My morning with an elegant Blue Heron

May 2, 2015May 12, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

This morning #‎NatureIsCalling me earlier than usual. I packed my plein air painting gear, made coffee and headed out. I stopped at the bakery and grabbed an egg sandwich and sweet. But as I walk to the beach I glanced at my basket of painting supplies and sighed. I had everything but a surface to paint on. Rather dejectedly I turned around and took the basket back to the car and returned with only my camera, coffee and breakfast. So here I sit in the warm morning sun. The blackbirds made themselves known in the willows. A west coast reddish mink scurried across the sandstone bank towards the water. Clams spouted near the rocks revealed in the low tide. While a north-westerly wind rippled through the leaves of a rare patch of poplar trees behind me – I sat. I listened. I took in the scent of salt and seaweed. I watched the crows feeding on small morsels and the gulls circle on the farthest outcrop from shore.

“I guess I am not going to paint this morning” I mumble with noticeable deflated slouch.

“I guess I take photographs of that Blue Heron fishing and finish my own breakfast.”

An Elegant Blue Heron fishing Reef Bay Mayne Island

Blue Heron seriously looking for breakfast…

rushing it out off sea floor in the shallows.

An hour later, I am ready to head for home having visited with an elegant Blue Heron and soaked up the morning sun and no longer feeling grumpy about forgetting my gessobord for painting.

Who in nature has graced your morning this fine day?

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

Art and Landscape connecting one brushstroke at a time

January 11, 2015January 11, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

Some days simply overflowing with humble gratitude. An unexpected belly laugh from your partner, child or a friend. The dampness of morning air on your cheek. Maybe it is the sounds of the tree frogs nearby that does it for you? Or an eagle hanging on a branch with a robust sea coming to shore?

What are those everyday experiences that remind you of your humanness and connection to nature?

Today my Art of Terrill Welch Facebook Page has 837 followers or “Likes.” Just so you know, when it reaches 1,000 I am going to auction off an 8 x 10 inch landscape painting sketch. It will be a new adventure for me though I have seen it done many times before. The bidding is done in the comments on the post and there is a small reserved bid to start. In order to comment one must have “Liked” the page. Do be careful though as it is easy to “unlike” a page you have already liked by accident

P.s. This is a snippet from WEST COAST EARLY EVENING WINTER SEA 16 x 20 inch which will be unveiled at my solo exhibition “West Coast Landscape as Home” April 3, 2015 at Camassia Café on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. If you are considering traveling to come to this opening, now is the time to make plans as it is the Saturday of Easter Weekend.

All the best of a fine Sunday 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

Mayne Island Christmas Arbutus Tree Visit

December 25, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

I have a large wonderful family. At the same time, Christmas day is often about taking a long walk and visiting with the arbutus trees. Like my family, they are quirky, intelligent, talented, fun and precious to me. Early in January and the first part of February I expect to be focusing my attention, canvas and brushes on these beauty. So today I set about doing a few photography sketches.

Notice how they have found enough support to secure themselves over the bare sandstone rocks.

In this soft warm south exposure winter sunlight my eyes scale their length.

I walk along the ridges on the backs of the large stone surfaces marveling at how they have made space for each other.

The leaning and reaching for the sun is so pronounced in the character of an arbutus tree grove.

I sense that these beautiful trees understand belonging in a most comfortable and companionable way.

These are my Christmas Trees, naturally decorated and lightly lit with sunshine.

What is putting a glow on your Christmas Day?

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

When the Creative Mind Creates a New Opportunity

November 12, 2014November 12, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 1 Comment

Sometimes Terrill Welch’s enthusiastic creativity is so incomprehensible that it creates a new opportunity. This is one of those times.

Terrill Welch

20% savings on all original Terrill Welch paintings until Friday, November 14th midnight Pacific Time of 2014.

Go to Terrill’s online Artsy Home Gallery HERE

Click on the “Make an Offer” button located on the top right under the price for the painting you want.

Put in the code 20%savings

This will send an email to Terrill and she will adjust the price and assist you with delivery and purchase arrangements.

Sometimes Terrill Welch’s enthusiastic creativity is so incomprehensible that it creates a new opportunity. This is one of those times. During the Nov 8th & 9th online and in-person Open Studio event Terrill learned that her numbers game was so creative and unclear that no one understood what she was talking about. Since this was not her intention. This time she is keeping it straightforward.

