Say SPRING

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Seeing that it is the last day of February and it has been unusually cold with snow and wind and rain here on the southwest coast of Canada, maybe if we say “SPRING” all at the same time it will come true. What do you think? Shall we give it a try? Here is a photograph of a couple of tulips to help get us into the mood.

(image may be purchased here.)

Ready? SPRING!…. Hum, let’s try again SPRING!!!! There! That should do it!

This week is a painting week. It is the first painting week in about a month. I have these two 8 X 10 inch canvas underpaintings ready to start working.

And this 24 X 36 inch canvas underpainting ready as well. I am about to begin what may possibly be a series of paintings in a study of blue using seascapes as my contextual reference.

You might ask why I am doing my underpaintings in lemon cadmium yellow and it is a fair question. First I am not fond of a white canvas. Second, I like to create layers of depth through hints of underpainting colours coming through. However, to work for blues, the underpainting must be well set. Otherwise it just becomes a muddy mess. It does seem take longer to complete a painting using underpaintings but I like the end results.

Note: I am likely going to work on these three paintings and begin at least two more this week. I do NOT anticipate having much for process images but we shall see. I provide this warning in advance so that you are not too disappointed on Friday.

Sprout question: Can you tell us about a creative series you want to do in the future?

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

A Close Read and Doing Nothing

February 14, 2011February 13, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 25 Comments

On this Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2011 I could have posted something red. Instead, I am going to write about something read. We have an old joke in our house about doing nothing. It is not ours but one we heard it someplace and it has been adopted by us. The joke goes something like this…

I ask “David what are you doing?”

David replies “Nothing.”

I say “But you did that yesterday.”

David confirms “Yes, but I’m not finished yet.”

The art of doing nothing is a highly underrated creative skill. To do it well, a person may need to revise their world view. One aspect of doing nothing I like to indulge is taking the time for a close read. You see, I don’t skim very often when I read. I burrow in and engage in conversation with the authors or with the characters in the story. I write in the margins. I dog-ear pages. I leave stickies for markers and notes. I muse and mutter. I laugh and cry. I devour the content as I read. This is what I call “a close read.”

You might ask “where do you find the time?”

Well, it comes back to developing the art of doing nothing which brings me to the circular place of my latest close read.

Waking at just before 4:00 am on Sunday, and it being so close to Valentine’s Day, I wanted to let my sweetie sleep peacefully for another few hours. Actually, even if it wasn’t close to Valentine’s Day I would do this out of respect and love. In la casa de inspiracion, with its open floor plan, this means doing nothing. Yes, I made some toast, smeared it with nut butter, and brewed a small pot of coffee but I didn’t start the laundry or turn on some music, or do yoga in the great room or phone a friend out east. Instead I grabbed my book and slipped up to the loft with my toast and coffee.

Can you guess what I am reading? It is WHERE THE HEART RESIDES: Timeless Wisdom of the American Prairie (1999) by Daisy Ann Hickman. Yes, that is right, the very same Daisy who comments on Creative Potager and who asked me to be a guest blogger on the Sunny Room Studio blog in January. We exchanged books a few weeks back. In the mail from Brookings, South Dakota, arrived this beautiful hardcover gem. I know there is a place for e-books but there is still something blessedly tactile about running my hand over a hardcover book and slipping its jacket off to see what it looks like underneath before beginning to turn its paper pages one by one.

So early on Sunday morning, curled up under a down quilt in the quiet darkness set slightly aside by a small reading light, I began to read. What follows, more or less in order, are a few dog-eared, sticky and pencil-marked quotes about doing nothing that can be found within the later part of the first 30 pages of Daisy’s remarkable book about her beloved prairie…

“From a great crop to a new baby or a bountiful garden, life itself seemed to be enough, and being without a new car, a new anything, was not automatic cause for alarm or dismay.”

“Especially useful in today’s society, with its plenitude of distractions, multitude of ways to avoid and hide from reality, legion of false definitions of success built into a fast-paced society to the point where values and priorities have been distorted, twisted and abolished, where many have simply given up, and where many are looking for an easy way out, a shortcut through life offering nothing but bliss and good times, I cherish the lessons of land, sky and wide-open space. Because oddly enough, with all we have created as a society, genuine happiness seems more elusive than ever: just when we believe we have found it, we being to complain as our discovery begins to feel strange, empty, or curiously nondescript.”

