I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission or purchase one of my paintings 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: The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Your positive comments mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you! Website: barbaramuir.com Instagram: @barbaramuir.art
May pansies
Acrylic ink and
marker on watercolour paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023
Thank you May for being cooler than normal, and for
letting the two pots of pansies in front of our house
thrive.
Here's my latest pansy painting. There is a lot going
on in my life, mostly good, and I don't have too much
to say about it right now. To my friends in Nova Scotia
and in Alberta and B.C. near the fires -- please stay safe --
we are thinking of you.
Wishing everyone a happy Thursday.
My husband and I are big on anniversaries, and celebrate
our first date, and our wedding day in some way every
month. There's been a lot going on in this past month, and
I missed an anniversary of a date that in many ways
changed my life.
On May 21, 2009 I drew Oprah Winfrey live via Skype
on the Oprah Winfrey show. So many wonderful things
happened because of that amazing day. So the occasion certainly
deserves a highlight here. And thank you again Oprah
and your staff. I am wearing the T-shirt you sent me
in 2009 as I write this.
Here's a quote from the blog post from that day:
The painting I’m showing you tonight is of our house before
the beautiful changes that happened a couple of years ago
when we got new windows for the front of the house, had the
house painted white, and got red shutters installed. What a
transformation! Our friend, the architect John Hinrichs
designed the new look.
The rose bush, which looks like a twig in this painting, now
stretches over the entire front porch in a screen of leaves, and will
soon be covered in beautiful red roses.
StillI love this painting of the before.
Have a loving your life day.
At this time last year I was in the Food For Thought virtual show
put on my the San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center.
It's been a long busy day. Here is part of my piece from that time.
That was a wonderful experience for me.
Upper right corner: The King's Breakfast
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 inches Barbara Muir © 2015
Lower left corner: Good news Clementines
with Lemon friends
Acrylic on cradled birch panel
8 x 8 inches Barbara Muir © 2019
Lower right corner: Breakfast at the Skylight Diner, NYC
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches Barbara Muir © 2014
I had five entries in the show, and won First Place with my painting
Stand Back For The Pie.
That was a big thrill.
Have a loving your life day.
Some pansy paintings
Acrylic ink and marker on
paper.
Each painting is
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir ©
You have probably realized that I am a pansy fan. True.
And I am also aware that their season ends pretty soon.
In Toronto we have had a delightfully (to me) cool spring.
Not the normal five days of spring, and then high heat.
This is about to end, and with it will go the happy
sight of glorious pansies.
Heat and pansies do not go well together. If you like
pansies a lot, and would like a pansy painting, you
would come to the right place, if you stop here. I
Have many views of the beautiful flowers.
So I put these three paintings on a styrofoam backing to
photograph them. Not a perfect setting, but cheerful.
Have a loving your life day.
This painting needed a bit more. Sometimes that is true of
everything. Today I needed a bit more sunscreen, a bit more
walking, and a whole lot more laughing.
Thank you to the sweet friends who were there to cheer
me on, and join with me in celebrating a beautiful day -- even
if we were miles (countries) apart. You are wonderful.
The weekend is upon us, and we are ready! Yes. Fun and
rest have never been more welcome.
Have a loving your life day.
Tree by the lake
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir ©
What is true about a blog that has more than 3,000 posts, is
that most of my life for the past 15 years is recorded, and least
in part. Today I was looking for what I was writing about at this
date in other years, and came upon a painting I'd completely
forgotten. This can happen.
I think in my mind the painting wasn't working. I worked on
it, put it away, worked on other things, and never got back
to it. So I went looking for the painting today, in a break from
my current unfinished work, and thought --"Wow! that's
not bad!" One year later I think I know how to finish it.
So happy Thursday everyone.
Have a loving your life day.
If you are blogging daily (I am) -- there are no holidays. But today I
want one. So. Once again -- you ask -- "where would you like
to go?" And although I really don't need to go anywhere. It is
a beautiful day right here. The answer is of course -- Paris.
