My good man and a long day

Outside then please

Acrylic and marker 

on bond paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

Okay I sketched again today, after a 17and1/2 hour
working day out of the house. I came home
to a husband who had set the table and made
a delicious dinner and waited until 10:15 p.m.
to eat with me -- knowing that my day today
began at 5:30 a.m.  It was a great day.

Highlights?  A fellow teacher telling me
he was 110% feeling great, and me responding,
150%.  I love positive people -- they transform
the day.

A fast five minute meditation by Lilou Mace 
that energized me for the evening's work.

A quick visit from my son and his girlfriend --
so sweet and funny.

And meeting and talking to wonderful people
all day.

So I decided to draw on another piece of
palette paper over a mix of blue paint again.
This is my good man, persuaded by
my cat Timbah to go outside and sit with him
enjoying the day.  It is based on a photo taken
a few minutes after the inside one I drew
yesterday with Timbah crawling on Steven's
shoulder while Steven was working.

Have a noticing-your-joy day.

Sketching and the 3Rs

Timbah wants up

Acrylic and black marker on

bond paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

I'm working on a portrait that is very slowly
coming together.  Wait!  I keep saying to myself.
Don't worry.  But meanwhile what do I put on
my blog?  Many of my blog friends do challenges.
This seems to be productive.  I volunteered for
a challenge to meditate every day, and am still
going four months after that began.  So tonight
I mused about challenging myself to draw every
day.  I can't make that binding because I am really
busy right now -- but I thought tonight I'd draw on
a piece of paper I'd used as a palette, and let the
awesome blue that was trying out to be a sky set
the tone.

The 3Rs?  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  So I reduced my
challenge  (just tonight for sure ;-) I reused a piece of
paper used as a palette.  And I will eventually recycle
that too.  How about you?  What challenges can you
accept, and which ones do you have to refuse?

Have a loving-the-challenges-you-accept day.
P.S.  Timbah loves my husband Steven's shoulders.
He's a big cat, and one rear leg is a bit weak.
In this picture Steven is both helping Timbah onto
his shoulder and holding him there. 

Up to my elbows in peaches, and a peach of an art show

 

 Peach party

12 x 12 inches

Acrylic on canvas

Barbara Muir © 2008

I am still working on the larger work that is taking
time, but I miss blogging so much that I've decided
to use the "throw back Thursday" idea and put up
a work from 2008 which is one of my favorites.

Steven and I are a bit like the squirrels tearing apart
my window box planter (already struggling with the
cold) to hide a few choice nuts and seeds.  In our
case we headed out last weekend looking
for peaches to freeze (me), and can (him).
We went to a great little market on Keele Street north
of York University on Saturday.  The owner farms
35 acres right in the middle of Toronto.  There we
were careful -- just two baskets of gorgeous
peaches.

Was that enough?  Oh no.  Here we are both working
crazy hard, and we meet a super farmer named Mike
in Vineland, and bring home 6 more quarts!  By
tonight, even though the weather is cool, the time
for slow action is over, and I've just spent an hour
cutting and freezing and bagging my peach friends
in immediate need of attention.

 

Wonder is infinite

watercolour on watercolour paper

with a superimposed watercolour paper grid

8 x 10 inches (framed)

Courtney Lee © 2014

My dear friend Courtney Lee is part of
No Vacancy Cirque at Village Square in Burlington,
Ontario Canada tomorrow (Friday).  The show runs
from 7 - 12 on September 19 only and sounds incredibly
 cool.  If you're in the area check Courtney's amazing
watercolour and paper abstracts!  It will be a peach of a show!

Courtney Lee

Have a visiting friends' art shows day.

Thinking about my father and 9/11

Stopping for clouds along the highway

Acrylic on birch panel

5 x7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

Today is the anniversary of my father's death,
a day that sticks in my heart year after year.
He died years before 9/11, so the day is
doubly resonant because of all it means.
I remember the day so clearly because my
father managed to say goodbye to all of
us the evening before he died, holding my
hand and calling me "beautiful."
This as he gasped for air under his oxygen
mask.  He was dying of lung cancer --
probably the direct result of being exposed
to radiation in the navy. His bravery inspired
me, and his determination to be strong was
a gift to all of us. 

Thinking about him today I wish he could
see how my life has turned out, how
art is at the center of my days, how his two
grandsons have grown into wonderful,
loving young men, both exhibiting his way
with words, and his artistic leanings.

As for 9/11, I never go to New York
that I don't think of it, of the courage
of that city, and of how valiantly it
has recovered its vitality and moved on.
Speaking of art, creativity and theater,
New York is really where it's at.  How I would
have loved to have gone there with my
Dad.

The painting tonight is another cloud scene
from Nova Scotia.  Looking at the reference
photos I have, I keep thinking I don't know how
Nova Scotians ever get anything done
when the skies are so achingly beautiful every day
that all I wanted to do was stare.

Have a loving-the-clouds-in-your-life day.

The lessons of older work -- and wonderful friends

 

 For the lily

Pen and ink and coloured pencil

on art paper

8 x 10 inches

Barbara Muir ©

We put our crazy dog in the car today and
headed out to Hamilton.  It was a gorgeous day
and we walked along the waterfront with our
friends Marcia and David.

