Winds come in off the water, bending and moving the tree’s branches. Even still, these branches are sweeping, catching wisp of songs on the lips of the Salish Sea.
View and purchase full resolution image here.
The composition of this image is unusual, bringing the eye in from the left to the silhouetted trunk and closer as it crosses the frame on the sweeping branch, dropping down on the rocks and out to sea, only to come back again onto the far hill of misty trees. The sight line is an angled backwards Z. Like a piece of complicated music, it requires time to gather in its intricacies. This type of image, like a sentence with several parts connected by commas, is often broken down into smaller bites so we can devour it more quickly. I resisted. I kept its complicated-sweeping-whole and place the image in the Mayne Island Tree Spirits calendar’s month of June. It is there for me as much as I placed it there for you.
Sprout question: What creative principle have you resisted recently?
© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.
Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch
Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
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Creative Potager 
Terrill –
I am one of the fortunate people who has purchased the Mayne Island Tree Spirits 2011 calendar. I’m looking forward to a year of trees through the eyes of Terrill Welch.
Sprout question: What creative principle have you resisted recently?
Elaboration.
Now why doesn’t your sprout response surprise me Laurie? 🙂 Thank you again for your purchase of Mayne Island Tree Spirits 2011 calendar. I do hope it brings you great pleasure.
I love the many layers of life in your photo, Sweeping. Leaving it intact was wise, Terrill, as even when we break our lives down into days, moments, years … even milestones … the “whole” is what I think we’ll remember as our spirits pass into another dimension. Just my intuition.
Thanks for sharing this, your artistic sensibilities are powerful and poetic.
Looking forward to January, as well, and having you as an honored guest in SunnyRoomStudio!
Best for the day,
Daisy @ http://www.daisyhickman.com
I started out the day in full compliance and then found myself throwing myself in to complete resistance at every opportunity… It allowed me to cry and sweep the western cedar branches off the driveway and attempt to clean the gutters in the sunshine….I could just not read one more word or analyze one more action….and the fog never showed up today…sunshine until the cloud cover rolled in about 4pm…
It was nearly a perfect day as is the sweep of the picture and your words. Thank you
Patricia such heartfelt, poetic expression… thankfully we have tears to help us sweep away what must be swept. You are most welcome Patricia. I am so glad you came by and shared your day with us.
I am just back to order my calendar, I am going to give it at as a gift to my friend who now lives far away in a dry spot! Which has it’s own beauty but not that of the islands.
Thank you for your nice reply and kind words.
I just put up a most interesting post about WALK SCORES on my patricias wisdom sight, I think it is quite interesting ideas for those of us who love our envirnoments. FYI
Thank you Patricia 🙂 This is awesome!!! I am sure the calendar will bring your friend some welcomed beauty of the misty trees from our coastal islands.
Thank you also Patricia for mentioning your post “Do you know your WALK SCORES” I have left a comment and I encourage other readers to drop by and have a read. Great post.
Terrill: I just now ordered the Mayne Island Tree Spirits calandar. (Order #231743) Like Laurie, I am smitten with these atmospheric treasures most of all, and that June canvas is magnificent. I may opt to resist marking this calandar in any way, and just hold on to it for its beautiful art.
I resisted proofreading today, and as a result I made some embarassing errors. Nothing serious, but a bit annoying.
Sam I was wondering if that was your order – this is so darn exciting! Mayne Island Tree Spirits traveling far and wide keeping other wonderful people company during the year ahead. Sam, Laurie says she isn’t going to write on her calendar either for the same reason. When you receive your calendar, you will see that the photographs are a good size and the card stock is gorgeously heavy. I think it may be possible to frame any of the image you choose and have them to look at for a very long time. But I too have calendars I have kept as art. Whatever you decide will be perfect. I do hope you enjoy it. And thank you Sam 🙂
Now to proof reading Sam, I do hope you can recover from your resistance of this vital task. Good luck!
Creativity does not exist with principles, may as well hand over the brush to the bossy one and walk away!
Elisa your comment made me giggle with delight – I am sure that wasn’t “the bossy one” who gave way to laughter:) I find I need both my knowledgeable and firm gentle “bossy one” and my playful child during my creating and editing process. My spontaneous, curious, daring and playful self has freedom within permeable boundaries. It could be the sheet of paper, the size of the frame through the view finder, the junk of charcoal, the desire to use only three colours, a focus on negative space, including words the evoke smell. Then there are design and composition principles. We don’t need to use them. They are not a must. Yet, to know them and then choose to break them or as you say…”creativity does not exist with principles” is a choice. This keeps me from feeling stilted or wrapped in limitation… working on the edge of creativity… in the margins of what is fresh and new – at least for me. I love this tension between the free hand of creativity and “the bossy one” reaching for the brush. Thank you Elisa for the wonderful imagery and perspective.
What creative principle am I resisting? You ask such fascinating questions which always require some thought. It feels like I am always resisting some creative principal while choosing another. It always feels like a dance… Love your photo, by the way! It is really poignant.
Kathy I often feel that way too – resisting one while choosing another. I enjoy these sprout questions… I find it keeps stretching my thinking and being as I am doing my creative work. Good to hear you liked the photograph. Thanks for the feedback.