There is a new opportunity of 20% savings on original paintings in her Artsy…

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Bennett Bay Silver and Gold on Mayne Island

November 1, 2014November 1, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

It has been too long since I have taken you on Mayne Island walk with me hasn’t it? All this traveling about and painting trips has left little room for posting any part of these daily adventures. But there was a break in the heavy rain late in the afternoon yesterday. So I thought you might like to pull on your rubber boots and meander along with us for a short while.

I never seem to tire of photographing this scene. You may remember one from last year with the sun coming through the fog.

This image is in my latest MAYNE ISLAND TIME 2015 Calendar for the month of March. The calendar is also offered as part of the Mayne Island Virtual Travel Package that will be available for online Art Collectors as an appreciation for those that purchase an original painting 12 inches or more on all sides during the Open Studio event November 8th and 9th of 2014. There will be three appreciation packages. Two for online visitors and one for in-person studio visitors. I will be posting more of the details for this event on Tuesday this week. So please do keep an eye out for the post. I am pretty excited about getting this double online and in-person event put together for you. Getting everything ready is a lot of work but so worth it! But let’s get back to our walk.

Today, the mystery of fog has vanished but the last of the heavy rain is still dripping through the trees and sloshing under our feet.

The sea turns silver copper in its reflect while we walk the shore. It is a good day, this day with the brilliance of natures display.

Now it is tomorrow and we watch and wait again to see what is on offer. I am hoping for sun or at least bright skies around midday so I can do the final photograph for THE OLIVE TREE painting. But we shall have to wait and see.

May your weekend allow for a long walk in a place that feeds your well-being.

Where do you find your silver and gold in nature?

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

ONLINE GALLERIES include –

Artsy Home for most original oil paintings currently available

Redbubble for most photography prints

A More Contemplative Year Ahead

January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

My best guess is that I shall paint fewer paintings in 2014 and release more photographs and painting sketches. This will be partly due to three months traveling and living in Europe. We plan to leave sometime near the beginning of April. The tickets will likely be purchased by the end of the week.

The 2013 year was a good solid success for my paintings but I want to go deeper into the learning curve of how my specific historical experience impacts my work. I want to go deeper into how I can paint the spaces in between light and shadow. I want to find ways to bring you, the viewer, farther into my work until you can clearly formulate the poetry of landscape. I want us to know and understand our embeddedness in our natural environment. Human life, as we know it, may depend on strengthening that one relationship. I suspect that my trip to Europe and its museums and countryside combined with my camera and brushes is going to help me find answers to these searches.

Oh, there will always be new work to release in my Artsy Home online gallery, such as the two new paintings entered over the weekend. But I find it is not really important but rather a task similar to organizing the books on the bookshelf for a research project.

What is important then?

There is quote attributed to Buddha that I saw this morning which seems most succinct:

In the end only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

My only commitment today is a long walk. With the heavy rains water is rushing to the sea.

Quite possibly it is a stone in a stream that will hold most of my attention today.

This , and a few of the lines from the Mary Oliver “Morning Poem”

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere.

And if your spirit carries within it

the thorn

that is heavier than lead –

if it’s all you can do

to keep on trudging –

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted –

reference; p. 106/7 of New And Selected Poems volume one (1992) by Mary Oliver

What are your focus and intentions for the year ahead?

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

Sunrise to Sunset Traveling the British Columbia West Coast Water Highway

January 6, 2014January 24, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

The Government of British Columbia and its fine west coast island citizens are in agreement that something has to change to sustain one of the most beautiful water highway systems in world. There is not agreement on how this system must change however. User fees are going up and usage is going down. With the expected total tariff revenue shortfall of about $40M by the of March 2016, there are proposed service cuts and tweaking of schedules which may save money but will likely not lead to increased traffic. Several factors have led to this grim situation including a lengthy downturn in the economy, fares overreaching the balance point of cost to value in the traveler’s wallet and the government requiring that each route be self-sustaining while separating these ferry served waterways from the highway transportation system and its funding support. It is not a pretty picture. If this situation is not resolved The Local Ferry Committee concludes that “the final result will be the continued strangulation of island and coastal communities, the effects of which are already evident.” (Ferry Facts – MayneLiner Volume 24, Number 1, January 2014)

There seems to be only one way to really give you a good idea what this means and that is to take you with me on a trip from Mill Bay on Vancouver Island to Miners Bay on Mayne Island in January.

The Mill Bay sunrise with Mount Baker in the background is pleasant.

from under the arbutus tree on the Brentwood College campus where I am visiting the “O” family.

Boats rest quietly in the marina next door as another amazing day begins.

