A toast to you! Still underpainting.

In the kitchen researching for the doctorate
Stage 3
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

Still underpainting and checking the layout
Today did not offer much time
for painting, so I am still
adding layers of colour and sorting out the design.
I like the painting more and more as I
go along

Thank you for hanging in with me through some intensely
busy times. At the Don Valley Art Club opening tonight
a friend from our Tuesday portrait night told my husband
that I had to quit working so hard. My husband
just rolled his eyes and smiled, because for sure I don't
work any harder than he does. Free lancers like me can
take a break mid-day every now and then. Full time
workers like my husband cannot.

But that's hardly the point. The point is that we finally
opened that tiny bottle of Veuve Cliquot tonight after
dropping off the taxes at the post office. Check. Paintings
off. Check paintings to show for tonight. Check opening --
and so much beautiful work that it was wonderful to see.
So at our late dinner we drank the small
bottle of Veuve, sharing a glass with our now old-enough-to-
drink youngest, who has been home from school for a week
and has already arranged his work for the summer.

Magic. I rarely have glass of champagne (although in the
past year there have been many more occasions) but I'm
always pleased when I do. So we laughed, took the dog for
a walk to the park where she met a 3 1/2 month old St.
Bernard named Bernie and frolicked like a young puppy
herself. All good. A huge pink moon. A happy mood, and
normal life more or less resuming.

To you. For being so kind and encouraging when a lot is
going on. For inspiring me with your amazing work. For
changing my life in wonderful ways.

Have a let's-toast-one-another day.

Two shows coming up

In the kitchen researching for the doctorate
Stage 2
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

Tomorrow night is the opening for the Don Valley
Art Club Spring show at Todmorden Mills. When I
dropped off my paintings I was excited by the prospect
of getting to see the complete show. From what I could
see it's going to be pretty impressive. So if you're in
Toronto come out between 7 and 9 p.m.

Next week in New York (an expression I cannot get
enough of) I am part of a group show at The Amsterdam
Whitney that runs from April 30 - June 1. Click the
link here to see two of the three paintings I'll have in the
show. I've posted them on the blog and if you click here
you can see how the triptych works together.

Tonight I'm showing you the underpainting for my
portrait In the kitchen researching for the doctorate.
I love the underpainting stage, and I'm learning more
about it all the time. The overall underpainting is a
peachy orange, then there are several other colours
used in different parts of the painting.

Have a woo-hoo-isn't-life-great! day.

School's out for summer

In the kitchen researching for the doctorate
Rough sketch
12 x12 inches
Acrylic on canvas
Barbara Muir © 2010

I went to my last marks meeting today and it was
quite enjoyable. Everyone was civilized and even
better than that -- funny, which makes a long
meeting much better. So I got out of my car into a
wild windy day, sunny and gorgeous and cold.
By the weekend it's supposed to go up to 32 degrees
Celsius, or almost 90 Fahrenheit, and everyone will be
in shock. I know you are ready for that shock.

Our Cherry tree in the late afternoon
(Expect more pictures tomorrow).

Toronto is just beyond description at this time of
year. The trees are coming out into new leaf, the
flowering trees in every colour of pink and white
an yellow make every little journey a treat.

I'm starting the drawing for a painting I told you
about on April 15. It's not a big painting, but I
am really looking forward to doing it. I have
known the girl, a friend's daughter, since she was
a child, and I've always liked and admired her very
much.

Blog 807

Man resting
Art Group sketch
Acrylic on canvas
14 x 16 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(I made the man look happier
than he did. Tonight the same
pieces of opera played
over and over, and at the
end of our session the machine
began skipping. So the model
actually asked for no music.
The fellow I've painted here is
cool with our group's eclectic
musical selections, and really
loves opera. Hey! I'm the
artist.)

Seriously. Blog 800 should have been a blog party. It's a nice
number. If it was 800 pages, (and it was) it would be
a long book. I'm not boasting (much), but the actual
day slipped right by me in a fog of active living.

There was a cool article in the Globe and Mail yesterday
about Neil Pasricha who writes a blog about what he thinks is
awesome called 1000 Awesome Things. Read Sarah Hampson's
A few awesome things about 1000awesomethings.com's Neil Pasricha.
Neil is dedicated to noticing what's worth being happy
about in life. I think that's a brave and wonderful
pursuit.

I think passing the 800 point in a blur of
activity is awesome. It's awesome to have so much
going on. But you know what else will be exciting?
Tomorrow. That's what. Now that I've taken my income
taxes in to the accountant, and as soon as I finish my last
marks meeting, I will be completely happy. I am completely
happy right now, but I am also completely exhausted.
For the past month it feels like I've worked from list
after list, after list -- I'm not finished everything on the
big list by any means, but each huge task brings me
closer to regular life.

