Into the studio

In the midnight sun (work in progress)

(Stage Two blocking in the colour)

Acrylic on canvas

14 x 16 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

This week promises to be a highly charged art week.
The school where I teach part time is on reading week,
and I am planning to paint as much as possible.
So I started working on a small version of the third
painting in my triptych of Henriette painting.  The image
for this third one, which I'll probably flip for the larger
30 x 30 inch painting, is so moving.  It's very late at
night in Norway where Henriette lives, and she is
ardently working painting because the house is quiet and the
children are sleeping.  In one corner of the room there
is a highchair, and outside the midnight sun has set and
the sky is brightening again.  I love the intensity of her
expression, the fact that she was willing to talk to me
on Skype and work painting.  That's something we share,
is that we can paint and talk.  A rare quality as I've
discovered in art classes with scratchy symphonies
playing in the background and total silence except
for the endless worn Vivaldi disk.  The truth is
when I'm working in my studio it is quiet most of the
time, almost too  quiet. 

In the midnight sun(work in progress)

(Stage One --The underpainting -- lively colour)

Acrylic on canvas

14 x 16 inches

Barbara Muir © 2011

In this little study I intend to fool around with colour
as much as I want, and then I'll calm it down a bit.
The colour from the Skype image is both high key and
muted.  I'll show you where this goes from here.

Have a painting-as-much-as-possible day.