Painting

WEST COAST SUNRISE postcard painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

This painting is a 4 x 6.5 inch oil on special paper postcard that I did for David Sandum’s #twitterartexhibit fundraising project. It will be going in the mail to Moss Norway as soon as it dries.

 

This project is an amazing collaboration between artist David Sandum, twitter artists and the Moss public library in Norway. This year the funds raised will go to support The Women’s Crisis Center in Moss, where abused women and children can get help. The center also provides a 24 hour phone-service, counseling, food and shelter etc. It but has lost a lot of funding the past year and the staff has been cut from 19 to 11. This is a very important cause, not only for the women in a crisis situation but also for their children.

If you are an artist, have a twitter account and want to participate here is the link for more informationhttp://davidsandumart.posterous.com/call-for-artists-2nd-twitter-art-exhibit-in-m

 

SPROUT: What is the tiniest creative work you have ever done? 

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON original painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

This 16 x 20 inch oil painting on gessobord was inspired by the Manarola Collaborative Project between G+ Painters and Photographers 2011 -12

Yes I have kept it a secret for almost six months 🙂

What a journey of personal discovery! It was October 15, 2011 when I finally get a chance to settle in and explore the images provide by the three photographers Elia Locardi, Marisa Williams and Mike Brzozowski. I have it in my mind I want to do a winter mid-afternoon painting of the village. I have never used any other photographer’s images as painting reference and I feel like my being is strapped to a narrow window on a high cliff. This is a location I have never experienced. I don’t know what it smells like. I can’t hear the sounds in the streets. I have no idea how the light falls at different times of day. What temperature is it? Does the wind blow a lot or a little? What does is feel like from one location in the village to another? What are the daily routines of living? When is it quietest? I realize that these are all threads and fibers that ground me in my paintings. What was I going to do.? I had to know. I couldn’t paint without knowing. So I went on a long journey of research discovering more images, blog posts and youtube videos to my learn from so that I could paint.

Using information as references from the photographs of all three photographers and more, here is the end result of my impressions of what Manarola might be like on a winter mid-afternoon day with its golden light. The fishermen have spent the afternoon in the pubs as they won’t be going out tonight. There is a storm coming. It took hours and even days. Finally I painted.

MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON 16 x 20 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch wood cradle by Terrill Welch

(I haven’t put this painting on the market yet but but it will be about $900 U.S. If you are interested send me an email )

More Background: A small group of G+ painters are inspired to paint Manarola in the Cinque Terre of Italy. The painters have never been to Manarola Italy and seek photography reference from photographers willing to give copyright permission to use their images in the creation of these paintings.

A small group of G+ photographers agreed to participate. Links to initial images for reference follow each photographer. I used a combination of these three photographs plus additional research to complete my painting.

Elia Locardi: https://plus.google.com/112957708071337353347/posts/UhLzeW8dEqi

Marisa Williams: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116975473087103045706/albums/5630380399468681713/5630690138668613394

Mike Brzozowski: https://plus.google.com/photos/103053238748819026069/albums/5200107765813493457

My heartfelt thanks to these photographers who shared their work so that I could create mine. You can meet all of the artists who participated and see their paintings as well as those that the photographers contributed in this album gallery HERE.

SEED: I have this great desire to learn more about this small fishing villiage. I now have Manarola Italy on my travel list.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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GREETING DAWN original painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

As the seagull tucks its head around the morning light sings out a warm greeting. This oil painting is 6 x 6 inches with a 2 inch wood cradle and is the smallest painting I have ever done. No frame required. This very small richly textured sunrise seascape is part of a new series “Squared to the Sea.”

GREETING DAWN would enhance a bedside, small bathroom wall, examining room or waiting area giving rise to serenity and peace.

UPDATE: February 10, 2012 This painting is now SOLD and off  to Dakota U.S. 

SEED: I am enjoying exploring this expanded sunrise and sunset palette of colours in both my painting and photography. I wonder what secrets these colours hold for us? Do they have a special place in our heritage of colour experience? I am starting with this children’s website for Weather Optical Illusions.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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ORCAS IN EVENING original painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

I am sure many of you remember my recent “A Whale of a Story” where I was gifted a chance to photograph Killer Whales or Orcas from our Mayne Island shore on one of my recent January photo shoots. If you have a look at that post you will be able to see where I the inspiration for this painting came from.

ORCAS IN EVENING is a 12 x 12 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch wood cradle

 

In many ways this painting was a stretch for me. I seldom paint animals or birds into my paintings of sea or landscapes. This time I wanted to have the Orcas included. It was such thrill to see them like this I just felt “I must!” However, I wanted to do this in a way you could “feel” rather than just “see” the Orcas in their natural environment at sunset. This is why I anchored my work in the quote from Claude Monet and intention from an earlier post “Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive.” I wanted to paint the impression of whales as seen from “the glance.” What do you think? Was I successful?

