With entries from all over North America and beyond, the winner of the FOUND IT PAINTING draw for SEASIDE MAYNE ISLAND STUDY is from my birthplace. Image that! An email has been sent to the winner and I am awaiting a mailing address. Though this painting had the possibility of going to many excellent homes, this one will be perfect. I am sure it will be well-loved and very happy there.
Also, EARLY NOVEMBER SEA 14 x 18 inch oil on canvas has sold.
Thank you everyone who participated in my Canada Day Special event. Finding homes for paintings is not always an easy task and you have made it an enjoyable, fun and rewarding exercise.
As always it is a pleasure to share my work with you.
The painting below A Tall Tale of Autumn Stuart River 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas is the “Poster Painting” for a rare 40% savings special on all of my Canadian oil paintings available at Artsy Home to celebrate Canada Day – starting NOW until midnight PST July 1, 2014.
Choose your painting and send me an email using the “make an offer” option located just above my name and below the price, shipping and product number on the right hand side of the painting.
The email should say – Request to Purchase as Canada Day Special. It is a first-email-received-request-for-the-work that will be accepted.
I will then confirm if you were the successful request for the painting and we can proceed with purchase details at that time.
Also, there is ONE original painting in the Artsy Home gallery that is available for a draw. It has in capital letters FOUND IT at the bottom of the description. If you find it, send me an email using the same “make an offer” option that says FOUND IT and your name will be added to the draw for the painting. You must find the eligible painting and enter the draw before midnight PST on July 1 , 2014. The actual draw will take place the following morning. As is understandable, a purchase offer will not be accepted for this work unless no one finds it. Then it will become available again after the draw closes.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if some part of this offer is unclear… it is a spur-of-moment, west coast sunny morning influenced decision and so enjoy and have fun browsing the over 60 original paintings that include landscapes and still life works from our wonderful Canadian Living.
I hope you enjoy this rare opportunity to start or add to your collection my original paintings.
Way last fall I started posting on Mondays in response to a suggestion by Kathy Drue over at her blog Lake Superior Spirit. Kathy encouraged/challenged a Monday morning blessing post every Monday until the end of 2013. I accepted the invitation and found that it was such a pleasant routine I have kept it up… for now anyway 🙂
So here we are on another Monday morning as I count my creative blessings over the past few days.
On Friday, Anita of Camassia Café and Astrid of Astrid’s Kitchen assisted me in choosing three paintings to hang in an ongoing group show at their shared but separate new venue in the Fernhill Centre on Mayne Island.
These two could easily have been my poster women for International Women’s Day celebrated on Saturday, March 8th. They have created a seamless collaborative business model for a venue that is quickly becoming integrated into the fabric of the Mayne Island community. Their warmth and enthusiasm is contagious! Currently the Cafe is open Friday – Sunday from 10 – 4 and if you haven’t been, then make it a date!
For so many of you that visit here on my blog but are far, far away from Mayne Island.
LONG BEACH VANCOUVER ISLAND JUNE 2013 48 x 24 inch oil on canvas (this painting is also being reviewed by Sandi White this Wednesday on the Art of Terrill Welch Facebook Page)
CHASING OCTOBER SUN BY THE SEA 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas plein air painting
And then there is STORM WATCHING 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas
All three of these paintings can be viewed in detail along with purchase information at my profile in the Artsy Home online gallery.
I was so pleased that Anita and Astrid were able to accommodate an early hanging of this work due to my pending travel plans at the beginning of April.
Also, just in case you are in need, there are 30 new greeting cards now available next door at the Farm Gate Store. The card rack is to the left just as you come inside the door. If you pass the wood stove and fresh coffee, you have gone to far.
Don’t worry, if you are in New York, or Toronto or even Dijon France these same cards are available in my Redbubble storefront. Hint if you order a good handful of greeting cards there starts to be some nice discounts. The quality of these cards are excellent. Often fans purchase these as affordable small prints to frame and hang on the wall.
