Late Autumn Travel and news from the Studio

November 23, 2015February 8, 2016 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

The lemon, cadmium and naples yellows are brilliant and the brush quick in the Okanagan afternoon sun. Peachland reminds me of painting en plein air in France with everyone stopping to visit and comment on the progress as I worked.

This is very different from the usual Canadian standing back and frowning at me as they skeptically ask “Can you make a living do that?”

I always here their parent’s voice in these comments. After so many years of these exchanges, I am mostly use to it. But it can still, on occasion, be a little startling. I wonder, do these same people, if they see someone pruning hedges, or building a fence, or moving their herd of cattle, or tying up their charter fishing boat or cleaning the bathrooms in the provincial park, do they ask those people this same question? It is, after all, one would think, un-Canadian-like to ask such a personal question, tinged with judgement, to a person you see standing in front of an easel (paintbrush in hand) outdoors in our scenic landscape. But not so apparently. When I look up at these strangers, I realize that they just can’t help themselves. They simply must ask. Their curiosity seems to override politeness. I have a plan though.

The next time I am asked this question, I am going to reply “Why do you ask?”

I am sure their answers will be fascinating!

But in Peachland, like it was when I traveled in France, the people stopping by seemed to know and respect the seriousness and dedication that goes into the “real work ” of painting – even a quick plein air sketch. I was impressed and pleased. People could be seen crossing the street to come over to where I was busy working away at the easel.

Plein Air painting in Peachland British Columbia by Terrill Welch October 24 2015

They stopped in both direction on their walks along the waterfront to see how the sketch was coming along. It was a most pleasant 45 minutes on a fine autumn day!

The southern interior of British Columbia in general simply IS different from our southwest coast. Take these reflections on Vaseux Lake.

A little colour…

A little colour south end of Vaseux Lake British Columbia by Terrill Welch 2015_10_30 075

and more colour…

Autumn Vaseux Lake British Columbia by Terrill Welch 2015_10_30 089

and then not much at all…

sleeping giant at Vaseux Lake British Columbia by Terrill Welch 2015_10_30 109

But the reflections! These kinds of reflections we do not get often on the Pacific Ocean. Not like this. I will be back another time I am sure. I have to test out other locations to see if more of the Okanagan has an appreciation of plein air artists or if it is just Peachland.

Back in the studio, another of the paintings that recently sold was delivered and is now ensconced in its new home. Doesn’t it look like it has always been there?

The Olive Tree 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas in its new home by Terrill Welch 2015_10_07 010

I did get one more finished, done excepted for the edges, new oil painting completed during the past few weeks. It started out with the usual underpainting and was built up from there.

Winter 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas in progress 1 by Terrill Welch 2015_11_03 002

Winter 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas in progress 2by Terrill Welch 2015_11_03 003

Winter 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas in progress 3 by Terrill Welch 2015_11_03 005

The final result is “Winter” an 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas Mayne Island seascape.

Winter 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2015_11_10 024

In October, the painting shared in the previous post that I had just completed, “Salish Sea No Separation” 18 x 24 inch walnut oil, also sold before I could get it officially released. This work has safely arrived in Michigan and is now gracing the walls in the living room of a large rancher. I haven’t seen any photographs yet but I am sure I will before long.

Salish Sea No Separation 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2015_08_23 096

Right now, I am feeling the pressure to find more studio time so that the inventory is replenished for the upcoming year. I trust I shall find the time. I know that I will. I must!

Then, we shall smile together when the next person says – “can she really make a living at that!?”

We can simultaneously reply… “Why do you ask?”

In other studio news, there are rumours of a possible pop-up show of my paintings early in the New Year. This will be confirmed once plans are in place. Also, I will be painting and staying in Victoria for the month of January and then traveling to Prince Edward Island to photograph and do painting sketches from the end of April until near the end of June. During the Art! Vancouver international art fair in May, I expect to have a couple of paintings in a gallery group show in Vancouver as well. The year ahead is shaping up to be eventful already.

For now though, I am rolling up my sleeves in the studio to paint!

Best of the holiday season everyone in case we don’t chat here again before then!

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

Painting and then Selling Paintings are Done on a Different Breath

October 6, 2015November 23, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 5 Comments

Working as an independent artist responsible for not only creating the work but also for getting it out there is the world is best understood using the analogy of breathing. The process of gathering information and executing a painting on a canvas is done on the in breath. The process of marketing and selling the painting is done on the out breath. As long as the painter remembers that it is not possible to breathe in and out at exactly the same time then the combine processes work rather well and the artist has a healthy sustainable life as a full-time artist. This is my theory anyway. So far so good.

