Tulips on the deck of the Springwater lodge en plein air

April 29, 2013November 2, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

Oh! Just look at them! All sassy with their scarlet, tangerine, and soft pink skirts on. These particular tulips are a season favourite here on Mayne Island. I just HAD to paint them. I asked permission to bring easel and paints right to the deck for a painting session. Let’s have a 22 second look and get a good feel for the situation…

So with paint on my cheeks and my tea left to get cold I give it my best.

After about an hour and half, it is definitely there! Doing a little en plein air dance around the deck. Oops! There are people here. I hadn’t noticed. A few adjustment are going to be needed but this is it for this day.

Back in the studio I work away until I feel it has come together. You see, I really do not get a lot of opportunity to paint with red. I like it but it kind of needs to be approached with respect. I suppose most colours do but red is my stand-back-and give-it-some-room colour. Shall we see what we have?

Tulips Springwater Deck Mayne Island – 20 x 16 inch oil on canvas

Update August 10, 2013: This painting is SOLD to an art collector in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Now I am going to let you in on a little secret. I am working on a much looser more textured experimental version of this same painting in the studio. It is too early to share and it may never be shared but I thought you just might like to know anyway. Red, lots of red and orange. Yum!…. Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone.

What is your stand-back-and give-it-some-room colour?

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

Oil landscape paintings – three new releases and three to ship (terrillwelchartist.com)
Finding the Rhythm of the Sea in oil on canvas in the art studio (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Contemporary Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
Active Pass Breaking Cloud Cover – a morning shadow photograph (terrillwelchartist.com)
More Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
Why Artists Should Try Painting En Plein Air At Least Once (longdensarronart.wordpress.com)

The treasured Pacific Dogwood or Cornus nuttallii

April 21, 2013April 21, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

The Pacific Dogwood or Cornus nuttallii small tree or shrub is protected in British Columbia. It is actually not all that common except in the lower western corner of the Province but has the distinction of being the Provincial flower. I have been admiring one such specimen on Mayne Island for a few years now.

Isn’t it just grand? The flower or leaf petals are a stunning greenish cream-white. With some rather tame bushwhacking I was able to get up a wee closer so we can have a good study of these beauties.

The actual flower of this plant is the greenish ball in the center. I understand it is suppose to flower spring AND fall but I only seem to notice in the spring. Though the dark red berries are bitter they are the culinary delight of pigeons, quail, grosbeaks, hermit thrushes, and waxwings. Bears and beavers enjoy the fruit and foliage, and deer eat the twigs.

Some aboriginal people used the wood, which is fine-grained, hard and heavy, for bows and arrows. More recently, the Cowichan people on Vancouver Island made knitting needles from it.

The Straits Salish made a tanning agent from the bark. The Thompson people made dyes – deep brown from the bark, black when mixed with grand fir, and red from the roots.

The wood has been used for piano keys. Pacific dogwood varieties are attractive ornamental plant in coastal gardens.

But remember if you see one – British Columbia Legislation protects the Pacific dogwood from being dug up or cut down.

Reference and more about this plant: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/pacificdogwood.htm

Also, it has been a week of finding more homes for paintings and releasing some new ones for sale. Find out more on Terrill Welch Artist at “Oil landscape paintings – three new releases and three to ship”

Can you share with us the flower emblem of your Province or State?

Wishing a wonderful week ahead with many creative adventures!

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 Story of the Swamp Lantern (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
More Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
Wabi Sabi Feng Shui Nature and Photography (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
West Coast Blues in photography and painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Springwater Lodge en Plein Air

April 14, 2013April 19, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

There is a seductive pleasure about painting out in the open or en plein air. The weather forecast is rather a mixed bag of cloud and sun. I wonder if we should chance it? What it doesn’t say is that it is heavy breaking cloud which is delicious light.

Oh, why not. The worst that will happen is we get a little wet. I trundle my French Box easel, camera bag which also has my iPad inside and another bag of painting gear down to the beach in Miners Bay. Let’s see if we can get a wee bit of a shared experience here…

At least there is sun on the far shore of Galiano Island.

But I am still leaning towards painting the Springwater Lodge as my subject.

