Grateful for my mother

Cutting a pattern

Black marker on paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

(This drawing doesn't do
 my mother justice. 
 She was beautiful.) 

Looking through my posts about Thanksgiving, I found this post
that moved me about my mother.  I loved my mother so much.
I still hear her voice advising me, encouraging me. She died on
Thanksgiving Day in 2013.

Here's what I wrote in 2020, mildly edited, which seems perfect
for today:

"I can’t help but think about my mother on Thanksgiving
weekend. She was the kind of person who was quintessentially
perfect for Thanksgiving. She made wonderful pumpkin pies,
sometimes she even made the ice cream.

My mom could probably cook and stuff a turkey for any size crowd in her
sleep. That doesn't mean she wouldn't be nervous about every aspect of the meal,
but she could do it. She loved good china, and a table set with pretty dishes
and flowers.

But another reason that I think of her now is that she died on Thanksgiving
day nine years ago. And it feels like she’s been gone a for very long time. 

I think of her on a gorgeous day like today. If she'd been visiting we would
have taken her out to our favourite park, and she would’ve loved the high
waves crashing against the shore. She would also have loved how the geese
and swans absolutely love Steven.  We had so much fun feeding the birds
today.  
 
This is an Inktober drawing I did last year of my mother sewing a dress with
beautiful Florentine cloth that she bought on a visit to Italy with my father. My
mother was good at anything that she tried. 

She was a brilliant woman with a masters degree in Bacteriology. She would
have been upset with what’s going on in the world with COVID-19. And it
would have driven her crazy that some people refuse to wear masks, and want
to pretend that this worldwide growing pandemic is not real.

If your Mom is alive, and it's safe to be with her on Thanksgiving -- give her
a hug. And have a wonderful day."

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving weekend

Happy Thanksgiving weekend

You can't keep a good man down

Acrylic ink and acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 2020

At this time of year I write about what I'm thankful for -- so
much. For instance right now I'm thankful for our kitten Monet,
who has just turned 1, who is having a bath on my studio chair.
And as always I'm thankful for my family and friends, who are
kind, loving, and funny. 

And the number one thing I'm thankful for over and over is the
wonderful man I'm married to, who is making dinner right now
as I write to you.

I wrote about him last Thanksgiving and I still feel the same way
I did last year about this wonderful man. That's impressive as we've
lived through another year of the pandemic (that's right it's still not gone.)
So here's some of what I said then:

"To begin my posts about what I'm thankful for.  Number One is my
darling husband.  He is a champion. And he's making dinner right now
as I write this.  My life has been so wonderful, even during this ongoing
pandemic, because I live with someone who loves me, and who I love.
I know that I'm lucky, and I'm posting this portrait I did of Steven in 2020. 

I was going to call the post "This guy!"  Because at least 
1,000 times a day on our best days I think  -- "Wow how lucky I am
to know this guy."  Like tonight when we went to the vegetable store
to pick up the vegetables Steven wanted to make dinner, and then dropped off
some documents my son needed, and then drove home late (this after
a long, hard work day).  I am lucky as all get out to have this guy.

I love Thanksgiving because it isn't about presents, and it's not about
religion. I am not religious. It's about recognizing what's good in your life.
In my case -- that is so much! And you are all people I'm grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

International Teachers' Day -- a big thank you

Deepak visits Pugwash

Acrylic on birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014
(I was going to put my own
self portrait on, but found this
and like it better.)

Today is International Teacher's Day, and I'm thinking of all the teachers 

who taught me.  It feels like a somewhat ironic, delightful and comical

twist that I am now a once-a-week teacher at a community college, teaching 

Professional Communication.  

So thank you to all of my excellent teachers for teaching me, understanding me

and uplifting me so that I could enjoy the wonderful life I have today. I don't 

remember my grade 8 Art teacher's name, but I'm sure she's part of the reason 

I ended up spending a couple of years at OCAD, (The Ontario College of Art

and Design) and that I'm showing a painting virtually in the

Carousel du Louvre show this month, and received an award in the mail today
for my art.  Also all the teachers at OCAD were amazing. 

I left the school and went on to get an English Literature degree, because
I followed a boy I was in love with to his university. The feeling was definitely
not mutual. In a way he was a teacher too, because because of him I learned that I

deserved to be with someone I love, and who loved me -- #1 most important life
lesson -- and my very happy marriage, not to that boy, is the result.

As an adult I'm grateful to Skip Lawrence, Toph Schink and Americo del

Col  -- fabulous art teachers, and to everyone whose art work I follow

through the blog, Instagram and Facebook. And I'm grateful to my

sister the therapist, for introducing me to her wonderful therapy partner.

On the thinking side I'm grateful to Brené Brown, Louise Hay, Oprah

Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, and a long list of inspirational thinkers and

writers.  The message is -- be the teacher you'd want to teach you.

