In the Canada thistle patch

September 8, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Purple blooms that turn into fluff heads.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Thickly standing tall their prickly presence daring you to come close.

Blowing in the wind

View and purchase full resolution image here.

The Canada thistle is beautiful and it has a specific purpose in creating healthy soil by being one of the first plants to grow and creating nutrients for others to follow. Here is an article “Bye bye Canada Thistle” that tells the story.

Sprout Question: What have you creatively reclaimed, recognizing its inherent beauty and purpose?

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

Catching Fall

September 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

Even though it is a holiday Monday here in Canada and in the U.S.A., I am ready to resume my Monday to Friday posting schedule with more frequent and shorter posts. Today it is raining. The soft soaking kind of calm that leaves us reaching for our book and putting on a pot of homemade soup. Yesterday, the sun was out but the shade cool as we saw the beginning of the leaves falling.

Warm browns traced the edges of summer.

View full resolution and purchase catching fall here.

This week I will post images about catching fall as it sashays through on every breeze.

Sprout Question: Where is your focus right now?

P.S. The opening of Sea, Land and Time was a wonderful success with two large prints and one medium print selling along with cards and calendars. Plus, I had an offer to have my cards and calendars in a local décor store and possibly photograph prints as well. We shall see. Of course, two oil paintings had sold as part of the presales for the show. The best part is that we all had a great time. Family, friends and colleagues came from away. New friends, colleagues and acquaintances from Mayne Island came by and several helped with the opening. It was fabulous! Wish you could have been there.

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

Bring your cheque book

August 29, 2010August 29, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

There is something I forgot to tell you about my solo art exhibition, Sea, Land and Time, opening this coming Friday, September 3, 2010 at 7:00 pm. Bring your cheque book or cash. There are a few smaller pieces, such as cards and calendars and small photographs printed on canvas, but some of the larger oil paintings are over a thousand dollars. I personally recommend you bring your cheque book. I do not accept credit cards and I wouldn’t want you to leave disappointed.

I have heard from many of you and I am extremely excited to see your smiling face. It is a busy long weekend on Mayne Island so you will want to secure your sleeping arrangements in advance. Hum, that does sound like an interesting proposition doesn’t it?

Here are a few of links that you may find useful in your planning.

BC Ferries http://www.bcferries.com (read the ferry schedule carefully it is the most complicated schedule in the world changing with each day)

Mayne Island Accommodations http://www.mayneisland.com/accommodation/index.htm

Specific information about SEA, LAND AND TIME https://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/sea-land-and-time

Just to let you know, two oil paintings have already sold during the publicity for this show. Come early for the best selection.

If you are not able make it, leave a sprout anyway and wish me happy birthday. I always love to hear from you. Yes it is my birthday today or rather that would be yesterday in blogging time 🙂

Sprout Question: What sprout question are you asking yourself today?

P. S. I am away all day Tuesday. The next post will be on Thursday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography .

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

Only the SEA

August 19, 2010January 9, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 39 Comments

View full resolution and purchase print of painting here.

The original has been sold to Annie Q Syed and now hangs in a sun-filled apartment in New York City. To learn more go to Annie’s post “The Soul of the Sea.”

It’s me. It’s me. The sea, it’s me, it’s me.

Calling, calling, calling.

Winds blow clarity into my being, while the sea continues to call. Every ounce of my earthly body is drawn forward… heaven-ward. I remind myself – it is only the sea.

This wee painting of a mere 8X8 inches on gessobord mounted on a 2 inch birch cradle has only one image… the final image. The painting spilled onto the surface like a wave coming to shore. No effort really. A simple whuuwwwwiiisssshhh! There it was. Well, actually hours had passed but I didn’t notice. I didn’t stop. I painted. I remembered to breathe. That was all.

Sprout Question: What will mesmerize you?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and a post announcing my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

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

Big Fat Red Champion

August 17, 2010August 17, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I have been painting but that is not what I want to show you this morning. Remember back in April when I showed you the new garden bed I was digging? There is a big fat red champion in that garden I would like you to meet.

We already ate his bigger cousin sliced thick with fresh basil, sea salt and hand ground black pepper on homemade oat and honey bread. Soooo good! But this fellow is a good size as well. Let’s get a bit of a closer look.

Yep looks and feels delicious.

Our recent warm spell has started these tomatoes ripening on the vine. They are only two weeks behind those grown in local organic greenhouses. We have those huge fir trees all around us and this is the most sun I could find in the yard within the deer fence. So I decided to give it a try. I’m impressed because the sun doesn’t reach the plot until 10:00 am and it is in the shade again by 4:00 pm.

Look at that – a full 3.5 inches across. The small tag in the ground tells me these are Champion Tomatoes. I have four kinds of tomatoes growing. There are these big guys, a patio tomato and two kinds of tomatoes that volunteered from the compost I put down.

We are also eating baby carrots and green beans. The lettuce greens and peas are about finished and I have lots to dill for salads. However, it is these large plump tomatoes that really make me smile. This fall I will double the size of this garden bed for next year.

Delightful and supportive Leah Piken Kolidas is hosting the theme of FIRE for the month of August at Creative Everyday. I think these large plump red tomatoes qualify.

History tip: Did you know that in the early 1930s Japanese farmers of Active Pass Growers Association had eight acres of tomatoes under glass and produced 50 tons of tomatoes a year for the city of Vancouver B.C.? Source – Mayne Island & The Outer Gulf Islands A History by Marie Elliott.

Sprout Question: What creative gifts has the heat of summer warmed for you?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and a post announcing my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

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

Good Luck Creativity

January 26, 2010January 18, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

View image and purchase of “Arbutus in the Fog” here.

My partner of many years (and the lovely man who has recently become my husband – December 10, 2009) and I have a banter that goes something like this…

I ask with raised eyebrows and a tone of dismay “how did you ever end up with a wild and crazy woman like me?”

With his eyes snapping, he responds “just lucky I guess.”

The truth is my wildness is not of the usual kind – having mostly to do with my vivid imagination and free spirit. And his “good luck” has mostly to do with acting on his preparedness when the opportunity presented itself. But we shall not be entertaining you with our love story today.

What I want to talk about is good luck and creativity. Some time ago, I read Deepak Chopra’s definition of “good luck” in The Seven Spiritual laws of Success (1994). Every since reading his description, it has embodied much of my perceptual understanding about what constitutes good luck. His exact passage reads:

You can look at every problem you have in your life as an opportunity for some greater benefit. You can stay alert to opportunities by being grounded in the wisdom of uncertainty. When your preparedness meets opportunity, the solution will spontaneously appear. What comes out of that is often called “good luck.” Good luck is nothing but preparedness and opportunity coming together.

So there you have it. Now what does this mean when it comes to our creativity? If we are writing, drawing, painting, taking photographs and enhancing our skills daily we are more likely to be prepared when the opportunity arises. When we have “good luck” by this definition we are overjoyed by the unexpected success that befalls us. This is certainly the case with these two images (one above and one below) that I share with you today. In each of these photos the exact coming together of the elements in the images are not likely to repeat themselves readily. In both cases I was prepared. I had my camera with me on my daily walk. I was watching, searching the beauty and the mundane around me. Then as if by magic the image was there – waiting for me, inviting me to capture it.