For David Lobenberg

Self portrait
acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

Today's painting is a little self-portrait I did for David
Lobenberg's June paint off. It's supposed to be me
looking at the computer and reading David's blog (or
yours). David is a witty writer, excellent painter in
any medium, and is constantly teaching us what
to do.

This painting is a kind of tribute to my blog friends who
have taught me the stylistic elements in the painting --
I never used black before I met all of you. I was
worried that it would look like a velvet painting. Not
true! Frequently I'm writing my blog late at night by
the light of the computer -- which is why it's a dark painting.
Computer light is very flattering -- and that's why my
hair is so bright (aside from the fact that I am a true
bottle blonde). Also I rarely used green until I read
Edward B. Gordon's piece on not having a favorite colour,
and I agreed, and began to use colours I'd avoided --
like green.

By the way July 1st is Canada Day, and Toronto
normally lets off tons and tons of fireworks. But
we're having a garbage strike. So it may be a
quiet holiday. Anyway -- Happy Canada Day!

Have an enjoying-the-day-off-(in Canada) day.

Brother and sister

Big brother, little sister
acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009
(Painting this I loved the
expression on the little girl's
face, and all the small
details that are so characteristic
of what young boys like --
Super Mario T-shirts, camp
necklaces, big, clunky black
watches -- it made me miss
my sons as small boys.)

I got up early this morning to finish this painting of a
brother and sister. The painting had to be done for a
party this afternoon because it was the special gift.
I did most of it from photo reference, although
everything but the children has been changed.

The challenge in doing portraits from photos, as you
know, is to get a faithful likeness and produce
a painting that looks like you painted it. I'm not a
photo realist, so this is as real as I get. I felt like it
worked and was a nice combination of faithful
likeness and fresh colour and design.

The client was very pleased, and I hope the childrens'
grandmother, who was receiving it as a surprise gift
today, will be equally happy. I had to hurry home and miss
the party, because another client was arriving, and
was going to sit for me. It was a full day of painting,
and I've decided to take the night off. Got to go now to
watch Jon Stewart. Enjoy your evening.

Have a loving-the-people-you-work-with day.

Mysterious

A man
Line drawing -- black marker on bond
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

I have to be a bit mysterious tonight, because I can't show
you the painting I've been working on all day. The
client wants it kept secret, so that's how it's got to
be. After it's delivered I can show you what I've been
up to.

For tonight, I'm giving you another drawing of "the man."
It is unfinished, but I like that incomplete look. It's been
a working weekend. Painting almost 24/7 and we're
having intermittent thunder storms, so I can't continue
to write on the computer. I lost one a few years ago in a
storm -- that makes you edgy. So I unplug my computer and TV
in storms. (Yes I have a surge protector -- yes it was plugged into
one.)

I hope you had a lovely weekend. I enjoyed every minute
I was outside (between rain storms) looking at my
poor garden. If things slow down this week, I'll take
care of it.

Have an enjoying-whatever-happens day.

Finished ...or is it?

Final version Mother and Daughter
in daylight
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
36 x 48 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

I don't mean to bore you with the same image over and over,
but these two are the last you'll see for a while, because the
painting went to its new home today. In fact it wouldn't
fit in my client's car, so we dropped it off before supper.

Both the mother and daughter were happy with the painting --
which I call a double success, and in fact we drank a small
champagne toast to the painting, and it was all very cheery
and good.

You will notice some changes since last night -- principally
the leaves. My client wanted some greenery so
I put them in. Their favorite place in their house is a
sun room overlooking a huge tree, plus they live near the
biggest park in Toronto, so it all made sense. The little
photo on the left side is a picture of the mother and daughter
when the little girl was two and eating her first candy.

Mother and Daughter
photographed with a flash
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
36 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

The painting was a treat to work on, and I'm happy it
will be well loved. Oh the title for today? I kept retouching
and changing it right until we took it over. In fact you
can see some differences between the bright coat image,
and the image without the light -- I changed it, which
is why the less bright one is the first one you see -- that's
how it looks without a light on -- now.

