Earth Day Mayne Island

April 22, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

It is 6:00 am when I arrive at Bennett Bay and head down the trail towards the rising sun in the Gulf Island National Park Reserve on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. No other human is here yet. Today is Earth Day. I am celebrating by taking my camera and going for a walk at dawn. If you are a regular reader this will be a familiar stroll. We have been here together before…

Morning song birds, honking Canada geese, cries of eagles, the bark of a seal, and seagulls intersperse between a gentle wind coming off Georgia Strait into the firs, arbutus, gary oaks. Feeling the soft ground through my shoes I notice the dampness starting to seep under my sweatshirt searching for the places open around the edges of my turtleneck. I spy a lady slipper but it is too dark under the trees to share her with you. Walking purposefully I am soon at Campbell point.

Low cloud over the Mainland.

Vancouver hidden in cloud

Georgeson Island begins to warm.

Seagulls feast on a starfish breakfast.

Sun on the shore catches my attention.

I sit for a while feeling the rough sandstone cold beneath me as I watch the waves, smell the sea, and hear the sounds of earth waking to another day. Then it is time to head back through the gary oaks.

Between the arbutus.

And past the big firs.

The morning light through the trees is filled with mystery.

Close to the entrance of the park there is a swing reminding me that humans are part of Earth and it is this relationship between the two which leads us to celebrate Earth Day.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

I hug myself. I spin once slowly with arms outstretched… another day – yes another glorious day I get to see dawn in her slip before she has a chance to dress for the sun’s rising. Lucky me!

Sprout Question: Does Earth Day play any part in your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

A Study

April 21, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

After yesterdays eclectic group of photos, today is a sparse offering.

These lovely little canvas prints from my East Point Images I shared with you in February the “Simplicity” post. They arrived in yesterday’s mail. I am starting to gather together material for my September solo exhibit and these are going on a particular spot above the books in the library which is hard show.

Like many people I feel physically, emotionally and spiritually naked when I bring my work into the public. This is particularly so do a reading from my writing such as on this coming Saturday or when I have my canvases on the wall in such as the September show. Yet, I have learned that it is a part of “the business of creativity” which must be navigated. So vulnerable or not, the show will go on…

Sprout Question: How do you prepare for a public viewing or listening of your work?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The ART of Home

April 19, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Early this morning sitting on the sheepskin in our window seat, looking out at nothing in particular, I think “I have nothing planned for my post today.”

I observe the lived-in comforts of “home” in la casa de inspiracion musing over possibilities.

Then I remember a stunning book in my bookshelf by Lloyd Kahn, Builders of the Pacific Coast published in 2008.

Here are a few pages to inspire you to think about “the ART of Home.”

work of Michael McNamara

work of Jan Jensen

There are 250 pages of stories and photographs of some of the most stunning aesthetically warm, natural or salvaged material homes I have ever had the pleasure to become acquainted. The morning slips away as I browse through the pages…

With only a little effort I find Lloyd’s Blog with a list of a few more of his books as well as an interesting article on the future of publishing.

Sprout Question: Is there a connection between your home and your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

More than Chocolate Covered Strawberries

April 16, 2010April 16, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 29 Comments

I have for you some chocolate covered strawberries.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

While you are making a choice on which one you will munch, before passing the plate along, let me show you the tulip I found in my garden yesterday.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Between showers I grabbed my garden gloves.

Put on my hiking boots and began turning the sod.

While I was working the soil I thought about spring. I thought about summer and I thought about the business of creativity. You see, I have accepted a first right of refusal for the oil painting “East Point Cliffs.” My first participation in the BC Ferries showcase has netted a sale for a canvas print of “witness.” I have 100 beautiful cards ready in little envelopes for the farmers market this summer and more canvas photo prints arriving any day. Then there is the deciding of how many books to bring for the book reading of Leading Raspberry Jam Visions and Mona’s Work with Mayne Island writers at the Overleaf in Victoria Saturday April 24^th. Plus, my solo art show “Sea, Land and Time” with the local Arts Council is confirmed for “September 2nd to 22^nd. Is it any wonder I am turning over the business of creativity as methodically as each shovel of sod?

