What do original paintings of Emily Carr, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris and Terrill Welch have in common?

October 22, 2012November 18, 2015 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

What do original paintings of Emily Carr, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris and Terrill Welch have in common? The answer is almost beyond belief – paintings by these Canadian artists are owned by the same art collectors! There I have said it out loud. I am guessing you might want to hear more about this story, yes? I thought so….

The buyers who recently purchased my large 36 x 36 inch oil on canvas seascape, “Sea and Clouds,” had mentioned in our email exchanges that they trusted I would be impressed about the company my painting would be keeping. I made a mental note from this comment that they were art collectors. I have been selling my work to art collectors of contemporary art since I was fourteen years old. Often, my paintings sell before they are even eligible for varnishing and sometimes even before the painting is dry to the touch. So this is not something new for me. But I never suspected that my painting would be rubbing corners with other such valuable collectable paintings in Canadian art as mentioned above. The thought never even crossed my mind. I wouldn’t even have been able to imagine it. Never! I paint. I muse and have imaginary conversations with these historic painters about painting problems, life as a Canadian artist and so on. But that is about it. It is all imaginary. Their paintings themselves seem very distant from my daily work as an artist.

When I arrive at the buyer’s home we go through the usual pleasantries and meeting of the dogs and so on. I give them a portfolio for their records with a signed copy of my art book, the receipt and a copy of the blog post where I shared the painting’s development. I then bring in the wrapped painting. I focused on meeting the new owners and getting my bearings. I am always a little nervous meeting new people and new buyers of my work. I have decided it is a perfectly normal human response. Though admittedly, the nervousness could have something to do with the days and weeks I spend working alone in my studio on an island and seeing few others in person beyond my husband.

The new owner of “Sea and Clouds” helped to take the coverings off the large painting.

“Ah!” he said, never taking his eyes off the canvas “It is just as I remembered it when we first saw it!”

Though the painting was back in my studio when the couple contacted me, it had been shown over the summer at the Bennett Bay Bistro in the Mayne Inn. This is where they had first seen and admired the work.

Sold! Sea and Clouds 36 x 36 inch oil on canvas

Then the art collector walks across the living room with the painting and leans it safely against a cabinet on the far wall.

At this point, he turns to me, loosely waves his arm around the room and says “so these are a few of the paintings in our collection. This one here, as you will know, is an Emily Carr and these….”

I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. I am stunned. I look up to the painting above where he had set my painting and there was a large Emily Carr Painting – Emily Carr! The same Emily Carr who is my personal muse and mentor. The same Emily Carr who is the painter whose art journal I read regularly whenever I feel isolated and doubtful about my work. It is the same Emily Carr who is a prominent part of Canadian Art history. It is the Emily Carr whose painting sold at auction last year for an unmentionable number of dollars. It is that Emily Carr – the same one. Emily Carr my kindred spirit. Her painting is now hanging just above my painting that is leaning against the cabinet in the art collectors’ home.

It took me several moments to gather my wits about me as the art buyers showed me other Canadian works by painters from the same period. I finally seemed to be able to engage my stunned brain by the time the buyer handed me a small A.Y. Jackson study to have a look at. At this point, we talked about painting studies, process and brushstrokes. The couple told me about the Lawren Harris painting they have and how it didn’t look like much until a person stood back from the painting. It looked like just paint up close. They tell me it is an artist’s vision not the number of brushstrokes that makes a quality painting. I could have reached out and hugged them both for that comment. I knew my painting was going to be in a good home with this lovely, warm and generous couple.

As a Canadian landscape and seascape painter, there is nothing I ever want for one of my paintings than to be bought because the buyers love it – such as it is with this painting. It is an unexpected and pleasant bonus to have one of my paintings collected by those who also love and enjoy the most prominent historical Canadian art work that also has influenced my own painting, not so much in style but as in preferred choice of subject matter – the Canadian landscape. It was a good day for this artist. A very good day indeed.

I am taking a bow for the love of Art and the Canadian Landscape. Will you join me?

Now I am back to painting and preparing the underpainting for a new 4 x 5 foot canvas. More on this in the near future.

Thank you to all of you who continue join me on my painting and photographic journey here at Creative Potager and elsewhere. You are the best and a big part of what adds value and connection to my everyday life as an artist living on a small island off the southwest coast of Canada. May your today bring with it creative abundance.

If your creative work could enjoy the company of other historical prominent mentors, in your wildest dreams, who would it be?

Update April 2015: These collectors have now added a second “Terrill Welch” original oil painting to their art collection shown below…

Sold! Point No Point Mid-storm 16 x 20 inch walnut oil on canvas

Point No Point Mid-storm 16 x 20 inch walnut oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2015_04_25 137

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

Emily Carr watercolour expected to fetch $300K at Calgary auction (metronews.ca)
The Nurse’s Place Clinton B.C. – Plein Air painting (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Autumn Sliced with a Tear

October 19, 2012July 14, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

Just the highlights from a painter and photographer’s last five days…

Sunday – Today is one of those slow-baked, melancholy west coast Sundays, so moist and tender you can slice it with a tear.

Autumn Sliced with a Tear

(available in my redbubble store at HERE)

Monday – new painting.

