art

Hanging at the Bennett Bay Bistro

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

No it is not a murder mystery. It is paintings – my large oil paintings on canvas are now hanging at the new *Bennett Bay Bistro* at the Mayne Resort on Mayne Island.

Summers are usually my busy time but you may ask – doing what? Well,during the summers our small island doubles in size with visitors and part-time residents and weekenders. This means getting my home studio ready for visitors and also put up new shows of my work in venues on the island.

The latest request came from Colleen Wadsworth, the owner of the  Bennett Bay Bistro at the Mayne Resort. When she asked if I would be willing to hang some of my paintings on her huge wall in the Bistro I had to swallow hard not to drool before I said a simple “of course, what did you have in mind?” Colleen took this photograph just after we got the four largest paintings up.

It was most fun and a pleasure to see the work display together like this. I afraid, my small studio does not afford such a luxurious viewing of these paintings. Here is one of the smaller paintings which most of you will be familiar with hanging on the far wall in a space by itself.

But dear readers, I also want give you a glimpse of the view if you look the other way from these paintings.

Isn’t this lovely? Even on an overcast day like today it is inspiring. How about we go out on the deck for a minute?

All this is served up with a fresh, fresh tasty small Bistro menu that will grow as the number of customers grow during the summer. I will try to get back to capture Colleen serving up some of these sumptuous offerings soon.

An admirer on G+ recently said “I will not be there. I live in Denmark. I hope you will share your work on G+” I replied yes and that I could even do better than this. All of these paintings are available for viewing and purchase in the *Artsy Home online Gallery* and arrangements can be made to ship them to you wherever you are. Now how is that for service?

Tomorrow, I will share with you the new show of 14 small paintings and photographs that are now showing at the Green House Restaurant. So see you then!

SPROUT: What is filling your days with vibrancy and simple abundance?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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A distant detail of painting in progress

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

It is Tuesday and my larger painting of  “Rainy Day by the Sea” has been “resting” since last Thursday. The long Easter weekend has come to an end and I have a long list of petty tasks to do. But first one must paint don’t you think?

Here is a 3 x 5 inch distant detail from the 16 x 20 inch painting I am working on. It was never intended to be viewed with such up-close scrutiny but I like doing this sometimes. The marks of paint only lightly suggest their subjects leaving lots of room for our imaginations.

SPROUT: What do you see or think you see in these fleeting strokes of paint?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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ROMANCING SUMMER BY THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Some paintings seem to guide the brush from the first stroke of the underpainting. The canvas, the brush and the artist move across the surface as if choreographed by a grand mistress of creativity.

Such was the case for this 30 x 30 inch oil on canvas painting ROMANCING SUMMER BY THE SEA. With a simple palette choice…

the painting slid onto the canvas and was simply there!

Oh it still needed to be built up and refined and brought to life but there was no question about the form, structure, tone or composition. Did this painting come out of some illusive muse? Possibly but it was highly influenced by several known influences. The first being my experience on Saturna Island last summer in August which provided the reference image and essence of a particularly spectacular summer morning on East Point. Secondly, I was reading THE SWAN THIEVES by Elizabeth Kostova which had been recommended to me by Patricia from Patricia’s Wisdom. If you have read the book you will know how deeply the sea, romance and painting are part of its gift to the reader. Finally, just before beginning this painting I was in an art gallery in Sidney B.C. and admiring an artist hand-embellished reproduction of “Evening thoughts” by Italian artist Pino Daeni. I have seen even an original Pino painting several times and reproductions many times. But this time I was admiring how he might accomplish that sensual mystery in his work. Then I asked myself, could I possibly capture this in a landscape, particularly one I loved and already could sense its sensual presence. Well, what do you think? Can I?

  (ROMANCING SUMMER BY THE SEA is available for purchase HERE) 

Of course my figure does not have flowing dresses. She is a strong muscular modern woman with little to give her gender away until you see her smile that touches her lightly around her eyes. But this won’t happen today. Today, we admire her enjoying the summer morning mist in August by the sea. There are also two detailed images of both the figure and the reflections on the water posted along with the painting at the “HERE” link above.

SPROUT: What has recently wooed your creativity? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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New paintings by Terrill Welch in the Artsy Home online Gallery

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Getting on with the painting of being an artist never seems to be an issue. But getting them out and available for you to purchase is as inspiring as sweeping cobwebs off the sealing. It is not that I don’t want them to be available for purchase. It is the tediousness of filling in all the boxes for posting that often has me saying to self “maybe I will just paint one more and then post them all together.” And we both know how that goes – one more becomes five more before I settle in to a quiet Sunday like today and start adding new work.

