In the Words of Strangers

July 29, 2016July 29, 2016 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

By now you may have guessed, as a Canadian artist, I often have conversations strangers about my work when I am traveling. It comes with geographic proximity to my landscape subjects and other human beings. These engagements are frequently brief and fleeting in nature but this does not diminish their impact as a kind of concrete gentle-kindness to fortify my solitude as I put brush to canvas over and over again.

This same kind of engagement also happens through the vast and complex inter-connectedness of the world-wide-web.

Oh, I suppose could tell you about new works painted, several art shows and painting sales in the month since I have been home (my website has this information if it is desired). But, it has also been an unprecedented time of quiet recognition of my work. Complete strangers often contacted me to make requests about sharing my work elsewhere online. In the process, they frequently articulated why they wish to do so. Sometimes their words leave me rather stunned and deeply humbled with gratitude. Here are a couple of brief snippets as examples…

Received in my inbox today:

“I discovered your paintings from a Google image search of paintings of the Canadian coast. I grew up in ….. BC and spent much time sailing through Desolation Sound and the Gulf Islands. You’re paintings truly capture much of the beauty inherent in the
region. I was wondering if I could share one….”

Fog Inside Passage 12 x 24 inch oil on canvas

Details and purchase information available HERE.

What do you think my answer was to this request!?

And here is part of a public comment this week on my TerrillWelchArtist.com website contact page:

“I have to tell you –though I hesitated to write this because I did not want to provoke anything which might disturb whatever wonderful thing it is that enables you to produce these works–I have spent numerous hours at the Musée du Quai d’Orsay fixed on one or another impressionist painting–usually one by Van Gogh. Your paintings have a similar effect. Your artistic sensibilities, while uniquely yours, seem to have a resonance with what I see communicated through Van Gogh’s pieces. Please don’t take offense at a comparison. Your work is truly original and beautiful–as is his. No mere imitator of Van Gogh, however talented, could ever hope to match this peculiar sensibility. I’m convinced that it must be something innately shared and, for me, your work expresses it in a way that’s of course your own. But these works could easily hang beside anything in the Orsay’s permanent collection.

It is no wonder to me that collectors snap up your paintings as soon as you finish them. If I had a fortune or was a curator at a major museum, I’d be collecting your paintings with the same interest that I’d have for any work by Van Gogh or Matisse or Raoul Dufy.”

Signed “P.”

One of the paintings of particular interest to this individual is Spring Tea, 16 x 20 inch oil on canvas, one of three paintings showing this weekend on Mayne Island at “La Vida Rústica” — multi-disciplinary reflections on the rustic life.

Well, I must say, I really don’t know what to say when faced with such frank remarks…. except thank you, thank you – Thank You!

What is particularly powerful and meaningful to me is the clarity with which the paintings moved these commenters – it is as if the brushstrokes were felt even more than they were seen. There is no higher compliment or recognition as a painter I could ever wish for my work. This is a clean and perfect match to my intention and the driving force that brings me back to the studio again and again.

May the painting continue, without interference, and yet gently supported by the words of strangers!

On that note, I think we shall conclude with one of the latest paintings and the first large works from Prince Edward Island the East Coast of Canada.

Can you share a time when you were moved by the insight and kindness of a stranger?

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

Introducing Art Reviews, Comments, Engagement and Interaction with Art of Terrill Welch

November 6, 2013November 10, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

On Monday’s Creative Potager blog post I promise you more later about a new adventure that is happening on my recently created Facebook Page Art of Terrill Welch. Whether we title them Art Reviews, Comments, Engagement or Interaction, these writings are a fresh look at specific paintings and photographs. Now that the first Wednesday writing by Kathy Smith about SLICED WITH A TEAR

is posted and you have an example to reference, I am ready to share a little more about this project.

You may or may not realize from your frequent visits to my blog, that there are better than a handful of writers who regularly comment and share my work. When I decided to take the leap and develop a Facebook Art Page, I also took an even bigger leap and invite a few of these writers to review specific piece of my work for this new Page. Each Wednesday a writer will comment on a specific Terrill Welch painting or photograph. These writers review a specific work from the perspective of engagement and interaction with the art piece. You are most welcome to join into the discussion by leaving a few words of your own.

