All the Canvases are Taken but One

December 3, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

I woke this morning to do a review of my art supplies. I am down to one blank square canvas and I am out of lemon yellow paint and seriously low on a few other pigments. All the other canvases are taken and stacked several layers deep around the rooms – a few more than sixty of them in total.

You see, yesterday I finalized my commitment to a two month solo exhibition during the months of April and May at the Camassia Café on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. The relatively new venue is quickly becoming popular for its art and music shows as well as tasty, carefully prepared foods. The theme of my exhibition is “West Coast Landscapes as Home” and though I have plenty of work available for this adventure, I want to do a few specific and surprise pieces. I have at least six or so in mind. But these lack of supplies in the studio has me pacing the floor and trying to decide if I want to catch a ferry tomorrow and go to the city or see if I can find the canvases I need locally and manage with the pigments that I have. For a few brief moments I am frustrated with living on an island which feels like being stuck in the middle of nowhere when I haven’t carefully planned enough to keep my supplies well-stocked. I suppose this isn’t exactly true. What it really means is I have been putting off going to the city again for far too long.

But enough about this! I stopped my rant of private whining immediately following my reading of this letter sent from Vétheuil on the 17th of August 1879 to the doctor and art collector Georges De Bellio:

For a long time I have been hoping for better days ahead, but alas, I believe the time has come for me to abandon all hope. My poor wife is in increasing pain and I cannot imagine that she could be any weaker than she is now. Not only does she not have the strength to stand up or walk one step, but she cannot hold down the slightest bit of nourishment, although she has an appetite. One has to be at her bedside continually attending to her smallest wish, in the hope of relieving her suffering, and the saddest thing is that we cannot always satisfy these immediate needs for lack of money. For a month now I have not been able to paint because I lack the colours; but that is not important. Right now it is the sight of my wife’s life in jeopardy that terrifies me, and it is unbearable to see her suffering so much and not be able to provide relief… But I would ask another favour of you, dear M. de Bellio, which is to help us out from your own pocket. We have no resources whatsoever. I have a few canvases in the rue Vintimille; take them for whatever price you like; but please respond to my call for help and send us what you can. Two or three hundred francs now would save us from hardship and anxiety: with a hundred francs more I could procure the canvas and paints I need to work. Do what you can, in short; I told our landlady to let you in: so look at my paintings and buy them for whatever you like.

Awaiting your reply, I send you my best wishes.

Yours, Claude Monet

(reference: MONET by himself p.31 edited by Richard Kendall (1989)

A few short weeks later Claude Monet’s wife Camille died leaving Monet to care for their two sons and extended family members which included Alice Hoschedé and her six children. He was to turn forty years old on November 14th of the following year. By the end of this next decade Monet’s fortune did start to take a turn for the better and he was able to buy the house at Giverny and be free of financial worries. We also see his paintings during this period take up the themes that will remain part of his work throughout the rest of his career.

On this hopeful note, with not a health, financial or career worry of any notable concern, I shall be off to see what our local Dragonfly Gallery – purveyors of fine art supplies, craft materials, quilting needs, cards, gifts and faerie glamour – has for canvases.

What letters from writers or painters or other artists do you read for perspective and inspiration?

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

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Painting the Canadian landscape as home

November 27, 2014September 25, 2016 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

I have been asking myself about what home means. The answer may or may not be surprising to you. When does a landscape become more like home than nearby dwellings and their inhabitants? My conclusion is that the landscape, along with the seasons that influence it, help us organize our daily rural life. This is when “home” is expressed most clearly by the land, water and sky. The landscape is my first home. Dwellings and their inhabitants must fit within the expanse. Let’s unpack what I mean by this through the painting process of two recent landscapes.

The first is a Mayne Island landscape and starts with this “Mount Parke Trail study” 10 x 8 inch oil on canvas

I was looking for the tension in the landscape and wondering if it would be enough to hold it together on a larger canvas. The conclusion was that it would so a 30 x 24 inch canvas was set up and the work began.

With the study for reference, it was during the beginnings of this painting process that I began to dwell on the fact that I was more at home within our natural landscape than anywhere else.

I didn’t have a satisfactory answer at the time but it was the puzzle I was working through as I continued to shape the scene.