So just in case you have one of my original paintings on your “wishlist,” I now have a few more of my new paintings available on the Artsy Home online Gallery including this 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas –

REACHING THE SEA (Note: this painting is no longer available)

The full gallery of my original oil paintings currently available can be viewed at http://www.artsyhome.com/author/terrillwelch

Yes, there are still a few more to add. I am in the process of editing the photographs right after I post this for you. But there is one new one that will not be released until Wednesday. I promised to keep you posted 🙂

SPROUT: What is your very most favourite Sunday creative family rated activity? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON original painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

This 16 x 20 inch oil painting on gessobord was inspired by the Manarola Collaborative Project between G+ Painters and Photographers 2011 -12

Yes I have kept it a secret for almost six months 🙂

What a journey of personal discovery! It was October 15, 2011 when I finally get a chance to settle in and explore the images provide by the three photographers Elia Locardi, Marisa Williams and Mike Brzozowski. I have it in my mind I want to do a winter mid-afternoon painting of the village. I have never used any other photographer’s images as painting reference and I feel like my being is strapped to a narrow window on a high cliff. This is a location I have never experienced. I don’t know what it smells like. I can’t hear the sounds in the streets. I have no idea how the light falls at different times of day. What temperature is it? Does the wind blow a lot or a little? What does is feel like from one location in the village to another? What are the daily routines of living? When is it quietest? I realize that these are all threads and fibers that ground me in my paintings. What was I going to do.? I had to know. I couldn’t paint without knowing. So I went on a long journey of research discovering more images, blog posts and youtube videos to my learn from so that I could paint.

Using information as references from the photographs of all three photographers and more, here is the end result of my impressions of what Manarola might be like on a winter mid-afternoon day with its golden light. The fishermen have spent the afternoon in the pubs as they won’t be going out tonight. There is a storm coming. It took hours and even days. Finally I painted.

MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON 16 x 20 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch wood cradle by Terrill Welch

(I haven’t put this painting on the market yet but but it will be about $900 U.S. If you are interested send me an email )

More Background: A small group of G+ painters are inspired to paint Manarola in the Cinque Terre of Italy. The painters have never been to Manarola Italy and seek photography reference from photographers willing to give copyright permission to use their images in the creation of these paintings.

A small group of G+ photographers agreed to participate. Links to initial images for reference follow each photographer. I used a combination of these three photographs plus additional research to complete my painting.

Elia Locardi: https://plus.google.com/112957708071337353347/posts/UhLzeW8dEqi

Marisa Williams: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116975473087103045706/albums/5630380399468681713/5630690138668613394

Mike Brzozowski: https://plus.google.com/photos/103053238748819026069/albums/5200107765813493457

My heartfelt thanks to these photographers who shared their work so that I could create mine. You can meet all of the artists who participated and see their paintings as well as those that the photographers contributed in this album gallery HERE.

SEED: I have this great desire to learn more about this small fishing villiage. I now have Manarola Italy on my travel list.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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GREETING DAWN original painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

As the seagull tucks its head around the morning light sings out a warm greeting. This oil painting is 6 x 6 inches with a 2 inch wood cradle and is the smallest painting I have ever done. No frame required. This very small richly textured sunrise seascape is part of a new series “Squared to the Sea.”

GREETING DAWN would enhance a bedside, small bathroom wall, examining room or waiting area giving rise to serenity and peace.

UPDATE: February 10, 2012 This painting is now SOLD and off  to Dakota U.S. 

SEED: I am enjoying exploring this expanded sunrise and sunset palette of colours in both my painting and photography. I wonder what secrets these colours hold for us? Do they have a special place in our heritage of colour experience? I am starting with this children’s website for Weather Optical Illusions.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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ROCKS AT SUNRISE original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

The light catches the morning next to the rocks in a grand profusion of impressionist captured colour. Each brush stroke is singing a song of praise for the beginning of another day.

ROCKS AT SUNRISE  is an 8 x 8 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch birch cradle.

(Update April 22, 2013: this painting is no longer available for purchase ) 

There are no process images for this painting as it happened in a continuous flow. This post follows up from yesterday’s post “Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive” where a small detail of this painting was shared.

SPROUT: Can you share with us a link to your latest work that came forth in one continuous flow? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Claude Monet is quoted from a conversation with an American neighbour in Giverny as follows:

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever…. merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, hear a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene before you. (reference Claude Monet 1840-1926 by The Art Institute of Chicago catalog published 1995)

I suppose you think I am going to argue with this sound advice!? No I agree and my brushes feel the same. Yes, of course I consulted my brushes and they spoke to the canvas and we are all in the same painting with Monet. However, as we conferred we also notice that Monet had left something out in his recipe for painting. It is not enough to get the colour just right or the shape just so.

