I Love my Art Group!

 Ricardo

(art group sketch painting)

24 x 24 inches

Barbara Muir © 2014

I've been working late on Tuesday nights for the past
14 weeks.  No chance to go to my Tuesday night
art group, and I missed them and our time together
so much.

A friend of mine just joined, and I urged her to
come with me tonight and draw.  She did a super
drawing, which I forgot to photograph.  It was a
special night and the place was packed.  We had
a super opera singer as a model!

So fun -- here is my quick 1 hour painting of Ricardo,
I may touch it up a bit tomorrow, but I just
loved painting him with all of my great artist
friends.  Thank you Frank Pasian for organizing
this great event at the DVAC.

Have a-loving-being-with-art-friends day.

Staring hard and The Dream -- A visit from the greats

 The Invitation

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 inches

Barbara Muir © 2009

I don't think I'll get to paint this week --
it is filled with other work.  Of course I
want to, and when I let myself have a short
nap today I had one of those momentous
dreams that underscores what I should be
doing.

 My Cat Timbah, and the painting

 at the end of the room

We have been camping for nearly a month in
our back (small) bedroom while we wait for
a new bed to arrive.  The room needs attention
because it was my youngest son's nest until
recently.  But it hosts a gallery of my work
mostly featuring Sam, and I've enjoyed
looking at it, and figuring out what I'd do to
each painting if I had the time.

Snuggled in there this afternoon I
suppose I was drifting into a meditative
state, and then before I knew it into full
scale dreaming.

So. I was sleeping on the beach we visit
near Pugwash Nova Scotia. Part of
my mind was seeing Christmas lights, and
then hustling down the beach toward me
came a group of artists.  But not just any artists --
Mary Cassatt, Emily Carr (I don't think
they ever really met), Vincent van Gogh,
Matisse, and Gaugin.

An unlikely group to be walking together I
know. In my dream they were all around
the same age (inaccurate I'm afraid),
their long, dark coats fluttering
in the wind.  The women holding onto
decidedly inappropriate hats.

They treated me to a heated discussion
about the importance of colour, and were
incredibly kind to me, encouraging
me to keep using vivid colour and not to go
quiet or bland.

The wall of Sam paintings

(I took this photo with panorama on my phone

so the room looks as if it bends.  It doesn't.)

Before I fell asleep, I was staring at the painting
on the wall at the end of the room. I've looked at
it every day for almost two months now, and
 I'm planning some changes to it .
 Come back for a visit to see where it goes
 -- nothing major, just small changes I need
to make.

Does this happen to you when you look at
your older work?  Do you see things you love,
and places on some work that you'd change?

Have a happy day enjoying your work.