Have a happy-endings-are-my-favorite day.

Slow down

Mother and daughter in normal light
almost finished. A bit more work
to do tomorrow
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
36" x 48"
Barbara Muir © 2009

You know that feeling of looming deadline that ramps
up your adrenalin and makes you move through projects
at astounding speed. Does it? I've been living on the
edge of deadline since mid-March I think. There were
the marking deadlines, followed by astoundingly
brilliant, glorious, unexpected media deadlines, followed
by a hyper active work scene and a seeming tidal wave
of deadlines. I've been an adrenalin junkie -- constantly
on edge, constantly excited and living in the world of
"Wow, wow, wow!"

All this is wonderful -- but artists also need the opposite.
That is the ability to slow down, follow impulses, sort
things through and to think -- about painting -- or radical
as it seems, about nothing at all. Today in the middle of
many deadlines I took three hours off. Okay so it's late
and I'm still working, but those three hours, reading
my novel, reading your blogs, tidying, sitting outside
eating dinner watching the clouds rolling in from the
west and watching a robin dig in my neighbour's yard
for worms, made my day. My husband and I bought
groceries and sang on the way home at top volume.

Mother and daughter
with the flash hitting the gold paint and
gold leaf
acrylic on canvas
36" x 48"
Barbara Muir © 2009

I went back to work renewed. I've almost finished
my big painting, which I'll show you, and in the morning
I'll finish the hands and the background, and it will be
done. I worked on other paintings too and they're
coming along. And I plan to block off some slow down
time, tomorrow and the next day too. An excellent plan.

Have a hey-I-can't-now-I'm-slowing-down day.

Wild

At the market
Progress detail
(I've been working on this today)
acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

Painting the way I was painting today, working on three
different portraits, (five really as two have two people
in them) is intense. I can't pretend it isn't. In the
evening I called a friend of mine in the south west and
she helped me get anchored. This is an important
thing we artist friends do for each other, here and
in the world in general. We give each other the kindness
and encouragement we need to continue. A big thanks
to all of you for that.

Back to the easel. Here is one portrait I'm working on.
It's progressed well today. I absolutely love the sitter.
She is funny, kind, and so intelligent it shines out of her
eyes. Our conversations are something I will miss
terribly when the portrait is finished.

Have a loving-your-work day.

Choosing Joy

Mother and daughter
detail (the daughter's face)
acrylic on canvas
Barbara Muir © 2009
(I've been working on the daughter's face today
and I'm almost there -- a joyous feeling!)

I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's novel The Comforts
of a Muddy Saturday, one book in the Isabel Dalhousie
series. Isabel is a very serious philosopher who edits The
Review of Applied Ethics, and part of the delight in reading
the novel is thinking about the moral questions she's
wrestling with.

So I'm thinking about joy today because it's my wedding
anniversary. And I think the lesson that my contemporaries
have to learn -- not an easy one -- is to choose joy over
sorrow, or discontentment, or negativity in general.
We were raised in an era that frowned on excesses,
especially childhood ones, so we were taught not to be
overly -- loud, funny, silly -- fill in the blanks. If we
didn't finish our supper we were told to "eat it because
children in (name the country) were starving." We were
weaned and raised on a level of guilt about our every
desire that seems hard to imagine now.

But even when Sam was a very little boy, four or
five, and he's nineteen now, I was frequently informed
by his teachers that he was "silly." I used to walk
home from these meetings thinking, 'good -- I've
done something right.' So celebrating in some ways
goes against the grain -- requiring excess, gifts, joy,
laughter, a bit of abandon. Maybe that's why I've always
enjoyed parties, and being with friends. Deep down
I'm probably rebelling against the strictures of our
childhood life. So maybe a restrictive childhood is
not a bad thing. It's placed a large bell in my head
that I hear every day demanding "Fun! Fun! Fun!

I am happy that it's my anniversary -- and have only
the sweetest of memories of my life with Steven today.
We have been blessed with choosing joy most of the
time.

Have a joyous-celebratory day.