Over the years, I’ve sought out snow. In Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada…
But, how much joy is it when snow finds you!
Being cosy inside, with the fire roaring and snow floating, drifting, past the window of your home.
There is a quietness, a stillness, a change in the air as your world is slowly covered lovingly with a rumpled soft pristine blanket of white. It’s magic.
The joy and excitement in my daughter’s voice and eyes.
Especially when a Snow Day is announced!
And, the fun trick for the kids to magic up a Snow Day!
Love!
Home on a Snowy Day
Acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm (12×12 inches) by Arwen Munro, February 2024. Upstairs Music Box, Ambleside, West Vancouver, Canada.
This is another painting I thought I would ‘finish’ but I never revisited it. I sit with my paintings, and, I know this is going to sound strange, they tell me if something needs to be fixed/adjusted. This one was quiet, like a peaceful snowy day.
We ventured to Paris for our 2024 birthdays, my daughter’s sweet sixteenth!
We filled our trip to the brim.
❖ Walking the streets of the 1st & 4th Arrondissement in the rain. There is a painting from this day, coming up soon.
❖ Soaked and cold, snuggling into our cosy parisian accommodation.
❖ Sunset cruise on the Seine.
❖ Awed by the golden lights of the Eiffel tower.
❖ Gorgeous Île Saint-Louis, taking me right back to my first trip to Paris in 2001. When, with a freshly broken heart, I found a gorgeous little church on the island with a Handel concert scheduled for that night. I braved the Paris Underground to get back there that evening. The music filled my heart, tenderly seeking the hurt, and dissolved it through my tear ducts. Thank you, Île Saint-Louis.
❖ The nasty train office person who scammed us!
❖ Our train tickets we bought to cover our whole stay that didn’t work.
❖ Piggybacking!
❖ The Catacombs and the croissants from the patisserie across the street. The best!
❖ The scammer at the Disneyland train station. Je ne comprends pas! Thank you, high school French!
❖ Sweet mandarins from the little store down a lane near our accommodation, bought late on our way home from our day’s adventures, the rain-soaked streets glistening under the street lights.
❖ Lillian taking photos of me dancing along the streets of Montmartre, tipsy after our food tour to celebrate my birthday.
❖ Having our charcoal portrait drawn at Montmartre.
❖ Disneyland Paris in the rain and cold! Ratatouille was my favourite.
❖ Our birthday gifts from our sweet little French-royalty-inspired boutique hotel!
❖ Climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower late on our last night. The sleeping city twinkling. Bye, Paris, ’til next time!
Paris Sunset: Eiffel Tower & Lillian (days before her 16th birthday)
Acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm (12×12 inches) by Arwen Munro, January 2024. Upstairs Music Box, Ambleside, West Vancouver, Canada.
My brother and a beloved friend both referenced The Scream by Edvard Munch when I shared this painting with them. I quickly googled and saw what they meant! It was definitely not the feeling I was going for; still much to learn.
No other city has so fully captured my heart like New York City.
First it captured me through the magic of film.
Then in person, for the first time, in 1999.
On my return home to Australia, I found pockets in both Sydney and Melbourne that reminded me of New York. Especially the Art Deco buildings. So beautiful.
So many memories…
❖ Wedding dress shopping with my sister.
❖ The fortune teller!
❖ Screenwriting courses at The New School. How I love being in a classroom. How I love to learn. Yes, I was that kid in the classroom. Leaning forward, scribbling everything down, asking questions. Though I do recall a time when I managed to upset a teacher by talking, and he threw a piece of chalk at the blackboard. The sound of it hitting the board & splintering was shockingly loud; it made all of us jump! It shut me right up! (I like to think I wasn’t the only one talking!!)
❖ The train from Connecticut to the city. All the folks going to work, in their dapper suits & tailored dresses, and reading their large newspapers.
❖ Grand Central Station, stepping out onto the platform, immediately enveloped by the musty old underground train station smell, then scooped up by the wave of humanity, up the platform, to the grand Main Concourse, and then out onto the streets of New York City!
❖ The, to die for, salad bar at the station!
❖ Walking the streets as the seasons changed. Just like in the movies!!
❖ A winter evening, off to see a broadway musical, all the way from Connecticut. None of us really dressed warmly enough.
❖ Inside the Norwalk train station early one morning, finding a large African American man sitting with his legs blocking the stairs. I freeze. Heart pounding. He looked down at me with kind, sad eyes, and tentatively started to sing the ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ song, then moved his legs to let me pass. As my fear dissipated and a smile crept across my face, his voice grew and swelled with joy, filling the enclosed stairwell. I’m sure my smile stayed on my face for most of the train trip to the city; thinking about it now still brings a smile to my face.
❖ And Central Park!
2023 – Central Park: Gapstow Bridge & The Plaza
Acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm (12×12 inches) by Arwen Munro, December 2023. Upstairs Music Box, Ambleside, West Vancouver, Canada.
I’ve been back to the city twice since then, in January 2018 with my 10-year-old daughter and again in January 2025 with my almost 17-year-old daughter and almost 19-year-old nephew. So many amazing memories from both of those trips, too!
They are two of my most favourite things; trees and creeks.
No doubt my love comes from the mountain. Both of the mountains, I’m sure. The mountain in Lower Portland where I was born and the mountain in Green Pigeon where I grew up.
Trees & creeks make me feel safe, calm, and peaceful. That’s not to say that I wasn’t ever afraid on the mountain, but it was never the trees that frightened me. Sometimes it was the creeks; you might remember some of my stories about floods. What scared me most was what, in my imagination, was hiding behind the trees! I remember dreaming up some dark and scary tales for our young visiting cousins and scaring the jebeesies out of them!