It is only about 6 degrees Celsius . or 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit. My fingers and the paint are both stiff. As the birds sing and the waves keep me company that brush starts to work its magic.

This is it for images of works-in-progress on site for this painting. Darn if that big old cloud behind me didn’t get stuck on the cliff as it came over. Big fat drops have me running with the painting, my camera and iPad for cover. Good thing the painting was mostly done! Here is a shot of the more-or-less finished painting taken back at the studio.

SPRING AT THE SPRINGWATER LODGE MAYNE ISLAND 11 x 14 inch oil on canvas plein air

Update April 19, 2013: This painting has SOLD to an art collector in Alberta, Canada.

Established in 1892 the Springwater Lodge is situated above Miners Bay in Active Pass, on Mayne Island. The Springwater Lodge is the oldest continuously operated hotel in British Columbia. During the Fraser River and the Caribou gold rush, the lodge was a favourite stopover for miners.

reference: http://www.springwaterlodge.com/history.htm

Keeping your responses family-friendly, what is your favourite Sunday seductive creative pleasure?

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

Finding the Rhythm of the Sea in oil on canvas in the art studio (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Contemporary Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
Peninsula’s Fifth Annual Plein Air Competition (peninsulaartacademy.wordpress.com)
West Coast Blues in photography and painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
More Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)

Magnolias and the Galloping Art Work

April 8, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

Magnolias how varied and lovely are your blooms. Some as white as white

and others so pink as to be purple.

Small shrubs or large trees and star or plump petals you are always special to me.

Magnolias, may you give me courage to share the predicament of the art work which is galloping out of the studio as shown in today’s Terrill Welch Artist website post “More Canadian Landscape Paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD!” Four more oil paintings and a medium-size fine art photography print to be exact. This brings the total to eight paintings and three photography prints sold since the middle of January. It may not sound like much but it represents several thousands of dollars of art work going off to new homes.

I was asked by a dinner guest on the weekend how it felt to have my work meet with such success. I replied with a raised eyebrow and a soft shrug. You see, it is really not particularly comfortable to be in the lime light of my selling art work. Rather than being a comfort, I instead, feel a sense of panic and almost anxiety. Over the years, I haven’t been able to nail what this is about but definitely recognized the repeating result of the experience. I finally replied to my guest that it must be like other artistic expressions. Once a song is released or a book published or a painting sold it often feels like an ending rather than a beginning for the creator. There is an irrational fear that it is the last “good” one and that there will be no more. Silly I know. However, I can attest to the actuality of this emotion. Since I have been selling my art work from the time I was fourteen years old, I wish I could say it is getting easier over time but this is not so. Thankfully, the feeling only lasts until the next painting is off the easel or the next photography print is made available for purchase. Balance and clarity is then restored until the next sale. Odd isn’t it?

Well, let’s get started with balance…

Study in White Star Magnolia

(Image available for detailed viewing and purchase HERE)

If you are comfortable sharing, what quirky anxiety accompanies your creative success?

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

Finding the Rhythm of the Sea in oil on canvas in the art studio (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Contemporary Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
West Coast Blues in photography and painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
The Story of the Swamp Lantern (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

The Story of the Swamp Lantern

April 1, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Swamp lantern is a beautiful name for our wild western skunk cabbage or Lysichiton americanus. My first experience with this smelly beauty was when I was five years old and I was walking with my mother in the early evening along a logging skid trail.

We were living in our small portable bunk house right on the edge of the logging landing where the cats skidded the logs in and the loaders loaded them up on the logging trucks for their long trip from the middle-of-no-where in Cariboo country British Columbia to the sawmill in Williams Lake. The close proximity to the working logging area meant that we had to stay inside the small two room cabin on skids during working hours. How my mother did this with two young children and a baby I can’t even begin to image.

My mother loved to be outside as much as we did so when the whistle blew and the last machine shut down we were out the door and walking the nearest skid trail that went through the swamp area behind the landing and then beyond. In the low light of the heavily treed forest, infused with dank freshly turned earth, next to the pungent swamp, is where I encountered my first swamp lantern. Gorgeous!