“So now, as we consider a perspective that results in doing more of what counts, less of what causes you to lose your way, you will be ever closer to envisioning a road map to the heart.”

“The prairie offers an enlightened alternative, one that teaches something powerful and true: Doing less paves the way for doing more.”

“Because, curiously enough, time to do less often results in something more: time to recharge and regroup; time to stay in touch with feelings, values, beliefs, and of course, people; time to let events unfold naturally, at their own unique pace; time to do things that support your dreams so you may grow old gracefully, knowing few stones were left unturned.”

“Hectic schedules, a hurry-up, do-it-now mentality, cannot compare or compete with the persistent beauty and quiet strength of the prairie. As we scramble about each day, dashing here, dashing there, the land does the opposite, and without a word speaks to our souls, touches our hearts, and reaches out, like a laser, to connect with our finer, more discriminating sides.”

“When your day is jammed full of must-do, can’t-wait items, there isn’t time for casual exchanges; there is little opportunity for the unexpected, unplanned, spur-of-the-moment cup of coffee with an old friend, the walk to the park with your son or daughter or spouse. Still, these are activities that contribute to a way of life that promotes the importance, the fundamental value, of the human connection: without fail, without exception, without excuse.”

“For encouragement, remind yourself that the less you do, the more you will do: of what counts; of what makes you feel alive and growing; of what helps you become a fully realized human being.”

(Water colour painting “Canadian Prairie” – 2002 – by Terrill Welch)

What are my intentions for this week? To do nothing – prairie fashion.

And you might say “but you did that last week.”

I think you know my response but just in case… “I’m not finished yet.”

I wish you an amazing Valentine’s Day filled with love, hope and time to do nothing.

Sprout question: When was the last time you creatively did nothing prairie fashion?

Thank you Daisy Ann Hickman for coming into my life and being part of our Creative Potager community.

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

At Dusk

February 11, 2011February 11, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Some weeks just seem to have a life of their own. I am going fess up first thing and let you know – not one print or painting was properly cataloged into my inventory. There. I have said.

What I did do was get an awesome chance to go “Hunting Waves” which, if you haven’t seen the photographs yet, you may enjoy. I picked up a couple of tubes of paint for my study of blues and two new brushes.

I took some shots at dusk that I am happy with. I fear they may too personal to have wide appeal but I thought I would share them with you anyway.

Mountains above the clouds.

Ferry Wake at Dusk.

Going Home.

(image may be purchased here)

Homeward Bound

(image may be purchased here)

Sailing Home

Passing Pender Island

These images are the exact tone and feel I have been working to get through my new learning with Kat Sloma in her photography e-course “Finding Your Eye.” I wanted to capture just the right amount of light to feel the dusk and still be able to make out some of the detail. I wanted the viewer to feel that lull – the hush before darkness overtakes the day.

I didn’t paint this week but it was still amazingly creative.

Sprout question: What new learning did you apply to your creativity this week?

Best of the weekend to you! Oh, just in case you didn’t notice we went over 30,000 views here on Creative Potager. Thank you for the pleasure of your visits.

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

Hunting Waves

February 8, 2011February 8, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 33 Comments

Every once in a long while, on the inside passage of the southwest coast, high winds and sunshine meet, bring in high waves to our sandstone shores. Yesterday was one of those ideal days. About 2:30 in the afternoon I went hunting for waves. Enjoy!

The warmth of the sandstone against the blue of the sea with the waves rolling in. I took another photograph.

And then another…

Until I got this…

(image may be purchased here)

Draped in sun, the sea spray settles as the water rolls over the edge of the rocks.

For my study of blues, the day couldn’t have been better.

The seagulls were plentiful hovering over the churning waters.

(image may be purchased here)

My heart soared and sang to the rhythm of the sea. This is an image of Active Pass looking from Mayne Island to Galiano Island at the lighthouse.

But it is this next image I went hunting for. It happened early on in my shoot. As you know, Reef Bay is incredible most days. I crossed my fingers that it would be even more so today. The tides are low. Long stretches of the reef are bare. I need to leave shore to get the shot I want. I walk out on the reef with waves thundering beside me. It was safe but loud when the breakers hit. My heart pounds.

I get my shot.

(image may be purchased here)

And so did you.

Sprout question: What are the ideal conditions for one of your creative inspirations?

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

Dance with Me

February 7, 2011February 7, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

Dance with me calls the blue, blue sea.

(image may be purchased here)

Invitation accepted.

