The cats' birthday

Top -- Fiona the cat -- 16 year old, girl cat -- brilliant and kind
Bottom -- Monet the cat, super smart and affectionate

Photos
Top: Barbara Muir © 2023
Bottom: Steven van Schaik © 2023

Sally the dog taking a break from singing
Happy Birthday -- her favourite song.

Photo: Barbara Muir © 2023

The news is pretty awful recently. So Steven and I decided
to uphold an old tradition, and celebrate the cats' birthdays.
Both cats were born early in October. They don't really get
cake, but that looks cute in the photos.

We couldn't find the delicious small chocolate cakes we
usually get, but we did find small cakes, and took the shots.
Fiona turned 16, and Monet turned 2.  Sally the dog, who
will be 11 next month, loves "singing" Happy Birthday, and
she did.

Of course they didn't eat cake.  All three had roast chicken, and
were extremely happy about that treat.  

Have a loving your life day.

World Smile Day

Kitchen Tulips
8 x 8 inches
acrylic on canvas
Barbara Muir © 

I hope you got to smile today, many, many times on World Smile
Day.  I am so lucky to live with someone who makes me smile every
day. I love the idea of a day celebrating kindness.  And sharing smiles
is one part of kindness that I really enjoy.

I found this painting scrolling through my blog, and I really like
the smile on the young woman's face.  It's a small work, but 
filled with joy -- one of the emotions I love to express.  My thanks
to the wonderful model.

Have a loving your life day.

World Teacher's Day

An end of term party with

one of my classes before

COVID.  Since the truckers

Blocked access to our captial in Ottawa
over being asked to take COVID vaccines
 -- those hats would no longer be popular.

I started teaching in class again

this past summer.  Such a treat.

Social distanced, masked, but

present. Amazing.

Today is World Teacher's Day, and I'm thinking of all the teachers
who taught me.  It feels like a delightful result of my work with all
of my teachers that two weeks from now I will again be a once-a-week
evening teacher teaching Presentation at a Community Center, for a 
Toronto Community College.  

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

and uplifting me so 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've shown paintings three times in the Carousel du
Louvre Art Shopping show at the Louvre Museum in Paris. And she is probably partially

responsible for the painting I delivered today to the Colours of the Earth show that
will open a week from Saturday at the Heliconian Club in Yorkville.  Plus all the
teachers at OCAD were amazing, and I became an artist because of them. 

When I left OCAD, I went on to get an English Literature degree. 
I followed a boy I thought I was in love with to his university. The feeling
was definitely not mutual. In a way he taught me too. Because
of him I learned that I deserved to be with someone I love, and who loves me
-- the #1 most important life lesson -- and my very happy marriage, to Steven
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 the idea of therapy, and the
potential to change our ways of thinking.  That interest won me 10
years of teaching Positive Psychology to college students, and helping
them succeed in school, and follow their dreams.

On the thinking side I'm grateful to so many teachers -- 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

Inktober and Journal drawing

Journal Sketch
marker on journal paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023

In Inktober done properly you have topics. That doesn't interest
me though I admire the people that follow that plan.  What
does interest me is the focus on line drawings in ink -- one
of my passions.  I did this drawing this morning, as one of
my journal drawings.  The subject is a man in a trench coat
I found under that heading on Google.

He has a very serious look, and I love how drawing a 
portrait brings the person you're drawing alive. A 
great pleasure. I hope the subject is having a good life.

Have a loving your life day. 

A quick drawing

Journal Sketch
marker on journal paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023

I’ve been painting all day, so thought I’d do a quick Inktober Journal drawing.
The subject was wearing a T-shirt, so I looked up men in suits. In his 
photo half of his face wasn’t finished. So this is how far I got.  

The reality of a happy artist’s life. Steven is chopping vegetables,
and singing in the kitchen downstairs, and I sit upstairs drawing this,
with the cats fighting (let’s call it playing) around me.

Until tomorrow — Have a loving your life day! 

Resilience

Isabel

Marker on 

Moleskine paper

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

When I think about resilience my mother comes to mind.  She was
the symbol of resilience.  My mother stayed mostly positive and
curious about the world for her whole life, despite living with
a serious lung disease, and spending the last years of her life 
blind. She lived alone after my father died, and managed her
house, cut her lawn with a tractor, swam in her pool, was
determined to stay fit. She was very generous, and volunteered
all of her life. 

If I needed her to take care of my children -- almost at a moment's
notice -- we could drive to Ottawa and drop them off, knowing
that they would have a wonderful time, while we had a tiny
holiday.  I miss her every day, and love her forever.

After my father died she travelled a lot, following her passion
for art history and languages.  When I showed in Italy at
the Florence Biennale for the first time, my mother told me
every church I should visit, and knew so much about the city.

This drawing is a fast sketch -- Inktober style -- that is probably
the best drawing I ever did of her.  Someday I'll paint a good
portrait of Mommy.  She was very beautiful, but had no idea that
she was.

Have a loving your life day.

Yay! It’s Inktober!

Let's talk

black marker on paper

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Barbara Mur © 2019

Nothing could make a more perfect ending to an absolutely wonderful weekend
than the realization that we are now in Inktober. Oh boy. I’m so happy I’ve
actually been drawing Inktober drawings in my journal for a couple of months,
so I do have some things to share in this exciting art month.

But for now I’m going to share one of my Inktober drawings from 2019.
Thank you to whoever invented Inktober --it's a pure pleasure for me.

Have a loving your life day!