I also was thrilled to have the chance to paint pinks, oranges and mauve. Though still grounded in the body of cool-blue tones that are our foundation here on the west coast of Canada these “hot colours” are not common in my work. I couldn’t help but think of the paintings of a colleague and artist Lena Levin. You can view her work on her website.  Though she has primarily still life work at the moment, she did do a seascape a while back that she felt had been influenced by my work. Now it is my turn to share that this piece was definitely influences by her astounding palette development in these sunset colours. Do check out her Ten A Penny experiment as well. It is an idea I am watching closely. Even though I don’t do a lot of what are called “studies” I really like the concept. Lena is also on G+ HERE if you want to drop by and say “hello” or browse her recent posts.

SPROUT: Who is having a profound influence on your work of late? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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ROCKS AT SUNRISE original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

The light catches the morning next to the rocks in a grand profusion of impressionist captured colour. Each brush stroke is singing a song of praise for the beginning of another day.

ROCKS AT SUNRISE  is an 8 x 8 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch birch cradle.

(Update April 22, 2013: this painting is no longer available for purchase ) 

There are no process images for this painting as it happened in a continuous flow. This post follows up from yesterday’s post “Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive” where a small detail of this painting was shared.

SPROUT: Can you share with us a link to your latest work that came forth in one continuous flow? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Claude Monet is quoted from a conversation with an American neighbour in Giverny as follows:

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever…. merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, hear a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene before you. (reference Claude Monet 1840-1926 by The Art Institute of Chicago catalog published 1995)

I suppose you think I am going to argue with this sound advice!? No I agree and my brushes feel the same. Yes, of course I consulted my brushes and they spoke to the canvas and we are all in the same painting with Monet. However, as we conferred we also notice that Monet had left something out in his recipe for painting. It is not enough to get the colour just right or the shape just so.

A painter must paint the desperation of wanting to stay alive.

Here is a very wet detail from my painting today where I worked on this “must.”

Image

No matter how beautiful and accurate the painting of the light or interesting the composition, the painting must leave the viewer with an understanding that the painter knows that the moment in the painting is a gift in time – one worth being alive to experience. This must be said in every brushstroke, every slice of the palette knife, every squeeze of the paint tube and in absolutely every decision the painter makes to execute her vision into that brief second of a moment on a canvas.

SPROUT: How do you create with the desperation of wanting to stay alive?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Waving at you from Mayne Island with Monet

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

My morning is very French here off the southwest coast of Canada. I slept late (9:00 am) hand ground my coffee beans, made espresso and baked the chocolate croissants. The sun is shining.

Wave photographs are almost the equivalent of my warm up sketches in a figure drawing session. The process gets me stretched down low to the ground in odd angles and into that place where my eye starts to relentlessly compose and frame the world around me. Waves also feed an acceleration that pulls up any lazy cells in my being that thought they might just coast along through the photo shoot. NOT! We are here to capture the movement of light. Time to get to work.

Good morning and Happy Thursday to you!

SEED:  Speaking of the French, I made a most treasured purchase a few days ago. It is the 282 catalogue (or catalog) published  by The Art Institute of  Chicago for the 1995 exhibition of Claude Monet‘s (1860-1946) art work. Did you know that he used to get angry and slash his canvases and may have personally destroyed over 500 paintings? His art career was 60 years long but he is best known for his earlier paintings during the impressionism hay-day and of course his lilies. Though my paintings and even my photography have often been said to remind people of Monet I have never studied his work – rather I reclined into embarrassment and pride at being compared to such a great artist, too scared to even give it serious consideration. I personally had felt my work may have more in common with Camille Pissarro but that is another story. But over the next few weeks and months I am going to read about and study Monet’s work closely and see if I can see what it is that has people so often making this connection.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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REACHING THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

I never really know where a painting will take me. We start together from a humble beginning

and begin to build on those first foundations towards synergistic vision.

I find it is easy to get lost on a large canvas such as this 30 X 40 inch piece — lost in both structure and colour. I put paint markers like mental blazes in place to be able to stay on course. This is a larger colour palette than I usually select. But the painting seemed to be requesting it, so I went along.

Gradually the light and shadow references begin to take shape.

Good! Everything is still nice and loose. Unfortunately, I need to leave it for a few days. I enjoy a couple of details in the underpainting

that I know will eventually disappear.

Days pass and I walk by the painting pondering and anticipating my next chance to settle in for a good long stretch working my brush across its canvas. The time finally comes. I spend the day happily trying to “reach the sea.” But something is off. The painting is struggling and seems to be twisting on the canvas. What is it?