View of the waterfront in Hamilton

Back at their lovely, spacious house I noticed
a drawing by the front door, and realized it
was mine from long ago.  Woo Hoo I thought.
I sure could draw!  I was a big fan of a number
of botanical artists, and for a while when my
oldest was a baby made my money from
this work -- pen and ink drawings coloured
in coloured pencil.  Looking at this I was
astonished at the detail, pleased even, but
glad that I have moved on from that.
I still like precision, and I am happy with the
movement in this drawing, but it made me
crave a big brush and a big canvas.

 David

Ciment fondu sculpture

Marcia Labelle ©

I asked Marcia if I could include one of her
pieces in my blog.  She pointed to this
superb sculpture of her husband David.
She probably did this at about the same
time as I did the drawing.  It shows off
both her incredible skill as a sculptor,
and the love she felt for David, then and now.
You can check out more of her work here.

Have a learning-from-your-old-work day. 

Blue paint on my foot -- and loving "my" beach

 

 Tide coming in by the farm

Acrylic on birch panel

5 x 7 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

I had to dress up yesterday in a dress and stockings
to go and teach a class.  And that's when I noticed
dark blue paint in a splashy stripe on my foot.
Not a big deal in the current environment.  Everyone
has body paint and tattoos.  But a happy symbol
to me of being back in my Toronto studio where
space is tight and my concentration so intense when
I paint that I forgot a brush fell on my foot.

Tonight's painting is another view of the beach
and coastline, where I have spent part of my summers
for 20 years.  This landscape is part of my psyche.
It belongs to me.  In the words of one of the
characters in the Joshilyn Jackson novels we
listened to full time in the car out east. "Mine!"  She
even writes about a baby who wants the ocean in
A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.

On one of my old Louise Hay audiobooks,
(I don't know which one), she talked about
enjoying other people's good fortune, beautiful
houses, every kind of luxury, and she said,
"we never really own anything, it is only on
loan to us."  I loved that idea, because of course
it's true.

You are not allowed to claim the beach in
 front of your cottage as private in Nova
Scotia where we walk on the beach.
My school house is a 25 minute car ride
from the beach. I don't own that beach,
but my eyes, heart, memory and spirit own
 it inside out.

Market flowers, and peaches.

Starting to prep for the long winter.

I miss it but love Toronto too.  We went to the
market today, and came home laden with
peaches and flowers.  I thought of my friend
Flora, in Bear River, who grows a huge garden,
cans and freezes endless amounts of veggies and
fruits and paints giant, gorgeous paintings.  My
admiration for all that energy knows no bounds.

Have a loving-the-places-you-own day.

Homesick and a friend's gift

 Clouds over the bay

Acrylic on archival canvas board

6 x 6 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

Our first week back in Toronto is always
a rough one.  It's hard not to miss the Maritimes,
and even the drive from Pugwash to Toronto
through Fredericton, Quebec City and Montreal.
Canada you are beautiful, and if you've never
been here, this is a drive that will dazzle you.

A few months ago a friend I met through
FaceBook asked for someone to write her
each day saying that they had meditated.
I agreed without thinking -- my motive
being to "help out with a project."  Ha!
I committed to 5 minutes a day, for one
month.  We reported faithfully to one
another daily for 3 months.  The result is
that I am doing guided meditations from the
Internet for between 15 and 25 minutes a
day.

The formal reporting is over, but during the
process I have gained a wonderful friendship,
and a habit that is changing my life.

Here's the list of benefits of meditating I
sent to her.

1.  I can now relax with greater ease, much more
 quickly than I could before.

2.  I've always believed in the power of the
mind, but I've been blown away by the power
of the breath to calm the body and the mind.

3. I care about being positive, but meditation has
helped me tap into the well of positive
thought I have inside me, and to stay in the positive,
even when circumstances or people are hard.

4.  I've learned the importance of daily dedication
 to my own peace of mind.

5. I've re-affirmed the importance of a concerned
 and encouraging friend when starting a new activity.
My friend's interest, suggestions, and dedication,
and strength of purpose have meant the world to me.

6. I've been so impressed with how a small amount
 of time -- anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes can
 change the tenor of a day, increase my energy.

7. I've connected with the infinite possibilities available,
when I do want to meditate.  Understanding that I could
never explore all of the wonderful guided meditations,
audio meditations and meditation scripts available through
 the internet has given me a clear and impressive
example of the bounty of the universe.

8. Words have always mattered to me.  I have
written guided visualization scripts, and shared
them with groups of people,  but I am hyperconscious
of the destructive nature of negative words right now.
That doesn't mean I don't think and speak negatively,
it means that I instantly recognize that I want to stop
when I do now.  Plus I can move away from other
people's negative words more easily now -- just
deciding that that's their issue, not mine.

9. I am lighter in spirit, even more connected to
the beauty of the planet, than ever before.

10. I have always been a happy person, but I am
 easily 1,000 times happier than ever before.

So thank you so much.

Maybe your life is idyllic and you don't need
meditation.  But I think it's good for artists to be
able to unwind. Our job involves the potential
for over the moon excitement, coupled with
stage fright and anxiety.  I am endlessly
grateful to my friend for inspiring me to take
this on, and make it part of my day.

Have a thanking-a-friend-day.