I don’t have to leave until midday so we go off for a morning hike returning in time for a quick lunch before I head out. Mayne Island is only about 35 km directly across the water but I will drive an hour over the Malahat highway and up the Saanich Peninsula to the Swartz Bay terminal to catch the 2:15 pm going to Saturna Island and then Mayne Island arriving about 4:10 pm. I allow three and a half hours for travel time. On a day like today this is a pleasure…

Ferry traffic can be spotted regularly as we set out from Swartz Bay.

After passing island after island views, we approach Saturna Island almost an hour later and Mount Baker is still grandstanding on the horizon.

Quality prints available HERE.

The sun is getting low in the sky when our small Mayne Queen ferry retraces its passage back between North Pender Island and Mayne Island.

The Queen of Nanaimo ferry is finding its way from Saltspring Island and Galiano Island gives a looming welcome on the right.

I turn and look back towards Swartz Bay knowing that one of the large ferries taking passengers across the Strait of Georgia will likely be visible.

I wasn’t disappointed.

We dock about five minutes late and I meander home, waving at neighbour and friend Leanne Dyck from The Sweater Curse blog who is out for a walk as I go.

My sweet husband has a few groceries he wants to pick up before we go out for dinner. We unload everything but my camera and head immediately for Miners bay. There is only a slight orange glow left in the sky as we pull up and part on the street facing the Miners Bay Trading Post.

What can I say? It is good to be home. It is good to have ferry service and not have to hitch-hike on a passing tug boat, freighter, sea plane or sail boat. Yet, I wonder if it might come to that again in the maybe not so distant future. If it did, we would remember these days of 3.5 hour assured travel to go a distance of 35 km fondly. But would we move? Would we leave our island home with its water highway for the paved highways of the mainland?

Would you still think about coming to visit me if there was no ferry service?

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

Storm Watching and its progress on a large canvas

December 9, 2013March 21, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

At 10:00 am today the morning light was not strong enough to work without the studio lamp. It is heavily overcast and last I checked there is a wee bit of snow expected. However, I was able to put the finishing brushstrokes on this large 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas painting this morning. It may be weeks before I can get a decent photograph of it so we will take a look now at the shiny-wet resting point of STORM WATCHING.

We may think that this painting began with this quick painting sketch on the canvas.

But we would be wrong. It all started on Friday December 6, 2013 at about this same time of day when the power went out. I was surprised as there was little wind at la casa de inspiracion. But then the email notifications started coming in with Ferry boat cancellation and they were for the Inside Passage which is not common at all. So I knew then that there had to be wind somewhere and took a guess that it was on the east side of the island.

Sure enough it was blowing a bit out there. But this isn’t the spot we need to be. We have to walk out to Campbell Point in the Gulf Island Park Reserve because the waves are break on the rocks in a big way. Let’s go and have a look. Dress warm and still expect to the wind to go right into a person’s bones and starts sawing away with an ice-cube.

Scrambling out onto a rock ledge the wind whips my big lens and me around with the same ferociousness as the sea. But I am determined. I hunker down low and steady myself against the roar. WILD SEAS WITH MOUNT BAKER IN THE DISTANCE

(Detailed view and quality prints available HERE.) There was no chance of using a tripod in these conditions. It was all up to my stabilizers and years of practice of framing and shooting waves. There wasn’t much time because I would get to cold to be able to work the camera and it was no place to be getting stiff and wobbly when I stood back up from where I was crouching. So steady does it. FULL STOP

(Detailed view and quality prints available HERE.) BREAKING OVER TWICE

(Detailed view and quality prints available HERE.) Sunday as in yesterday I pulled out the large canvas and placed it on the easel. I wanted the immediacy of this moment while it was still fresh to me on a cellular level.

The continuous motion of the winds and the sea stir sea-spray high up onto the cliffs above. I want that. I want that feeling of stirring and motion. I decided no underpainting so that spray would have the advantage of the white underneath. I had noticed the spray shadow in one of my reference images and took advantage of this to create additional depth. I worked on getting the painting down with as few brushstrokes as possible.

I want us to be slightly queasy from it as we are swayed in the waters and crash against the rocks within our viewing of this painting.

At the core there is a knowing and a thimble-size of silence which makes it bearable. This too shall pass. This is the stage that the painting rested overnight. This is where I started earlier this morning and finished at the first photograph which will not be its final of course. For this we must wait for better light.

UPDATE OCTOBER 13, 2014: Link to detailed viewing of the completed painting with purchase information and a link a short (less than six minutes) video where I talk about this painting can be found on the Terrill Welch Artist website HERE.

In conclusion, my Monday morning blessing is patience, admiration and determination. If we are willing to try we can most often do more than we believe we can. A large wave from a large canvas as you forge through the week ahead.