And though I have completed a couple of plein air sketches

“As Sea to Shore” 11 x 14 inch plein air acrylic sketch on gessobord

“Salish Sea late August morning” 11 x 14 inch acrylic plein air sketch on gessobord

and one painting,

Salish Sea No Separation 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas (will be released soon) Update: This painting sold to a private collector in Michigan on October 19, 2015 before it could be formally released.

the majority of my effort has been on the “out breath” of selling paintings.

This wasn’t such a purposeful act of short breaths in and long breathes out but it is what has happened. So much so that seven paintings have been sold in seven short weeks. Here is one of these paintings Trail Along the Ridge a 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas, in its new home.

All seven paintings that have left the studio recently can be viewed HERE on the Terrill Welch Artist website.

Now, I expect to get back to some more moderate breath patterns with a rather relaxed even-pace between the in breath and the out breath of breathing, painting and selling as an independent artist. Life is good and the cupboards are full for the winter ahead!

What is the current breathing pattern of your creative breath?

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

A Narrow Artistic Perspective on a Mayne Island Morning

August 25, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

Let’s count them. There are eighteen photography sketches taken within 45 minutes of each other and no further apart than fifty steps along a chunk of the Mayne Island shoreline. It is a painter’s morning for gathering reference material. Why bother you might ask? Well, it is about seeing and mostly about how we see and choose to construct our world using sensory information.

I woke just before daylight. After blinking several times and making coffee I decide to go and see how the sun is making out.

She is getting a little slower to rise on this late August morning but still beat to the shore.

It is a gentle rising with a soft elegance that never fails to release the last bit of tension between my shoulder blades.

I gather myself together and glance narrow and long… searching.

And searching again.

Low clouds play with the light as I look south.

Back around I turn and venture deeper into exploring just this one aspect of the shoreline.

Which composition is most satisfying?

Which elements do we see most clearly?

Is it the sea or the land we most sympathize with?

I want to reach into the camera and pluck out my own secrets!

But I cannot.

Like the blue heron I can only keep fishing using my past experience and best guesses. Maybe this one!?

No not that one replies the heron.

The sandstone chortles and then hefts a sigh, as if in commiseration, about this endless seeking.

Calm but slightly dejected I turn around yet again. I haven’t unraveled this dawn yet.

After a few steps, I turn slowly and then crouch low… there…

and then again here….

Morning has broken and the landscape is shattered by my viewer’s eye! I must leave now with my quick photography sketches. I must take these fragments and make something of them just as we do with every image we created in our mind’s eye. these are my few soft gestures of contemplation before picking up my brushes and rushing them over a canvas with heaps of expectation and too much substance to do any of it justice.

What has your morning brought to you?

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

Once In a Blue Moon 2015

August 16, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

Though we are well into August, my heart often drifts back to the evening of July 31st and the rising of our second full moon or the blue moon. The sun is setting very close to the moon rising. I wasn’t the only one settling in for the wait. A small group has gathered at the Seaview Rd beach access on Mayne Island. We wait and we watch until the first sliver becomes visible and then a substantial slice of the moon can be seen on the horizon.

I sigh and click away. It has the promise of being a real beauty!

Even the seagulls seemed to have stopped flapping about and sit still on a log for a few minutes as the not-so-blue-moon appears to slide up into the sky.

Prints and products available HERE.

Eventually, the sky is dark enough and the moon is high enough to give us a one of those good old moon reflections.

Prints and products available HERE.

Darkness settles as Blue Moon rises. I am glad I brought a jacket as I watch and savour the wonder.

Prints and products available HERE.

Then it is time to pack up the camera and the moment but the memory is one that will be revisited many times – way more times than once in a blue moon!

What is going to be YOUR next once-in-a-blue-moon experience?

Note: all of these images are available in high-resolution. I have chosen three to release at this time. But if one of the others takes your fancy just let me know and I can make it available.

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

For the Record I am Still Very Much a Living Artist

August 4, 2015February 8, 2016 / Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

The other day I had a long-time friend ask if I had any health problems. I was a bit puzzled about what prompted this inquiry but answered that I was fine other than being slightly rounder than I would like.

He continues “Oh, I was just wondering if I could cash in on those paintings of yours anytime soon. But I think you have to be dead first.”