The finished painting TRAIL ALONG THE RIDGE 30 x 24 inch oil on canvas has been released today on my website Canadian Contemporary Artist Terrill Welch and can be viewed HERE.

The second painting is from my childhood home and where my parents are still living on the Stuart River.

I pulled a face even in the very beginning as you can see in this photograph taken by photographer Josette DeBattista in my home studio.

It is not the landscape itself I find challenging. The work started out in the familiar process of a light yellow ground to keep the later greens lively and a few quick lines for reference.

Yet, I was overwhelmed with memories that crowded the physical elements I was meaning to render. I went outside and looked in to see if that would help to sort things out.

But it didn’t really as photographer Josette DeBattista aptly captures through my concentration…

But the photographer leaves and I move the painting back up into the loft studio to keep working.

The painting is starting to shape.

But I stop with nothing more than the rough shapes on the canvas.

My notes for the day are as follows:

The difficulty is with the overlapping shifting of time through memories and my latest experience of this place along the river. Nothing seems to want to stay fixed long enough in my mind to complete a singular reference point. I stopped work on it at this early stage today and went for a long walk. Tomorrow I will begin again. I have decided to allow, partially because I seem to be unable to do otherwise, the layering of experience to this one specific landscape. The time frame spans about 44 years – not everyday after the first five years but at least a few times a year. This is part of the issue I believe. I have made up this scene in my mind during my absences so that it competes successfully with my physical visits. I seem not to want to paint either but some blend of the two. So, if in the end I can get something to work we may have a painting. We will just have to wait and see.

The next day it is so dark because of heavy rain I had to quit painting because I didn’t even have enough light with the daylight lamp. But shiny, wet and still incomplete and much farther along it seems…

The following day is equally as dreary and I give painting a miss while fussing over the fact that I will likely have to do some dry brush work as it is taking so long to complete.

On day four of doing not much else except either painting or thinking about painting this landscape it is Done!

STUART RIVER KICKING LEAVES 24 x 36 inch oil on canvas

Information about detailed viewing and purchase information is available on my website by clicking the image or HERE.

And so is the story that goes with it which will not be released fully with the painting but seems appropriate to share with you here.

This is another of my mystery paintings in that its realism is mostly a deception. I have included two detail images so you can get a better idea about what is going on.

The first of the poplar trees…

and this second one of the water…

Truthfully though, it is the layering all the way back to the yellow ground that gives this painting its vitality.

I suppose it may appear to be a pretty picture but it isn’t to me. Winters are historically harsh in this area. Snow is not far off and a day of kicking leaves means there is a good stockpile of winter wood. The larder is full and the winter vegetables put down. If this was when I was young, it would soon be time to dress in layers knowing I would still be cold and take my 22 rife into my grandfather’s boat along with our little dog Charlie Brown. You see, my grandfather was a trapper. I was his sharpshooter for muskrats. If they were plentiful, we would take a few this way rather than trapping them. I had to line up a bead on the head of the small animal right at the waterline in the moving riverboat. As soon as I shot and gave the nod, the small dog would jump overboard and bring the dead muskrat back to us before it sank. My aim had to be good because if it wasn’t the little dog could get pulled under by the diving animal and drown. This risk was partly due to the fact that Charlie wouldn’t let go and give up easily. This was his favourite job and he was a determined to do it well.

I don’t remember what the muskrat hides were worth a piece once they were skinned, the hides stretched and then shipped to the fur buyers. I do know that my grandfather never really had a regular job for wages very often and trapping and guiding were the family livelihood. This cash bought necessities like flour, sugar, salt, boat motors, pickup trucks, snowmobiles, canned peaches, raisins, honey, nuts, rice, lamp gas and mantels, ammunition, maybe a new axe if it was needed or a skinning knife. Oh the shopping list could also include material to make work shirts, or brassieres or maybe even a blouse or new sheets. But you get the idea.

So kicking leaves was and is a luxury between the tasks necessary to survive another winter. Yes it is beautiful with the last heat of the sun on your back and cool northern breeze on your face. But I can hear my father say – the leaves are not real pretty yet. Next week they will be better. Mom will leave a hint of a smile between her shoulder shrug, squint slightly as if seeing a moose or bear across the water. I will look just in case she has. Then we will all turn and continue back towards the house appearing to be in no hurry but already mentally deciding what needs to be done next.