This is a photo of the view out of our hotel window in Paris
in 2016. It is not a great photo, and not a special part of
Paris. But it was a magic view for us.
Have an enjoying your dreams day.
The flowers cheer us on on bright, sunny days. It's been a bit
cold for planting although people are bravely starting their
gardens -- but our back garden is a sea of forget-me-nots, and
the pansy planters at the front of the house are flourishing.
So why not? Another pansy painting. As I've said before -- it
feels like they are in my system. I just love these beauties.
Other than that I'm happily painting.
Have a loving your life day.
View of clouds in Paris
walking along the Seine
Photo
Barbara Muir © 2022
It's our Monthaversary. A short blog tonight, because we went to see
the fireworks in our local park, and it's late. We had a lovely day --
mostly hanging out with one another -- picking up wraps at our local
shop, and seeing fireworks.
What did we talk about? Paris. Which is why I'm showing you this
beautiful photo tonight. What do we dream of -- Paris. Other people
tell us they like parts of France, but not Paris. That is not us. We
even have a neighbourhood. (Silly -- we've been there six times maybe --
and never for more than a week, but we've fallen hard.)
So Happy Victoria Day. I hope you had a lovely day off.
Have a loving your life day!
As I write this fireworks are going off all over town. Why?
It's the Victoria Day weekend, and although it is strange we
still have a holiday on Queen Victoria's birthday -- or the
nearest Monday to it. And firecrackers are part of the celebration.
A lovely thing happened yesterday -- a fellow came to the
door trying to get us to sign up for a charity. As I was talking
to him, wearing my mask, Steven came into the hallway, and
said that he donates to that charity regularly. The young fellow
had told me it was his birthday, and I said, "we have to sing
happy birthday to him." And Steven and I did.
But before this young man moved on, very happy that we sang
to him, he noticed this painting on the wall, and said that it is "cool."
It seemed early to quote an article from last December about the
painting, but it also says it all:
"I've read a lot of articles lately about finding out who you are.
This painting is based on a photo of me at a young age, sitting
on the dock at the cottage my parents rented against a backdrop
of my son's mother-in-law's view at her cottage.
The painting hangs inside our front door -- and reminds me, the
grown up, supposed adult, to know this is my essence -- a
happy kid who loves to play, and read, and loves beauty. Being at the
cottage when I was a child was the easiest place to find equilibrium,
because the setting was beautiful, and my parents who were lovely
people, but also critical, and back in the city highly disciplinarian
were happy, and distracted. In other words no one paid
attention to me except my aunts and uncles down the path, and
my cousins. So fun was possible and available."
Have a loving your life day.
It rained most of the day today, but that didn’t stop us from wanting
to be in the country. So we went for a walk by the lake. I love this
painting because it captures is the absolute bliss people feel
when they are in their favourite country setting.
The portrait was done as a commission for this sweet fellow's wife. I
was delighted that she was happy with the painting. She wanted me to
capture her husband, and his full vivacious nature. He was a great model.
Because this was before COVID, he posed for me.
Like most portraits the painting had to have things in it that were significant.
The blanket mattered. As artists we take these things seriously, because we
know we are creating something that will last and that matters to the family.
Wishing you a very happy Victoria day weekend, or whatever it is in the
country you live in.
Have a loving your life day.
Looking through my posts about Victoria Day weekend, I
found this portrait of a little girl that I painted 9 years ago.
When I'm working on a portrait of a child, I think about
what they will do when they get older. And I hope this
little girl is having so much fun.
This was the fifth grandchild that I painted of one of my
favourite collectors . And it was wonderful that my
client was so happy with the results. I was too.
Painting for clients who love your work is such a pleasure.
It seems funny that in 2023 we are still getting a holiday
for Queen Victoria's birthday in Canada. And the queen
died in 1901. But hey -- we get a long weekend, and that
alone is a good reason to celebrate.
Happy Victoria Day weekend
Have a loving your life day!