Hum! There that is what it is! Painting seascapes is a little like being a carpenter – measure the horizon line twice and paint once. I was down by half an inch to the left. I will let you in on a little secret. This “down a little on the left” is common for me both in painting and in my photographs. For whatever reason, I will pull down to the left. I am left-handed and see better out of my left eye so this might be part of the issue. But leveling takes care of these things nicely. How many times to I paint the horizon line in a seascape? Many. It is critical to getting the distance or depth in the paint and getting it to “settle” on the canvas. Time to pause for a moment.

There are a few challenging and unusual elements to this painting. First, the focal point is the lower top right third. Most often, we expect the composition to work from details in the foreground to less in the background. This painting is forcing the viewer’s eye past the foreground towards the reflections near the end of the reef. Hence the name of the work “REACHING THE SEA.”  Secondly, the sun is in front of us reflecting on the water creating deep shadows and light patterns that are more difficult for me to represent by having my brush following the light. It is a painting that is moving towards the viewer and demands, not asks, that the viewer meet it two-thirds of the way into the frame. That was the painting’s idea. I am usually much more polite.

We are almost there…

The painting has never really tightened up and the layers have built themselves in the generous way of land and sea in perpetual transformation. I have heard many times that green is one of the most difficult colours to mix. The green of seaweed. The brown of sandstone. The diverse blues of the sea. The brightness of the facing the midday sun. The deep shadows of the shoreline. Thank heavens for the light, softness of the sky! … I see a few wayward brushstrokes, maybe a little lighter over here and yes, a little darker over there. Done!

REACHING THE SEA 30 x 40 original oil painting by Terrill Welch

As usual, I need to paint the edges yet before putting it on the market. But very soon. I will just need to make a day of it do nothing but paint edges!

 

SPROUT: What unusual adventures has your creativity taken you on lately? 

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Mayne Island Rain Wind and Snow

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

How quickly it all changes. Yesterday’s winds have given way to rain. How those branches did bend for fear of snapping as others had in the past.

We did not go out to the shore. I get too nervous in high winds to hardly leave the house. This photograph of the valley was taken while stood at the kitchen sink preparing lunch and being thankful that the electricity was still on.

The day before however we did venture out into the blustery weather. The sandstone shore of Georgeson Island was particularly lovely in the soft light of the winter afternoon.

(image available for purchase HERE)

But this morning it is raining. I sit quietly hunkered down under a down quilt on the old couch in the loft marveling at how different each day can be from another. It was only four days ago I overheard these daffodils muttering in the snow “I told you it was too early.”

The snow is now long gone for this  young deer that browsed under the trees by at the edge of the forest, hunched up in the damp cold. I wonder where it sought shelter yesterday as the winds howled like jet planes crossing over the top of the cliffs?

A flicker had called from the beam on the covered deck to ask if I might come out for awhile.

I did. But even the oregano was snow bound.

However, it was the day I captured winter by the pond

(image available for purchase HERE) 

and enjoyed the grass against the snow…

I noticed that which was undisturbed.

This is the noticing that comes with the sudden change of snow covering much of our dark greens, grays and browns during the overcast west coast winters.

Much is still dreary though.

I thought of lighting a fire in the outdoor fireplace but then went back inside to paint – as I did yesterday. I painted on the ample 30 X 40 canvas. I wonder how the weather will be evident in my brushstrokes? We shall see on Wednesday I think. Here is a snippet of a small detail I liked that no longer exists.

The painting is almost complete. A couple of wayward blustery brushstrokes to tame and it will be done.

SPROUT: How might the weather be impacting your creativity?

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

 

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Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

This morning as I stepped out in the dark on our side deck to hand grind my morning coffee beans, fine snow brushed my cheeks. It smelt of winter and reminded me of damp wool and hot chocolate.

COASTAL WINTER STORM  (12 X 12 inch oil on canvas) is like this.

 

It is like today on the southern Gulf Islands.

Yesterday’s post “Begin a painting with no punctuation” is the only process image I captured.  But here is a detail of the final image so you can better see the loose layering of paint.

The painting still must have its edges painted so is not quite ready for the online gallery ArtsyHome where I am the feature artist this week. (feature has the capacity to leave a comment too – which would be nice if you feel so inclined) But soon. However, you can lay claim to it now if you want. Just send me a direct message and we can work out the details. The price is $550.00 U.S. including shipping.

When I become a really famous artist I will have an assistant who will paint the edges of my paintings, add the picture wire, put them in the inventory program and then package them up to send to buyers. I shall paint and only take a break to make soup and go for long walks with my camera.

I am also a featured member in the Beautiful BC Art redbubble group this week.  You may want to drop in and see all the stunning work that is on display by other photographers, including an image by a fellow Mayne Island photographer Toby Snelgrove.

A happy customer posted the arrival of my painting STORM COMING and talks about the dilemma of where to hang the painting so everyone in the family can enjoy it.

So it seems it is a good week to be an artist and I am ever-so-grateful for you company, support and encouragement. Thank you!

SPROUT: What will you hire an assistant to help you with when you become famous? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

 

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