These kinds of local collaborations and sharing are part of what makes our little island a magical and special place to be. But collaboration and shared inspiration is not limited to face-time. Yesterday I had a wonderful unexpected surprise. My work and process were used by Californian writer, Deborah Brasket, to demonstrate Deborah’s thoughts on art and mystery in her Living on the Edge of The Wild post “Art and the Mystery in the Midst of Things.” If you haven’t already been by due to my reblog of this post late yesterday, I encourage you to drop by and enjoy the read.
So there we have it! Another Monday morning filled with blessings of appreciation, connection, acknowledgement and sharing.
What connection or sharing would you like to notice on this fine Monday that promises spring in the northern hemisphere?
Most days I have little idea what direction my painting is taking me. I like to think I do. However, it is a myth. What I have are intentions. My intention is to explore how my specific historical experience impacts my work with more conscious awareness.
But right now, I have a long list of tasks that must be accomplished in preparation for three months travel in Europe beginning in April 2014. The round trip tickets are purchased. We are committed. I updated the most urgent items that must be accomplished to a separate list on Sunday morning. Then I set it aside.
You see, a request had come in from a fellow artist and friend for me to donate a postcard size work to Twitter Art Exhibit: Orlando. I usually do donate to this fundraiser and this was just the nudge I needed. The deadline is February 21, 2014 and I need 10 days travel time for the work to arrive in time. If I wanted to work in oil on canvas paper, the work needed to be completed now. Besides, the cause is compelling:
This is the fourth Twitter Art Exhibition, a concept founded by founder David Sandum, a Swedish-born artist living in Moss Norway, who conceived Twitter Art Exhibit as a vehicle for doing good through social media and online community-building. The idea is simple: artists around the globe receive a call through Twitter social media to create original postcard-sized art, which they mail to a local curator, who then exhibits and sells them to benefit a local charity.
Here is my 4 x 6 inch oil on canvas paper contribution set aside to rest and dry before submitting it to this event.
WALKING AN AUTUMN ROAD
The postcard size works will be sold for $35 a piece and ones that do not sell on the opening night of the event will become available for online purchase. If you want to know more or would like to participate follow the hyperlink above or go HERE.
After this, I picked up my list of urgent tasks…. well, not exactly. What can I say? There was paint on my palette? The sun hadn’t come out? I just couldn’t leave the easel?
Choosing a 12 x 16 inch canvas with a dark purple ground I began to contemplate quiet despair, broken promises and how some moments are too sad for tears. Why this aspect of our human experience had surfaced was a blog post by Deborah Brasket “Some Tragic Falling off” into Difference and Desire. This post and our west coast weather.
A January west coast afternoon.
We haven’t seen much of the sun during the past few weeks. In fact, the fog has been hesitant to raise her skirts much above her knees on the island ridges. We can’t really blame her. After all, we have been gawking without shame, seeking even the tiniest glimpse of blue sky and sunlight between her cottony ruffles. Today though, within the deep winter quiet, we are given brief moments of reprieve from her dowdy grey garments. It was not a dazzling display but enough to leave us momentarily content, hopeful even.
So I set to work. I like to think that I know my approach to a canvas and I am reasonably sure of the outcome. But I mostly just fool myself. My stubborn, overbearing intuition regularly slips the brush and palette knife from between my conscious breath and finds its own way across the canvas.
PROMISE – resting
The painting has a feeling all its own. My husband came in and said softly – oh, it is quiet. Then he smiled, satisfied, content even.
More about this painting and links to purchase information on my website Terrill Welch ArtistHERE.
What might represent your idea of “some tragic falling off from a first world of undivided light” as in Robert Robert Hass’s poem “Meditation at Lagunitas” posted by Deborah Brasket?
Now, before I dare pick up the brushes, that list. Where did I put that list?
Today is a rest and resilience day but before I wonder off I want to share a short Monday morning blessings post. Well, possibly it will be short – I have a lot to thankful about.
