New original oil painting THE VIEW

February 4, 2011February 4, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 36 Comments

This painting shall be a bit of a surprise I suspect. As I mentioned on Monday, I have only one 15 minute sketch of a figure, a few passages from The Underpainter by Jane Urquahart and an image for a painting that wouldn’t leave me along.

I set up my palette and haphazardly mix a couple of colours in the usual loose Terrill Welch fashion.

You may have noticed before, I do not usually sketch in my paintings but prefer to use an underpainting to guide the development of my work. However, I did put in just a view pencil lines on this 24 X 18 inch canvas for this one.

A few quick strokes with a large brush as the story begins to unfold…

“Still it moved me, this wildness, and so I drew Sara standing by windows, looking out towards the frantic lake, the hectic sky. I drew her stillness in the face of torn clouds and rain – I wanted that contrast. Also, I was attracted by the muted light that came into a room when the sun is buried under blankets of heavy clouds, the soft-blue tinge in lends to the skin.” (p,167)

Using my sketch as reference I create the composition – not standing as in the story but sitting and unlike the sketch, she is leaning slightly out a window. Neither the story, nor the sketch is a perfect fit. I am on my own with mostly the image of the woman in my mind’s eye for guidance.

The underpainting is complete. I need to let the painting rest and set up. If you look carefully you can see that the figure is clearly looking left as in the sketch and as I intended.

“The next day the storm had finally worn itself out. The sky was a piercing shade of blue, and not a tree, not a leaf was moving. But the upheaval in the lake, the thunderous noise, was worse than ever; the water inkier, the whitecaps whiter…. In the middle of the morning – there was sunlight now, coaxing an impression of pastel colours from under her skin – Sara leaned her forehead against the glass of the window and said, “I can’t do this I can’t stand her any more.” (p. 169)

I start to build up the image. The colours are harsh and seem like they will never come together. I am tired. I have been painting for a long while. I didn’t notice at this point but she is starting to come alive on the canvas and has turned her head slightly to the right.

“I put my brush down on the ledge of the easel. “All right, we’ll take a break then, “I said, though nothing in wanted to stop.

“No, it’s not that…” she said. “I can’t look at the lake any more. I can’t bear it.”

I stared silently at her familiar back. I never thought about what Sara would be doing while she was posing. I was interested in anything that belonged to her in the immediate vicinity, felt that knowledge of the objects around her would enrich my drawings and paintings. But while I was working I believed that the gesture I ha prescribed was absolute; her pose, my line, the contour of her shoulder working its way into the composition on the page. I believed that I was drawing – deliberately drawing space around me so completely there would be no other impressions possible beyond the impression I controlled.” (p. 170)

I am happy with how far I have come with the painting. But you can now see that she has turned her head completely and is looking out at the view on the right. Who am I to argue? Not that it would have done much good I am sure. This is one refined and determined woman.

“There full days of staring at a seething lake, larger and wilder than some oceans, a man seated behind you concentrating on the seventh vertebra of your spine or the blue veins at the back of your knees, the dispassionate scratch of the pencil reproducing the creases in you flesh. What did I know of that?” (p.170)

My body aches with the fatigue of painting. My mind plays with that of the woman I am painting. “Who are you?” I ask. But she does not answer. I listen to her essence as it slips between me and the canvas. Finally, I can do no more. I must leave it until morning.

“It would be years before I could admit that although I wanted every detail of her in my painting – her body, her ancestry, her landscape, her house – wanted the kind of intimacy that involved not just the rendering of her physical being but also the smell of her skin and hair, the way she moved around her kitchen, the sounds at the back of her throat when she made love, I would have preferred not to have been known by her at all.” (p.170)

I wake a five a.m. anxious for daily light. I write, I tweet and I fuss until there is enough light to paint. I switch my white paint out from the faster drying titanium to zinc. I review my blue paint. I fix my mind’s eye on the light and the reflected light. The room is lit by another window we can’t see. And there is the light from the sky and sea which we know is there but we only know this through the muscles of her back as she sighs into each wave and each bit of breeze coming off the water. The day goes on like this – one brush stroke over another. Then without warning, the painting is finished.

Oh, there are still a few things, possibly, to tidy up. But, for the most part, it is done.

I put down my brushes. I search THE VIEW. Have I allowed her to know me?

Note: all excerpts in bold quotes are from The Underpainter (1998 paperback edition) by Jane Urquhart.