A painter must paint the desperation of wanting to stay alive.

Here is a very wet detail from my painting today where I worked on this “must.”

Image

No matter how beautiful and accurate the painting of the light or interesting the composition, the painting must leave the viewer with an understanding that the painter knows that the moment in the painting is a gift in time – one worth being alive to experience. This must be said in every brushstroke, every slice of the palette knife, every squeeze of the paint tube and in absolutely every decision the painter makes to execute her vision into that brief second of a moment on a canvas.

SPROUT: How do you create with the desperation of wanting to stay alive?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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REACHING THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

I never really know where a painting will take me. We start together from a humble beginning

and begin to build on those first foundations towards synergistic vision.

I find it is easy to get lost on a large canvas such as this 30 X 40 inch piece — lost in both structure and colour. I put paint markers like mental blazes in place to be able to stay on course. This is a larger colour palette than I usually select. But the painting seemed to be requesting it, so I went along.

Gradually the light and shadow references begin to take shape.

Good! Everything is still nice and loose. Unfortunately, I need to leave it for a few days. I enjoy a couple of details in the underpainting

that I know will eventually disappear.

Days pass and I walk by the painting pondering and anticipating my next chance to settle in for a good long stretch working my brush across its canvas. The time finally comes. I spend the day happily trying to “reach the sea.” But something is off. The painting is struggling and seems to be twisting on the canvas. What is it?

Hum! There that is what it is! Painting seascapes is a little like being a carpenter – measure the horizon line twice and paint once. I was down by half an inch to the left. I will let you in on a little secret. This “down a little on the left” is common for me both in painting and in my photographs. For whatever reason, I will pull down to the left. I am left-handed and see better out of my left eye so this might be part of the issue. But leveling takes care of these things nicely. How many times to I paint the horizon line in a seascape? Many. It is critical to getting the distance or depth in the paint and getting it to “settle” on the canvas. Time to pause for a moment.

There are a few challenging and unusual elements to this painting. First, the focal point is the lower top right third. Most often, we expect the composition to work from details in the foreground to less in the background. This painting is forcing the viewer’s eye past the foreground towards the reflections near the end of the reef. Hence the name of the work “REACHING THE SEA.”  Secondly, the sun is in front of us reflecting on the water creating deep shadows and light patterns that are more difficult for me to represent by having my brush following the light. It is a painting that is moving towards the viewer and demands, not asks, that the viewer meet it two-thirds of the way into the frame. That was the painting’s idea. I am usually much more polite.

We are almost there…

The painting has never really tightened up and the layers have built themselves in the generous way of land and sea in perpetual transformation. I have heard many times that green is one of the most difficult colours to mix. The green of seaweed. The brown of sandstone. The diverse blues of the sea. The brightness of the facing the midday sun. The deep shadows of the shoreline. Thank heavens for the light, softness of the sky! … I see a few wayward brushstrokes, maybe a little lighter over here and yes, a little darker over there. Done!

REACHING THE SEA 30 x 40 original oil painting by Terrill Welch

As usual, I need to paint the edges yet before putting it on the market. But very soon. I will just need to make a day of it do nothing but paint edges!

 

SPROUT: What unusual adventures has your creativity taken you on lately? 

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

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Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

This morning as I stepped out in the dark on our side deck to hand grind my morning coffee beans, fine snow brushed my cheeks. It smelt of winter and reminded me of damp wool and hot chocolate.

COASTAL WINTER STORM  (12 X 12 inch oil on canvas) is like this.

 

It is like today on the southern Gulf Islands.

Yesterday’s post “Begin a painting with no punctuation” is the only process image I captured.  But here is a detail of the final image so you can better see the loose layering of paint.

The painting still must have its edges painted so is not quite ready for the online gallery ArtsyHome where I am the feature artist this week. (feature has the capacity to leave a comment too – which would be nice if you feel so inclined) But soon. However, you can lay claim to it now if you want. Just send me a direct message and we can work out the details. The price is $550.00 U.S. including shipping.

When I become a really famous artist I will have an assistant who will paint the edges of my paintings, add the picture wire, put them in the inventory program and then package them up to send to buyers. I shall paint and only take a break to make soup and go for long walks with my camera.

I am also a featured member in the Beautiful BC Art redbubble group this week.  You may want to drop in and see all the stunning work that is on display by other photographers, including an image by a fellow Mayne Island photographer Toby Snelgrove.

A happy customer posted the arrival of my painting STORM COMING and talks about the dilemma of where to hang the painting so everyone in the family can enjoy it.

So it seems it is a good week to be an artist and I am ever-so-grateful for you company, support and encouragement. Thank you!

SPROUT: What will you hire an assistant to help you with when you become famous? 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

 

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