First thank you to the more than 100 collective online and face-time fans and patrons who came to my Open Studio event. You are all amazingly gracious in your support and encouragement. The paintings and photographs just glowed under your kind words and observations. My personal favourite store is about two wise women who came in and found a seat in the main part of the show – process that was only delayed slightly as they said hello. The one guest explained that she just needed to settle in and be with the paintings and the surroundings for a while before she could truly enjoy them. After bit, they started to chat about an aspect of this painting or that painting – a colour, the movement or a memory that was trigger. The work was truly “seen” in the much the same way as they were painted.
What a blessing for any artist to eavesdrop on such conversations!
Though by Sunday I had a most heavy heart for the hardship and deaths from the typhoon in the Philippines. I was feeling like I should close up shop and not be celebrating my paintings and photography at all on such a sad weekend of loss. But one of the studio guest reminded me that in the face of tragedy we often need to be reminded of the beauty in the world in order to bring balance and hope to bear our great losses.
There is also something else that can fortify us at times like this and that is the first birthday of a grandson. It was a year ago today that the second “O” boy was born. His grandma and grandpa “O” are there visiting on his special day today all the way from the middle of Canada.
I was able to have a short face-time video call with the family this morning. A treasured blessing indeed!
Now, I am off to spend at least part of my day walking by the sea.
It is Remembrance Day of course and I am thankful for those men and women all over the world who dedicated and lost their lives for the peace we have today.
I wish you all a fine week and ample time for quiet, peaceful resilience.
What is your most powerful reminder of resilience?
P.S. On Wednesday, the next Art Review comments about a specific painting will be posted on the new Facebook Page Art of Terrill Welch. Please drop by and have a read if you get the chance.
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 🙂
Well, I shall stop working for a moment and please allow me tell you one more time – it will be both and online (right here on Creative Potager) and physical event with a fancy title – ANYTHING BUT NEUTRAL. More information is available on my website HERE.
Open Studio Event Update – I encourage your online participation rather than trying to make this a day trip from either Vancouver or Victoria. As of November 4, 2013 B.C. Ferries advises that The Queen of Nanaimo ferry from Vancouver to the Southern Gulf Islands is not running due to damage in high winds. There is no other vessel at this time to take its place while it is being repaired. Passengers are being rerouted through to Victoria.
I was out for a walk yesterday afternoon and a nice couple said they loved the ad in the local paper and hoped that I had lots of parking available because I was going to need it! Sounds good doesn’t it?
Let’s us see if I can perform a little magic and get you a map for the Mayne Island artisan studio tour.
You see there on the top left – I am number ONE as in “1 ” or first on the tour which must be good luck wouldn’t you say? Oh, you noticed that the brochure says the Open Studio goes until 4:00 pm – well what is an hour or two when a person is on island time? As long as you don’t expect to stay for supper it is all good.
How does this come into my Monday morning blessing? Well, it started with a conversation with a friend on facebook when we were talking about the success of my art work over the past couple of years that got started because of finding money in my email for a painting that had sold. My part of the conversation went something like this – there is a much deeper exchange than that of purchasing goods when one of my paintings finds a new home. It is hard to explain but, as you likely know, my work is expensive. A decision to purchase, I am sure, is never made lightly. Yet, once that decision is made there is a kind of graciousness that happens as money and painting or photograph or even a calendar or card changes hands. Hum… how to say it – like a deep mutual bow of appreciation, punctuated by these sometimes surprise email payments. I feel so fortunate as an artist to have been given the opportunity to not only create and do what I love but also to be appreciated for my hard work. It is far-to-rare of a blessing in life I think.
I take a bow and thank all you readers for your ongoing support in so many ways. Thank you!
Now for the “other” part of my Monday morning blessings. How about this?
I was away most of last week helping out with the two “O” boys. This is the eldest being very still so he can get mom to put his mustache on for Halloween. When his dad asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween this young fellow said “a cookie.” Dad said okay then – one chocolate chip cookie costume coming right up.
