Storm Watching and its progress on a large canvas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Liberal usage granted with written permission.

See “About” for details. Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

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

A Good Night of Sleep and other Studio Blessings

November 25, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Last evening I was wondering what I might possibly have to say this morning. But ten – yes ten full hours of sleep has created a bubbling pot of thoughts and ideas. So much for yesterday’s slug appearance

I did spend an hour on Facetime with the “O” boys which likely did some good as well. Yes, I spent part of that time making faces as well. When you are one and almost three years old, making faces is a lot of fun.

So what is it that I have cooking you might ask? Well, I have an idea for a solo exhibition in the spring for one. It is tentatively called “Mostly Off The Wall” and that is all I can share at the moment. I think it shall be a LOT of fun though – maybe even one you would like to travel all the way to Mayne Island to see. March or early April are the tentative dates. This will be just before our planned two to three-month trip to Europe where I shall paint my way in leisurely around a very few selected locations. These are the plans if all goes well that is. But a person has to put a mark in the sand if anything is ever going to move from a dream to reality. These are my marks on the horizon of 2014.

In the mean time, ARBUTUS BY THE TRAIL has been released over on my website at Terrill Welch Artist if you care to have a wee visit with this small impressionist style west coast landscape oil painting.

There are also two new photographs from our resent close-to-home vacation time in and near Victoria, British Columbia. These were taken in East Sooke Park and you may appreciate the difference of the stone compared to that which is mostly found on Mayne Island. Getting very close to facing the open seas on the southwest coast Vancouver Island this harder stone is much more prevalent.

CREYKE POINT: Braced against the Pacific’s unrelenting chastising, proud and strong they resist. The hard stones may have their misgivings but their closeness to the sea is not one of them.

Quality prints available HERE.

CASTLE ROCKS: The castle-top rocks with a window to the sea swell the imagination.

Quality prints available HERE.

What are YOUR marks on the horizon of 2014?

So there we have it! May your Monday be filled with attention to your blessings and good-will.

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

Arbutus on Mt. Park – landscape oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seaside Mayne Island – Large Canadian Landscape Oil Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Chasing October Sun by the Sea – an en plein air oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Canadian Contemporary Landscape Painting Rhythm of the Sea Edith Point Released (terrillwelchartist.com)
Arbutus by the Trail – small contemporary landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
New Release – August Morning Reef Bay landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
WELCOME To The British Columbia (morevisas.com)

Art Interview, Open Studio Guests and a Birthday

November 11, 2013November 11, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

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!

Then on Sunday there was a surprise publishing of an Interview about me by Michigan poet and author Charles van Heck in the Life as a Human magazine. It is part one of two parts. The second half will be published next Sunday.

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.

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 waits for no ferry nor west coast daylight, online Studio is OPEN (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Introducing Art Reviews, Comments, Engagement and Interaction with Art of Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Open Studio event and other Monday morning blessings

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

Have I told you about the Open Studio event this coming November 9th and 10th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm? Yes?

(photograph by photographer Allison Mullally )

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.

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

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

In the Art Studio Still Life Painting

October 20, 2013October 20, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Until the end of December, my Monday morning posts are about noticing blessings and things I am thankful for receiving. Due to my schedule this week, I am posting on Sunday instead.

What I am noticing is that I often take action when I am feeling blessed. For example, I am thankful for the local apples and pears we have been devouring over the last couple of weeks. So good! In fact, good enough to want to put a few in a new still life painting.

First, let’s set everything up and take a photograph or sixty just for fun. The painting will be from a different perspective but this gives us the idea…

Image available for purchase HERE.

Now for the beginning of the still life painting.

It is hard to see but the whole canvas has a light wash to tone down the white and then I just begin to find the shapes and colour relations not really worrying about the final result too much at all. Things will change and move around with time and light. The idea is just to get started somewhere.

Working wet-on-wet or alla prima I continue to build up the paint on this roughed in start. The minutes slip by and eventually the painting time can be counted in a few hours…

I must quit now. There is a meeting. There is super and then the full moon pushes against the fog and sleep arrives under the night sky. In the morning I push on. I set it to “rest” and have some breakfast. I make a few edits. The day passes into night and I make few more edits on the still-wet oil painting, until …

PITCHER APPLES PEARS on a 16 x 20 inch canvas

We now have a study of whites and how they are always leaning towards one colour or another. The tastes, smells and texture of this still life have slid onto the canvas. For this magic of creative process I am thankful.

Now to clean up the studio but before we do, one last shot…

Some of the pears and apples have been eaten. The brushes have been clean and the paint on the palette is drying but it is all still here.

May your Sunday be rejuvenating and bring a sense of awareness and comfort.

What blessings do your actions tell you that you are noticing?

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

Alla Prima: An Artist’s Race (paigeclarkfc.wordpress.com)
Plums Apples and Mostly Sunflowers still life painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Blackberries Golden Plums Transparent Apple Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Golden Plums An Apple And A Green Vase Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Sea Autumn and Studio – A Canadian Thanksgiving Monday on Mayne Island

October 14, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Whether it is the cool rhythm of the sea we crave

and long to reach

or the crunch of fallen leaves

in the warm sun

being in the studio, with its basket of paints,

and waiting brushes,

takes a backseat for most of a luscious Canadian Thanksgiving on Mayne Island.

