The saga continues

Hot lemon

black marker on paper

5.5 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 2019

When the doctor on call tonight saw this drawing, she was
all excited because I'm an artist.  That made me
feel good, even thought I have a horrendous cold,
and am now on antibiotics.  Because this was
all I could manage today, and it's a drawing of my
hot lemon drink.

The doctor said that hot lemon with maple syrup and
cayenne pepper, which I was drinking was much
better than cough syrup.

And once again I'm glad I live in Canada, where
a doctor will come to your house when you aren't well,
and treat you, and it is free.

Have a working on feeling good day. 

A beautiful day to have a bad cold

After the nap

Black marker on Moleskine paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

Sitting on the back porch, with a huge list of things I must
do today in my mind, I hear a loud chorus of cicadas, almost
drowning out the construction of two new houses up the street,
and the roar of airplanes in the air show at the CNE (Canadian
National Exhibition).

Our siamese cat Fiona is bathing on a chair in the sunlight she loves.
The wind whirs through the trees, and I am writing to you.
I have a very bad cold all of a sudden.  A deep barking cough.
And my friend in the Netherlands says I have a good voice for
a horror movie. Funny.

Some bed art seems appropriate for today.  I'll go inside in a minute
and work on my work, drink gallons of hot lemon, and meditate
on getting better. Meanwhile all is well with the world for the
next few minutes.

Have a taking breaks when you can day.

Life lessons -- my art is about the world I see

The Pumpkin Farmhouse

Maison De Haute Couleur 

Charvin, Paris Watercolour

on Fabriano paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2017

(The farmhouse is gone now,

and I think there's a mall there.

When the boys were young we used to

visit the farm to pick our Thanksgiving and 

Halloween pumpkins).

Looking back on my posts on beauty, I found one that really said it all. 

Artists who produce work honouring the beauty they see on the

planet matter. Today Greta Thunberg is in the United States having sailed

across the ocean sometimes in very high seas in a sailboat.  Why?
 She loves the planet and wants us to save it.

Thinking about that, I realize that the poet John Keats pretty
well summed it up. Here's what I said in a former post:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all Ye know on earth, 
and all ye need to know."John Keats -- Ode on a Grecian Urn.
I was raised on Keats; my mother could quote any poem she ever read, 
and did. Plus I studied English Literature at university, and the 
teachers who taught us about the Romantic poets were some of 
the most inspired and engaging professors I ever met...

During a stint of horrendous work in a small Ontario town
at a pizza restaurant, with an unscrupulously cruel boss, 
I heard that the town was a mecca for artists. One day
 I was  introduced to a young woman artist, and I was invited to her 
studio to see slides of her work. She created "art" out of dead animals
stuffed in awkward poses by a taxidermist, standing in shattered glass.

I thank her now because her work depressed me so much that
when I added her disturbing art to the mix of bad work, and no pay
I was dealing with, I left the town and never looked back.

 I can also thank her, because she helped me decide that art could
 be beautiful, and that creating appealing work was a calling
every bit as important as shocking and horrifying the public.
In short she sent me crying for mercy back into the pages of John
 Keats, where I now live celebrating the beauty I see any chance I get."

Have a saving the beautiful planet day.

The month of pure happiness -- one of them!

Untitled (Work in Process)

Acrylic and acrylic ink, and 

marker on canvas

11 x 14 inches 

Barbara Muir © 2019

This has been an astounding month.  Vibrationally, if you
get my meaning.  Driving along in the car with Steven,
through our magnificent country.  Holding hands sometimes,
and singing.  So incredibly lovely, despite being doggedly
tiring.

I bought the silver jug in this painting at a garage sale.
The man asked for $20 and I said, "that's too expensive,"
so he said "what isn't?"  And I said "$10."  It is really
beautiful, but was tarnished of course.  Dipped into
boiling water in an aluminum foil lined bowl, with salt
and baking soda, it's gorgeous luminous beauty was
revealed instantly!  Woah!

Untitled Work in Process

The beginning 

I was thinking of the fabulous

portrait painter Simon Davis when

I painted the canvas in a warm wash.

Then I planned to draw with a pencil,

but I needed more clarity so used a marker.

Today it's filled with flowers from my garden, and is a
vibrant reminder of the transfixing beauty in this world.

Have an enjoying the happiness of the day, day.

Should, should, shoulda -- Back to work

The fields between

Acrylic on canvas

18 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 2018
(Currently on view at Catch
the Moments Gallery 4444 Queen St.
Niagara Falls. Check it out!) 

When I hear "you should," come flying out of my mouth,
I try to switch to "could." I realize that I really can't know
another person's reality.  In art there are constantly a lot
of shoulds.  Most are self-delivered.

So I make my lists, should, should, should, and cross them
off.  There are days (today could have been one of them),
when all I want to do is ignore every should that pings around my
head like a fly in the night.  But...it is time to take care
of all of the things that needed to be done while I was
on a very long car trip, a short and delicious stay, and a
very long car trip.  Thank you to all of the wonderful
people we met along the way. You are amazing. I did
start a painting -- in the very earliest stages.  But this painting
speaks to me of where I've just been -- out in the magnificent
Maritimes.

And as it turned out I am joyously happy, which I "should
be", because I met our newest family member today.  So
wonderful.

18 days on the road, and we made it home last night.

Seeing it again -- the reality that sparked the work

Moody Beauty

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2018

This will be brief.  We've driven a total of 6,000 kilometres,
or 3,728 miles.  Far in other words.  For most of the drive
out to Nova Scotia and back I was snapping photos which
will be the jumping off point for new paintings.

Suddenly somewhere in Nova Scotia I saw trees on top
of a hill, and thought -- those are the trees in my painting,
this is where I saw that image.

That made me crazy happy. (Yes I am given to being that
way). Then I realized I'd also done a sketch of the same
image last summer, before I worked on the painting.

Have a loving everything you see day.

Almost home -- the delights of Ottawa

Nova Scotia Flowers
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

We have had a marvellous trip from Quebec City, and
are so happy to be in Ottawa.  Our room looks out to a
spectacular view of the parliament buildings and the canal.  The
young fellow on the desk upgraded us to a very nice
room (that is always wonderful), and the fellow who
brought our bags to our room, sang a Stan Rogers song
beautifully when he found out we'd come from Nova
Scotia.  He had an exceptional voice, and I was afraid I
was going to cry, but I didn't.  Whew.

I'm posting a painting from 10 years ago of the kind of
flowers my friend Paula leaves in the school house for us
each year.  She is wonderful, and the small bouquets from
her own garden are such a lovely surprise.

Have a loving your friends day.