Wonderful painter friends

Mary (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

12 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

This is a big day here in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, because

my friend, Norene Smiley is having a opening tonight

and along with other artists from the area will be showing

 her fabulous new large portraits done on sheets of plastic.

I can’t wait to see them hanging in the Tatamagouche

Community Center, as she let me into her studio the other

 day to see the works in progress. They are so exciting and inspiring. 

My artist friend Gill Cameron and I are having a show together

 in Toronto at Studio Vogue this November, and in

September Gill is hosting an evening (location to be announced)

 to raise funds for two little girls in Africa who are orphans.  Gill

met the girls when she volunteered for three months last winter at

the orphanage/school in Tanzania where the girls live now – Peace

 Matunda.  But when they graduate from the school if there is no

money for high school they will lose both their current home

at the orphanage (which is just for public school age children),

and will not be able to continue their schooling. 

I am painting two large portraits for the fund raising event, 
and one third of the price of the portraits will go to helping pay for

 the girls’ high school education.  Today I started a small version

of the larger painting I’ll do back in Toronto.  So this is the

under painting for a little portrait of Mary.   

I’ll show you more as I progress.

Have a loving-your-artist-friends day.

Flowers everywhere

 

Nova Scotia Lupins (work in progress)

Acrylic on canvas

8 x 8 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

(Flowers really are everywhere here.  Wild

roses and wild hydrangea bloom around the

school house and across the street.  Bright orange

day lilies flare

The other day we walked up the road from our little schoolhouse

 and Steven climbed down into the deep ditch to pick some lupins

for me.   Normally the lupins are finished at the end of June, so this

was a great treat to bring home a bunch.  I put them in a lovely blue

glass jar I bought from a woman who used to run a health food

 store in the house next to us on the highway.  And then of course

I started this painting.  It isn’t quite done, but I thought you might like

to see the painting in progress.  I started with a magenta ground

 because some of the lupins have a very bright pink look. 

We’re heading out in search of a sheep farm in a nearby town, that

 has a lovely shop in its farmhouse.  You can go out to the barn alone

and talk to the lambs, which we always do.  “Dogs are baaaaad, sheep

 are good” (Remember this from the movie Babe?”  Well

the sheep love that line, and can’t hear it enough times, cliché or no.

Have an exploring where you are day.

Bats, bears and deers

Heading Home with the light sabers

Watercolour on watercolour paper with black marker

9 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

(After being on the beach this cute little

boy was still playing with the sticks

he called his light sabers.  I love

seeing brilliant imaginations at work.)

We do run into wildlife in the city – that’s why there’s

A radio on the garage full time and there has been for the

 past month.  Once we spotted a coyote in the park,

and apparently coyotes have killed small dogs and cats

north of the city.  But citings of some animals are

rare indeed in Toronto.

In Ottawa my mother lives on the edge of the greenbelt and

is visited regularly by deer who eat whatever vegetables she

doesn’t manage to protect.  On the way

to Quebec City a deer ran out in front of our car, and

luckily we missed it. 

Out here in Nova Scotia a huge black bear ran across the

road not too far from here.  But one of the creatures we

frequently have to cope with is the lowly bat.  You don’t want

 to kill bats if they aren’t pestering you, which they don’t.

  Because near the tidal river we live next to mosquitoes can be a

major nuisance in the summer and bats consider those insects

 to be fine dining.  But discovering them inside the shutters

when we first arrive, or worse making themselves at home

 in the ceiling above out bed – that is something we have to

 handle each year when we first arrive. 

As I write this a crow is telling me it’s a good day for the beach.

Have an enjoying the wildlife in your life day.

Down to the shore -- so much to see and do

 

Down to the shore

Watercolour on watercolour paper with black marker

9 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

(I couldn't help noticing these heavily laden women

heading down to the beach for a picnic as I was 

leaving yesterday -- it's a familiar sight.)