Now allow me to briefly introduce you to the team of writers who are joining me in November for the start of this new project (drum roll please!)

Kathy Smith is director of Kathy Smith Productions and studied at Art Center of College Design in Pasadena California. She can be reached through Facebook and her Facebook Page Lღνєs::gσσd::things With her first review comments posted today, look forward to more engagement with specific work in the future.

Charles van Heck is the former editor of the Woodhull Arts Journal. His poetry has appeared in various journals. He currently resides in Michigan where he is working on a novel. He can be reached through Facebook. Charles is writing about the SPEAK TO ME esquisse west coast Canadian landscape next Wednesday November 13, 2013.

Sandi White is an artist, writer and a University of Georgia-Athens Certified Master Gardener. Seldom when I think of Sandi do I not also think about her “Chicken Ladies.” She can be reached through Facebook. Sandi is writing about the painting Early November Sea for Wednesday November 20, 2013.

Laurie Buchanan almost needs no introduction here, nor does her tagline “Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.” Laurie is an anchor writer for Sibyl Magazine and she’s also a contributing writer for Evolving Your Spirit magazine and a contributing writer for Power of Positivity. She can be reached through Facebook and also her blog Speaking from the Heart. Laurie is writing about plein air painting From Felix Jack Road Mayne Island for Wednesday November 27, 2013.

In December, I will introduce the writers whose first Art Review comments will be posted in December 2013 and January 2014. I know, it is hard to wait but sometimes we must. No hints this time – we are just going to need to practice patience 🙂

What are you waiting for?

SLICED WITH A TEAR is one of the paintings featured at my November 9th & 10th Open Studio event.

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

Arbutus on Mt. Park – landscape oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Large autumn seascape oil painting released Today – Sliced with a Tear (terrillwelchartist.com)
Sold – End of Day with Arbutus – Contemporary Canadian Landscape Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

An interview with Terrill Welch by Charles van Heck

July 2, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

Every once in a long while someone reaches out and gently grasps your elbow to steer you over to a quiet spot where they can ask evocative questions. Such has been my experience in being interviewed by writer Charles van Heck! When someone is really listening in a deep and meaningful way I often have lots to say – so this in not a short read. However, I hope you will find it an interesting one. Enjoy!

Impression and Perspectives from Mayne Island
An Interview with Terrill Welch

at Whitman Pond Charles van Heck – Woodhull Arts Journal

Whitman Pond is the website of poet and author, Charles van Heck. Welcome to Whitman Pond, a fictional place that has had a long gestation.

I know that for those of you that regularly visit here you will enjoy discovering Charles van Heck’s website and his writings and interviews.

SPROUT: Who recently asked you such good questions that you didn’t realize until afterwards how much you had to say?

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Mayne Island Super moon on May 5 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Squared to the Sea – new painting series by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seven Tips for Buying Original Paintings (terrillwelchartist.com)

Twice Around

December 27, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Today is twice around the calendar year for Creative Potager. As part of my seasonal rest period, I have not posted for 25 days. It has been almost a month since I entertained a sprout question or gathered together my thoughts for a submission to all you wonderful creative beings. Yet, I have been thinking about Creative Potager – about its purpose and how it provides a sustaining sense of direction and community for me and maybe even for you.

The year of 2011 has seen many paintings completed and photographs captured. There have been interviews and guest post on other blogs. We have entertained special Salish Sea Saving days, home studio tours and seen publications of work in brochures, newspapers and on the glossy front page of a regional magazine Island Gals.

There has been the release of my new book Precious Seconds – Mayne Island in painting and photographs which many of you now have in your possession.

There has been the successful STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition with more than half of my original oil paintings sold and finding their way to new homes.

I have received recognition for my photography and won several website features. Paintings, books and photography and painting prints, calendars and cards have been sold to buyers around the world. The introduction of Google Plus has offered a whole new community of more than 10,000 artists, photographers and art lovers have “circled” my profile.