And THE VIEW is not for sale at this time.

Sprout question: Can you tell us about something your muse aches create?

NEWS FLASH: Knock me over with a feather! I have just discovered that I am on this international list of 21 Artist to watch in 2011 published by Skinny Artist.

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

Gracing the Green House

February 2, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

Announcement: Creative Potager host, Terrill Welch, has a new venue displaying her photography in collaboration with fellow photographer Barbara McIntyre at the Green House Restaurant on Mayne Island.

We are very excited. Our shows of Gulf Island framed prints and canvas prints photography will change every one to two months. Please drop in if you are in our neighbourhood. You can’t miss it. The Green House Restaurant is on the right hand side just before you crest the last rise into Miner’s Bay.

The menu is diverse and delicious. In winter, there is all the cozy charm of home. You might even find me sitting at the closest table to the small fireplace sipping a glass of wine waiting for my dinner to be served.

In summer there are large decks that catch the late afternoon and evening sun. This is a great place to enjoy a quiet meal or visit with friends and take a long deep breath of Mayne Island relaxation. Make sure you slip inside to see what new we have on show.

Gerry always has a smile for you.

Owners Doug and Gerry decided to call the new restaurant the “Green House” because it was once the site of several green houses operated by the Japanese family before the Second World War. The house dates from about 1910, builder unknown. Kumazo Nagata bought it in 1921, and enlarged it in 1937. [Source: Ovanin, Thomas K. Island Heritage Buildings. Islands Trust, c. 1980.]

We are thrilled to have our photography on show in this historic building.

Of course for those readers from far away, you don’t have to come all the way to Mayne Island to view and purchase our photography.

Barbara McIntyre has a new redbubble account so feel free to drop on over and have a look there as well.

As many of you know, my work can be found here on redbubble where this new image “Shades of Blue” is available.

So glad you stopped in. Come on back anytime.

Sprout question: Where is your creativity showing this week?

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

Meet Street Photographer Vivian Maier

January 31, 2011January 31, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

First, my intention for this week is to brush my way into an oil painting using one of my charcoal figure sketches as a guide. It will be difficult as I have only the one sketch to work with and I have a particular setting in mind that has been inspired from a passage from The Underpainter (1997) by Jane Urquhart. Regrettably, I am reluctant to share more than this with you at the moment. It is an image that is perfectly clear in my mind’s eye with shifting tones and composition every time the painting whispers for me to begin the process to stillness on canvas. I will honour last week’s principle of waiting to be invited… but act immediately when asked. This way, with luck, the image won’t slip away like mist in the afternoon sun.

Now, allow me to introduce the most extraordinary Street Photographer Vivian Maier with the most unusual passage into notoriety. Her work was discovered in 2007 by a 26 year old, real estate agent/entrepreneur/historian – John Maloof – after he purchased a box of her negatives at an auction for $400. According to this brief excerpt about Vivian Maier in Wikipedia:

In 1951, at 25 years old, Vivian Maier moved from France to New York, where she worked for some time in a sweatshop. She made her way to the Chicago area’s North Shore in 1956 and became a nanny on and off for about 40 years, staying with one family for 14 of them. She was, in the accounts of the families for whom she worked, very private, spending her days off walking the streets of Chicago and taking photographs, most often with a Rolleiflex camera.

John Maloof, curator of Maier’s collection of photographs, summarizes the way the children she nannied would later describe her:

She was a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. She wore a men’s jacket, men’s shoes and a large hat most of the time. She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone.

Between 1959 and 1960, Maier traveled to Los Angeles, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, Egypt, Italy, and the American Southwest, taking pictures in each location. The trip was probably financed by the sale of a family farm in Alsace. For a brief period in the 1970s, Maier worked as a nanny for Phil Donahue’s children. As she got older, she collected more boxes of belongings, bringing them with her to each new post. At one employer’s house she stored 200 boxes of materials. Most were photographs or negatives, but Maier collected other objects, such as newspapers,and sometimes recorded audiotapes of conversations she had with the people she photographed.

Towards the end of her life, Maier may have been homeless for some time. She lived on Social Security checks and may have had another source of income, but the children she had taken care of in the early 1950s bought her an apartment and paid her bills. In 2008, she slipped on ice and hit her head. She did not fully recover and died in 2009 at the age of 83.

This video provides an excellent overview…

Also, here are the Vivian Maier blog and the Vivian Maier Photography website. I am trusting that you may be as intrigued and inspired by her work as I am. Enjoy!

