Oh! Just look at them! All sassy with their scarlet, tangerine, and soft pink skirts on. These particular tulips are a season favourite here on Mayne Island. I just HAD to paint them. I asked permission to bring easel and paints right to the deck for a painting session. Let’s have a 22 second look and get a good feel for the situation…
So with paint on my cheeks and my tea left to get cold I give it my best.
After about an hour and half, it is definitely there! Doing a little en plein air dance around the deck. Oops! There are people here. I hadn’t noticed. A few adjustment are going to be needed but this is it for this day.
Back in the studio I work away until I feel it has come together. You see, I really do not get a lot of opportunity to paint with red. I like it but it kind of needs to be approached with respect. I suppose most colours do but red is my stand-back-and give-it-some-room colour. Shall we see what we have?
Tulips Springwater Deck Mayne Island – 20 x 16 inch oil on canvas
Update August 10, 2013: This painting is SOLD to an art collector in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Now I am going to let you in on a little secret. I am working on a much looser more textured experimental version of this same painting in the studio. It is too early to share and it may never be shared but I thought you just might like to know anyway. Red, lots of red and orange. Yum!…. Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone.
What is your stand-back-and give-it-some-room colour?
© 2013 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.
Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com
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Creative Potager 
Beautiful!
Thank you 🙂
Gorgeous! I love the contrast between the red and blue. Cobalt blue is my stand-back-and-give-it-room color,
The red and blue was a helpful combination for this composition for sure Deborah. I can certainly understand how cobalt blue can give you pause. Living on he west coast I have actually worked extensively with all the blues and usually have four on my palette at once.
Tres jolie Terrill. They are beautiful. Lois
Thank you Lois and welcome to Creative Potager. I appreciate you dropping by.
Terrill – Gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous!
My stand back and give it some room color is Pomodoro Red (not bright like a fire engine, but darker like a chili pepper).
Thanks Laurie! You mean that deep red that is often seen with dried chilly peppers? The one which seems to change all the time and have an occasional black and then blue sheen? Is it that red? I have a photograph of these someplace. If I can find it I will share later.
Terrill – yes, Yes, YES! By jove, you’ve got it!
And here we go Laurie – the photo I was thinking about when I read your comment:Festive Paper Dragon Peppers at the Farm Gate Store
Not little chile peppers but the same colour I think.
Terrill – yes indeed. This is the color, exactly! We use this color as an accent throughout home and it really “pops!” Thank you for sharing this link with me 🙂
Another visual stunner and so magnificently rendered with the hands-on interaractive approach Terrill. This is a sensory examination of the breathtaking beauty of tulips, and you have transferred the real thing onto a canvas that accentuates that alluring and arresting quality. I love all shades of blue best, though as of late I’ve come to appreciate powder blue in it’s various incarnations. But I’m game for the ravishments of every color. I do really love your video posts!
Thank you Sam for the feedback on the video addition. It is tough to know if it works for people as they are so very “homemade” in a world that has such polished video offerings. You know I am passionate about all blues but a splash of colour is always a nice addition, particularly at the end of our grey misty west coast winters.
What a lovely painting, Terrill. And it captures the aura of The Springwater so well. I just wish I’d known so that I could have stood and watched you work. Then, maybe, we could have had some tea and a treat. Oh, well, in my imagination we did. : )
My stand back and give it some room colour… I like that. I don’t think I have one. But I like the idea.
Looking forward to our next field trip. : )
Yes it should be fun Leanne and if I am feeling I can have an audience I will let you know the next time I am going out and you can decide if it works for you to come along. These are usually in-the-moment decisions so not much warning will come with the offer.
Of course, that should have read: But I like ‘the’ idea.
Skipping words is a good sign. It means my muse is at work. : )
All fixed now 🙂
I have a print of Georgia O’Keeffe poppy over my fireplace and my husband did 3 poppies in stained glass sort of like shutters at the living room window….There there are little ladybugs all around including ladybug socks on my feet as I write! So red is the popping colour of choice…
We had 100 King Alfred daffodils in the garden beds this year…and I work at finding yellow flowers for my partner’s popping colour….Although he still gets a shiver from the row of pink Centennial rhodies and evergreen azaleas I put in as a hedge between the neighbors yard and ours…then surprise, surprise lovely yellow poppies started coming up all over the yard on their own and they bloom all summer. The squirrels take the tulip bulbs so there is only a small orange, white and purple troupe left in the posts.
Of course, the apple trees are still in bloom even with the horrendous windstorm yesterday…and well they just soothe me. along with your lovely painting which is my meditation focus.
More beauty you share here…I can see why this painting is already released.
Thank you for sharing so much beauty with us all
You have painted a very colourful word picture here Patricia! I am in you living room looking out to the garden and most pleasantly wowed by the sight. You are most welcome and as always, a pleasure to have you drop in.
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