So there you have it – my understanding of how landscapes are home for me.

What are landscape to you?

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers! May your day be filled with appreciation.

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

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…

View original post 151 more words

Terrill Welch paintings – they ain’t cheap are they?

August 26, 2014August 24, 2018 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

This morning as I was painting the edges on two new paintings that are now released on my website at Terrill Welch Artist, I thought of a recent comment I accidentally heard being proclaimed in front of my display at our local Mayne Island Farmers’ Market a few weeks ago – they ain’t cheap are they!? To be fair, the lovely person making the comment was speaking to her friends and did not realize I was coming up right behind her. I warmly laughed and agreed with her – my work is not cheap. In fact, deciding to purchase one of my paintings or photography images is a serious financial decision – one that requires thought, conviction and often planning. As the morning sun provides its gift of bright light into my home studio, I think of all the reasons that this is so.

There are the usual and obvious observations including:

1. Market Demand – in the past few years almost 50 paintings of various sizes have found their way onto the walls of private collectors. (Update: post was written in 2014. Now in 2017 this number has grown to more than 100. Maybe someday I shall be one of the “older women artists discovered” even 😉 ) At some points during the past four years prices had to be raised twice in one year to calm the speed of sales which were happening before work was released or even completed.

2. Limited Supply – I am not a hugely prolific painter. Each year there are somewhere between 30 and 50 paintings completed. At this rate, in my life time there will likely be less than 2,000 original paintings available in the world. Original paintings by a specific artist are limited due to the very nature of being painted by the artist’s own hand. My released landscape and still life photography images are even fewer in number.

3. Broad Market Reach – Due to the breadth and depth of social media, I am able to connect with discerning art collectors on global platforms. Though my local physical community on a small west coast island is just over a 1000 people, my online community has the reach of a good-sized city and is populated by those who love art and who love my paintings. There are fans who regularly leave comments and share my work. There is a team of writers who provide commentary on specific paintings every month. There are fellow artists and photographers who share, encourage and inspire me to push the edges and explore what it means to brush paint onto a canvas. All of this strengthens the market reach and the asking price for a specific painting.

But there is more to it than this isn’t there?

The decisions around pricing art work and purchasing art work are also subjective and emotional. My paintings come through my engagement with life. I instill the canvas or camera with the vitality of my everyday experiences. These experiences are not cheap. They are priceless. They are all any of us every really have beyond family and friends. Frankly, I can never translate and release these renderings for pittance because my heart would break. It would mean that our lives and how we choose to translate our experiences have little value. I cherish life. I therefore act accordingly and apply value to my work that comes from that life. The outcome is long-lasting exchanges and deep connections with art collectors and fans. This somehow completes the circle between inspiration, creation and release of work to a life of its own, in places I frequently have never even been.

Yet, I want and do find ways to share them freely with you and the rest of the world. If you are reading this post you can view my work in detail in my online galleries as often and for as long as you like.

ONLINE GALLERIES include –

Artwork Archives for most original oil paintings currently available

Redbubble for most photography prints

In addition, the images on my blog and website can be saved for personal use as screen savers or printed to be sent as cards to your friends or posted on the fridge for that day when you can make an offer.

It is only when you want to own an original painting or a photography image that it ain’t cheap!

So, in closing, I want to thank the person who said loudly and clearly what we all know and seldom discuss – original art is precious and not always accessible to own but we can still admire it and enjoy its presence in markets, pop-up shows, home studio visits, traditional galleries, online platforms and in museums. In these precarious times, we have access to viewing and enjoying more fine art than possibly any other time in history. Thank you for visiting, enjoying and collecting mine 🙂

More about buying original paintings on my website at Seven Tips For Buying Original Paintings .

What is your favorite answer to the question – they ain’t cheap are they!?

P.S. The new painting released is:

OYSTER BAY LATE JULY 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

Update September 2, 2014: This painting is now sold.

Oyster Bay Late July 12 x 16 inch plein air oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_08_08 060

View all current paintings available in the online gallery HERE.