A new photograph “Tomorrow’s Dawn” seems like the most fitting image to share this Monday.

(image may be purchased here.)

Sprout question: What creative treasure might you have tucked away for future discovery?

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

Waiting to be Invited

January 24, 2011January 22, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

There is a part of creativity that is about showing up prepared. That means setting up your writing station and putting bum-to-chair. Or pulling out a canvas and placing it on the easel. Then putting a brush in your hand at a regularly scheduled time to paint. Or it means putting your camera bag on your shoulder and heading out everyday to take the photograph that is there to be taken. Each of us practicing our creative craft will engage in some form of preparation. If you are a musician or a dancer or a woodcarver you will know exactly what to do to show up prepared.

After doing a few warm up exercises, I find there is a second part to most creative processes. This is waiting to be invited. There is a pause or suspension of expectation or a kind of taut readiness. Mind, body and spirit seem to align and, there it is – the invitation. We know intuitively exactly what we need to do next. We proceed.

This is my intention for the week ahead. I have a half-finished painting and few canvases of various sizes that I picked up last week. I am going to set aside the time each day, be prepared, do my warm up exercises, stilling my mind and wait to be invited.

This is what happened when I took these two photographs at the Japanese garden on Friday morning. As the rain came down, I visited with a friend who is moving away. We were sitting on a sheltered bench. I had taken my camera even though the day was heavily clouded and didn’t show much promise.

First, this invite was extended to me.

And then this one.

I remembered my manners and said “thank you.”

And here are a couple of things you may find inspiring:

Last Tuesday, we slipped into Victoria B.C. and attended the IMAX theatre for the most impressive Van Gogh brush with Genius . Well worth seeing if you ever get the chance. Thank you Sherwin, from Shower Wisdom, for making such a compelling recommendation in your comment to last Monday’s post.

While we were in town we went to a couple of art galleries. At the new Madrona Gallery we saw a 3 X 4 foot acrylic painting by Karel Doruyler of a mature, dense west coast forest. His skill with light is outstanding. The work we saw was Thoughts of Summer. Doruyler has developed a heavily textured approach so that the tree trunks are significantly raised off the surface of the painting. Doruyler has been painting professionally for 40 years and is now 70 years old. His work leaves me with such a sense of possibility for my own continued development as an artist.

All the best in your creative endeavors!

Sprout question: Where are you showing up prepared to be invited?

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

New Oil Paintings BREAKING THROUGH and FOREST

January 21, 2011May 19, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

How does the song go? Two out of three ain’t bad?

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post heavy cloud cover made it undesirable to paint. Hence, only two of three paintings are completed. But better two than none which might have been the case if I had not set the intention on Monday morning. Can I admit to being just a little excited about sharing the results of this weeks work? I hope you don’t mind but if you could see my face there would be this grin from ear-to-ear.

I will likely take other photographs of both these oil paintings on a brighter day but for now this is what we have…

BREAKING THROUGH

(36” X 48” by 1 ¾ inch cotton canvas original oil painting)

FOREST

(18” X 14” by 1 ½ inch cotton canvas original oil painting )

If you are interested in purchasing either of these paintings please contact me directly at tawelch@ shaw.ca .

I am sure we may all agree that these two paintings are very different. Yet, I recognize them both as being painted in my usual impressionist style. As the artist, I can stand back and see my struggles and successes to capture, to express and to embrace my creative process. This is why I am excited and why I am beaming with satisfaction – it is for the love of painting and seeing something through to completion!

Sprout question: What are you noticing about your creative process this week?

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

Soft light

January 20, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

Today heavy clouds filter the sun into a perpetual dawn. With rain tapping the roof now and again, I sleep late. No harm done – at least none that I have noticed. I remember our walk yesterday afternoon with its scattered clouds and soft light.

Walking a coastal trail…

Often looking towards the view but not going out to admire. We are smoked in. It seems as if someone is burning brush.

It is so pleasant under the trees. The air is heavy and still as we walk quietly through the soft light.

(image may be purchased here.)

Sprout question: How are you embracing what the day has to offer?

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

Red Bowl

January 17, 2011January 17, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 34 Comments

Before I share with you my experience with the red bowl, let’s be clear about this week’s intention. This week, I shall finish up the three paintings I have underway.

The first of these is breaking through or “the big one” posted in A Week Painting.