The blossom petals are an unbelievably bright, almost opaque yellow accompanied by cabbage-like exotic tropical foliage. Each plant also has a distinctively phallic stamen that is somehow unavoidable more pronounced in any compositional photograph than when in the presence of the plant itself. However, all in all, this is a most beautiful native announcement of early spring. But after these beauties have been blooming for a while – the smell! Once it has traveled up your nasal passages, you will never, ever forget – skunk cabbage!

Our western variety is not good to eat because as it contains calcium oxalate crystals which would be much like eating crushed glass. This caution does not apply if you are a bear. The swamp lantern or skunk cabbage is an important part of bear’s spring laxative tonic when it come out of hibernation.

The plants large, waxy leaves were important to indigenous people for food preparation and storage. They were commonly used to line berry baskets and to wrap around whole salmon and other foods when baked under a fire. It is also used to cure sores and swelling.

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysichiton_americanus

What wild spring flowers are powerful connections to one of your childhood memories?

P.S. Three more paintings have sold over the weekend but I will tell you more about this in another post soon. All the best of Easter Monday to you!

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

First Spring Flowers – Terry Thormin (vancouverislandnature.wordpress.com)
Spring: In many places, it’s earlier than ever (blogs.seattletimes.com)

Finding the Rhythm of the Sea in oil on canvas in the art studio

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Painting en plein air is wonderful and the easiest way to feel your landscape through the paintbrush and onto the canvas. However, weather and the size of the a work does not always make this the most practical approach. So I photograph my subjects from various perspectives. Then using sometimes years of memory about a subject along with a series of reference images, I am then prepared to work on a specific landscape in my small studio. This canvas is a good size at 20 x 40 inches. Finished paintings and blank canvases are going to have to squeeze in their edges and squish together to make room for this fellow.

While I am getting the set up and the painting roughed in I thought I would answer a question for you. I am often asked about how I get my ideas for my photographs and paintings. The most honest answer is that the ideas find me as I observe my everyday life. I capture and paint what I notice, what I see, feel, smell and hear. I am influenced by events that are happening in my life. If I am mournful, excited or weary it will show up in what I notice. What is most relevant is my daily practice of noticing. The ideas are always there. My primary task is to notice and to act on what I notice. Today’s work comes from a moment in September a few years ago when the sea rolled itself with eloquent expression onto the shore at Edith Point. Let’s rough it in and see what we have.

You may notice that I do not sketch my work onto the canvas. This is something I have never done as I prefer to make some basic marks with paint and then paint up an underpainting to guide me. Sometimes this underpainting is a complementary colour. Other times, such as this one, I stay close to the palette that will become the finished painting.

Much of the scene is in a late afternoon shadow, and the haze is heavy from the smoke of forest fires. The rhythm of the sea and the simplicity of the moment is so strong that my brush seems to know the path by heart. Hours pass with nothing but my humming and the sound of the palette knife mixing paint and the brush applying it to the canvas. The light is past its prime in the studio. I need some distance. Shall we carefully take the wet thing outside and have a look?

It is coming I think, but will have to sit until tomorrow now. My body is stiff and a bit tired from standing and reaching most of the day, but it feels good. I have intimately noticed the rhythm of the sea.

I want to continue to work wet-on-wet or alla prima on this canvas so I begin again the next afternoon and work with the studio lights until very late into the evening. Finally, the painting comes to rest.

Resting is an observable and intuitive state of a painting’s development. It is when the elements of the painting have found their place on the canvas in relationship to each other. Yet, they are still alive with energy and vitality. In this case, the sea is still rolling forward onto the shore. The trees are still tingling from the days sun. The rocks are releasing their summer heat as the water charges across their surface. I am there. You are there. The salt spray is moist on our skin and the rhythm of the sea matches our breath, our heartbeat, and answers a call to all that is knowable.

The resting period is also a time to critically view the painting with fresh eyes. Is there anything odd or irritating that can be corrected? Is there anything that can strengthen the expression of the piece? Does the painting work? Is it finished? This process of evaluation can happen in a minute or it may take weeks. For this painting I left it for seven days while I was away. I came home and looked at it and decided it is done, finished. A final photograph is required and then it will be released over at Terrill Welch Artist later in the week.