Enjoy your week and the coming of my favourite season – autumn! 🙂

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

Seven Brilliant Etiquette Tips from Charming Home Studio Art Guests

July 27, 2014July 18, 2019 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Summer is in full-swing and you love, love LOVE to visit artists in their home studios while on vacation. As an artist with a home studio, I am equally as thrilled to have you. However, if you want to be that special home studio guest who is cherished by the artists you visit, then these tips are for you! Here are seven brilliant etiquette tips from some of my most treasured, pleasant, feel-good and please-come-back-again home studio guests.

Tip one – book an appointment at least a day but preferably three days in advance.

Home studios are living/working spaces and they can always benefit from a little organizing and prettying-up before guests arrive.

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 1 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 006

Tip two – see if there are any of your friends that want to come with you and let the artist know how many are in your party.

A prepared home studio visit is almost always enhanced when there are a few more people enjoying it.

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 2 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 007

Tip three – if it is not obvious, ask about taking your shoes off at the door.

You are going into someone’s home as well as their studio – home protocol trumps studio.

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 4 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 018

Tip four – do not be afraid to ask questions and to look closely at your favourites.

Most artists are happy to tell you about the background of a piece and show you the work in different light. I frequently move work around for guests as the light is always changing. Seeing work at its best in a home environment isn’t as easy as when there is gallery lighting. Even taking it out into natural light is no trouble at all and can be a lot of fun.

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 4 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 023

Tip five – Look as closely as you like and do not feel any pressure to buy just because you made an appointment to view.

We make appointments to view houses, test drive cars and to hold puppies without feeling obligated to purchase. We can do the same when view art in a home studio environment.

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 5 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 021

Tip Six – If you are enamored by the artist’s work feel free to come back for more than one visit.

I have new work in my studio all the time and welcome repeat visitors. This allows home studio guests to become more familiar with the depth of an artist’s work and to develop a deeper understanding of what goes into the creative process. These factors I believe contribute to the enjoyment of the art that you may purchase now or at a later date.

Terrill Welchy Home Studio 6 Visit July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 027

Tip seven – Charming studio guests find a way to communicate a meaningful thank you for the artist’s time.

Studio visits do take time. There is no way around it. The most obvious show of appreciation is when a home studio guest goes home with an original piece of art. But there are so many other ways to acknowledge the artist who has hosted you in their home studio. Some of my favourite “thank you gestures” have been:

1. buying a small handful of greeting cards of your favourite art for those special occasions,

2. bringing a small gift like a jar of homemade jam or cookies or fresh-cut flowers from the market,

3. taking the artist’s photograph with her work and sharing it with your friends along with the artist’s business card,

4. taking a photograph of your favourite work to post on your fridge as a reminder for the day you are ready to purchase,

5. sending a quick email “thank you” and telling the artist what you enjoyed most about your visit,

6. signing up to receive the artist’s blog and then send the link to all your social media “friends” telling them about your home studio visit, and

7. taking the artist out to lunch and telling everyone you see how much you loved her art and wish that you could purchase it all. Yes, this has happened, more than once actually 🙂

Terrill Welch Home Studio Visit 7 July 2014 by Terrill Welch 2014_07_27 008

Let your imagination be your guide but a meaningful thank you goes a long-long way on the charming scale of being an unforgettable and cherished home studio guest.

Why bother? Or more bluntly – what is in it for you?

Most importantly, these are just a nice things to do and you will feel good about doing them – I promise. And you will get invited back. Beyond this, when an artist remembers a charming home studio guest then there are those special invitations to private viewings of yet-to-be-released work – either in person or online. The charming guest may also be given perks and consideration that are not openly shared publicly – a book, tote, throw pillow or small study of the artists work may be tucked in with a large purchase. You may receive a personal note when a work has come available that you mentioned you were interested in considering. After all, artists are no different from everyone else – we love, love, LOVE considerate and charming guests.

What is the most brilliant and charming etiquette of any guest you have received – ever!?

Postscript infomercial (you had to know it was coming): Terrill Welch welcomes guest to her Mayne Island, British Columbia, home studio by appointment. Feel free to send an email to her at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca to set up a time to drop in and be one of her charming home studio guests.

