Near and far

Happy Face
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009
(this really doesn't look
like my friend, so I'll probably
do another one in the future. Still
I like the face that's emerged, which
has the essence of her happy energy.

My family parodies the Celine Dion song from
the movie Titanic as: "near, far, I'm driving my
car." Don't we like the song? Well it isn't that.
We don't like movies about drowning, but we
are sentimental fools, and could probably shed
a tear listening if we didn't send it up. I am the
biggest sucker in the family for the sentimental
song. A check out woman at my local supermarket
started singing today, and I had to run my buggy
out of there so I wouldn't cry. My family has a list
of tear jerkers they'll sing to get me going. I am
a completely happy person, but I sure can cry.

Near/far tonight is about painting close up, and
painting in the distance. Most of the time I like
to be closer than close. In fact I should do massive
heads, on giant canvasses, or cups of coffee so
big you could float a family of porpoises in them.

But each day when I think about what to paint,
something different attracts me. So much of what
I'm painting has to be kept from you until I can
show it to the world, so this daily painting helps me
do the larger work, which is almost always portraits.

This little painting today is based loosely on my favorite
photo of one of my friends. She hates the photo, but I
love her grin. So that's it for tonight. I am dog
tired, and had a lovely walk with some friends and our
dogs this evening. The dogs were delighted.

Have a contemplating near, far day.