Well. almost. Today is the day that my new studio assistant will come by for his orientation. We will wander through the work place that I have cleaned and organized in his honour.

Then we will go through a typical work order to do the final work on a piece of work so that it is ready for purchase. You know, all those tasks like getting it into the online inventory, putting on the hanging hardware and if needed, painting the edges. By now I am sure you know how much I really do not enjoy painting the edges of my paintings, yes? I am so excited about finally getting this help in place as I am a wee bit behind as I keep painting new work without doing this final bit of administrative work.

I am most thankful for the sun, the sea, the autumn leaves, a clean studio, a studio assistant and the health and well-being of my large family. I am truly blessed on this fine and great annual day of thankfulness. All the best of a Canadian Thanksgiving and Monday blessings to you!

Can you tell us about a time when you stopped fighting yourself and hired work done that you could do but were not?

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

The History of Canadian Thanksgiving (Infographic) (lowdownblog.com)
A Soul Pancake for Canadian Thanksgiving (colleenogilvie.wordpress.com)
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving (treehugger.com)
Canadian Thanksgiving (conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com)
SOLD The Mt. Baker Reach Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
From Mayne Island to Mexico City… (nomadicsenior.wordpress.com)

Off to kick leaves and have a good visit

September 19, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

It is leaf kicking time! I am heading north for better than week to visit with family. With a bit of luck, I will come back with at least few photographs of brilliant autumn colours. I can’t make a promise but I can assure you that there is a good possibility.

In the meantime, I have been busy with a large stack of administrative work with little time to paint. But I do have a new large 60 x 36 inch oil on canvas resting called SEASIDE MAYNE ISLAND

It is not released yet and still needs a final photo shoot. I will also do a full work-in-progress post for us sometime in early October. Regardless of its newness and still “resting” status, I placed the painting in a prominent location last evening for a dinner we hosted with good friends and collectors of my paintings and photography.

The hit of the evening, after SEASIDE MAYNE ISLAND of course, was a new still life painting…

AUGUST STILL LIFE WITH CEZANNE AND MATISSE
36 x 24 inch oil on canvas

There are distinctive elements of Paul Cezanne‘s work that go far beyond his use of colour to represent form. He had a way of presenting different viewpoints in his compositions that was and is exciting. This is something that Henri Matisse continued to explore while allowing the paint to become colour fields of flat surfaces. At one point in the of the development of this work I had a choice. I could continue to build up the colour fields or I could continue to follow the light and movement within the landscape. Matisse of course was arguing for letting paint be paint in its colour and simplicity. Cezanne was slowly working his way into the tension of form and structure of the still life using colour as his guide. I observed. I thanked the masters. Then I picked up my brush and continued to paint the light and movement between the forms until the painting came to rest. Edges are currently unfinished and can be completed to meet your needs.

Detailed view and purchase information at:
http://www.artsyhome.com/product/August-Still-life-with-Cezanne-and-Matisse

Where might be your favourite Leaf-kicking stroll when the golden light is shining low through the trees?

Psst! I have also started working on my second art book. The working title is ANYTHING BUT NEUTRAL: Mayne Island in paintings and photographs, Volume Two. I have about 57 of the estimated 80 pages completed in draft form. Tentative release will be early November. I shall keep you posted as it progresses 🙂

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

August Still life with Cezanne and Matisse (terrillwelchartist.com)
Golden Plums An Apple And A Green Vase Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Blackberries Golden Plums Transparent Apple Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seaside Mayne Island oil painting study by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
Recent sales of Terrill Welch oil paintings and pending price increase (terrillwelchartist.com)
Golden Plums Summer Flowers with Rilke Cezanne and Matisse (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Morning In The Kitchen – Small Abstract Painting by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)

The Melancholy of Fall or a Painter’s Depression

September 5, 2013September 5, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

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 Expressionist Richard 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?

(image credit de Young e-cards HERE)

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.

Now, once again, I ask myself in my best Mary Oliver voice “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

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.

Featured work being shown from September 3 – 3o, 2013 at the Island Blue Art Store in Sidney B.C. Canada. These four paintings are the Feature Paintings this month and available with detailed viewing and purchase links at Terrill Welch Artist.

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.

Who accompanies you into your darkest places?

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

Leonard Cohen Depicted In Famous Blue Raincoat (drhguy.com)
Recent sales of Terrill Welch oil paintings and pending price increase (terrillwelchartist.com)
August Still life with Cezanne and Matisse (terrillwelchartist.com)
Long Beach Vancouver Island June 2013 oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Diebenkorn in Berkeley (memeteria.com)

Home Studio or Traditional Gallery do art collectors care?

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

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.