Update July 18, 2019: Terrill Welch now has the seasonal Art of Terrill Welch Gallery at 478 Village Bay Road open Spring to Fall Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11-4 or by appointment year round. Also, most of Terrill Welch’s original paintings can be viewed in detail and purchased in her online gallery at: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/terrill-welch With almost 150 works large and small finding homes in private collections during the past nine years it is a good idea not to dally.

Okay, that is a wrap! Now back to painting, la, la, la…… see you soon 😉

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 paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

Why Paint a Landscape of Avignon France?

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Fingers pressed to lips and on tiptoes I invite you to quietly join me in the loft studio this morning. You see, I don’t believe that my page full of “to do” items including paintings to be shipped to their new homes and time management will exactly approve of this diversion. But if we keep it quiet, maybe no one will notice us. So come on up. It is a little early so we will need to turn on the studio lamp.

With all the gorgeous west coast landscapes to paint you might wonder why I would travel half way around the world to paint a landscapes in France. The truth is I wanted the tension of a shorter, but still substantial, span of time. We might say that North America offers this with its more recent European occupation. However, what I experience on the southwest coast of Canada is thousands of years evident in the landscape and then the present interruption of humankind. Most buildings and such on the west coast still standing are less than two hundred years old. Yes, aboriginal people have been here for a few thousand years but they have left few footprints on the landscape. Europe and France in particular are different. We can still see evidence for easily over 600 years in one gaze looking across the Rhone River in Avignon France. This is somehow important to me as I intuit the tension in a landscape. We live in environmentally parlous times of exponentially climate change. In 2012 about half the world’s population lived in urban areas and this percentage is expected to continue to increase – quickly. the result is that our agrarian sensibilities and relationships to our natural surrounding on the whole are weak. For those populations that survive the next few hundred years, I believe this must become a strength. Yet, as we abstract our way through internal and external elements of our human creations, the natural landscape appears to hold little interest other than a thing of beauty and a place of recreation. This objectification of our natural surroundings places us and it at great risk through our false sense of possession or proprietary combined with ever-decreasing regard and understanding of the lines of tension and intersection of our relationship. These are my musings anyway and is the backdrop for my most resent painting MORNING BY PONT D’ AVIGNON (24 x 36 inch oil on canvas) and its cousin below of the same size which is still in its underpainting state with bits of masking tap marking lines of intersection and tension.

Judging from the plein air acrylic painting sketch I did, once the painting is completed these tensions will be mostly felt rather than seen (though now that I have so explicitly shown them to you, I am sure you will notice them more readily.) I anticipate that our eyes will keep roaming the scene searching for something until it unravels these tensions to the mind’s satisfaction. My desire is that we will know that it is more than a beautiful view, someplace to gaze, to sit, to stroll or to sail. I want us to intuitively sense the strength and fragility of this landscape – after all there are hundreds of years of human intersection with the environment visible in this painting and my intention is to inviting us to take the time for such an exploration. Our west coast of Canada has a much harder time offering this same invitation. It is much more immediate, wild and possibly even too forgiving of our ignorance – until possibly it is too late. So I have called on a morning in Avignon France with her abandon bridge across the Rhone to give us a hand.

I know! Here you thought I was on vacation and this was all about just painting another pretty picture. It could be I suppose. But I intend to instill such strength and tension in my brushstrokes that you will stay long enough to get past the beauty and to the substance behind this work. The act of painting is a spiritual exercise, a meditation, a recital of a poem and possibly even a practice of prayer. The subject in this case, in most cases, has to do with our fragile, temporary and continued existence.

Now, if you will excuse me, I must do a wee bit of painting before that “to do” list comes charging up the stairs and demands to know where I have been.

What invitations are you accepting to strengthen your relationship to our natural environment?

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

Tumbling Red Pears – a still life from conception to painting

March 3, 2014March 3, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

How does it happen that a painter notices red pears in the local grocery market? Then without looking at the price, she grins widely, grabs a handful and comments “they are for a painting!” How does this happen? What did she see in those pears that was more enticing than say the lemons or the oranges or that green skin of the avocado? Nothing. She picked up an assortment of these as well. But it was the red pears that she knew where going to be the main attraction.

Back home she arranges them this way…

and then that way

She settles on “that way.”

You see, she was caught up in some ideas about “seeing” and realism in a conversation that was hosted by artist and colleague Lena Levin on her G+ profile. Partly because of this conversation, the painter kept thinking as she was painting – what am I seeing? What is the influence of what I have seen before? Where are my mental shortcuts? She has no answers but starts and continues to paint.