I am sure glad you enjoyed those strawberries.

Sprout Question: What does the business of your creativity taste like?

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Paint to Great Blue Heron

April 15, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

I included two of Sue Wiebe’s paintings (“The Cow” and “Water Lilies”) as a bonus feature in early March. Sue has another painting to share with us. As an artist I find there is nothing more satisfying than when I look at my painting and I no longer see paint but rather the image I have been inspired to create.

Sue had sent me this early photo of her “Great Blue Heron” painting in progress.

A few days ago, she sent me this photo of her completed painting.

I get frequent opportunities to observe these great birds. I feel like this one is watching me and if I take one step closer it will take flight, squawking its prehistoric song in annoyance because I have disturbed its fishing.

Thank you so much Sue for allowing us to share in your creative process and you’re your beautiful paintings.

I often feel like there is a transformation of the individual doing the creating in the creative process as well as the transformation of letters, paint, light, or sounds into what ultimately become the “finished piece.”

Sprout Question: Can you tell us about a profound experience you have had in creating a piece of writing, art, photograph or music or…?

(And please, links to the work you are writing about are always welcome:)

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

sandstone slideshow

April 14, 2010April 14, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I discovered yesterday that I could make a slideshow for my wordpress blog and I have just the subject matter I want to test it on for us. The day is that very gray day when I took the sacred rock photographs. It is not a very interesting day when you look out into Navy channel but as I turn my attention to the large sandstone forms on shore, I become intrigued and lost in their wave-washed beauty.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sprout Question: What is your most inspiring subject matter this week?

Note: Here is the link to the tutorial by Jesse P. Luna I used to build the wordpress slideshow http://wordpress.tv/2010/04/14/using-slideshows-on-wordpress-com . The only information that is missing is when you click on the photo icon, make sure you then are using the “Flash uploader” not the “Browser uploader. ” Have fun!

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Randomness – a blogger’s truth

April 13, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Feeling an unbending resistance through every joint in my body I slowly wake. What time is it? Hum, just before 7:00 am. I did sleep in. The slate tiles are warm in the middle of our kitchen. Routine sees me through the making of stovetop coffee with a couple of homemade cookies that I promise to follow with fruit, yogurt and hemp seeds in awhile.

I’ve been randomly thinking about Kathy’s post “The Secret Lives of Bloggers” since she put it out on April 9^th. I haven’t responded. I just keep thinking. I am thinking as I check to make sure the heat is on in the studio building as I am coaching this afternoon. I am thinking as I watch a beautiful Varied Thrush in the garden, and as I hear the rooster crow and the sheep asking for breakfast at the farm in the valley. I am still thinking as I curl into our very old Morrison chair and snag the travel section of Saturday’s Globe and Mail from the coffee table.

Bonny Reichert is telling me how to be “at home in Paris.” I read about dark French coffee as I sip a medium roast, single origin, organic, fair trade, artisan, Ethiopia Sidamo Co-Op Shanta Golba, from our local Salt Spring Coffee (we take our coffee seriously on the west coast of Canada). At that moment it tastes very dark – and very French. My two cookies made with half whole wheat flour, half the sugar (all brown) and a quarter of the chocolate chips with an added cup of chopped walnuts and pecans transform into Laduree Bonaparter macaroons and elegant tiny cakes that I have ordered decisively (because sweets are serious business in Paris – and I had already heard this before reading Bonny Reichert’s article). I am no longer sitting quietly in our strawbale, timberframe home cradled by various shades of spring verte and grande fir trees. Saint-Germain is bustling. Raspail farmers market smells soak past my nose into my sensitive taste buds.