It is a funny thing sometimes about working and being online. There is this together and separate thing that happens in a different way than going to the office. Well, maybe not so much different but it shows up differently. Anyway, I decided that it is finally time to set up a facebook Art Page. You will see its badge to the left in the sidebar. Please go and have a look and even give it a “like” if you want. I still haven’t figured out how to easily get to my “liked” pages so if you have a trick I would love to hear about it. Mostly I search them by name when i want to go visit. There is something real special going to happen on Art of Terrill Welch – art reviews of both my paintings and photographs by a team of reviewers. That is all I am going to say right now other than to let you know that the first review will be posted this Wednesday. See, here we go – another blessing. Several writers and fans of my work have come forward to start this new adventure with me. Now isn’t that just amazing!? Pssst! Some of them you will know, I am almost sure of it. More later 😉
What is in YOUR mix for Monday morning blessings?
P.S. Two new paintings have been released on the website at Terrill Welch Artist. I would tell you about them but that would spoil the surprise. Okay, Hint – there are two quick links in related articles below.
I tell you, sometimes blessings require running shoes and a sweater as one tries to keep up and keep warm to their cool wisps as they streak across the surface of our everyday life. This week shall be met with abandon and somewhat reckless pleasure between the art studio and grandmother duties. Without a doubt, it will be a “yeeeeehaaaaawwww!” kind of week with Thursday being filled with crazy creatures wandering in the night asking for treats.
Of course, the light and shadows will still move unruffled by my daily activities. This 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas landscape which appeared in the studio under my brushes over the weekend reminds me of this.
ARBUTUS ON MT. PARKE
The painting will likely be released sometime next week when I get a moment to put it up. But it is done and I am happy with it as it makes a wonderful grounding reference point for the week ahead. Many Monday blessing to you!
What will be your grounding reference point this week?
P.S. I am keeping a secret that I am just barely able to keep from telling you! Stay tuned because soon we are in for a real treat and addition to sharing my paintings and photographs.
The first days of September have rumbled past Mayne Island in thunder, lighting, rain and sun. Unsettled weather I believe they call it. As many of you know, I usually focus on the sun and let the rest slide off like rivers of water on our tin roof and escapes along the bedrock to the valley floor. But today not so much. There is nothing specific that has cast a shadow on my optimism but rather a clutter of small bits, hanging at about head-height, making it hard for the light to get through.
As I mentioned today over on Kathy Drue’s Lake Superior Spirit blog post “the sun’s egg yolk eye in late summer” this is my favourite time of year. There isn’t much time to read though. Even so, I am working my way through I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simons and several art books on the life and work of the American Abstract ExpressionistRichard Diebenkorn. This and having recently finished watching the T.V. series Mad Men on Netflix. Hence, I have spent much of the summer in the North American time of my childhood learning about events, art and music that was not really part of my rural experience at all. It seems most of this didn’t reach me until the late 70s.
Of course, I have painted as usual these past months. Late summer is the time when my love affair with still life painting comes into full blossom.
(GOLDEN PLUMS AN APPLE AND GREEN VASE – 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas released today HERE)
But the midday light is starting to become rich and warm again so I shall be back to my camera expeditions along the sea.
(Cattle Point with iPad is a photography sketch from Tuesday for future painting reference.)
This then is the beginning of the bitter, savory and sweet times of brilliant tangerine, lemon and rose flickering colours in front of the brooding and impending darkness of winter.
(SLICE WITH A TEAR 36 x 60 inch oil on canvas yet to be released but soon I promise)
(EVENING AND THE ARBUTUS TREE 36 x 60 inch oil on canvas available HERE)
So we could blame this darkness of spirit on Leonard Cohen for light is only as visible as the shadows allow. Therefore, in order to live in the light one must know the shadows.
(RHYTHM OF THE SEA EDITH POINT 20 x 40 inch oil on canvas will also be released soon)
Who better to guide such a journey than Leonard Cohen. Undeniably, Cohen offers a well-worn path into the grey and the bleak. But that is not it – not really.