As is common, there is no drawing to guide her brush. Her eyes must be her guide, along with her experience which is where the problem lies. It is in her experience that the mental shortcuts are developed and her eyes and brush stop noticing and actually “seeing” what is before her. She is even, in her noticing, not looking for details but rather relationships between light, shadow, colour and to-a-lesser-degree form. The painter understand that our brains construct images from rapidly gathered information from small areas that the mechanism of the eye scan and then the optic nerve delivers to the brain for translation and construction of a visual image. However, there is more information that is gather from the painter’s other senses that also assists in these constructed images. To name just a few bits of other sensor influence, there is the smell of the orange and linseed oil, the feel of the fabric and the planks of the wood floor with her bare feet and the sound of water dripping from the eaves. Then too there is all the previous data gathered about what a bowl of fruit looks like. There are all the bowls of fruit ever noticed and seen – both in real-time and in photographs and paintings. There are all the rules and breaking of rules about composition, about the actual process of painting as well as those about noticing, really noticing what she is seeing. Of all of this information, what will be the resulting rendering of THIS still life?

Well, the painter did not get very far before she decides to enhance what she is seeing. She adds a lemon on the bottom right. Yes, she says to herself, it should be there. And so it is.

What could be the harm of adding one imagined lemon? I mean really. It is only a little bit of yellow right?

The painter chooses to ignore that her noticing had resulted in imagining a whole lemon.

She determinedly continued to focus on the bowl of fruit. In fact, she focused so hard that the red pears began to tumble forward out of the painting.

This is about the exact point where the still life painting made a notable separation from its visual reference. It is that blue curving line on the left at about the middle of the painting that did it. Then, without any ability of the painter to rest the brush, another blue line of motion appeared on the bottom right. She knew then that even the slight visual impressions of the paintings in the background would go. They would be replaced by the gold fabric and the light leftover from the blue in the sky of one of these paintings as an easy reference for the light coming in from the skylight and the window behind the still life set up. This was now a deliberate mental shortcut.

Memory and imagination had conquered the physical evidence of what the eyes were actually seeing.

The intention of the painting had clearly become focused on the illusion of red pears falling out of the bowl – a focus that intends to encourage the viewer to hold out their hands and try to catch the fruit before it tumbled out of the painting. The painting is set aside until later in the evening and then, with a few edits that lead the painter’s work through to the next morning, it comes to rest.

TUMBLING RED PEARS 20 x 16 inch oil on canvas

It won’t be released just yet as the painting still needs to sit for its final photo shoot once the paint is dry.

Now we can ask the painter – did you know you were going to paint these red pears tumbling out of a canvas when you saw them in the grocery store?

The painter blinks, slightly confused and unable to answer as she comes out of her painting trance – her deep practice of noticing what she sees, a seeing that uses all of her sense, a seeing that is disrupted by her memory and is enhanced by her imagination. At this moment all she can remember, all she can “see” is tumbling red pears – the ones she imagined, the ones she painted on the canvas. This is her painting of reality.

When have you most acutely recognized that you were “seeing” more by your imagination than with your eyes?

Before I leave us, I want to thank everyone who shared last week’s Art Studio Spring Thaw Event post. Your ongoing support is what warms my heart and also grows the global awareness of my paintings and my photography. Without your efforts my ability to financially sustain my studio practice would be gravely hampered. So thank you, Thank you and THANK YOU!

Also, I am lighting a small candle each evening to focus energy on a peaceful resolution in the Ukraine. My mantra is – use your words. Listen and talk it out rather than bully and fight it out. My focus is calming energy sent to Russia’s leadership with this message. However, it isn’t narrowly directed and I disperse it as a blanket over all global decision-makers and citizens. You are most welcome to join me in this practice. I am an artist yes, but I am also more than that. I am a human-being and I desire to live in peace and I desire this for all of us. This, like the effect of full sensory “seeing” in this painting, is a tangible practice in attempting to render my desired reality.

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 Studio Spring Thaw Event

February 24, 2014February 24, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

When the southwest coastal trees of British Columbia in late February remind me of a northern winter, I am incline to take action.