There's a little bottle of Veuve Cliquot sitting in the
fridge for after all is said and done. That's to celebrate
1. Getting the three paintings for New York done.
2. Getting the paintings to New York (Hey they
arrived safely at the gallery today!). 3. Marking all
of my student exams. 4. Getting the two paintings finished
and in to the Don Valley Art Club Spring Show -- (if you're
in town the opening is on Friday night from 7 p.m. until
9.p.m. at Todmorden Mills.) 5. Getting help to get
my taxes to the accountant (today). 6. Getting help
to book the hotel and flights. (I better go and get a big
bottle of champers so I can share it with all of the people
who helped me here.)

Front door pansies
(We didn't get time to buy flowers
yet this week. But coming in the
front door there are pots of
pansies on either side of the steps.
I picked fresh ones tonight after my
art group -- and here they are.
No wonder we feel so
ridiculously happy at this
time of year.)

Here's my dream, to sit in the garden under the white
blooms of the cherry tree, and drink a glass of lovely
champagne. To listen to the birds, the squirrels, people
building, planting, playing and watering their grass,
and then to wander inside and read for as long as I
want to... Coming up.

Have a reading-as-long-as-you-want-to day.

Zowey -- it's a rollicking busy time

Portrait of a Dancer
Stage 2
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 48 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(This was a mega short
session, but I continued to
block in the light. The face will
change completely, and maybe
the rest of it will too in the coming
days. But here's where it got to
yesterday. I am charged about
this work -- can't wait to continue.)

All right -- here's stage two. I have been working almost
20 hour days for the past week, and must admit,
because I've had the kindest people in the world
helping me, I still feel filled with joy, but Mama
I'm zonked. So today it's finish off the two paintings
to be submitted tonight to my art group show, and
then... finishing the taxes.

After that life should perk along at a normal rate
for awhile. Toronto is absolutely gorgeous at this
time of year. Huge pink magnolia trees everywhere,
my neighbour's tree in full joyous bloom -- our cherry
tree a white blossom gift. It's hard despite this hurry
scurry, list driven time, not to feel profoundly joyous.
So I do. Plus I believe that's my life's work.

I hope you are having a superb and creative day.
Isn't that the whole thing? Doing what you love,
and trying to love what you do. So thanks to
everyone who helps me feel that way.

Have a-loving-the-people-in-your-helping-circle day.

Coming to you live

Portrait of a dancer
Stage 1
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 48 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

I love painting! What a crazy thing to say -- but I've
been working at my taxes all day on my older Mac,
and that activity as enjoyable as it was (with my old
Itunes selections blasting from what I have to admit
were really great speakers), makes things clear. Painting
is fun. Run on sentence? Give me a break I've been marking
papers.

Painting from life -- super fun. The client for this
commission is a beautiful, intelligent and very funny
woman. I felt so excited all weekend as I worked painting
her. We had three short sessions, and they were a
complete treat.

Today I'm going to show you the painting on the easel
at stage one. She is coming along. At first, and some
times for quite a while the painting looks almost
cartoonish. But I love that early stage when the whole
of life with the painting is about possibility. The first
few stages at least are about underpainting, and feeling
my way around the canvas to see the best possible
position and lighting for the face and body. Painting
a dancer, even in repose, is like painting pure energy.
It's rare to meet someone so fit and muscled in a lean
elegant way. Looking at this woman I could almost
believe she could fly. And as she danced with the
National Ballet of Canada, she no doubt has.

Have a dancing-your-way-through-all-of-it day.

Dense days

Sketch for the dancer
black marker on bond paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

The momentum at the end of April is always at
a high ebb necessary to get soooo much done.
But this year it's cranked up even higher. The
paintings have gone to New York, the marks
miraculously are in. Woo Hoo. Now it's on
to the other paintings, and the taxes. There's
a deadline Monday, another on Tuesday and
so on.

For the month of May I will be in a group
show at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery
in New York City. I am thrilled beyond expression to be
showing there. The gallery Executive Director-Curator
is one of the most positive, kindest people I've
met over the phone and through letters, and I cannot
wait to meet her in person.

The paintings Water Image 2, Water Image 3, and
Water Image 1 (in that order I believe) (see April 22)
will be on display for the month. They portray young
women on the beaches of their choosing, one in the
Caribbean, one in the Indian Ocean, and one on the
Atlantic in Nova Scotia. A horizontal bar of beach connects
the three, and means that they can be displayed either
separately or as a triptych.

If you're in New York between May 6 and May 9,
I am going to be in town and will visit the gallery
as much as possible, so could see you there.

My drawing tonight is a study I worked on to
get a better fix on a beautiful client I am painting
in a large commission. She danced with the
National Ballet, and is spending time
with friends from the National Ballet School.

Have a so-happy-you-can't-settle-down day.