or photographing the beauty they don't want to lose, or the
environmental issues at hand, the work is both dramatic and moving.

Linda Briskin's Reclamation -- a photo collage -- depicts
a commentary on how we are destroying the planet, and
an element of hope based on the earth's determination
to continue despite our excessive efforts to destroy it
through our habit of neglect.

As Linda explains, this is "a collage constructed from
more than 30 photographs, many of which were taken at
a car dump on Cayman Brac, a small coral island off
Grand Cayman."  She adds, "the geometry, textures and
colours of junked cars and rusted metal have their own
strange and grotesque beauty.  The green vines weaving
their way around and through the detritus are a reminder
of the earth's resilience and its capacity to regenerate."

In part Linda uses the vines as a symbol of the hope
that we as part of the growing and changing life of
humanity, will change our habits and grow new
ways of being conscious of and caring for our planet.

Linda leaves us with this heartening fact. "Every year
around 27 million cars around the world that reach the end
of their useful life are recovered for recycling. Over
25 million tons of material is recycled from old vehicles."

The collage Reclamation is powerful, and has the strange
beauty Linda describes. To see more of Linda's work,
check out her website here.

Have a thinking about the planet day.

More from The Four Seasons Show

Claire Bonenfant with Portal

Found objects ( a table) and acrylic

30 x 27 inches

Claire Bonenfant © 2019

There is a great variety of work on display at The Four Seasons
in Climate Crisis show on view now until the end of the
month at the Heliconian Club at 35 Hazelton avenue.

An artist I'd like to talk about tonight is Claire Bonenfant shown
here with her painting The Portal, painted on a small table, and using
the table legs, as the legs of the fox which encircles the elements.

The painting is absolutely beautiful.  I recommend that you go and see
it.  Claire says, "Every being which makes its home on Earth is also a member
of the Greater Whole, kept alive, as part of a single integrated organism, through
the beating of one heart."

The portal at the center of the painting made up of two seeds is a vision
into the universe beyond.  It was emphasized over and over again in
this exhibition that by seeing ourselves (humans) as separate from the
whole of nature, only catastrophe can result.  And that is happening.  When
we realize that we are the fox, the morning glories, the water, the fish in
this magnificent piece, we understand that we must protect the beauty
around us, and care for it as if it is our own child, or mother, or ourselves.
Nature on this planet was designed to be integrated and we have lost sight
of that leading to the climate change crisis we are facing.

Claire says it beautifully, about Portal, "we are all present: biome, fungi,
insect, fish, fowl, mammal, earth, rock, water, wood, and vegetation, with
fire and metal implied in the stars and planets. The large seed is a symbol for
the source from which all life germinates."

I love both the painting, and Claire's wonderful integration of beauty and
symbolism in a spiritually rich whole.

Have a caring about your world day.

More from the Heliconian's Four Seasons in Climate Crisis Show

Faye Jordan with The Interdependency of Water and Clay Series

Gouache on paper -- 8 pieces

Faye Jordan © 2018

Featured this month at the Heliconian Club,

In the current show at the Heliconian Club on for the month of

November at 35 Hazelton Avenue in Toronto, the artist Faye
Jordan is exhibiting a series of eight paintings called The 
Interdependency of Water and Clay Series.  Four of
the images are abstract references to the human body, which
like clay, depends entirely on water.

Faye's thoughts on climate change center in part around the materials
she uses as an artist, and their effect on the environment.  She
has committed to using up her current art materials, plus she
is going to source out eco-friendly and plant based materials
for all of her future art projects.

The water and clay interdependence in her art work are
a metaphor for how completely human beings depend on
water because we are 60% water.  Faye points out that only
2.5 % of the water that covers 70% of the planet is fresh, and
we absolutely require this water.

But Faye's thoughts on water, art and pollution extend even to
how she hung the work, with all natural materials, that can be
reused, and the art can be rolled up and rehung, without requiring
heavy framing or transport costs.

A wonderful series.  More from the show tomorrow.

Have a caring about the environment day.

Fabulous show opening today

Me with The Light of My Life (left) and The Heart of the Neighbourhood (right)

Acrylic on canvas

Both are 30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

Hi everyone,

I will write more about the Four Seasons in Climate Crisis
exhibition that opened today at the Heliconian Club in Toronto
in the next few days.  I am incredibly tired tonight, and it has
been a day of enjoying the show, and then spending time with
family, so not much time for writing.

The photo today is of me with my new work I created for
this exhibition, of two places I love very much.  The painting on
the left is called The Light of My Life and depicts a pond we visit
when we go to one of our favourite parks out by Lake Ontario
to the west of Toronto.  The one on the right is called The Heart of
the Neighbourhood and is about the breathtaking scenes we see
at our local park a couple of blocks from our house.

The opening featured two amazing dancers, and
musical performances on the cello, flute and piano.
These contributions were inspiring and magical.  Plus there
were two poets reading poems about climate change, and two
young activists talking about their plans.

It was a wonderful afternoon and very moving.

More tomorrow.

Have a caring about the environment day.

Art show and performances tomorrow at the Heliconian

Please come out to the Heliconian Club tomorrow for an art show
from 1- 4 p.m.  I will be there for the afternoon and would love to
see you!

See the address in the ad for the show above.

Have a going to an art show day.