I have been invited by a new online Gallery ArtsyHome to show my paintings and my latest original paintings are now easily available for purchase by international buyers.

On all fronts, it has been a creatively successful fine art year for me, one where Creative Potager has been a central connection for sharing my adventures.

However, a question seems to be presenting itself without a satisfying or conclusive answer:

What is next for Creative Potager?

My Google plus has scooped up much of my Twitter community and its micro blogging with gorgeous image capacity makes separate blog posting less of a necessity and in many ways less of a hub for connecting with my much larger Google Plus community. My Facebook has always been about family and closer friends for but it is not really a place of deeper contemplation and creative connection. I link these readers to Creative Potager for this even if they reply on Facebook. Some of you are part of all of my various social platforms. Others connect only here on Creative Potager or in only one or two other networks. So there is always the risk of repeating posts for some of you and of missing out on opportunities for others. Each platform comes with its own time commitment which is starting to take away from, rather than enhance, my actual creative process. I know I must shift and change something.

What should I do?

Some ideas are taking root but nothing has grown large enough to be a distinguishable pattern of lines and shapes. So, though it is the second anniversary of our creative connection here in the blogosphere, we must be patient until such time as the flip-flopping musings inside my head settle into a discernible direction. In the meantime, I shall post more frequently in a micro blogging fashion that is dispersed across my various social networking platforms. As my readers, you can choose your favourite means of connection to engage in our conversations. It matters not really though I do like to see the comments directly on the blog post because they are more lasting here and it is easier to skip through to your own posts.

The “sprout question” will become more sparsely presented as simply “Sprout.”

I shall also add a “Seed” which is a seed for creativity, learning and discover. It is a study element that I am introducing into my upcoming year. I thought you might like to be privy to this “seed planting” as well. “Seeds” shall generally have links and will only share a snippet to entice further exploration.

Possibly, not all posts will have a “seed” or “sprout.” Some may only have a photograph, a paragraph or painting. We shall just have to wait and see. Posts will have no prescribed time of day or days of the week. By now I trust that I shall post regularly. I desire maximum flexibility to create and to connect with a spontaneity that keeps both fresh and engaging and exciting. This is built on my belief and trust that both shall happen without prescription because they do.

Intention: For me, according to the answer to my I Ching question, this is anticipated to be a year of modesty and moderation. It appears to be a time of balancing extremes and harmonizing interests and requires a modest and sincere attitude and the limiting of obvious excesses while exposing myself to new areas of experience. This is also a time of conflict, external or internal, and one of spiritual maturing. It may lead to reconsidering my original premise. My intention is to be open, curious and unattached to what I know to be true so I can explore and honour what is yet unknown to me. Oh where might this take us? It promises to be a grand adventure.

As the sun comes close to setting on 2011, thank you so much for being and continuing to be part of my creative journey.

(image may be purchased HERE)

As we shoot for the moon…

(image may be purchased HERE)

with our arms full of flowers…

(image may be purchased HERE)

Sprout: What is currently soft and undefined in your creativity?

Seed: What new might we learn about composition? Has it changed through time? Are their histories of creativity that have handled composition with different views? These are the questions I am musing about as I begin my next painting. Let’s start with a good grounding in the basics of composition that are available on wikipedia.

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Life and the Bounty Hunter (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Studio Tour Tomorrow (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Third Thursday Teaser (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

I made the cover

October 28, 2011October 28, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 35 Comments

I made the cover! It isn’t the cover of the Rolling Stones but it is a glossy cover of a new regional magazine called ISLAND GALS reaching Vancouver Island and the smaller Gulf Islands. This includes British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria. Actually, my oil painting HENDERSON HILL made the cover and I made honourable mention in the top left hand corner. But it does make this artist’s heart beat like a ruffled grouse on a log to have her painting chosen as the magazine cover and to be featured under the title “create.”

Isn’t this exciting?