The second is the forest and the third is orange sea both of which were posted this past Friday in Hot Coals.

I have one more canvas I can begin if the spirit moves me. Then it will require a shopping trip to continue.

Now about the red bowl

Last week I started a six week photography e-course with Kat Sloma from The Kat Eye View. I first met Kat through her comments on Creative Potager. When I read her e-course description I knew this e-course was for me. Here is the first paragraph…

Photography is art, and like any other art, is an expression of the heart and soul of the artist. In digital photography, the camera and computer become tools for creative expression the same way paints and brushes are tools for painters. But learning the tools alone does not help you find your eye and express your heart and soul; it can only be the starting point. You have to learn to dive deeper into experiencing the environment around you and understand what calls to you in order to develop a unique photographic style of your own.

(by Kat Sloma. More about the e-course here.)

Her first exercise has to do with understanding how light can affect your subject. For this exercise I chose a bowl where the inside is red. Flickr is the format I am using for the Finding Your Eye e-course photojournal. You are welcome to check out my before and after images of the red bowl in different lighting at Bowls – finding my eye entry 1. All ten images are of the same red bowl.

I know I said I am going to focus more on painting than photography this year. However, I am taking the liberty of adjusting as the creative spirit moves me. I have decided it likely going to be a both/and year – Both painting and photography.

On that note, here is my favourite photograph from the past few days.

Alder in the Sun

(image may be purchased here.)

AND

The Fallen

(image may be purchased here.)

Sprout question: In what direction is your creative spirit moving you this week?

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

Hot Coals

January 14, 2011January 14, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

Original oil paintings in progress…

First painting.

Forest 1

Forest 2

Forest 3

Forest 4

Second Painting.

Orange Sea 1

Orange Sea 2

The best cooking fire is hot coals because they provide a body of even heat which will penetrate and cook without burning your food. Sometimes painting is like this for me. At first the flames of an idea blaze with excitement and I paint away with nothing but burnt remnants to show for my efforts. But sometimes I need to build a good fire first so that there are enough coals for a long cooking process. The painting Forest needs a good bed of coals to accommodate its density. The painting Orange Sea requires that I steadily add a stick or two at a time so that it can simmer without boiling over. Neither painting is finished. They are still cooking.

Sprout question: What kind of creative fire are you cooking with today?

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

Munch List

January 10, 2011June 6, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Today at Creative Potager we have the good fortune to view a photograph of my grandson’s munching creative project that he and his mother did this weekend.

Don’t they look delicious? Thank you Arrow and Tina for letting me share your photograph of these most tasty looking gingerbread cookies. Dear readers, I have been told they are gone – every head, belly and limb of them – devoured!

This week is going to be a bit like this as well. I have so many things to share you will find yourself munching your way through these links as if they were those gingerbread cookies.

First, there is a blog party over on Leanne Dyck’s The Sweater Curse at http://sweatercursed.blogspot.com. Leanne is throwing a virtual bash to celebrate the e-book publication of her thriller The Sweater Curse. We are all invited. So drop on in.

Second, I am a guest blogger at Daisy Hickman’s SunnyRoomStudio. Please come by “First Light” and you shall find, among other things, a sprout question there too.

Third, I am greatly honoured to share with you a moving post by Annie Q Syed. A few months ago Annie bought my original oil painting “Only the Sea” and it now hangs in a sun-filled apartment in New York City. To learn more go to Annie’s post The Soul of the Sea.

Fourth, Sam Juliano over at Wonders in the Dark has his list of The Ten Best Films of 2010 posted.

My intentions this week are to start work on two new oil paintings. They are a 14 X 18 inch canvas and a 12 X 12 inch gessobord with a two inch birch cradle. The look minute beside the large canvas I worked on last week.

My brushes await me.

I have moved “the big one” into the other part of the loft area where it can be seen during the day while I wait to see what next to do with it. Have a wonderful week.

Sprout question: What can you add to our creative munch list?

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.

Beginning the Big One

January 3, 2011January 13, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

Yes it is time. My intention for this first week of January 2011 is to complete the under-painting on my 3 X 4 foot canvas. It will be the largest oil painting on canvas I have ever done. I have painted wall murals before but that is a completely different artistic expression than a large canvas. What they have in common is the need for lot of paint. I think I have enough. The second challenge is how to set up the canvas so I can work on it. I am thinking that these two chairs should work if I can move things around in my small studio to accommodate them.