Let’s turn up the heat!

Here is my Artist’s invitation to SPRING!

With the release yesterday of RED GATE (30 x 40 inch oil on canvas contemporary landscape) all of my current available work is now posted.

So here is what I propose: Including shipping, save 20% on a choice of over 60 original oil paintings by Terrill Welch during the next four days. The offer ends at midnight on February 28, 2014.

To access this savings, go to my Artsy Home Gallery, scroll down, find the painting you are interested in purchasing and then click on “Make An Offer” to send me an email that says “20% Heat Please!” and I will apply the Spring Thaw to the purchase price.

Alternatively, you can send me a direct message using any social media or an email at tawelch@shaw.ca and we can get things melting from there.

How can you turn up the heat on this spring thaw even without adding a painting to your collection?

Share, share SHARE. With each share a we are raising the temperature on this Art Studio Spring Thaw Event. Thank you for helping me turn this snow to green grass and daffodils 🙂

p.s. update to add a wee short Mayne Island winter wonderland video…

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

How To Paint Europe While Traveling Without An Art Studio

February 17, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

One of my major puzzles to solve has been – how shall I continue to paint for the three months we are traveling in Europe starting in April? Photography, no problem, even if my camera bag weighs sixteen pounds with out my toothbrush and two pairs of socks, underwear and a clean t-shirt. The limit is 22 lbs. for carry on luggage. I think I can do it. But painting, how can we make THAT light weight and practical at the same time? Here is my solution….

This is a “French Resistance” Pochade box. It is 10 x 13 x 3 inches and weighs only 3 lbs. The palette is a wee lightweight one I rounded up from another source. I have already purchased Golden Heavy acrylic paints for their drying power over my water-mixable oils and I also picked up a dozen 8 x 10 inch primed panels to get me started. The panels and the little water jar are another find along with the pochade box that I discovered at Judsons Art Outfitters. The pochade box mounts onto my camera tripod but will also sit on a table. The packaging has a little note that says “kiss your French Easel goodbye and start a whole new relationship.” I did giggle. Though wee beauty it NOT likely to lessen my love for my French Box Easel. I am however open to a wild, passionate European fling with this little “French Resistance” pochade 😉 The acrylic paints clean up easily and dry quickly. The acrylics are the best substitute for my oils I could find and though not as rich and flexible, they will do the trick for painting sketches. And their other attributes make them a necessity. This light weight and compact set up means many a painting sketch while we are on the go. I will be able to pick up larger panels up to 16 x 20 inches to use with this pochade though a larger panel will likely mean adding weights to the tripod to keep it upright if it is windy. But to start, I am going to keep it quick and small. These will be painting sketches for reference in painting larger oil paintings when I get back to our home on the southwest coast of Canada. Many of these sketches will likely be en plein air because, well, why not!

Wishing you all a fine week ahead!

What is YOUR major puzzle to solve this week?

p.s. In other news, FOUR photography prints of Mayne Island SOLD to a new collector yesterday and will take up residence in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yippee! Please feel free to have a browse your self at my Redbubble Storefront.

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

One Brushstroke After Another

February 10, 2014February 10, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 21 Comments

Life as an artist is pretty simple – just going along, one brushstroke after another. Home is where you hang your brushes and your socks to dry.

I took this photograph for my eldest grandson who has been known to tease me about my single-use devices. So, though I still wear a watch on my wrist that has the single purpose of telling time, this chair is a multi-use device. It is used for sitting on with guests in our great room. It is used as a prop in my still life paintings. It is used to keep paintbrushes, paints and water close while I work on a painting. And most importantly, it holds my wool socks while they dry.

On this particular day I drag this chair and my french box easel over by the kitchen to paint.

bowl of winter fruit still life painting in kitchen by Terrill Welch 2014_02_05 032

I desperately want some warmth and cheer. A few hours painting this still life bowl of winter fruit is just the ticket.

winter bowl of fruit in the kitchen by Terrill Welch 2014_02_05 016

There is a roundness of shapes in the warm winter light that is drifting through the kitchen while paint remains paint.

The finished painting BOWL OF WINTER FRUIT 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas and a poem that goes with it are posted over on my website Terrill Welch Artist HERE.

What are you doing one after another?

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