To see at a glance the cliffside, the sea and the movement of light across the canvas. This unframed 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas is a studio-finished plein air impressionist painting of one of the most beautiful location on the southern most gulf Island off the west coast of Canada.

Fiddlers Cliffside Saturna Island – oil painting

This painting is now in a private collection.

Tuesday – After an appointment this morning I slipped off to the sea – for no reason other than to say “hello” to the sea, the sun and today.

Here is Today

Wednesday – Perfect for today…. Moroccan Harira Soup

Every time I make this soup I do something a little different. Today it was 1/2 cup of dried organic French du Puy Lentils instead of the ready-to-go canned ones. Just add the dried lentils at the same time as the carrots. Enjoy and feel free to add and delete veggies… it all works. No potatoes or cabbage in mine today 🙂

Thursday – Seagull Cry Mayne Island

These gray days are as much a part of west coast life as the gulls. Loneliness and aloneness are so close that they whisper to each other and can be heard above the wind and pelting rain.

There is a Haiku poem by Alexis Rotella that came to mind as I closed in on framing this image….

The Gull
giving loneliness
sound.

SPROUT: What are some of the high lights of your creative week?

P.S. I left out the event of locking my keys in the car over by the daffodil garden. It was not a highlight. Thankfully, because the kindness of one of our Mayne Island residents, it was only a minor bleep in the week.

Today I have a long list of tasks in preparation to leave for the big city Vancouver B.C. on Friday morning. I wish all the best for today and the weekend.

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

Early November Sea oil painting by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
New homes for Art and other studio musings (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island en plein air painting morning (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

The Nurse’s Place Clinton B.C. – Plein Air painting

September 2, 2012June 7, 2023 / Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

There is something extremely companionable about a painter with all her gear packed in the car, a partner who likes to sleep in and an overnight stop in the small village of 740 residents in Clinton, British Columbia. As the darkness gathered tightly around a warm late-August evening, I scouted my morning plein air location. I wanted some place a little off the beaten path but not so far I couldn’t carry my french box easel and camera. This is what I found. I was standing here ready to set up to paint at just after 8:30 in the morning…

With a blank canvas on the easel

I had about an hour to capture all I was going to capture.

What was most important? What shall I leave out? How shall I begin? With a large brush, I start to answer these questions as I rough in the view.

Notice the top of the painting and how the clip is not holding the painting in place. When plein air painting the light and the weather often change quickly. About 45 minutes into my painting session this oversight of that loose top clip becomes a grave error.

Yes, you guessed it. A large gust of wind came tearing down the valley and, to my horror, flipped this small painting off the easel and smack on its face in the gravel bits on the road. Disappointed, I pick it up and secure things a little better for next time.

While I was still assessing the damage and deciding what – if anything – I could do next, the neighbour from the place on the other side of the road behind me came up and asked if I minded if he had a look. This is when I learned that I was painting “The Nurse’s Place.” With a promise to give him a call when the painting was completed, I conceded that my time was up. I started to pack my gear and with the painting tightly secured to the easel headed back to the Cariboo Lodge where my dear sweet husband proclaimed that he loved the painting, gravel and all. I gave a grim half smile while silently saying a small prayer to the gods that look after plein air painters and their paintings to allow the gravel bits to roll off the canvas once it had dried. Then we went for a late breakfast and I refused to look at the painting again until today.

To my delight, the small bits of gravel rolled off the canvas and I was able to finish up the painting in the studio.

THE NURSE’S PLACE CLINTON B.C. 9 x 12 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch

Update June 2023: This painting is now SOLD

Well, at least most of the gravel is gone. If a person looks very closely there is still a little Cariboo grit on that canvas. But I think that is only as it should be. I am calling it DONE! My next task is to place a call to the wonderful neighbour who dropped by to see how the painting was coming along.

SPROUT: When was the last time you courted disaster only to have it give you a good hard flip?

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

Mayne Island en plein air painting morning (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Early November Sea oil painting by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
An interview with Terrill Welch by Charles van Heck (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Psssst! Today is The Artist Studio Floor Show

August 31, 2012September 1, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

It is here – one day only The Artist Studio Floor Show.

World Clock for this Event
09:00 (9:00 AM) CDST Aug. 31, 2012 through 09:00 (9:00 AM) CDST Sept. 1, 2012
What is a the Studio Floor Show?

Artists paint. Artists accumulate work. A lot of work. It’s that simple.

Sometimes that work never finds its way to a gallery or exhibition and sits on the artist’s studio floor. That inventory can become unmanageable, taking up valuable creative space and the artist must do something. Throughout the years, artists would open their studios to the public and sell their work at a sacrifice in order to make room. The art is usually stacked and leaning against walls, on the floor… hence the name. As one patron once told me, “It’s like mining for gold”.

Historically, these shows are held in brick and mortar studios, but with the advent of the internet, it is now possible for you to enjoy the excitement of attending one of these shows… right from the comfort of your home.

The Artist Studio Floor Show will present these virtual shows on the same premise as in the real world. They will be for one day only, for twenty-four hours from the posted start date and time. Each participating artist will exhibit their work on this site with a link to their respective websites. You will be able to purchase your art directly from the artist… from their studio.

Note: Sales at floor show prices cannot be completed until Aug. 31st, per the published time (above), and for a 24 hour period only.

Floor Show Presentation

C. J. Shane