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Answering the Painter’s Questions

/ Terrill Welch / Leave a comment

Monday, July 20 2026

Oftentimes, a painting doesn’t proceed in a straightforward momentum from start to finish. I need pauses to listen clearly to what the canvas is asking. Then the paint becomes tacking in the dry summer air and I must let it completely dry to the touch before continuing. Such was the case last Wednesday. I left it sitting in an awful awkwardness as if caught in an elaborate pose of painter’s frozen tag.

Work-in-progress of a new arbutus tree portrait on a 31.5 x 27.5 inch oil on canvas work by Terrill Welch shown on the easel in her studio. Wednesday, July 15, 2026.

I went to Reef Bay and couldn’t help myself but to gather a few random compositions of the seafloor. It is like picking berries. I don’t want to just let the ripe ones fall to the ground and forever lost. Instead, I collected them up in reference images and tucked them in the folder for “Close to Home”.

Nothing may come of them but they stilled something restless within me. 

David had a birthday on Sunday and on Saturday family came to celebrate. That meant Friday was used for preparation and Thursday is still school for a few more weeks. So here we are with a dry to the touch painting late Monday morning. 

The work-in-progress oil on canvas by Terrill Welch has now dried to the touch. She is ready to continue. Monday, July 20 2026.

I had about an hour available to me to paint. I took it! The linseed oil softened to the consistency of butter in the midday heat. I focused and then drifted on the gentle blue sea that has yet to come alive in the painting. I didn’t get far but still. It is something.

work-in-progress oil on canvas by Terrill Welch. Monday, July 20 2026.

We then went for a drive to get David a mocha and then stopped at a farm stand for the first of the blackberries and some sweet yellow plums. The deep warm of the sun kisses the air with their fragrance.

Local Mayne Island Blackberries and Yellow Plums. Photograph by Terrill Welch. Monday, July 20 2026.

As I drive, I am still thinking about the painting. It needs more paint I decide. And the arbutus tree really needs to pop as the star if it is going to be a portrait. Do I want to abstract the foliage both at the top of the tree and on the ground? Painting is a process of endless decisions and often there are no right answers but there might be better answers and one decision usually affects (undoes) several others that have already been made. But this is all the answering I am going to do for today. 

The Spiritual Connection in Painting Arbutus Trees

/ Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

Monday, July 13 2026

I crest the low ridge just after seven in the morning as sunlight slams into the lower sandstone shoreline and dances across the sea to meet a soft mostly cobalt blue sky once it lifts over the fog resting on the water near the coast mountains. My eyes scan the elements and square up the view. It will work. I am sure it will work. I begin to gather references, shifting my feet and contorting my body to get the angles I desire. Nothing is perfect of course. I do not expect it to be. This is why it will need my imagination, a canvas and paint. References are a memory link and a starting point for later.

Now in the studio with the ground dry on a 31.5 x 27.5 inch canvas, I begin to block in various elements. A couple of hours pass. I take off my paint smeared red apron and document what I have so far.

The beginning of painting an arbutus tree along the shores of Edith Point by Terrill Welch.


It is almost noon. While boiling water for tea I begin to ponder. What does it mean to be this specific arbutus tree on this specific ridge overlooking the Salish Sea? If I was this tree, what would be the most dominant element? Would it be that soft peachy morning sky or would I give priority to the sea? Or maybe it would be the squishing of tiny roots spreading through the salal that I am standing in that is taking up the most attention. Perhaps it is the wind whistling through dried lower branches as it cools the first rays of sun? I am not sure I can guess. I sip my tea and look at the messy beginnings.

I have painted these arbutus trees many times but I am never done with them. There is a spiritual connection that seems to happen with arbutus trees. I imagine laying my hand on the large exposed root at the base of its trunk and let whatever is troubling me drain down into the earth on its long spidery tentacles. Losses and grief are good compost and best turned over and released into the soil rather than being compartmentalized and carried between my shoulder blades. 