Have a loving your life day

In Honour of Chloé

 

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 who posed for this one)

On this date 5 years ago my sweet niece Chloé died.  This
painting is part of a series called the Dance series, that I
painted because I was inspired by my students. Chloé -- like
my students was at the beginning of life, but couldn't see that.

Tonight I'm quoting a post I wrote about this two years ago.  The 
loss for those who loved my niece gets harder as time goes on.

My Dance series including "Before the dance",
"After the dance" and "At the dance" paintings
was dedicated in part to my students, who I could
see were at the beginning (many of them) of the
dance of adult life.  And I wanted to wish them well.

Plus for a portrait artist, what could be more beautiful than
people dressed in party finery?  This painting of my niece
stays high on my list of work I produced in that series.
My niece was so beautiful, funny and intelligent.  She
had everything going for her, and yet she is no longer alive.  
She died suddenly in October of 2017.

Adult life as it turns out, is not that easy for some people --
it was not for her.  I find the painting and even the idea
of the series especially poignant tonight.  We -- the whole
world, are like young women, and men on the edge of
life.  Our future, our very existence at the moment, is
a complete unknown.

We have got to take care of each other, help in whatever
way we can -- by staying healthy, by following whatever
few small pieces of advice we get from health authorities,
by recognizing how lucky we are for every day of our good
health.

Unlike the dance metaphor about good things to come (which
was my hope), the virus (still) hitting the planet now predicts the
very opposite.  People talk about boredom.  But boredom
is a small price to pay to help not just ourselves, but
as many people as possible avoid this tragedy.

Have a taking care of yourself and the people you love day."
We love you Chloé.

Crazy little thing called love

Crazy Love
Acrylic ink on 
watercolour paper
4 x 6 inches
Barbara Muir © 2022

I may have written about this before, but why not talk about
it again? About 9 months ago, our cats both nearly died. Why?
They stopped eating. The vet gave the older cat (13 at the time)
meds to rub on her ear to make her eat.  She stopped because her
teeth hurt. And we force fed the kitten with a tube for a week. She
had gastroenteritis.

Both cats are fine. The kitten recovered with maybe a bit too
much of a an appetite, but my point tonight, is that my husband,
Steven, already pretty blue about COVID, and all of the restrictions
was devastated by the cats' hunger strike.  

So I started writing him love notes every night, that I put in our
middle bedroom where he keeps his clothes, for him to find in
the morning.  At first the notes (usually on cards of my work)
were about the cats. But he loved getting the notes so much I had
to continue.  My notes kept his spirits up, and made him happy.
And we got in a routine of reading them at his lunch time.  He starts
work at 8 a.m., and I'm a night teacher once a week, so we're on
completely different schedules. 

And now I can't stop, and he doesn't want me to.  So tonight's
small, quick painting is on a postcard. Most of my notes are
on cards -- with three pages of copy. And now he loves me
to write in French and Italian too! So I painted this for
tonight's note. Just a postcard of copy! But sweet.

Have a loving your life day.

The lure of Inktober

Untitled (detail)
Inktober drawing
7 x 10 inches
Barbara Muir © 2022

I woke up this morning thinking it’s October 2. What is the perfect
thing to do in October? Of course there’s so many things to do --
it’s a beautiful month. But I was talking about what to do in art. I
have some wonderful photos by my father that are portraits of our
family when we were children, and I thought that I'd use one of those
and do a drawing. But when I opened the box where I thought they
were --they were all landscapes that my father printed himself in
black-and-white. Not what I wanted.

So I went into my own photos on my iPad, and found one of our
kitchen table at this time of year covered with glass pitchers and
cream jugs filled with flowers. The very essence of abundance! I
loved the feeling in the photo, and set to work. 

I'm showing you a detail, because it took much longer than I
expected. If I get it finished in the next couple of days I'll show you
the final image.

Have a loving your life day.

Happy Inktober

 

Me in my Full Fine Art T-shirt
Black marker on Canson paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020

Crazy busy day today, so I'm going to use some of an earlier
post.  I do love Inktober, because it's so much fun drawing with
markers.

This is a self portrait of me wearing my friend Georgia Fullerton’s
Full Fine Art T-shirt. It isn’t a perfect portrait by any
means, but I enjoyed finding it in my Blog files.

"I’m inspired by my artist friends who do so many things
 to promote their work, and by artists in general -- who are
 so much fun to be around, and so inspiring to their artist friends. 

Georgia Fullerton is such an active voice in the arts community.
So that’s it for today -- a drawing and welcome October. I’m looking
forward to this month in our family. It’s full of birthdays, and will
be full of art. (Isn't the word full perfect on this T-shirt.  That's what
we want -- a full life.)  I wish you one.

Stay safe, and stay healthy, and if you’re an artist who enjoys doing ink
drawings Happy Inktober."

Have a loving your life day.