Yesterday Steven and I took a long walk on the beach

collecting shells, rocks and pieces of glass.  This always
reminds me of when I was a child at the summer
cottage my parents rented -- how my little brother and I
used to collect acorns.  We used to pull our collections about in the
shallow water in beautiful little toy rowboats someone had
given us. 

Well now Steven and I give each other the collections we
make and laugh as we do.  I always feel that shopping is
redundant here where so many beautiful things are free.

Have an-enjoying-the-earth's bounty day.

A cup of tea -- then down to the sea!

 

 Tea in the member's lounge

Watercolour on watercolour paper

9 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

Today we're sitting in the Chatterbox café -- the only place we can
get High speed Internet.  So if the posts are few and far between
I hope you'll forgive me.  On the other hand the place is so delightful
and the tea in a generous white pot so glorious -- you may hear from
me quite often.

My painting today is a watercolour of a scene in the member's café
at the AGO.  Some of my friends find the place too spare, but
Steven and I love that place.  Ever since I saw this scene of the
table after lunch with tea and glasses of water, I wanted to give it
a whirl. Here it is.

Seagull feather at North Shore park

Wild roses at the shore

Plus I'm adding some photos that evoke this place for me.

Have a super day tomorrow.

Where I want to be

 

Self portrait in a Quebec hotel

watercolour and black ink on watercolour paper

10 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

Our heart's second home is in Nova Scotia in a little
school house without running water and outdoor bathroom
facility (outhouse).  It is in essence a very beautifully built,
100 year old wooden tent near Pugwash, Nova Scotia.
We've been travelling for four days and here we are
having an anniversary lunch in the Chatterbox Café --
celebrating our first date (we've been together ever since),
and making it here safely.  We drove through pretty
awesome rain from Quebec City to Fredericton, and
then again from Fredericton to Pugwash.

I've been trying to keep painting -- at the end of a long
day of travelling, I settle down for a few minutes to
get something down.  I saw an exhibit in Fredericton
yesterday at the Beaverbrook art gallery of sketches
by Herzl Katshetsky -- some fabulous, some just
a jotting down.  Mine today are like the notes
you take to write a story.  Except that this is the
story, and they are the punctuation in the tale
of two happy hard working Torontonians escaping
to Eastern Canada.  What a joyous thing to do.  We
got out just as Toronto hit its highest record
temperatures making it more like what our friends
in Tucson live with every day in the hotter months.
It's been so cool here today I had to wear my coat
and needed a sweater down at the shore.

Paula's Flowers

(sketch)

Watercolour and coloured markers on watercolour paper

14 x 16 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011
(My friend Paula puts flowers out for
me so we'll arrive and feel
welcome.)

More images tomorrow.  I am going to try and keep
going every day.  We'll see.  I won't be upset if I
don't succeed.  Folks like us need a break from time
to time.  Big time.  Last night we sat rocking in the
very ugly garage sale rockers we bought for five
bucks each one Saturday, looked around the big,
virtually empty school house, and smiled huge grins
of absolute contentment.   We are home away
from home.


Have a loving-your-time-off day.

Art in the family

 

At the studio, Christopher takes set up shots of Sam to see what he's

working with.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of watching our sons
at work.  Art continues to flourish in the next generation.
My son Christopher is an amazing, award winning photographer.
And Sam is an acting student at the University of Windsor.
This year Sam needs head shots, so of course he went to
his brother.

Sam chooses his images

I'm on the road now taking a bit of a holiday, and naturally
I miss my guys.  But today I'm showing you pictures from the photo
shoot.  A make up artist did Sam's make up and Christopher
helped him choose a wardrobe for the shots.  We have high
hopes that Sam (named after Sam Shepard) will have a
glorious career in acting, if that's what he wants to do.  Both
his brother and his cousin are into film, his cousin may even
show a film at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival)
next year.

Christopher works with Sam to edit their choices.  

After the shoot Sam went through his pictures, and then Christopher
and Sam picked the shots that will represent Sam in his final
year productions.  Pretty exciting for the Mom and Dad -- me
and Steven.

Have a being-delighted-with-your-family day.