I reach for a new book I am reading by Martin Gayford, How Painting Happens (and why it matters). Gayford begins where a painter knows he must – “Painting is difficult. Or rather, making a truly powerful and original painting is very hard (Gayford, 2024, p. 12). He goes on to explain that part of the problem is the long history of painting that has been practiced by brilliant artists ahead of me and that it is hard to find new areas to explore. This has never really stopped me from trying though. Not because I expect to paint anything particularly brilliant or ground breaking but because painting is a way of holding a conversation between nature and me and then later, with the viewer. What is the alternative? To remain silent? Better to paint something that is less than brilliant than to say nothing at all. 

Reference list: 

Gayford, M. (2024). How Painting Happens. Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Does anyone read blogs and does it matter that you write?

/ Terrill Welch / 29 Comments

Short answer: Yes they do and yes it does!

Sold – photography print on canvas  of  Building with a View #2  in series of five by Terrill Welch

(available for purchase HERE)

There is a wonderful story that goes with this sale. Yesterday, as I was standing on top of a bench-seat in order to hang a small painting in the Green House Bar and Grill here on Mayne Island,  I hear a woman say

“Are you Terrill Welch?”

I turn, raising my eyebrows slightly at the smiling stranger and reply “yes I am”

The woman came bounding forward.

“OMG! I read your blog all the time! I am from Edmonton and whenever it is miserable there I go to your blog. I love your work! It is such a pleasure to meet you!”

Her husband is more nonchalantly and says – before saying hello to me –

“Is this the blog you always send me links to at work and tell me I just have to see it?” and as his wife is nodding he then smiles at me and says hello.

She is laughing and says “oh I send your blog posts everywhere – to my husband, my dad, all my friends”

Teasing she adds “you are famous in Edmonton you know.”

(For those not familiar with Edmonton – population 752,412 in 2007 and it is in Alberta, Canada – right next to British Columbia and about a two-day drive away from Mayne Island. Many make this trip at least once a year and sometimes several times. Anonymity intact!)

Before the couple even get their lunch ordered, this piece is selected and set aside for purchasing when they were ready to leave. She was able to ask for it by name and fortunately it was one of the photography prints I had selected to show this time.

I tell this story because if, as an artist, photographer or writer, you ever doubt the impact of your blogging efforts and all the time you put into posting your work – think again. It does matter. It does make a difference in connecting your work to those who will and do enjoy it.

I had never met this delightful woman before. I did not know this reader as one of my regular readers who comments here on Creative Potager.  And the post with this photograph was made on February 19, 2010

https://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/simplicity

I allow those who have a subscription to my blog to receive the whole post so they can read it and share it – the consequence of this is the views do not show up in my viewing statistics. But none-the-less, she is a regular reader and was able to comment on past and recent posts with great joy.

A fine moment for any artist, photographer or writer.
Thank you, thank you to my dear reader who has quietly enjoyed these posts and shared them with her family and friends. Thank you to all those readers I have yet to meet. And thank you to those readers I know well and who comment and share my work regularly. You are wonderful! You are a joy! You make my heart glad to be alive!

 

SPROUT Question: __________________ (you decide:)

 

P.S. This wasn’t the only sale yesterday as I was putting up the new show – but that is another story! 😉

 

© 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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Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver

/ Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

The year of 2012 has started out on a high note here at la casa de inspiracion. A new collector of my work will shortly be receiving three extra-large approximately 20 X 28 inch photography canvas prints  to complete the remodeling of her home in Vancouver. Shall we have a look to see what she has chosen for her walls? Yes? I though you might say that.

MIST

(image is available for purchase Here) 

ARBUTUS STRAIT OF GEORGIA

(image is available for purchase Here) 

and the ever popular…

TRAVELING INTO THE MIST

(image is available for purchase Here) 

SPROUT: If you could collect anything you wanted what would it be? 