(image may be purchased here)

Caught in the arms of the blue sea I am swept across the shoreline – stepping, reaching, giving….

I have an idea for a series of smaller paintings exploring the many shades of the blue sea. These two images keep coming to mind but there are others.

However, my intention this week is to take care of art business. There are new phtography prints and paintings to inventory, a new portfolio page to develop and such things. I may start on some new paintings but that is not my intention. We shall see. Friday’s post will tell the story.

Sprout question: How do you keep your balance when the creativity waters are running fast?

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

Double-Bubble to Switzerland

February 3, 2011February 3, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Do you remember my oil painting “Rising” that was in the international Art of Day 2010 Holiday Show and Sale?

Well it SOLD.

Earlier this week, I double-bubble wrapped this 8 X 10 inch on gessobord, cradled on a 2 inch birch frame, original and sent it to a buyer in Switzerland.

I can’t say enough about James Day from Art of Day who brokered the sale. He is amazing to work with. (To view more of my oil paintings for sale at ART of DAY, go directly to the ART of DAY store.)

I get such a thrill each time a piece of my work finds a new home whether it is an original oil painting, a print of one of my photographs or a gift card. It is kind of like when your children come home with stars on their school work and your in-laws are visiting. You try to be cool but you just can’t help wearing a grin so big that it wipes out the pretend furrow on your brow. I tell myself – now don’t you go getting a big head over this! “Rising” is only one small oil painting. That is the furrowed brow. But I SOLD it – to a buyer in Switzerland! That is the great big grin.

I go through this exercise each time. Like when Annie from New York City bought “Only the Sea.”

Or like a couple of weeks ago when a large poster of “Arbutus in the Fog” was purchased by a buyer in England.

Or like when someone came bouncing up to me here on Mayne Island because she had got one of my art cards for her birthday from a friend.

No matter how humble and how chilled I know I am supposed to be, I can’t help shouting Yaaaaaaa hoooooo! Then I do a little ta, ta, ta, ta-da dance before regaining my composure and going back to creating. Does this happen to you too?

Sprout question: What is wiping out the furrow on your brow with a big grin?

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

New Oil Painting Orange Sea

January 28, 2011January 28, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

Do you remember when my post “Dramatic Seas” from the end of December 2010? Well, it is the inspiration for the third painting I have been working on and I have now finished.

The underpainting starts with something from my memory.

But I decided to print a photograph to loosely assist as I built up the vibrancy of Orange Sea. I boldly go with the oranges of orange and started working in some cloud and mountains in the distance.

Finally it begins to take shape.

The painting comes to rest still surging with movement.

I think I am done. I post it on redbubble. I look again. Darn!

I change the painting slightly but it is crucial to the overall work. I dislike it when I find something that needs editing only after viewing it when posted. But I have come to respect that it is a different part of my eye that sees the image once it is up – kind of like seeing your home through the eyes of your guests.

Besides, that is when I was invited.

Now for the final, final painting of Orange Sea.

(prints may be purchased here.)

12” X 12” by 2 inch birch cradled gessobord original impressionist oil painting – $400 Canadian.

Sprout question: If you could paint something orange in your life what would it be?

Best of the weekend to you!

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.

Baby O arrives in about six weeks

January 25, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

Baby O is due March 4, 2011 but we all know that babies mostly arrive when they are ready. Saturday I caught the 7:45 am ferry to Swartz Bay and drove up Vancouver Island to Mill Bay where my daughter and her husband live. Josie was celebrating her thirtieth birthday with munchies and cake in the party room at the Duncan recreational pool. Everyone brought swim suits. Great fun! I liked the lazy river and the wave pool best.

While I was there we also did a photo shoot. So now I can update you with some new images on the progress of Baby O. We went to some of the same places that I took some of the first photographs at the end of September if you want to compare. Plus, there is another Baby O post from early November that you can have a look at as well.

Josie has been fortunate in that she has been healthy and active throughout her pregnancy. The day I arrived she went kayaking to referee a water polo game in the bay. A few days before that she was out on a rugged 7 km hike.

What was really amazing about taking these photographs was how different Josie’s belly looks in each image. Just so you know. These images were taken back to back on the same day.

Though the day was heavy with cloud and mist it had its own magic.

We visited as we walked and stopped to take photographs. One of my goals was to capture Josie in her natural environment doing everyday things that she enjoys. Which is hard to do because she enjoys so much! Teaching physics, cooking, hiking, kayaking just to name a few favourite activities.