Talking art all day

 Tulips for Tucson

Acrylic on watercolour paper

10.6 x 13.8 inches

Barbara Muir © 2015

I love talking to people about art.  Today my students
were asking me about Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.
There was a wonderful program on CBC Radio on
Emily Carr, one of the stars (as is Tom Thomson) in
the Canadian art firmament. For about 15 years she could
 not paint because she was running a boarding house and
 didn't have time. I think of that when I look at her magnificent
work. What would she have thought when one of her paintings
sold for 3.3 million dollars last year?

I think it's vital for people to know about the art
of their own country.  Canadian art is distinctive.

It was so warm today that the snow was melting and
making rivers down the street.  Birds were chirping,
my down coat was too warm.  What a great feeling.
My friend in Tucson and I joked about dull weather
expressions.  In Toronto as soon as it gets hot, and
it will soon, my husband teases me with my least
loved weather phrase,"it's not the heat, it's the
humidity."  Usually he'll get a look in his eyes and
say -- "well you know..."  And I know he's going to
say, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity."  Right
now after 40 below, I look forward to our cliché
summer talk.

The painting today is of my luxurious, glorious
parrot tulips heralding spring.

Have a talking-about-art-and-the-weather day.