I am so grateful to my friends

At the market

Acrylic on canvas

24 x 36 inches
Barbara Muir © 

It's late and it's been a super busy day. Our yard sale Sunday has
left the house in some chaos -- manageable, but still time 
consuming.  Some of the beautiful fabric that we sold as part
of the yard sale, came from the collection of this amazing
vintage fabric expert -- Jan Marriott. And my portrait of Jan
brings back memories of seeing her every weekend at the
Brickworks market. Currently she mostly sells online.

Here's what I said in a former post:

"Looking through my website, I saw this painting -- a
portrait of Jan Marriott, a woman who knows
everything about vintage fabric. She now mostly
sells online, but I met her when she was selling at the
Brickworks market in Toronto. The portrait shows Jan
in that setting with quilts behind her, and beautiful fabrics
on the table in front of her. Jan is a wonderful person, and
kind friend. Many of the beautiful things in my house came
from her collections.

I’m so happy that I was asked to paint this painting, and
that Jan liked it, and still uses it as her profile image."

Have a loving your life day!

The artist's life is wonderful

Hannah Creaser and me with 

On the road in Fredericton

Acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 

SOLD ♥

I am thinking a lot about the Maritimes.  I just love the people
we know, and the landscapes so much. I was scrolling through
my blog and this amazing story came up.  It's a holiday today
so I thought I'd share it with you.  This is one of my many
favourite paintings.

"One great art experience from quite awhile ago was
 meeting Hannah Creaser in the parking lot at the
Superstore in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and asking her
if she'd mind posing for me.

At the time I was working on a series about young 
people on the edge of growing up, and Hannah
struck me as a perfect model.  She agreed,
I took some photos, did a large portrait of 
Hannah, which showed in the window of a 
gallery on Avenue Road in Toronto, and in
New York City. Hannah's father, saw the painting
in the window in Toronto, came to the exhibition,

and bought the painting.

And Steven and I delivered it to her father Eben
in Fredericton, which is where this sweet photo
happened. Hannah has grown up into a wonderful
young woman, and is having a great life. 

Thank you Hannah for helping me paint one of
my favourite paintings."

Have a loving your life day!

Happy times at our yard sale

 

Pansies are perfection

Acrylic on birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © Revised 2024
(This is one of the small
paintings that sold today.)

At our yard sale today one of the happy surprises was that the
small paintings I was selling were more popular than anything else
we had to offer. Some people did buy the beautiful antique china.
Some people did buy fine linen placemats. But the majority of sales
were of my art, which was selling at awesome low, low prices. 

Thank you to everyone who came out and spent time with us. And thank
you to everyone who bought items from our sale. It meant the world
to us to get to talk to you, to see old friends, and to make new ones.
It was an incredible day.

Thank you to my wonderful friend Maya for all her help, to my
friend Leslie for her contributions, and to my husband Steven for
helping me put up 50 invitation posters. You guys made it happen.

Have a loving your life day!

A magical night by the lake

Mark Johnson at Lake Ontario
(forgive the bad photo
taken in the dark)

Photo

Barbara Muir © 2026

Tonight we went to eat delicious take out at AlPacones
where our friends Maritza and Prince were working
tonight. We met a girl named Sharia who is also working
there, and she was sweet. Maritza's husband is always 
wonderful to us.

And then we went for a walk along the lake, and a miracle
happened. A fabulous guitarist and singer decided to walk
with us singing Steven’s favourite songs. When we knew the
words we sang along, and felt so happy — ecstatic. Mark
accompanied us almost to the end of our walk beside the
sparkling lake.

Thank you Mark. That was a moving experience.

Have a loving your life day.

Please bloom Morning Glories

 

Morning glories on the back fence

Photo 

Barbara Muir © 

In many ways it's been a strange summer.  June was great
from our point of view, because it was unusually cool, and
we got to take long walks.  In July a family member was 
going through harsh, but effective medical treatments, and 
the heat was intense.  

For most of August it was too hot to sit on the back porch, 
and we barely got our garden planted.  Every year since
we've owned the house we've had amazing, beautiful
morning glories covering the fence between us and our
next door neighbours. This year we could not find the
blue ones we love, and eventually gave in to a
multi-coloured variety. Purple seems to dominate when
they come out -- small, and nothing like our favourites.
Plus they have not liked the heat, and have been reluctant
to bloom. I am hoping they will get going when the cooler
weather comes. (update -- after
I wrote this -- a purple and a pink bloom came out.)

So if you have morning glories, please enjoy them.
Today I am painting and getting ready for a yard sale.
I will have work to show you soon.  Have a great weekend.

Have a loving your life day!

Lake Ontario is Lake Ontario -- Smarten up Google

 

Sunset on Lake Ontario

Photo

Barbara Muir ©
(a winter photo)

Most of my American friends cannot go along with their petulant

child leader who wants to rename land and water and stamp it
with America, or worse T#@)p. But hey the other Americans --
that's not power, it's immaturity, like the woman behind us in
extremely thick traffic today who got mad, when my husband
let someone into the traffic ahead of him.  She honked for
3 blocks, and then gave my husband the finger.  

Actually letting someone into traffic is the polite thing to do.
We share the road, and we also share the planet.  Mine, mine,

mine isn't working.  In Canada people either don't want to talk
about this, or they think it's inane.  (And true we have the odd

super immature person here too -- that woman is proof of
that fact, but she was a very rare example). Lake Ontario is Lake
Ontario, and we would like the petulant leader to see what
his role should be -- kindness, concern for others, cooperation.

Have a loving your life day!

Great things about September

Art Group Sketch 
from several years ago

Acrylic on canvas

16 x 20 inches

Barbara Muir ©

In a former post I wrote that in some ways September is
like New Year's.  It's a fresh start for many people after
a summer break.  We have not had our holiday yet, and
I really am ready!  Soon.  Meanwhile I love that my
art group will start sessions soon.  Here's what I said about
it before:

"I love it when I can go to my Tuesday night art group.
My husband drops me off, I paint for and hour (actually less
counting set up, breaks and clean up.) And it makes me feel
so happy. Then my husband picks me up, and we go home and
have dinner. The sessions will resume soon. Tonight
I’m sharing one of my favourites. This guy could pose
and hold a movie quiz. Impressive!"

Have a loving your life day!