One of my goals for 2011 and 2012 is to expand my exposure beyond my immediate long-standing network. This is a necessary step for a successful art career. It is one of the reasons that artists have benefited from exposure through traditional galleries. But things are changing quickly between the buyer and artist relationship. Buyers seeking original art work have a keen desire to know and interact with the artist whose work they are collecting. They are and want to be part of the story about the work that is on their walls. It could be a place they visited. It could be one of the paintings they watched being developed. It could be that the painting reminds them of something that is significant in their experiences. Or it could be all of the above. The bottom line is collectors want direct contact with the artist. For artists this means moving beyond the traditional buyer to gallery to artist circuit.

I know I don’t need to convince you dear readers as you know this already. But from the business side of being an artist I must be clear with myself. I must purposefully take steps to ensure there is an expanding opportunity for my work to be seen and for buyers to connect directly with me. Creative Potager and other social networking platforms provide these opportunities on a global scale. However, being featured on the glossy cover of a magazine is just plain old-fashion, satisfying goodness.

NOTE: The 20 X 16 inch original oil painting of HENDERSON HILL is still available for $900.00 and can be purchased by contacting me directly via email at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca and I have a copy of the magazine to go with it 🙂

Best of the weekend to you and watch out for monsters and low flying witches but be sure to get out and kick some leaves!

Sprout Question: In your wildest dreams what magazine cover would you like to be on?

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Five new plein air oil paintings by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

The everyday with photographer Jeff Stroud

October 11, 2011October 11, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 34 Comments

Photographer Jeff Stroud has been a regular reader and engaging participant from the beginning here on Creative Potager. In fact, our connection goes back to an earlier community where Jeff introduced me to his online storefront at redbubble. I trust that you shall enjoy this feature interview with Jeff and the opportunity to get to know him better.

Jeff Stroud’s photography is one of common everyday nature, places we walk, places we drive by, our garden, our local park, and our neighbor’s front lawn. Yet there is nothing common about Jeff’s photography itself which is imbued with a sense of nature’s essences in all its purest forms.

Eight years ago after attending a Shamanic workshop and the practice of Reiki, a nature-based healing process, Jeff picked up a camera and has followed his bliss ever since. His approach to photography is one of gentle reverence, beauty, and honoring of nature as a life force. The purpose of Jeff’s nature photography is to share the beauty that is all around us – the beauty and life of trees, flowers, water, and sky.

(image may be purchased Here)

It is with great pleasure I bring you my interview with Jeff and a few images from this talented photographer.

What is the one thing that you would like readers to leave with after reading your interview?

What I would like readers to leave with is a deeper sense of what creativity can be for us in our lives.

What is your best kept secret (s) of creative success?

I don’t think it is a secret, but creative success is just allowing ourselves to be creative. Creative with our everyday lives. I create publicly with the exhibits of photography that I have the honor of being able to pursue.

What is your first creative memory?

Drawing, when I was a child I drew.

Where or when do feel most inspired?

I feel most inspired in nature, yet I can be and will be inspired when I get out of my head and come from my heart or spirit.

(image may be purchased Here)

Who are your creative mentors?

You! Terrill, you inspire me by your constancy in your expression of your art, and your ability to promote through your blog and other sources that are always stimulating. Also, Neale Donald Walsch, who has used words in the form of a book to create change in our world. This has given me a whole new perspective on the way I approach life and living. I am just discovering photographers and artist, and their influence has begun to express itself in my work. I hope.

Geesh thanks Jeff! It appears we are mutual fans of each other’s work.

What are you celebrating today?

I am celebrating today, right now, this moment!

If we could assist you with one thing this week that would make a difference in promoting your creative work – what would it be?

Follow my blog, join my redbubble site.
What is next?

I am hoping to get another First Friday exhibit which will be in a gallery in Old City Philadelphia. I have two pieces into the Philadelphia Photographic Society’s 149th year members’ exhibit, which is held at the historic Plastic Club in Philadelphia. I will also have at least 5 pieces in Deptford NJ Galleria exhibit in December 2011.

How are you going to get there?