SEED: Have you ever wondered how I define “a collector of my work?” It is someone who has three or more pieces of my Fine Art. It could be three or more photography prints or three or more original paintings or a combination of both. Here is a link that I recently wrote for my Google Plus – Terrill Welch Fine Art page about buying an original painting https://plus.google.com/115927302973552189234/posts/aVAcdo661WE The same advice holds to be equally true for photography Fine Art. In addition, I would like to suggest this fantastic article by art consultant, advisor, author, and independent appraiser, Alan Bamberger, “How to Collect Art Like a Pro – Building a Collection.” It is like an advance course in learning how to buy what you love.

© 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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SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

Do you remember back in early September when a following sea was making a grand entrance onto the shore? We had taken a long walk together admiring the arbutus trees and then the sea.

Well one of those photographs kept nudging at me to put it on canvas. So here we go.

From some very dark beginnings

I sketch in some guiding marks for the composition.

I begin to work in the primary forms.

If we look a little closer you can see these are easy and free strokes suggesting rather than predicting what is to come.

I build up the paint and enjoy the movement of water coming into the canvas.

At this point the canvas is getting too wet to do anymore.

Besides it had started to snow outside.

So I left the painting to rest and stuck it where I could keep an eye on it. Over the next week or so I would pick it up and work on it some more as it became clear what it was it was asking for. Finally, here is the finished piece.

SPILLING OVER 12 X 12 inch original oil on canvas painting by Terrill Welch

The painting is available for purchase in a new online gallery Artsy Home along with some of my other original paintings. Yes, you can now buy my work directly from this site using all sorts of means. Isn’t this grand? I will be adding more pieces very shortly.

Sprout Question: What is spilling over in your creativity?

Please note: It is December and I shall be on a vacation from regular blogging. You will still hear from me such a special holiday post and near the end of December I will be post a two year anniversary post for Creative Potager. Regular scheduled posts will then begin again the first week of January.

© 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

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

First Thursday Teaser

/ Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

Psssst! My first Salish Sea Sunday Savings event is this Sunday.

LINK your chances to win an image-wrapped copy of my new coffee table book

PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs

To qualify you must be subscribed to the Creative Potager blog (sidebar on the right) and share this blog LINK to the First Thursday Teaser for the first Salish Sea Sunday Savings event anytime BEFORE the start of the event at 3:00 P.M. this Sunday, via ANY of these means – email, facebook, twitter, Google+ or on your blog. Each time you share your name will be added to the draw – the more shares, the more chances to win.

Remember, I MUST KNOW that you have shared the link to be able to add your name to the draw. So for whichever sharing means you use, apply the appropriate tool for a cc.

The winner will be announced on next Monday’s regular Creative Potager post.

Are you excited yet?

 Now for the best part….

Selected paintings and photographs of my work will be reduced 40% for ONE hour ONLY from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm P.D.T. Sunday October 2, 2011.

This event will be hosted right here at the Creative Potager blog 

Available at this discount price will be:

One original impressionist 8 X 10 inch oil on canvas painting from my studio – a hint: SPLASH

Two painting prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

Three photography prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

And…the  STUDY OF BLUE 2012 calendar also from my redbubble

Is this fun or what? 🙂

I look forward to receiving those LINK notifications and seeing you on Sunday. I be avail real-time for 3:00 – 4:00 pm P.D.T. So grab your beverage of choice, your slippers, and your credit card and drop on by and see what is posted.

This event is intended to accomplish two things.

First, I wish to show my thanks to established fans and collectors of my work. You have shown amazing support and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. With Christmas just around the corner it is the least I can do.

Second, I want to increase the number of fans and collectors who can say “oh, that is impressionist painter and photographer Terrill Welch’s work.”

Today’s cheeky Sprout Question: Do you have a suggestion for a work to be selected for this first Salish Sea Sunday Savings?

Leave a comment with a link to the work before midnight Saturday, October 1, 2011 and I shall see what I can do.

© 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

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

Creative Island Retreat Home for you?