First, I must get a new show ready to hang at the Green House Restaurant here on Mayne Island. Here is a short video from my home studio sharing sneak preview of the 18 paintings that will be shown…

Well, that is it for a week in the life of this artist.

What does a week in the life of your creativity include?

I so much look forward to hearing from you.

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

Contemporary Canadian Landscape paintings by Terrill Welch SOLD! (terrillwelchartist.com)
West Coast Blues in photography and painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Artist Studio in real time (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Sliced with a Tear – a large autumn Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Wanted alive not perfect – still life painting with Paul Cézanne (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Plein Air Affair honors longtime Hofwyl-Broadfield trustee (jacksonville.com)

March 13, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

Do you have any ideas what is the appeal of these Terrill Welch original landscape paintings that has them so quickly finding new homes? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Terrill Welch

The global economy is as dreary as a rainy day in a Gulf Island west coast winter. Disposable income for luxuries like original art is supposedly shrinking. Why then are these original Terrill Welch contemporary Canadian landscape oil paintings selling like ice-cream on sunny July afternoon? The oil paintings are possibly pricey by emerging artist standards. So it is not because they are cheap. The oil paintings are not realism, highly polished or framed. Nor are the paintings painted in the repetitive series that is sometimes common with contemporary art. So it is not because they will appeal to a conservative art buyer who is buying something similar to what other buyers have purchased. In fact, “contemporary” may even be a questionable designation, other than it relates to the present, as the paintings likely have more in common with late 1800 impressionism than most studio landscape and en plein…

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West Coast Blues in photography and painting

March 6, 2013December 22, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

Yes, my yes! We do have sun! I am always fascinated how our west coast blues means a bright sunny day to me and yet often other will comment that it looks rather cold 🙂

Of course it is a bit brisk for sure but not cold. I am wearing only a sweater as I press myself as close to the water as possible…

(Image is available in my Redbubble storefront HERE)

Ah the Salish Sea and our west coast blues. Oyster Bay on Mayne Island has never been more compelling. I love how these moments so easily connect land, sea and sky as one. What a morning!

Of course the very next day… I just had to take out my brushes. It was something that just must be done!

WEST COAST BLUES study 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

In less than 24 hours after this painting study was completed it has been sold. It never made it to being posted in its work-in-progress “resting” state on my Creative Potager blog. Nor did it make it to being posted as “released” on my Terrill Welch Artist website. The buyer scooped it up from its post on Facebook yesterday. Still to wet to move, its new home is waiting for its eventual arrival. This kind of early sale of a still-wet oil painting seems to be happening more frequently than one might expect.

What do these early sales of wet paintings mean for buyers and collectors watching and waiting for “their painting” to come off of my easel?

My advice would be to make an offer as soon as you are sure about a painting. But even if a painting disappears before you get the chance to make an offer, have faith that, in time, I shall paint another you will find suitable. Or a buyer can commission a size and subject matter for a painting that they would like. Because of my painting style and my general character, I do not do specific commissions where the end result is predetermined by the buyer. Canvas size and subject are about as far as I can commit.

The other stickler that sometimes keeps buyers waiting until after the painting they would like has sold is of course – money. Even my smaller studies are pricy and are due to increase in price again by the end of the month. However, for buyers where there is some level of mutual trust, I can do a lay-away purchase option where the painting is purchased in three equal payments (or by some other agreeable payment plan) and is then delivered to the buyer when the last payment has been received. As a full-time artist and photographer, this option has always been a win-win for both me and the purchaser. If I have a few sales being made by this method, then there is always the known expectation of funds coming in and the paintings are more accessible for purchase by the buyer.

Well, enough about all that! Many thanks to all who enjoy and support my paintings and photography that are mostly of the west coast of Canada.

What creative Blues do you find most inspiring?

P.S. New Featured Oil Paintings are up at Terrill Welch Artists.

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

Winter Afternoon West Coast Ferry Home oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Sliced with a Tear – a large autumn Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Evening Thunderclouds over the Strait of Georgia – dramatic seascape sky painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Artist Studio in real time (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Pear Trees in Winter First Light – small oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Wabi Sabi Feng Shui Nature and Photography

February 27, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

Sometimes the grand seascapes of the west coast winter are just too gray and flat to hold my attention.