By producing the best work/art I can. By being part of the art community, attending gallery openings and meeting other artists.

Tell us – what headline will we be reading in the New York Times about you five years from now?

If it is the New York Times, I must be true! Ha! That Photographer Jeff Stroud has a month long exhibit in such-and-such gallery. Jeff’s photography captures moments in nature and in everyday life as if it is blessed with spirit, and from the photographs we have seen he does just that.

Who and what would you like to give thanks?

I am grateful to you for hearing my call, for asking me to do this interview. I am greatly honored. I am grateful to my muse Nature spirit who allows me to “make” photographs that express the beauty even in the dying!

(image may be purchased Here)

Jeff’s Sprout Question: How do YOU feel about promoting your art?

Ah, you offer us a good tough question Jeff. Thank you Jeff for allowing Creative Potager to shine a light on you and your photographer. I wish you a much success in the future.

Dear readers speaking of promoting my art work, this coming Sunday October 16^th from 3:00 – 4:00 pm P.D.T. is the second of three Salish Sea Sunday Savings events here at Creative Potager. A special post announcing a draw for those who subscribe and spread the word will go up on Thursday October 16, 2011.

Our regular Creative Potager blog will be posted on Friday.

Best of the week everyone and I look forward to having you drop by.

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

First Thursday Teaser (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
First Salish Sea Sunday Savings (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Moon path and other wonders

September 9, 2011September 9, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

I am awake early for no other reason than the moon has finally gone to bed. She shines in the big windows keeping me company on her passage across the sky. For some reason when she is near full, glowing brightly for hours and then slips over the hill leaving the room in pre-dawn darkness, I wake.

It is Friday, September 9th and my interview with Fiona Robyn of “Writing Our Way Home” in Malvern Worcestershire is up. You may want to stay awhile and browse through other posts as well. Take your time and enjoy. A special thank you to our very own Daisy A. Hickman from Sunny Room Studio for referring Fiona to me.

Now, getting back to wonders and mysteries the of nature, what about this moment I captured earlier in the week?

Can you guess the mystery?

Maybe this photograph taken the night before will help…

Yes, the first image is a reflection that I have turned right-side up.

The Pacific Ocean in a small bay on the Strait of Georgia was unusually calm.

It is not something we get to see very often.

Sprout question: What natural wonders are you noticing?

Oh! I promised to tell you about my fall Creative Potager intentions. Posts shall be Monday and Friday except on holidays. Plus, for the first three weeks of October I will be hosting Salish Sea Sunday Studio Savings. This will be a special Sunday post at 3:00 pm PST which will include redbubble photographic print specials on featured images, and an original painting either reduced or by auction (I still have to see what it takes to set up an account on eBay so this may or may not work). The event with savings will only last for one hour. Yes, one hour only for three Sundays in a row. What do you think? Does it sound like fun?

Best of the weekend everyone!

New: coffee table book PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs.

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Interview with Terrill Welch by Bill Maylone (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Five new plein air oil paintings by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Art Opening

July 11, 2011July 15, 2021 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

The large canvases are wrapped in sheets and plastic and stacked with even larger pieces of cardboard lying in between. We ceremonially carry each painting and place them into the back of my rather tired old ford pick up. The plywood dry box is already carefully stuffed with smaller canvas oil paintings. Now ready to drive the short distance to the exhibition venue I realize Miss Prissy’s cargo is worth many times more than she. But as usual, she doesn’t seem to mind. I am sure there isn’t a snobbish piece of metal in her paint-chipped body. Tomorrow, STUDY of BLUE will open.

The Oceanwood Restaurant and Inn has done a fantastic job of creating gallery space.

We take our time, deciding on the best location for each piece of work.

The next evening, with toes sparkling new polish, finger nails buffed and decked out in a very fun balloon dress I open the show.

I handed my camera to my daughter Josie who did her best to capture the evening. However, she said people kept looking like deer in the headlights so she stopped taking photos after a while.

We do have a few though.

The food was extra delicious, delicately flavoured and served with elegance.