I swear jebeesies is a word, but I can’t for the life of me find the correct spelling or definition for you. Maybe a homemade Australianism.
I was more afraid of what was hiding behind the trees than the snakes, goannas and other infamous Australian critters.
Trees and creeks, can transport me to another place/time. I literally think they are magic.
Acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm (12×12 inches) by Arwen Munro, November 2023. Upstairs Music Box, Ambleside, West Vancouver, Canada.
I always meant to go back to this painting and finish it, but I haven’t, I guess that means it’s finished.
I’m sure one of the reasons I love West Vancouver so much, is because of the trees and waterways. Burrard Inlet fills our view and sparkles from our apartment, Capilano River is just out our back door, and we are blissfully surrounded by trees! Love, love, love.
Now we leap forward in time to mid-2023, when Lil and I arrived in Vancouver to begin our North American adventure. Could we have been more excited!
Michal picked us up from the airport, and after a quick stop at our temporary accommodation, we set out exploring the city.
West Vancouver stole our hearts.
Once settled into our new home, I went searching for my people. I found a painting class: Drawing & Painting: Beginners Acrylic Painting at Sunset. Located in one of the old weatherboard buildings on the waterfront in Ambleside, called The Music Box, which is right next door to another building from a similar era, called The Silk Purse. Could we have landed in a place more like one you’d find in ‘Arwen Land’? For those of you who don’t know me so well, it would be fair to liken ‘Arwen Land’ to ‘Disneyland’, but perhaps with more nature, mountains, beaches, trees, glistening water, snow…
Our first lesson was on colour. Oh boy, I have much to learn!
2023 – “Autumn Leaves and The Silk Purse“
Acrylic on canvas 30.5cm x 30.5cm (12×12 inches) by Arwen Munro, October 2023. Upstairs Music Box, Ambleside, West Vancouver, Canada.
Green is a word that springs to mind, not in the colour sense of the word, but in the sense of being a beginner/novice.
Thank you for joining me on my painting adventure. These early ones feel uncomfortable, but I was so happy to be learning. I hope that joy springs out.
The next painting I want to share with you is another older one, a quick one done in Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand.
Quick because it was cold!
Mum was visiting, and from our cozy little cottage in Wellington, we’d dashed down to Cardrona for a snow/mountain adventure. This particular day, we’d driven to Wanaka, it was an overcast, gloomy day, and very cold. We found a picnic table and set up the painting materials for some speed painting.
Surrounded by the majestic Wanaka mountains, cloaked by low-lying clouds, and Wanaka Lake glistening gently behind me, I painted my little girl sitting across from me.
Her little owl hat still makes me smile; we bought it at the market in Woolgoolga, Australia, during our Easter trip earlier that year. You can see it poking out in the photo below.
I’ve learnt that this type of outdoor painting has a name, en plein air or plein-air painting. It’s fun to be immersed in and at the mercy of the great outdoors. That day in Wanaka, we were racing the cold, trying to finish our paintings before we turned into icy poles!
2013 – Lillian in Wanaka (5 years old)
Acrylic on canvas 24cm x 33cm by Arwen Munro, August 2013. Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand.
We didn’t freeze, we made it safe and sound to a coffee shop for lunch and to thaw out.
Another gorgeous sunny day here today, but the weatherman is predicting quite a run of rainy days ahead!
Growing up, we were surrounded by creativity. From the creative construction of our home, to arts and crafts of every flavour. Not to mention nature’s creativity.
It was sewing that captured me. We were gifted a little portable sewing machine, the cutest little Elna you’ve ever seen, from my stepfather’s sister (or mother?). It had flaps that folded up, perfectly protecting, into its own carry case. How I loved it, thoughts of the time spent sewing on the little Elna still fill me with joy. But my sewing adventures are another story, for another day.
My mother’s painting and arts and crafts filled our world, and now her garden too, great life-size sculptures in bronze and ceramics.
My father was an artist too. Some of his work is iconic in Sydney.
And my Nan too! I have a piece of hers that I treasure. She painted beautiful Australian east coast beach-scapes.
My brother picked up painting, many years ago now. I loved watching each new creation evolve on our visits to Moonbie Street when close, or remotely from afar.
Jumping forward in time to our arrival in Canada in June 2023, I went looking for my tribe. I found a beginner’s acrylic painting class. It’s this journey that I want to share with you.
Before we jump into my paintings done in Vancouver, I did a couple of paintings with my mother when my daughter was young.
Let me start with this one:
2010 – Woolgoolga Beach: Arwen & Lillian (2 years old)
Acrylic on canvas 20cm x 25cm by Arwen Munro, April 2010. Woolgoolga, NSW, Australia.
Before my family was splintered, we would gather every Easter in Woolgoolga. The four siblings and mum, with our young families. These memories, though full of sunshine, hurt my heart. I usually have these memories stored safely away, too painful otherwise.
But let me take you briefly to that day. It was another gorgeous sunny Spring day in Woolgoolga, a beach town on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia. We’d been to the beach and we were all encrusted with salt and sun. Too early for beer o’clock, Mum spread out her painting materials on the back deck and offered me a little canvas. Yes, she reassured, I could use it. I hesitated, feeling it was wasted on me.
The kids didn’t hesitate, so I joined them and painted.
My heart painted.
My little 2 year old daughter and I, a little team. Can you see the wide world out in front of us, the adventures yet to come?
