April -- the month of growth

All the stars that shine

Acrylic on canvas

36 x 48 inches

Barbara Muir © 2020

  2020 was a weird year for art. As the pandemic became more and more prevalent in our news and in our lives, opportunities to show our work in live  settings disappeared. 

But hey -- this painting, which I'd been trying to complete for six years -- got done, and I'm happy with it.  Plus I completed it for the Liminal show at the Heliconian Club in Yorkville, in Toronto, which was on for August and September, 2020. 

I first started the painting because I loved how a mother holding her baby in the star blanket looked at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She let me photograph her, and the baby, and her whole family came to the house to pose, but I didn't get a photo that was good enough to use.  So six years later, I got shots of a baby, and then of another mother, and finished it. And that gave me the feeling of both growth, and exuberance.  

The spring, which we’re enjoying now also fills me with delight and expectation.  Today it was cloudy, with the occasional bit of sun. We went to the lake and were feeding the seagulls when it started to rain. But on the path above the beach it was dry. Then on the way home it snowed for a minute. Bizarre but exhilarating!  Happy Easter if you celebrate.   

Have a feeling renewed exuberance day