Monday, February 3, 2014

Big and juicy -- bumping it up a notch

 The Fruits of Love
Work in Progress Stage 1 - 3
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014
Today is Alyson Stanfield's birthday, and she put out a
request to all of her followers to have a happy day.
I was on board immediately.  Part of what she wanted
was for people to spend time in the studio, so I did,
working on a small portrait that I'll show you
tomorrow, but itching to once again work on something
larger.
The fruits of January
Acrylic on birch panel
5 X 7 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014
I loved this little painting called The Fruits of January,
so decided to blow it up.  As we still have arrangements
of the same fruit in the house (some of them were kind
enough to help me with this today), I think I will call
this one The Fruits of Love, because it's a February
painting, and February is love month, and a very joyous
time in our house.

I have never done this before -- (hard to believe) -- worked
a small painting up into a large one, and it is so much fun.
Some things remain the same, but so many change.  The
smaller painting was done on wood, the large on canvas.
For the small one I needed tiny brushes, for the larger
one, my largest two inch brushes are coming in handy.
But I was right about one thing.  I liked it small, and
I am going to love it larger too.

More to come.

Now for another part of Alyson's request.

Five reasons to be grateful.

1.  It was a relatively warm day, and spectacularly
beautiful -- sunlight, blue skies and heavy white snow
icing all the big pine and spruce trees.

2. My dog is getting more and more relaxed. This is
big news with a hyper puppy.

3. I spoke with several good friends today and had
fun.  We talked about art, and politics and the
news both sad and happy.

4. I finished my wonderful book  The Last
Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, and it was
excellent.

5. I made an excellent dinner of vegetarian
Tacos.  Delicious.

6.  Ooops is this cheating?  Sam, my son, put
on my current favorite song, Happy by
Pharrell Williams and we danced in the kitchen
listening to it.  We were, and I am Happy!

Have a having-a-happy-day day.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

wow i JUST LOVE how you are zooming along with your painting! I love the Fruits of Love, it is beautiful big. It is quite a challenge isn't it, to take a small painting to big, a very different approach to be sure. I like most books I have read by Tracy Chevalier, so I might go looking for that one after I finish the 4 new books I borrowed from my friend AEmilila on the weekend in Tremblant.

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Sally,

I think I want to get another book by Tracy Chevalier when the streets get cleared around here. Pretty bad in old T.O. today. This big one is a pleasure. Funny I drew it from the other painting free hand. When I photographed it and compared the photos side by side, they are almost, but not quite identical. But wood and canvas are entirely different to paint on. With wood, the wood makes some of the decisions, and I love that. But on canvas, I get to sweep my large brush, think in a different way. It's all good.

XOXOXO Barbara

Portrait Artist

My photo
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission a portrait, or purchase one of my paintings please contact me at: barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
A major highlight in my career? Drawing Oprah Winfrey live via Skype for her show "Where in the Skype are you? Galleries: Studio Vogue Gallery, Toronto, Canada. The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Gallery at the Porch Door, Kingston, Canada. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!