I wonder again about Kathy’s post and how much we need to know about each other to share an experience. In fact, how much do we really know about someone even if we live with them daily? How well do we really know ourselves? Take for instance Laurie’s recent “University of Life” posts. Attempting to know ourselves seems to me to be one of the greatest adventures of living…

So my dear friend and blogging colleague Kathy, at “Lake Superior Spirit,” what you share is just right and it is enough. I believe we only ever know fragments of others and a few more fragments about ourselves – even if it is our sole intention for each day we live. Yet those moments that slice our energy in pure connection to self, to another, or to a place; in this we know all we need to know. And Kathy, your blog does this with the expertise of a French chef choosing the day’s cuisine needs from local markets.

Sprout Question: How well do you know your creative self?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

rocks and mussels

April 12, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

"rocks and mussels" oil painting by Terrill Welch

11X14 by 1.5 inches water miscible oil painting.

View full resolution image here.

“rocks and mussels” is inspired by a piece of remote the beach at Point No Point on south western Vancouver Island. It is a rugged area close to the end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and open sea. The rocks are of mixed texture and form. Some are large hard slate black stones rubbed smoothed from the surf and others are smaller, rounded and warm ochre and cream in colour. Seaweed seems to drape themselves over either. Though the when you look closely mussels appear to like the darker rocks. But since they are sometimes clustered together it is often hard to tell.

I have been coming to this area for over twenty years, sometimes for lunch and a stroll through the trails and other times to stay for a few days in one of the cabins. The last time I was there was in December 2009 for our honeymoon.

I had set a challenge when painting this piece to be able to paint the darker seaweed on top of the lighter rocks. However when I look closely, the light was the dark seaweed just at the crest of the rocks. Which made much more sense to me but the painting was still very challenging. I wanted us to feel like we were the sea about to wash over the mussels, the rocks and the seaweed. I also came to understand that the rocks are often washed away from the bottom quicker than the top as the sea pushes its way over the sand and withdraws back into itself. This leaves the stones with overhangs where there is no sand and the shadows seep in.

At some point this painting took on a life of its own and became separate from my reference images and slide down a path that was more about remembering how it felt, the smell of seaweed, the salt air, and the roar of the surf on distant rocks with the sun on my back lifting the mist off the trees on the bank above me.

Sprout Question: Have you ever discovered something different than what you thought you knew while creating?

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

More Painting

April 8, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Power outage lends itself to another day painting

We had another power outage (due to winds knocking over a huge arbutus tree on Village Bay road at 1:40 am). I awake at 7:00 am. The power is still out. I decide to see if I can find a coffee before doing anything else. Ah yes! The bakery is serving coffee using generator power. Armed with to-go thermos cups filled with black gold, I return home and prepare our usual fruit, yogurt and grain cereal for breakfast. With few alternatives, I settle on my favourite activity of the moment – painting.

The wild underpainting had dried on my 18X24 by 2 inch canvas.

I go to work. At one o’clock this afternoon the power comes on again and I am ready to take a break and share the progress with you.

There is more to do but it is a good start.

Sprout Question: What is your creative activity of choice when the power goes out?

Note: My apologies for being late with today’s post but you will have to take it up with the wind and the arbutus tree… they have let me know they are taking full responsibility for the delay.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Early Easter

April 1, 2010April 1, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Looking at that big sky I am reminded that today is the last Creative Potager post until the morning of Tuesday April 6, 2010. Early Happy Easter to you as we take one last quiet stroll before departing to family and friends.

Bull kelp rests where it was thrown during a high tide, its long tail reaching back into the sea. Bull kelp has been the inspiration for many a child who spies it on the shore. It is an annual and can grow 80 feet long in one season with leaves up to 10 feet long. They grow together creating an underwater forest.

Spring has arrived to the shoreline…

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Here is my personal favourite view looking down on the grape hyacinths, iris stocks and snapdragons growing next to the shore.

But mostly I want to share with you one of my favourite arbutus tree….

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If you look way across the Straight of Georgia that is where Vancouver, B.C. is, just below the cloud covered mountains. On Saturday afternoon, I will be waving back to you from there.

Sprout Question: How do holidays fit with your creativity?

All the best of the Easter holiday weekend to you.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada