A Week Painting

January 7, 2011January 13, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 37 Comments

Following my intentions on a sunny Monday morning, I have my inspiration image set up and I am ready to squeeze out a few colours.

But the shadows! Gurrr!

I usually can move a smaller canvas around to avoid such things. This large 36 X 48 inch canvas has no room to move in my small studio space. Well, nothing to do but get started. I will see if I can work with it at least to get the underpainting done.

There is something absolutely exhilarating about putting those first strokes of paint on a canvas. The fact that this is a $72.00 canvas only has me swallow hard twice and mutter “be BOLD!” I work away fighting the shadows every step of the way until I have the painting roughed in.

This is about as much as I can do between holding a portable light that has a yellow glare and the shadows. I have come to the end of what I can do in the studio with natural light.

Note the bottom right hand corner and how heavily it is in shadowed. Not good I tell you. It is not good. What to do? I sleep on it – for two sleeps while the underpainting sets up.

It is cool outside on Wednesday but above freezing. I decide to move outdoors to the covered deck overlooking the valley.

It is a lovely place to work. No shadows here.

But it is rather cool and the water miscible oil paints are stiffer than I would like. I decide to keep working.

Here you can see the results from working in the studio with the heavy shadow on the bottom right hand corner. But it is only paint and fixable. I am now starting to lose my light. Where did the day go?

I am pleased. There are lots of problems still to resolve – like my cold fingers. But it is a good start.

Thursday I wake to heavy rains. I wait hoping it will brighten up. At 10:30 am I go upstairs to the studio thinking I will write instead of paint. But you see, the brushes and paint and painting are right there. I start dabbing away. Pretty soon I have the painting hauled back out on the deck. Four hours later I stop.

It is not finished but needs to rest for awhile. I will work on another painting next week and look at it out of the corner of my eye – with satisfaction.

Sprout question: What is encouraging you to smile with satisfaction?

Oh! We have a party invitation for Monday January 10, 2011 over on Leanne Dyck’s Blog at http://sweatercursed.blogspot.com Leanne is throwing a virtual bash to celebrate the e-book publication of her thriller The Sweater Curse. Please drop over leave a comment, share your favourite party food or punch recipe and a link to a great tune. Congratulations Leanne!

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

If I were an owl

July 8, 2010October 11, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

If I were an owl I would spend a lot of time looking at the middle of trees, as I dozed away an afternoon. The view we have of our big fir trees is like that. I set my easel up on the west deck and decided to paint an owl’s view.

The big easel I’m using was a gift from my parents the year I graduated from high school. That was awhile ago. I’ve packed and moved it so many times I don’t even care to count. It’s a treasure.

Now back to an owl’s view….I started with one of my favourite yellow-orange underpaintings but neglected to take that first photo when it was set aside to dry. Here is the next pause in painting.

And the next.

Then I made a mistake. I didn’t let it cure long enough… only a couple of days. I just couldn’t wait. So I painted. And I painted. And I painted some more….

It was okay but the painting had lost its life. The darker and more vibrant colours had lifted and mixed in with the lighter ones I was painting. Basically, I had a muddy gray mess. I was pretty sad and I felt kind of silly. I knew I couldn’t work the painting that hard so soon and I stubbornly did it anyway. So this time I left it sit for a couple of weeks. I looked at. I mused and I considered.

Did I want to try and breathe life back into it or should I just leave its carcass on the canvas?

Ah, what the heck nothing much too loose. I gave it another try. Here are the results.

View and purchase print of original here.

18X24 by 2 inch 100% cotton canvas water miscible oil painting.

Now I am happy. I love painting trees. Just for fun, here is a close up of one of my favourite parts of the painting. I decided it would make a nice card or print in its own right.

View and purchase print of original here.

Sprout Question: Do you have a favourite subject that has kept you creative company for years?