He was teasing but it is not such an odd question to ask about an artist as I first thought. At a recent international art fair this was a common curiosity for art buyers – was the artist still alive and are they in the mature or later stages of their career? This is all a polite way of asking if the artist is dead yet or how much longer until we can expect them to be dead. Of course, then the collector or potential purchaser has to decide if they have a chance of outliving that artist in order to cash in on their holdings. This is the rather lifeless, dark side of the whole art business which I am not so fond of thinking about.

I admit to being a little weirded out by this whole line of decision-making or checking up on your art investment. So I just want to say, for the record, I am in good health, eat well, exercise regularly, do not smoke, spend ample time in nature breathing clean air and sometimes have a glass of red wine with my dinner. Chances are fairly good that I have several years of painting left in me yet and I shall be around for a long, long time. No quick return on your investment is reasonably expected here. Then again we never really know do we? After all, I am closer to 60 than 50 years old now. But I provide you with summary this information and leave it with you to calculated your odds.

Now that we have that out-of-the-way, there is another kind of being dead as an artist that is far more dangerous than a last breath. This is the death of risk taking. Playing it safe, in whatever creative medium an artist uses, is not recommended. Sometimes the worst thing for an artist is to figure out something that works and is appreciated by viewers and collectors. Under these circumstances, we can lose focus, desire, drive and passion quicker than the heart can skip a beat. We must keep ask – I wonder? and – what if? and then go for it! The life in our work depends on this risk taking as much as our body relies on fresh organic fruit and vegetables. Yes, we can stop asking the questions for a short-while. But we will develop artistic scurvy if it goes on for too long. Let me show you an example of the kind of risk taking I am talking about….

My paintings don’t just appear on the canvas with each bit perfectly formed. They are coerced, poked and enticed into existence. I start with an idea about how I want to handle a particular subject and gradually it starts to take shape as the layers of paint and brushstrokes are moved onto the canvas. Bell Towers of Florence Countryside – 16 x 20 inch walnut oil on canvas has been more than a year in the musing and thinking process.

I start the landscape with my usual warm underpainting …

I began working right on top of the wet underpainting. I wanted this warmth to be come integral to the later stages of the painting.

The main themes and compositional elements of the painting are still fluid and transitory. It is coming along nicely.

Slowly my ideas start to solidify – just a bit…

I begin building up what seems to be working…

I keep going…

There is some variation in colour between stages because of the lighting condition at different times of day. But you get the idea. Finally the painting is getting close.

If you are walking from Florence south via del Podesta which is part of the old road to Rome take via del Portico to the right that is above Galluzzo. It is the medieval Chiesa di Santa Lucia in the foreground. The church has two bells from the 14th century. The Monastero della Certosa del Galluzzio founded by Niccolò Acciaiuoli in 1342 is on the hillside in the background. Today there are cars and freeways running lengthwise between these two places but from this view one can imagine there being only foot traffic moving along the narrow roads between stone walls from one place to the other. Thinking about what it was like standing in this spot, I make a few more changes and then I am ready to leave the painting to “rest” and decide if it needs anything else.

Well, I slept on it and I thought about this place some more. I then thought about the state of the world and so on. I could have left this most pleasant, idealized scene just as it is. The painting is fine. No risk taking is necessary really. But what would be the use of that? Do we really just need one more perfect picture of a grand view? No we don’t. I know we don’t. I have more to say than that and I had best figure out how to say it. We are often dazzled by dramatic light and memories that deny an imperfect past. This is even more pronounced to me when looking at these old churches, monasteries and bell towers in the Florence countryside. The whining hornet-sounds of motorcycles on the narrow road are an invisible reminder of our fossil-fuel reliant present. The young olive trees on the hill are young because of a hard frost a number of years ago that was attributed to changes in weather patterns. We seem to be wiping out our past and our present even as we observe this magnificent view. Like cataract suffers, we keep focusing on the bright spots and missing the rest. We are slowly going blind and this beautiful view will soon be lost to us. How can I possibly show this with paint and my brush?

Risk taken. I believe we now have more than simply a beautiful landscape and one that is very much alive, just like the artist who painted it.

What risk are you currently taking in order to be very much alive?

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

Northern California Contemporary Landscape Oil Paintings

July 24, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

Seven of my latest northern California paintings released…

Terrill Welch

Seven new landscape oil paintings of northern California by Canadian Contemporary artist Terrill Welch become available for purchase today. Using her plein air and photography sketches as well as her memory, these works are inspired from Terrill’s slow travel down and up the coast this spring.