What are you determined to accomplish this week even if the winds of doubt are fierce?

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

Farm In Fog – pastoral landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seaside Mayne Island – Large Canadian Landscape Oil Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Chasing October Sun by the Sea – an en plein air oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Sunshine and Rainbows in Pink Skies

December 2, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

We could focus on the larger threats to our coastline such as the potential for earthquakes, rising sea levels from global warming or oil spills from large tankers or the imminent risks of a task of extraordinary delicacy and danger that is about to begin at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station. These are all real threats and possibly inevitable outcomes – at some point. I don’t ignore them. We do keep in mind what we need for emergency preparedness in case of an earthquake. I do sign petition, share information and swear sometimes about oil and gas tanker traffic and global warming risks to our coastline, and I worry about the extraction of the fuel rods and contaminated water storage at Fukushima nuclear power station. But once I have done what I can do, then it is time to get on with my day because there are a whole host of other possibilities that could give rise to it being my last. We just never know do we? I am practicing the lesson from many elders of opening my eyes and giving thanks that I am alive and well. It is a good practice – one that serves us in both easy and hard times.

This then, in a wee patch of west coast winter sunshine and in remembrance of yesterday’s rainbow , is my Monday morning blessing to you and to me.

I give praise for this life, thanks for this body world, and remember our great universe of love. With compassion, we start another day in our week, our month and our year.

Now I am off to see if I can make a painting out of this.

(Quality prints available HERE.)

What Monday morning blessing might you give for 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

Journey to the heart of Fukushima (edition.cnn.com)
Nuclear Insanity from Global Warming Scientists (southweb.org)
Seaside Mayne Island – Large Canadian Landscape Oil Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Chasing October Sun by the Sea – an en plein air oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Pitcher Apples Pears still life painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Chasing the October Sun and Monday morning blessings

October 7, 2013January 6, 2018 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Heavy rain soaked the island during the night but now shafts of sunlight push between the branches of the large fir trees outside my studio window. I continue my Monday morning blessings practices with a sense of awe and wonder.

There are the most essential and practical blessings of warm dry shelter with ample light, nutritious food, refrigeration, running potable cold and hot water, These are such luxuries of abundance we can take them for granted but I don’t. I notice. I notice almost everyday.

There are the blessings of a loving family and the company of friends. These too I notice. One of our young grandsons came to visit this weekend for the first time. He is already past his second birthday. We see him at his home several times a year but it was the first time he had been here to la casa de inspiracion. For this I am deeply thankful.

Then there are the blessings of creative abundance. Sunday was a grand and beautiful day on Mayne Island. Let us slip for a moment into yesterday and revisit one of these moments chasing the October sun by the sea.

The canvas with its red underpainting stood ready on the french box easel while I devoured and early lunch and tried to decide what to paint.

This preparation and decision-making time is crucial to my painting process. It is the time I consider my intention, my focus, composition and method. Once I have decided these things then I paint usually without thinking about them again because I am by then deeply immersed in the moment using all of my sensory presence to bring the work to life on the canvas. This is how I render a painting alive rather than worrying about it being perfect. In this case few images were captured of the painting process. The light was moving shadows on and off the canvas from the large trees on the bank behind me. I focus on the work at hand rather than documenting the process itself.

Eventually, I step back.

Then just as quickly, I move forward and continue working until the brushes come to rest as the painting becomes too saturated with wet paint to continue.

Today I shall engage my critical creative mind and see if there are areas I can strengthen to carry the painting any further to its place of completeness. I am not sure that there is but I shall leave it sitting where it can surprise me with a quick glance just to be sure.

There is also the blessing of my art work being appreciated by others enough that they want to give the work a good home.

THE MT. BAKER REACH 8 x 10 inch oil on canvas will be off to California this week.

Not all artists experience public appreciation for their work during their life time. I have been very fortunate in this aspect over the past few years with numerous art collectors in Canada, United States, Australia and several parts of Europe purchasing my paintings and photography. The power of this blessing cannot be underestimated. As paintings leave the studio it creates a driving need to continue to do my best work as often as I can manage. Thank you to so many who continue to support my work with hard-earned financial resources. I notice and I appreciate your patronage.

Now I must fess up. With the upcoming Open Studio event now scheduled for November 9th and 10th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, I must delay the work on my new art book until early in the new year. Besides, the book has demanded a far larger scope than I had originally intended. The darn thing has taken on a life of its own! Image that!?

Who or what are you most thankful to have in your life on this fine Monday morning with its blessings?

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