And there is nothing quite like seeing a painting through a grand piano.

Somewhere between 40 and 50 art-loving individuals wandered around looking at each painting. Stepping forward. Then back. Then on occasion bringing a friend over to have a look as well. Sometimes eyes would snap with excitement and an intrigued viewer would say: “That one! That one is my favourite.”

My favourite comment of the evening was from a long-time resident who came by near the end of the evening to thank me for putting on the exhibition.

“It is good, very good. We now have culture right here on Mayne Island.”

I don’t think there was ever any doubt but it was a pleasure to be a spark for such sentiments. I would like to thank the Oceanwood Restaurant and Inn because they are ultimately responsible for orchestrating such a classy event which then garnered this comment.

At the end of the evening FIR TREE SKY sold to a lovely couple from Michigan, bringing the total sales so far for this exhibition to four original oil paintings. Considering our economic climate, I am pleased with these early results.

What is next? I have an offer to show at a venue on Salt Spring Island. I have an invitation to hang a piece or two in another local venue. There is a restaurant in Vancouver that is accepting original art work. I have also been asked to provide a cover image and feature interview for a regional magazine’s September issue. But I am wondering, is it time to seek gallery representation? If so, where might be a good place to start? Or do I put my focus into building my direct relationships with buyers? Or is it both? Possibly both but I am still thinking. While I think I shall paint.

Thank you for your special part in the STUDY of BLUE journey with me here on Creative Potager, and on twitter and facebook.

Sprout question: What is creatively next for you?

STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition is up until July 27, 2011.

Note: Current paintings available can be viewed and purchased at TerrillWelchArtist.com

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Interview with Terrill Welch by Bill Maylone

June 27, 2011June 27, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

It is not the cover of the Rolling Stones but for Mayne Island it is the next best thing. It is the kind of coverage that a person casually hands a copy over to family with a smile and a shrug. I figure blog friends are a close second to family when it comes to being supportive. So with a quiet, lopsided grin… following is an interview by Bill Maylone for our local monthly magazine – the MayneLiner. Plus, my oil painting “Henderson Hill” made the cover.

Bill knows art and is an excellent writer so I was thrilled when he asked to come by and see the paintings for the STUDY of BLUE solo exhibition and to interview me for an article. Enjoy!

TCAC (Trincomali Community Arts Council)

Art On Mayne by Bill Maylone

Terrill Welch, who is active in the Trincomali Community Council and other Mayne Islandgroups, is an accomplished painter, photographer and writer. She has sold paintings to patrons as far away as New York and Switzerland. Her method of working and her finished work intimately reflects her relationship to her subjects. Terrill moved to Mayne Island with her partner, David Colussi, in May 2007. “I need to have access to a natural world and to have a relationship with the environment”. Looking down from her back deck, in a view framed by large Douglas fir trees, eagles fly in wide spirals above Meadowmist Farm. Its fields and meadows are dotted with sheep and deer, and beyond Heck Hill across the valley, a distant squall sweeps across Navy Channel. Here, and in her exploration of the Southern Gulf Islands, she finds the inspiration and the subject matter for her work as an artist.

She always carries a camera when she’s exploring the Islands. “Digital photography really changed the way I go about painting. It was never practical to take a lot of photos of a subject for reference because of the cost and time and inconvenience of chemical photography. So I’d draw a lot of sketches at a location to try to capture the essence of a place or a subject to help me remember what it was like and what I saw. Reference photos are useful, but you need to take a lot of them. I’ve taken up to 120 for one painting. Each one gives you a different angle on the subject, but no single one captures what I try to express through the painting that ultimately ends up on the canvas.”

She begins a painting by exuberantly spreading a thin layer of blue, cadmium yellow or orange paint across a canvas or hardboard surface. One advantage she finds in using oils is that they dry slowly, allowing her lots of time to play with the paint and gradually work recognizable shapes out of the suggestive abstract forms on the surface. The technique, known as underpainting, creates a foundation on which other layers of paint are built upon. It also sets up a basic emotional tone through the use of colour.