Note: these images are available at my online store front http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch for viewing and purchase. But they seem to be having some website issues this morning so I will go back and make direct links for you later 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

Wabi-sabi

February 18, 2010December 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

Wabi-sabi castes a familiar womb-like shadow into the emptiness of creative possibility. We know wabi-sabi by what is left in the muted abundance of emptiness. As I sweep the deck with a straw broom, I hear its brush against the floor’s surface – first the wood then the jute rug. I hear my breath. I hear the pair of Canada geese honk as they land in the pond below, followed shortly by a jet gaining altitude overhead. I stop my sweeping. My hand slides over the back of the bamboo chair on my walk toward the railing. I sniff the night’s rain soaking into the ground, feeding the fir trees as they bask in the morning sun.

Winter is coming to an end. Wabi-sabi then, is spiritual in its practice of simplicity.

Read more about this topic on my post about wabi.

Read about this topic more on my post about sabi.

Sprout Question: Does wabi and sabi meet in any part of your creativity?

Primary reference: The Wabi-Sabi house: the Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty (2004) by Robyn Griggs Lawrence.

p.s. I am away today and will reply to sprout responses tomorrow.

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.

Solitude

February 5, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Home is my place of solitude and sanctuary. There needs to be an easy transition from outside/inside living. We have almost the same amount of covered deck space as we do inside space with fir trees providing the boundary of our daily living rather than the walls of our home. To flourish my creativity needs extended amounts of time with just me – in solitude, daily. For me, this kind of outside/inside space is the most inspiring solitude.

Usually my time for solitude is early morning just before daybreak. I like to rise before I sense that the rest of my world has stirred.

Quick 8”X11” sketch with artist pens and watercolour wash of bench on our front deck where we can sit and look over the valley.

Sprout Question: How does solitude influence your creativity?

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.

High Winds

January 20, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

I awoke to rattling, banging and snapping at just after 1:30 am on Monday morning. No, it wasn’t a break-n-enter but high wind. Cones, branches and bits of whatever else were being slammed down on our tin roof from winds that were recorded up to 120 km an hour on a near by island. I could hear the roar of the wind high above the trees. The sound was similar to a large jet overhead except it never moved away – it just stayed there and roared. For the next four hours we watched and monitored as a cast iron chair on the deck was knocked over by large broken branch, the upstairs window was blown open even though it opens out and the trees bent and twisted against the force of the wind. Not surprisingly, the electricity went off at around 3:00 am.

When daylight arrived there was an eerie calm as sun danced across the debris, which looked rather mundane compared to the noise it made in its decent during the night. There was no serious damage. Our large fir trees were still standing though their dressing gowns of branches and needles were looking much thinner from the night’s engagement.

I had planned a painting day for Monday but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. We did what people usually do. We wandered down the road to see how our neighbours were making out and catch up on the extent of the damages. When we returned, it was time to fill the oil lamp and start the outdoor wood cook stove for an early dinner before dark.

My creativity was garnered to the task at hand – choosing the right wood for the cooking fire and setting the vent in the right spot at the back of the stove for the oven.

Our house stays warm for better than 24 hours without electricity because of the in-floor hot water heating and the thick strawbale walls. So we had our dinner, lit the lamp, and read some poetry aloud.

Then we crawled under the covers in the silence, broken only by the battery operated clock, to watch the stars in the still night. The storm had passed.

Sprout Question: When was the last time your creativity was needed in an unusual event?

My Cloud Biscuits…

CLOUD BISCUITS

Can easily double this recipe

2 cups flour
1 tblsp white sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (not shorting)
1 beaten eggs – very well beaten
2/3 – 1 cup milk (I usually use half whipping cream other half water )

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until coarse. Add egg and some milk to flour; mix all at once. Add enough milk to allow dough to be easily kneaded. Knead the dough a few times (not too much or will be tough – just a lick and a promise!). Flatten to about 1” thick and cut into desired serving size. Bake in 450 degree F. oven (or “HOT” oven in wood cook stove) until lightly browned on top… for 12-15 minutes.
Good luck!

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.

Sun pressing through

January 6, 2010January 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

The sun waits for no one. My plan was to paint today. However, I awake to a frosty cool soft winter-blue sky with the sun pressing its way through the firs. We have had rain and fog for days. Change of plan. I shall be devouring a late breakfast and then out trek around with camera over my shoulder. (First figuring out why my camera won’t download today’s image, leaving me to use a photo from about the same time of year and day from last season – we have no snow today.)