When this happens I look elsewhere to see what I can feel and see by the sea. This is when I am most often consciously drawn to beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” or the wabi-sabi nature of our natural environment.

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. Andrew Juniper in Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence describes wabi-sabi this way: “if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.” Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Feng Shui on the other hand comes from the discipline of Kan Yu or the Tao of heaven and earth. The term feng shui literally translates as “wind-water” in English. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui

In both wabi-sabi and feng shui there is an element of human use or organization to replicate and appreciate our natural world. So, when the view on the horizon is less than inspiring, I sometimes seek to photograph these natural relationships between feng shui elements with their full embodiment of characteristics of wabi-sabi at sources – without human use or organization.

These wabi-sabi, feng shui nature photographs seldom make it to my blogs or my online galleries for purchase. They are a meditation or spiritual practice rather than an end result. However, today I am going to share a few of these images with you.

In the trees…

Arbutus Splendor

Looking into the deep woods on Henderson Hill gives way to the splendor of the the arbutus trees. Their tangle of light-seeking branches reach elegantly under and around in search of the sky.

A new conversation

Though it is just the end of February there are many signs that a new spring season is beginning here on Mayne Island. One of these is the shedding of the bark on the arbutus trees and the revealing of the fresh new skin on of these sensual trees. It is such a tactile sensory visual experience that I walk along running my hands over their smooth exposed trunks.

Arbutus Bark Natural Design

The pealing and curling captures natural the movement of time in its everyday way of being.

Out on a limb

Trees seem to have invented the strength of the spiral. In our occasional high winds I am often amazed that so few trees are blown to the ground. This spiraling is I believe part of the mystery.

On the forest floor…

While, when the big landscapes fail to impress on a heavy overcast west coast afternoon, the little things sometimes become more beautiful than ever. This is fresh new moss growing on the rocks. So very soft and lovely on the eyes and to the touch.

By the Sea…

A Dance through Time

Over and over they tango the sea and the shore until they are shaped as one. I am squished between the land and sea begging the sky to intervene. Have you been there?

Shell Sand Sea – a love story

The tide is going out. As the water leaves in a wave of salty tears, the shell of a varnish clam remains, embracing the sand.

Butter Clam 1

The round butter clam brings vitality to the gray and the stones by the sea.

Mussels and Seaweed

The connected and passage of relationships crush and sweep away any sense of isolation. Yet, the inner scream of longing cries out to be heard, noticed and cherished.

Plump Oyster

What belly can grumble with such nourishing abundance for the taking?

Another Layer

There is yet another layer of temporary impermanence. We know in this continuation we are but a moment of moments lost to infinity.

Drifting

Our live bits drifting with the dead, the dying and such shall we become.

Such is the nature of wab-sabi feng shui in my natural world of photography. May this imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete Tao of heaven and earth bring you a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing.

What wabi-sabi feng shui nature influences your life?

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

Feng Shui Basics (navarrahong.com)
Wabi Sabi Writing (deborahbrasket.wordpress.com)
Wabi-Sabi – Beauty in Impermanence (everydaygurus.com)
Photographing and Painting seams in time with John Daido Loori (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Stop feeding the WOW-smacked dragon! (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Reef Bay Morning Experienced – west coast seascape oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

February 21, 2013February 21, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 5 Comments

New west coast winter Canadian landscape painting FOG INSIDE PASSAGE released today…

Related articles

At Dusk a small Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Evening and the Arbutus Tree – a large west coast oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Sliced with a Tear – a large autumn Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Unraveling the artistic influences and intentions behind the painting EVENING AND THE ARBUTUS TREE (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Terrill Welch

Winter fog in the southern gulf islands is often dense and close to the sea. Islands appear and disappear as the ferries take passengers through the inside passage. The mysterious landscape has a beauty that is hard to know unless one lives with it for the long winter months of off-season quiet. This 12 x 24 inch oil on canvas is my rendering of this tactile west coast Canadian landscape experience.

FOG INSIDE PASSAGE