Could it be the daily browsing and musing over the paintings of Richard Diebenkorn who, even with his brighter moments, leaves me with a mysterious sense of lose? A lose that is likely unintended on his part from what I have read?
So no, it is not these abstract expressions of Diebenkorn with their occasional years of figurative and representational works. But possibly the blues has something do with the hope and optimism that was dashed when a world became driven by materialism such as is so cleverly shared in the series Mad Men. Today, Diebenkorn’s paintings can be viewed on the imagined glossy magazine pages of the previous advertizing thrones of Madison Avenue while our noses are currently pressed up against the calving glaciers of impending climate change and Cohen brings us to our knees during a more resent poised rendering of his song “Hallelujah.”
Not a comfortable or perky image if I do say so. Possibly at this point, there is only one direction left for this artist to go and that is up. Yet, I stay awhile. Such hard fought drilling into the underbelly of darkness should not be wasted. Last evening we watch the 2010 Chilean film “Old Cats”written and directed by Sebastián Silva and Pedro Peirano. This film is an endevour to bring us full force into the mess of living at the ends of our life, and possibly the universe as we know it, with its unraveling unfinished and often unresolvable finality which must be accepted as it is – a work-in-progress.
At this very moment as I write, my honest answer is – I haven’t a clue. Are you surprised? The woman, the painter, the photographer and the writer who always seems to have some plan or other hasn’t a clue? True.
Once in a long while you see, I realize that most of what I am doing will matter not within hours, days or weeks of having done it. Yet, I persist in my delusions that it does matter and it is important. Why, we might ask, do I do this? Because to meet the reality face-on that it is all for no reason at all makes it hard to get up and then do what I am compelled to do. Therefore, in my normal altered state, I must believe what I do does matter and it is important – if only to me.
Also, thank you to everyone who commented, shared and voted on my three landscape paintings in the Arabella Competition for the People’s Choice Award. Due to a late change in the contest rules, these paintings have been eliminated from the possibility of being selected for this award. The change in the rules allow for only paintings selected for the semi-finals to be considered for the People’s Choice Award. My three paintings were not among the Canadian landscape paintings selected for the semi-finals. Disheartened, I remember those who have come before me and who have failed on numerous occasions to capture acceptance for their work. The list is long and I know I am in good company. However, this disappointing competition result does not lessen my humble gratitude for those who do collect and appreciate my work. Thank you all again for your unrelenting encouragement and support. I am reminded…
(my youngest grandson on the beach at New Castle Island)
I wish all the Canadian Landscape artists whose paintings are moving forward in this competition all the best and much success.
Because of all this, with these unraveling, unfinished and unresolvable marks on the canvas of my life, I shall continue to work on what will always be – a work-in-progress.
Spare no pigment on the palette and pass the brushes please.
My art work sells well but I wonder if I could do more…
Question: would you be any more likely to buy my paintings if I showed them to you from gallery space rather than my home studio space like in the photograph below?
YES or NO and it would be nice if you could tell me why?
I am asking because 70% of my art sales are from or supported by online exchanges with patrons, admirers and fans like you. Since January 2010 when I launched my painting and photography work, my collector space has doubled each year. I am set to increase prices of my original paintings for the second time this year due to the volume of sales. I am also considering other options to bring my work to a larger audience. There are several ways to do this but not all are practical living on a small island.
For example, I could rent Gallery space and show my work. This demands specific store hours from me and overhead costs. Which would be fine but the purpose would mostly be to better show my work to online buyers who collect my work. The local population, even with tourists, is too small to support such an adventure for art work that is already beyond emerging artist prices.
Getting my work in traditional galleries around North America is another option. The challenge of course is the time to secure representation and transporting work to and often from the venues. Ferry and mailing costs make this less than appealing.
So this is why I am asking my question. I want to know if you, as my audience and collectors, care one way or the other.
Again the question is – would you be any more likely to buy my paintings if I showed them to you from gallery space rather than my home studio space like in the photograph below?
YES or NO and it would be nice if you could tell me why?
Please feel free to send me a private note if you prefer.
Creative Potager 