The dynamic movement of the sea, sky and light at Arena Lighthouse in northern California mesmerizes and inspires.

Early March at Arena Lighthouse California coast 18 x 24 inch walnut oil on canvas

Detailed view and purchase information available by clicking on the image or HERE.

Knowing what is coming and yet unable to decide whether to stay or to move forward or back from the surf as it builds its strength before coming ashore again. This is the first of three related northern California surf paintings.

Northern California Surf Building 16 x 20 inch oil on canvas

Detailed view and purchase information…

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A Seascape as a Place to be on Saturna Island

June 29, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

East Point on Saturna Island is a fine place to be in almost any weather but a warm end of June just brings out its best.

From the little fog house that is….

to the sight of Mount Baker sitting grand and surprising on the far shore.

Trails past the wind swept Garry Oak and Ocean Spray tell a story of another kind of day.

But it also keeps the secret of a hauntingly beautiful cliff that can be viewed from below.

I eventually head across the field looking taking a thoughtful look back over my shoulder and think – does it get any better than this!?

In answer to my own question, the next day when we return the sea and sky are both pale blue in the warm sun. It does, yes it does get better. I spend the afternoon on Pebble Beach with a friend and collector of my work who is traveling with me. I paint while she starts to notice the changes in light and shadow on the landscape as I work. It was as if watching the process of plein air painting gave her fresh eyes.

Shall we finish up with this wee 8 x 10 inch acrylic sketch “June at East Point on Panel Board”? Why not!

There is more but this all for now as I am still traveling.

When was the last time that you found yourself seeing with new fresh eyes?

Note: You may notice that most of my photographs lately have a watermark. I have reluctantly gone to this method due to the ease with which images are downloaded and shared with no easy ability to reference to the photographer. This way the photographs can always be traced back to me if someone has a desire to know. My apologies for any distraction this may cause.

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

Profit and Losses of Peonies and Poppies Still Life in the Art Studio

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Notes from my artist’s journal:

Saturday’s flowers for $12.00 from the Hardscrabble Farm stall at the Farmers Market resulted in “Peonies and Poppies Still Life” 12 x 16 inch acrylic painting sketch shown here just as itwas completed in the studio. Thegessobord was $5.20 and the paints used maybe $2.80 bringing the total investment for materials to around $20.00 dollars. Then there is my hard-earned skills, creative genius and of course my time.

I took it off easel and set it next to the flowers for a moment.

This was my June Sunday morning in the studio and a good morning it was!

I usually do not sell these sketches as they remain in my private collection for reference. But I felt for now I had done all that I wanted to do with this subject. I was quite pleased with the sketch and decided it could stand on its own as a finished work.

On Monday morning I posted the quick acrylic sketch on social media for the purchase price of $400 including shipping.

Late Monday evening the painting sketch SOLD!

Prints of this work are still available and can be purchased by clicking the image or HERE.

On Wednesday morning the e-transfer of funds was deposited and I had finished packaging and shipping the painting sketch to the new collector. I went to the small town of Sidney B.C. and purchased ink for my big printer, canvases and paints. The total was $368 dollars. I heaved a bit of a frustrated sigh as all of my profits from the sale, after supplies, taxes and shipping, were immediately reinvested back into the studio. Then I chided myself with the reminder that at least I had profits to reinvest.

Now it is Thursday morning. The flowers have faded. The peonies remind me of soiled pink toilet paper and poppy petals lay scattered onto the table.

Maybe, I will feel inspired to paint peonies and poppies again next year.

Don’t get me wrong I am THRILLED to have this work with a collector who I KNOW will treasure this painting sketch! I am always thankful and humbly grateful to ALL the art collectors who purchase my work. It is just that, well…. It’s all good right?

So goes the profits and losses of painting a peonies and poppies still life sketch in my art studio.

What are you adding up today?

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

Breezy Bay Morning

May 19, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

Sometimes my paintngs receive special gifts that are all their own…

Ten Days Over and Under with Nature is Calling

May 12, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

A deer browses outside the studio window as I ponder how much easier it is to be in nature than it is to record being in nature. Since my last post many days have past. I am reminded of weaving and the over and under of life, living and my complex relationship to nature. Let see if we can pick up the pattern and weave it together.

The rooster crows over top of the small forest birds as I try to decide whether to paint the third of three California surf paintings or write this blog post.

The other two are complete and under review with other new work in the main part of the house.