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Every once in a long while I spy a home for sale and think “I could live there!” So when I ran into Annette at the Farm Gate Store and she told me her retreat house was for sale. I took her up on an offer to come have a look.

Off we went to an address within easy stroll to the lighthouse where I was painting en plein air last week. Or you could meander down to Reef Bay at David Cove where so many of my photographs and paintings have been inspired.

It is not the usual”for sale” sign we park beside. Annette’s young children have painted all the signs and posters that have been posted around the island. It has been one of their contribution to this creative family restoration project.

Doesn’t it look lovely.

Wood is so inviting. The new siding and much of the decking was milled from trees that were taken right from the property.

The yard is bright with a tropical feel. It can be low maintenance or a full-on garden – your choice.

There are lavish environmentally treated cedar decks to enjoy.

I particularly like the frames within frames at this vantage point.

Oh and there is the studio building with one room up and one down, completely separate and connected with a breezeway to the main home.

Don’t you just love it? It would be a great place to write, paint, make jewelry, or have a little home store for your wares.

It even has its own woodpile guard. It is not a very strenuous post (pun intended) on Mayne Island but the carving is great company just the same. There is a story here but you will need to ask Annette to tell you about it.

From the loft studio balcony you can even look down and see if your sweetie has dinner ready. In my case, I would be looking until breakfast the next morning but you never know…. This is a kitchen that will inspire gourmet delights.

As we climb the stairs to the spacious loft I admire the windows. What a nice glimpse of outside.

But that is it for my part of the tour. Now I am going to turn you over to Annette to see the loft and other photographs on the most incredible website she has set up for this property.

If you like, give her a call and chat further about this creative gem of a retreat. I know she would be delighted. And be sure to say “hello” from me.

Best of the weekend everyone… and you will not be seeing me around next week. I will be in Mill Bay and on Saturna Island while David minds the peas and carrots in the garden on the home front. After that things will pretty much get back to normal as I start to ramp up for the fall and more time with all of you. Until then!

Sprout question: If you are seeking a creative retreat what must it include?

© 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.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

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

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Good Morning En Plein Air

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

What does an artist do on the morning after $2.5 trillion evaporates from global stock markets? Paint of course and not just any painting but en plein air by the sea.

It is 8:30 am. The morning is as gray unsettled as the global economy. It really didn’t hold much promise and looked like the bottom was going to fall out of the sky any second.

The only bright spot are these pink roses at the side of the lighthouse building.

The rocks down below me catch my interest but I have come to paint the sea.

Hopeful that the sun will recover its golden glow before noon. I set to work.

I stop infrequently. There will be no process photographs but I do catch a sailboat heading across Georgia Strait.

(this image may be purchased here.)

You can still see it in the distance as I leave aside the first 12 X 12 inch canvas to rest.

(this image may be purchased here.)

The sky starts to clear as I set up for the next 10 X 10 inch canvas. I wonder what time it is? Hum, ten o’clock. Let’s see what we can do.

Again I work steadily as the light and colours change faster than my brush can make a mark on the canvas. The sun is so bright I have a hard time seeing my work and have an even harder time capturing a photograph for you.

It is not finished but it has the energy of the moment and can be completed once this first work has dried.

I am getting tired but I want to do one more painting on my small 8 X 8 inch canvas. It is now just after 11:00 am.

(this image may be purchased here.)

The strokes seem to slip onto the small canvas effortlessly.

Oh my! It is now 12:30 am and I am ravenous! Time to pack up three very wet unfinished oil paintings and head for home.

This past week’s financial upheaval is not a surprise. In fact it has been a long time coming for those of us paying attention. More than ever we need to build on our resiliency, our connection to community and set a course directed by what is essential in our lives at this moment. A morning painting was my perfect answer. This is how I fortify my strength and clarity for whatever may be next.

 

Sprout question: How are you creatively going to weather our global financial storm?

 

© 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

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

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