art

Soft light

/ 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?

 

© 2011 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

 

Red Bowl

/ 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?

 

© 2011 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

Hot Coals

/ 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?

 

© 2011 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

 

Munch List

/ 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?

© 2011 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.

Beginning the Big One

/ 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.

I will tie the cross-bar support to the chair with gardening twist tie to keep the canvas in place.

Then I will make the final decision on the image I want to paint. This remains unknown for the moment.

Before I wander off to get to work on this new project I thought you might like to see the first light on shore for 2011.

(image may be purchased here.)

I look forward to checking in with you on Friday and reporting on my results.

Sprout question: What creative problems are you resolving this week?

© 2011 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

Dramatic Seas

/ Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

What I am about to share with you is from last evening’s meanderings. Can someone please choose a perfect piece of well-known classical music for me?  It needs to start softly as the light gives way to early evening.

(image may be purchased here.)

Then the notes should rise slowly but with confidence.

Building with sweeping sounds as we begin to embrace the clouds over Vancouver…

Going quiet as we come close to the mountains catching the sinking rays of the sun.

Now large sounds that make your heart pound with anticipation! Symbols crash!

(image may be purchased here.)

Building, building until you think you are going to burst….

(image may be purchased here.)

All sounds coming at once… the same notes dun, dun, dun… then releasing you to the Salish Sea.

(image may be purchased here.)

Sprout question: What is drama has your attention today?

© 2010 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

Rocks

/ Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

Some days like yesterday, rocks play a prominent role in photo shoot. There are those in a spot of sun deep in the forest floor.

There are those providing a backdrop for an old fir tree.

There are those clustered together on shore.

Then there are those providing a foamy footpath for Surfbirds.

(image may be purchased here)

Rocks – all of them sandstone rocks.

Sprout question: What is prominent in your creativity today?

© 2010 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

Winter Waves

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Leaving Vancouver B.C. to catch a ferry back to Mayne Island on Boxing Day there was a slice of early morning sun coming through the heavy rain clouds. I was early. I took a left at Tsawwassen and headed for Boundary Bay Regional Park. This park is a seaside wetland sanctuary for birds and bush bunnies like me passing through on their trek home.

To day the wind and sea were both high as waves rolled up and sometimes over the sandy beach.

The scene was dramatic. The contrasting colours between sea and sky were unusual. The light changed fast as it rose above the sea towards the cloud bank. If I had painted it, the viewer would have had a hard time believing its authenticity.

Even with a photograph… you might think “she did it with Photoshop! You can do anything with Photoshop.”

But I didn’t. I just happen to be at the right place at the right time with camera in hand.

 

Sprout question: When is life grander than your imagination?

 

© 2010 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

 

One Year Ago Today

/ Terrill Welch / 16 Comments


One year ago today I posted the first Creative Potager post – A Gown Remembered: Beginning.  With one quick comment and my reply and eleven views it was a quiet beginning.

Today is post 205 and it starts the day with 26,600 views while building on 3,440 comments. It is a good solid beginning. Thank you everyone for your part in making this a great Creative Potager year.

Going forward, we will see a shift in posting in order accommodate my intentions for the 2011 year. Creative Potager will have a Monday morning post that will include my intention for the week. Friday morning will conclude the week with a report on the results of the intention set at the beginning of the week. With these book-end-posts there will be occasional but not predictable post in between. Each post will continue to have a Sprout Question for your musing and comment.

My intention for 2011: I will be focusing more on oil painting en plein air than photography. The purpose of my work remains the same – to ground the viewer to their physical earthly environment – in nature. Zen impressionism. Quiet abundance. Joy.

This painting “Winter Sun” and a few of my other 2010 oil paintings are for sale go to ART of DAY, at the ART of DAY store. More of my work will become available at this location in the near feature.

With an intention to be painting more and also to be painting outdoors I hope you can see why there is a shift in this years posting structure. The nice thing about blogging, if something doesn’t work we can wake up in the morning and change it. This new schedule will begin on Monday, January 3, 2011. You can expect to see Creative Potager posts today through to Friday, December 31, 2010.

Sprout question: What intentions are you setting for 2011?

© 2010 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

Related Articles

Winter Solstice on the islands

/ Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

These images are from the shortest day before the darkest night with a lunar eclipse on Winter Solstice.

I find great comfort in their deep dark soft peace.

The hush of low light brings its own beauty.

The light of day begins to length as we pass through to deepest point of darkness.

 

 

Sprout question: Where do you find light in the darkest of darks?

 

Thank you for your support, encouragement and purchase of my photographs, calendars and paintings.

 

Please note: Creative Potager will be on holidays beginning Saturday, December 11, 2010 and will return on its one year anniversary Monday, December 27, 2010. Which doesn’t seem to stop the occasional post from appearing.

 

© 2010 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