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

Recent sales of Terrill Welch oil paintings and pending price increase (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seaside Mayne Island oil painting study by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
Art thieves make terrible businessmen (qz.com)

Golden Plums Summer Flowers with Rilke Cezanne and Matisse

August 21, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

August golden plums and a large arrangement of local flowers provide sensual release in the abating summer of paint and canvas. Yet, it is not so much the canvases where the study and work is occurring. I have been reading Rainer Marie Rilke‘s LETTERS ON CEZANNE that he wrote to his wife in 1907 while viewing an exhibition of Paul Cezanne’s paintings shown one year after the painter’s death. This master painter, along with Henri Matisse, has cast a distinct hue and influence over these most recent canvases – none of which are released as I am not sure of their completeness. Maybe they will remain studio studies or maybe just a few brushes of paint and they will separate from the creative process and stand on their own. But complete or not it is time to bring you my dear friends into my painterly space.

I start arranging and exploring the possibilities for the still life with my usual camera sketches.

Should it be this way?

Or maybe this way?

And then of course there is just the plums…

What would Paul Cezanne have to say? Well, very little probably. He certainly wasn’t know for his eloquent oratory. Rilke on the other hand and to our good fortune gifted with words:

It’s as if every part were aware of all the others – it participates that much; that much adjustment and rejection is happening in it; that’s how each daub plays its part in maintaining equilibrium and in producing it: just as the whole picture finally keeps reality in equilibrium.

(Paris Vie, 29, Rue Cassette, October 22, 1907)

Shall we begin?

The first challenge is to get the still life up to a desired level for painting so that the view-point is similar to that of the photographs. This is likely not all that common an issue but it is one I have discovered to be a significant difference between painting from life and using my photographs for reference – I often photograph on my knees and almost always paint standing. I like the low angle so how might we do this with this chair and still life arrangement?

By setting it on the coffee table of course. I set three framed and finished paintings behind the set up not for any other purpose than to leave me room in another part of the room for the wet canvases. But after I did it I liked the effect and added a few cushions under the chair to pull everything together. Now it is time to paint.

I feel very much alone in the studio. With the ground on the two new canvas I will be painting today, I wait for a little more natural light to reach the great room where I am painting. While I wait, I review yesterday’s work in progress images looking for clues that can possibly be brought forward in an even more conscious way into today’s work. It is interesting to me that one day can feel so different from the next. Well, there is only one thing to do – paint.

I am happily painting and visiting with Paul Cezanne when Henri Matisse shows up.

There are distinctive elements of Cezanne work that go far beyond his use of colour to represent form. He had a way of presenting different viewpoints in his compositions that was and is exciting. This is something that Henri Matisse continued to explore while allowing the paint to become colour fields of flat surfaces. At this point of the development of this work I had a choice. I could continue to build up the colour fields or I could continue to follow the light and movement within the landscape. Matisse of course was arguing for letting paint be paint in its colour and simplicity. Cezanne was slowly working his way into the tension of form and structure of the still life using colour as his guide. I observed. I thanked the masters. Then I picked up my brush and continued to paint the light and movement between the forms until the painting came to rest.

AUGUST STILL LIFE WITH CEZANNE AND MATISSE resting 24 x 36 inch oil on canvas

I have done more on this painting now but it is not significantly changed.

But I am not done. I start on another canvas and move more towards form. Hovering between representation and abstract I bring us in close to the still life setup.

GOLDEN PLUMS AN APPLE AND GREEN VASE resting 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

I am left wanting for a chance to peer over his shoulder as he painted and I assume paced his way through long periods of time constructing the structure and rendering his still life paintings. How did he decide to have falling fruit, and tilted vases, tables, paintings or twisted warped, walls and furniture with more than one view-point in a single painting? What was it that brought him to these considerations? The results are of course a still life that is anything but still.

I set up a third canvas

PLUMS APPLES AND MOSTLY SUNFLOWERS – resting 20 x 24 inch oil on canvas

The light IS filtered for most of my painting session this morning. Hence the contrasts are minimal as I paint the spaces in between enjoying the colours and the tension in the relationships.

I set up a four and small 8 x 10 inch canvas.

But after looking at it for a few moments I realize I am done. I have exhausted my drive to capture this particular still life. So with a room full of colour I begin to muse about these three works.

These three paintings are “resting” and they are still very much attached to the process of their painting. I have left them here in the window so that I may look at them unintentionally as I go about other tasks. I am checking to see that I truly feel they are complete. Sometimes this process takes hours before I am sure and other times it takes months. While I am doing this evaluation, a question came to mind:

Which room in a home or office would be best suited to hang these paintings?

You might think this is an odd question but many people who buy my paintings and photography prints hang the work in their bedrooms or in their private office space. I see these as the two most intimate places for people to choose to hang the pieces. Much of my work is in quieter colours with lots of natural blues, greens and earth shades. The paintings and photographs are full of movement yet the compositions are simple and spacious. Hence, it is easy for me to understand why the work might enhance restful and thoughtful spaces.

But these three are possibly not as visually quiet so it got me to wondering where they will most likely be hung. What do you think? If you were going to choose one or all three where would you hang them?

To help with size needs the smallest is 12 x 16 inches, the middle painting is 20 x 24 inches and the large painting is 24 x 36 inches.

So my curious mind wants to know – if you had a choice and these paintings arrived at your home, in what room would you hang them?

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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