(I could not find the name for this work.)
tempera
Frank H. Johnston © 1919
One of the great things about visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario
with a friend is spending time really looking at the art. My
friend Suzanne yesterday talked about the Group of Seven smaller
studies, and compared them to the bigger work. There is something so
exciting from an artist's point of view in seeing where an artist goes,
how colour gets enhanced or retreats.
I also looked closely at work I've probably walked past before,
and noticed so much beauty.
I especially like the one I'm showing you. No idea why.
Have a loving your life day.
Wishing all of the mothers in the world Happy Mother's Day.
And wishing all of the people who mother others a Happy
Mother's Day. My mother was a wonderful woman -- kind,
funny, brave, generous. She had a photographic memory,
and could recite Shakespeare -- no problem. She was a great
cook, and a scientist with a Masters in Bacteriology.
Thank you Mommy. We all miss you.
Happy Mother's Day!
The gallery director for the Amsterdam Whitney gallery in New York,
where I’ve shown 10 times, suggested that we visit The Met Cloisters Gallery
one year in May. It was Mothers Day weekend. We loved the gallery and
met the woman whose portrait I showed you yesterday, and her baby.
Here is the baby who was adorable. One thing I loved about New York
was the conversations. So wonderful.
Wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day!
I came upon a post I wrote in 2020 when I worried about
New Yorkers, not being able to celebrate Mother’s Day as
they normally do. I loved being reminded that New Yorkers
make a big deal out of Mother’s Day. Families take their
mothers out to dinner flower stores are everywhere, and
people buy so many flowers for their mothers. It is an event
in the city.
Of course, everything has changed because of COVID, and
the city may not be quite as vibrant as it was before.
My family and I used to go for dinner to a restaurant here
in Toronto that no longer exists because of COVID. Still, I
found this drawing I did of a woman I met with her baby on
Mother’s Day weekend one year when we were in New York.
I was showing my work at the time in New York City. Every
time we visited, the city was so much fun!
Wishing you and your family a very joyous Mother’s Day
weekend.
Have a loving your life day!
Yes I am still working on that slow piece. A friend said that
it was so complex it might take a year. I hope not, but it is
an intense project. So Mother's Day is on Sunday in Canada,
and I may show paintings I've done of mothers and children
for the next few days.
I wish all of the mothers, and grandmothers, and stepmothers,
and aunts who act like mothers, and anyone who acts like
a mother a happy weekend coming up. May those you mother
and love let you know they love you back.
Have a loving your life day.
Pansy ecstacy
Acrylic ink and marker on
watercolour paper
6 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2023
I’m working on the long slog interior painting, and in my breaks,
I started this painting of the beautiful pansies that are growing in
a pot at the front of the house. The weather has been absolutely
perfect for pansies – which means quite cold, and wet -- with
a bit of sun for the past two days. It was supposed to be very warm,
even hot, but smoke from the forest fires in Alberta has clouded the
skies, and lowered the temperature.
Pansies are really chilly weather flowers. A bit of sun, a lot of
rain (we've had it), and cool weather, and they thrive.
This is a work in progress.
Have a loving your life day.
It was supposed to be a hot day today, but the warmth never
materialized. Why? We found out tonight that they grey skies
and red sun were caused by smoke from Alberta wildfires that
are out of control. The smoke travelled from the fires across the
country, and the result is surprisingly low temperatures.
I painted -- working on two paintings, and walked -- getting
my 10,000 and got a new Fitbit. Steven and I went to a big
mall near us, not something we do often since COVID, and
got the Fitbit I need, and ordered a new electric kettle.
In my painting breaks I spent time weeding. That could be
a very long task, but the garden is beautiful with tulips,
and forget-me-nots, and I felt so happy being outside even
though it was crisp.
The painting tonight is one I love for the joy of flowers.
Have a loving your life day.
Night Iris
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir ©
Today is a busy day, so I looked up what day it is, and
this is one I can celebrate -- Iris Day. If you check it
out there's a great deal of significant history attached
to the day, but for me the point is -- I love irises, and
have some glorious purple ones on the table in front
of me as I write this.