The painting process is an active and physical one for Terrill, and it relates to how she perceives her subjects. “I like to work standing up because it lets me dance around the painting and look at it from a variety of perspectives. When you visit a place, you don’t see it from just one angle; every time you take a step or move your head, new parts are revealed to you. The place itself is active, too: the waves and clouds are always changing. The wind moves the leaves. The light is different each moment.”

She works the whole canvas at once, which tends to give her pieces a strong sense of unity. She explains, “I don’t worry about trying to get some detail just right. It’s bringing along the entire painting as a whole that’s important.” What emerges is not intended to be a photorealistic image, but an impressionistic and emotional picture of not only what she sees, but of what she feels about the subject. “The painting I create reveals my relationship to a place.”

Her solo exhibition titled, “Study of Blue”, a collection of new and recent paintings, opens at the Oceanwood Resort at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 30th, and it runs until July 27th.
Why blue? “It’s a personal thing. There’s something deeply emotional to me about blue. It’s a visceral experience that I want to share with others.”….

Note: This article was published in the MayneLiner Magazine Volume 21 – Number 6, June 2011 on page 51. It has been posted here with permission.

Sprout question: If you could be interviewed by anyone, who would it be and why?

STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition opens Thursday June 30, 2011.

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.

FromMayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

An invitation to buy a painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Port of call – Mayne Island (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
The nuts and bolts of buying an original painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Meet Street Photographer Vivian Maier

January 31, 2011January 31, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

First, my intention for this week is to brush my way into an oil painting using one of my charcoal figure sketches as a guide. It will be difficult as I have only the one sketch to work with and I have a particular setting in mind that has been inspired from a passage from The Underpainter (1997) by Jane Urquhart. Regrettably, I am reluctant to share more than this with you at the moment. It is an image that is perfectly clear in my mind’s eye with shifting tones and composition every time the painting whispers for me to begin the process to stillness on canvas. I will honour last week’s principle of waiting to be invited… but act immediately when asked. This way, with luck, the image won’t slip away like mist in the afternoon sun.

Now, allow me to introduce the most extraordinary Street Photographer Vivian Maier with the most unusual passage into notoriety. Her work was discovered in 2007 by a 26 year old, real estate agent/entrepreneur/historian – John Maloof – after he purchased a box of her negatives at an auction for $400. According to this brief excerpt about Vivian Maier in Wikipedia:

In 1951, at 25 years old, Vivian Maier moved from France to New York, where she worked for some time in a sweatshop. She made her way to the Chicago area’s North Shore in 1956 and became a nanny on and off for about 40 years, staying with one family for 14 of them. She was, in the accounts of the families for whom she worked, very private, spending her days off walking the streets of Chicago and taking photographs, most often with a Rolleiflex camera.

John Maloof, curator of Maier’s collection of photographs, summarizes the way the children she nannied would later describe her:

She was a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. She wore a men’s jacket, men’s shoes and a large hat most of the time. She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone.

Between 1959 and 1960, Maier traveled to Los Angeles, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, Egypt, Italy, and the American Southwest, taking pictures in each location. The trip was probably financed by the sale of a family farm in Alsace. For a brief period in the 1970s, Maier worked as a nanny for Phil Donahue’s children. As she got older, she collected more boxes of belongings, bringing them with her to each new post. At one employer’s house she stored 200 boxes of materials. Most were photographs or negatives, but Maier collected other objects, such as newspapers,and sometimes recorded audiotapes of conversations she had with the people she photographed.

Towards the end of her life, Maier may have been homeless for some time. She lived on Social Security checks and may have had another source of income, but the children she had taken care of in the early 1950s bought her an apartment and paid her bills. In 2008, she slipped on ice and hit her head. She did not fully recover and died in 2009 at the age of 83.

This video provides an excellent overview…

Also, here are the Vivian Maier blog and the Vivian Maier Photography website. I am trusting that you may be as intrigued and inspired by her work as I am. Enjoy!

A new photograph “Tomorrow’s Dawn” seems like the most fitting image to share this Monday.