While I should be musing over this body of work in the early morning light as I gather my apple and toasted whole-wheat raisin bread, instead I think “darn those windows need washing!”

Canadian geese announce their departure as I climb back up stairs to the studio. I am fixated on a painting problem and it goes like this – how does one paint the sound of the surf?

This problem about painting the surf took over following an Oregon and California road trip this spring. It has rooted itself into my consciousness like invasive Scotch Broom on Mayne Island – a beautiful problem but still one that there is a community desire to resolve. But Scotch Broom is an issue that is complex and not easily addressed. Practically speaking, both my painting problem and the broom take hard work as much as anything else to resolve. This is where #NatureIsCalling and the David Suzuki Foundation 30 minutes x 30 days in May Nature Challenge gives me a boost and possibly even a reason to sidestep the second issue – getting rid of Scotch Broom.

If we propose that over and under is a repetitive motion that in weaving and nature never allows a person to return to exactly the same place twice, what have I discovered?

The Georgina Lighthouse park on Mayne Island is beautiful in the direct midday sun.

or plein air painting in the early morning grey of heavy haze and cloud.

“Scotch Broom and Arbutus Tree set in grey quick study” – 8 x 10 inch acrylic plein air sketch on gessobord

We have come back again and again these past few days for picnics and reading.

Sometimes I am distracted by the sounds of ferries entering or leaving Active Pass. But mostly, the seals and sea lions surface on the water and the seagulls and eagles call from the sky while I feel free to sprawl on the grass with nothing more to do than take it all into the core of my being – even the Scotch Broom.

Scotch Broom you see is not really suppose to be here. The invasive shrub got away from gardens and has a habit of taking up any vacant space available regardless of who usually would be seeking residence – kind of like humans. It has definitely made itself permanent on Mayne Island as it has elsewhere. The best way to keep shrub out is not to disturb the ground. This patch has developed due to shore erosion. It is a tough beast with deep roots. Possibly it is a natural solution to the erosion in this case. I am willing to entertain this idea for the moment anyway. By the way, if you look long enough and carefully enough there are two humans in this photograph sitting quietly looking out to sea.

The lighthouse park is sometimes included in our longer walk each the day which are usually five to six km long and the same equivalent as climbing eight flights of stairs. These walks frequently include trails leading to and from the sea.

Maybe it is a low tide…

or the beauty of an old fir tree curved from winter storms…

or the strength of light, wind in the trees and patterns of roads sometimes are best understood in a painterly paintography fashion that catches my attention.

These last four images were taken with my iPhone as it was all I had with me. My iPhone is sometimes a secondary part about being in nature. I leave my good camera at home in order to limit the distraction of framing images. It helps a small amount but not a lot. This habit of seeing light patterns and recording compositions is like a musician playing their daily scales on the piano – it is necessary practice. I would argue it is as important to my well-being as being in nature for its own-sake. I mean, how does one even come up with a crazy question about how to paint the sound of the surf if not from years of observation?

During the past ten days storms pass through…

first visit with five day old grandson take place…

A Cinnabar moth is spotted (found in Europe and western and central Asia. It has been introduced into New Zealand, Australia and North America to control poisonous ragwort, on which its larvae feed.)

and a first Iris that hold my attention. It too is not native to this area. Like me, it is a transplant from someplace else.

This close up is what I want to remember but it is not what I first saw in its raw awkwardness against the foundation of the lighthouse.

What I have noticed during the past ten days of #NatureIsCalling is how good I am at sorting, sanitizing and sensationalizing what are ordinary, messy and complex experiences in our natural environment. While I think that what I am deeply aware of is that the sun on my shoulder, the rumble of the jet overhead, the rain in the garden, the rise and fall of my breath I also become aware of a world where humans want to be right and to be good. It is a world where human sharing uses the shortest route to what is considered best and worst, good and evil or right and wrong. Time in nature reminds me of the complexity of our daily lives by its examples. Maybe the time and energy to eradicate Scotch Broom is ill placed? My wrenched shoulder from doing this task a few years ago agrees – today anyway.

Now, I am off to paint the sound of the surf in my third of three paintings on the subject. With a bit of luck, my next post will introduce all three completed California surf paintings.

What complexities are you musing about?

Note: #NatureIsCalling is the hashtag for the David Suzuki Foundation 30 minutes x 30 days in May Nature Challenge. I am outside more than 30 minutes in nature each day as a matter of work and life style but I committed to being particularly observant for the Month of May. As time allows, I will share these experiences with you here on Creative Potager.

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