Strangely enough as a flower painter exclusively for
several years, I only did three paintings of Irises.
This little painting was a fast plein air painting of
beautiful yellow irises in our garden.
I am pretty sure I sent it to Howard Wolinsky as a
thank you for what is wonderful interview did for me.
Have a loving your irises day.
Higher Love
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 48 inches
Barbara Muir © 2018
I am going to the Todmorden Mills DVAC show to pick up
my painting Tea Alone today, and trying to figure out how to
keep the painting dry in this gorgeous rain.
Yesterday was beautifully sunny, and my neighbour and
her daughter drew portraits on their sidewalk. Then my
neighbour's seven-year-old daughter and I experimented with
drawing using dandelions and leaves. Then we painted with
acrylic inks -- which by the way do leave a stain if spilled on
your concrete front steps.
Oh and this painting is still for sale, and would be
another beautiful gift for your mother, or the mother of
your children. If you're interested write me at:
barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
Happy planning for Mother's Day day (it's next
Sunday, don't worry.)
A Little Bit of Summer
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Flora Doehler © 2020
Have a celebrating your friends day!
Nicki Ault with her beautiful painting
Aqua Afternoon at the
Summer and Grace Special Opening
at the Oakville Club today.
Alyson Stanfield's podcasts are wonderful. Inspired by her suggestions
to make a point of visiting other artists's openings, and keeping in
touch with people who matter, Steven and I drove to Oakville today to
see Nicki Ault, and her lovely painting in the Summer and Grace
Gallery opening of the H2o-Scapes Exhibition at The Oakville Club.
The show opens tomorrow in the gallery -- check out the link to
learn more.
The exhibition was fantastic, and if you're in, or near Oakville
make a point of visiting the Summer and Grace Gallery to see
the full exhibition.
Nicki Ault, and I met 12 years ago when we were in the same
International Women Celebrate show in Ayr, Ontario. We met
through blogging, and I remember how excited we were to meet
in person in Toronto, before the opening of the show, which was
fabulous. So knowing she was nearby, (She lives in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan) I wanted to see her again and it was a pure delight to
see one another and talk, and to see her work.
I am working away at my painting -- a scene inside a café.
It is a long, long and intense process, and since I've been
planning a series on this theme, it has made me realize that
the rest of it, will be much more focused, and less wide
lensed.
Yesterday the wonderful artist Harry Stooshinoff sent
out a series of self portraits to his subscribers. They are
quite amazing, and inspired me to do a self-portrait
on my iPad to show you today -- knowing full well, that
the piece I'm working on would not be ready.
And so it goes.
Have a loving your life day.
A super night with my art group tonight. The model was
wonderful and I got this happy sketch done in about 25
minutes. One of my friends in the group says that I am
a fast painter, and I said, "No I've been working on a
painting in my studio for a month and it's not done."
So it was so much fun. A beret always makes me think
of Paris. The model was from Eritrea, and she taught me
to say thank you in Tigrinya --"Thank you · የቐንየለይ! (Yekenyeley!)"
I said Yekenyeley so many times, that it may have gone in.
I so love languages.
Thank you to the wonderful model, and my art group.
Have a loving your life day.
Pansies lead the cheer
Acrylic ink, watercolour and black marker
on watercolour paper
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Barbara Muir © 2019
Happy May 1, which means a lot of different things to
different people. I want to think of it as the Month of Good
Cheer. This was a painting day, and my very complicated
painting is coming along.
Plus I had a lovely walk with a friend in very heavy rain. Lol.
Then I had lunch with Steven, who was taking a day off,
painted some more, and at the end of the day had a fabulous
drive, in rain that turned into sunshine, and a walk next to the
lake. What a beautiful day!
Here are some pansies to cheer you up. I just sent a pansy
painting to a friend, and hope it has that effect.
Have a loving the month of May day.