Painting

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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Begin a painting with no punctuation

/ Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Starting with the underpainting, grab and sway the emotions of light, form and structure without pausing to add punctuation. Allow your brush to skip and fly across the canvas in bold strokes of unrefined passion and fragments of expression. Do not edit. Please do not edit at this time. Leave it be raw and calling.

There will be time later to decide how much to define. A paragraph or a single word will become clear only after this first brush with expression.

These are my guiding demands of self as I reach out to choose a brush, squeeze out the oil paint, set the canvas and I stand squarely to begin my painting day — a day that began with reading Laurie Buchanan’s post “Painting a Word Picture”

SEED: Laurie asked the question: Who is your favorite word painter? This got me to thinking about my relationship between painting, photography and writing. My reply is as follows:

My first choice is Colette and in particular a passage from BREAK OF DAY (1928)

“He bent his bare body, polished by sun and salt. His skin caught the light, so that he was green round the loins and blue on the shoulders, according as he moved, like the dyers of Fez. When I said “Stop!” he cut short the thread of golden oil and straightened himself, and I laid my hand caressingly for a moment on his chest, as one does with a horse. He looked at my hand, which proclaims my age — in fact it looks several years older — but I did not withdraw it. It is a good little hand, burnt dark brown, and the skin is getting rather loose round the joins and on the back.”

My second choice is Elizabeth Rosner and a short piece from BLUE NUDE (2006)

“He imagines this: cupping her breasts and testing their weight in his hands to be sure they fit when his mind has already predicted it and his palms already tell him Yes. To press himself against her, to fold themselves together seam to seam, the way certain insects mate into one flying being.

He imagines them ascending.

The body exists in space, he says to the class. There is something solid she is resting on; that shape is part of what makes her stand the way she is standing; her feet are on the ground, or she is sitting on a chair, or leaning against a wall, or reclining on pillows. The body is part of the world. Do you see?”

I have purposefully chose non-landscape or seascape passages. I wanted to share how word pictures can link our internal worlds to our external observations – that this combination is how we “see” and experience what is around us. Both of these writers do this extremely well as does the passage you have shared with us Laurie. As an artist both as a painter and a photographer I attempt to “write” this language in my visual work. Sometimes I add just a dash of words to assist me – word pictures combined with pictures expressing words. All forms expression – impressions left for the viewer to complete.

I now come back into my studio space and prepare to pick up my brushes.

SPROUT: Who is influencing your creativity today? 

© 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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THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Fresh brush strokes, loose and easy, flow onto the canvas of a new painting.

Lusty dank seaweed brings its dark beauty to the summer sandstone shores along the inside passage on Saturna Island. My hand remembers.

The painting swells towards completion and then seems to drift and with an unexpected unsettledness. Incomplete and shifting on the canvas, I leave it for weeks sharing only a detail.

I approach it again – defining the sea and softening the mountains into a grander relationship between sea and sky – closing in the view and leaving a greater sense of more to see beyond the edges of the canvas. Finally the painting seems to settle. However, I suspect it may always seem just a little restless, inviting the viewer into the ripples at the water’s edge with one eye skittering off to the distant mountains, then back to the rocks in the foreground.

THE SEA TO ME 12 X 12 inch oil on canvas

(Original painting is now sold. Print available HERE)

SPROUT: What are you leaving unsettled for future competition?

© 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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A painting starts with a humble beginning – reminding me of Séraphine

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Darkness is settling heavily down on an already soggy afternoon. I have worked with my daylight lamp most of the day, finishing a painting and then touching up a new one and an older one. Now, I am roughing in a 30 X 40 inch oil on canvas tentatively called REACHING THE SEA. Each painting starts with a humble beginning, filled with hope and possibility. I love this stage. It is easy to put expectations aside. Later I will have to be firm about staying in the process but not now.

It doesn’t look like much yet and as I struggled to get quick shot of it to share with you, I wished for more light. For some reason, this reminded me of the French Artist Séraphine Louis, also know as “Séraphine de Senlis,” who would work during the day as domestic worker – and then she would paint by candle light late into the night. She also had to find and buy the ingredients to mix her own paints. At this moment, I hug my digital camera and give thanks for my daylight lamp, my prepared paints and canvas, and the luxury of being able to focus just on my art.

SEED: Who is Séraphine de Senlis? I first became acquainted with her through the 2008 French film Séraphine directed by Martin Provost. Sam Juliano from Wonders in the Dark was the first to bring the film to my attention. Yolande Moreau is brilliant as Séraphine and the film won seven French Cesars (Oscars). But who is Séraphine – the artist born in 1864 and who died in a mental institute in 1942? I am off to find out!

© 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

Related articles