Off to kick leaves and have a good visit

September 19, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

It is leaf kicking time! I am heading north for better than week to visit with family. With a bit of luck, I will come back with at least few photographs of brilliant autumn colours. I can’t make a promise but I can assure you that there is a good possibility.

In the meantime, I have been busy with a large stack of administrative work with little time to paint. But I do have a new large 60 x 36 inch oil on canvas resting called SEASIDE MAYNE ISLAND

It is not released yet and still needs a final photo shoot. I will also do a full work-in-progress post for us sometime in early October. Regardless of its newness and still “resting” status, I placed the painting in a prominent location last evening for a dinner we hosted with good friends and collectors of my paintings and photography.

The hit of the evening, after SEASIDE MAYNE ISLAND of course, was a new still life painting…

AUGUST STILL LIFE WITH CEZANNE AND MATISSE
36 x 24 inch oil on canvas

There are distinctive elements of Paul Cezanne‘s work that go far beyond his use of colour to represent form. He had a way of presenting different viewpoints in his compositions that was and is exciting. This is something that Henri Matisse continued to explore while allowing the paint to become colour fields of flat surfaces. At one point in the of the development of this work I had a choice. I could continue to build up the colour fields or I could continue to follow the light and movement within the landscape. Matisse of course was arguing for letting paint be paint in its colour and simplicity. Cezanne was slowly working his way into the tension of form and structure of the still life using colour as his guide. I observed. I thanked the masters. Then I picked up my brush and continued to paint the light and movement between the forms until the painting came to rest. Edges are currently unfinished and can be completed to meet your needs.

Detailed view and purchase information at:
http://www.artsyhome.com/product/August-Still-life-with-Cezanne-and-Matisse

Where might be your favourite Leaf-kicking stroll when the golden light is shining low through the trees?

Psst! I have also started working on my second art book. The working title is ANYTHING BUT NEUTRAL: Mayne Island in paintings and photographs, Volume Two. I have about 57 of the estimated 80 pages completed in draft form. Tentative release will be early November. I shall keep you posted as it progresses 🙂

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

August Still life with Cezanne and Matisse (terrillwelchartist.com)
Golden Plums An Apple And A Green Vase Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Blackberries Golden Plums Transparent Apple Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Seaside Mayne Island oil painting study by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)
Recent sales of Terrill Welch oil paintings and pending price increase (terrillwelchartist.com)
Golden Plums Summer Flowers with Rilke Cezanne and Matisse (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Morning In The Kitchen – Small Abstract Painting by Terrill Welch (terrillwelchartist.com)

Golden Plums Summer Flowers with Rilke Cezanne and Matisse

August 21, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

August golden plums and a large arrangement of local flowers provide sensual release in the abating summer of paint and canvas. Yet, it is not so much the canvases where the study and work is occurring. I have been reading Rainer Marie Rilke‘s LETTERS ON CEZANNE that he wrote to his wife in 1907 while viewing an exhibition of Paul Cezanne’s paintings shown one year after the painter’s death. This master painter, along with Henri Matisse, has cast a distinct hue and influence over these most recent canvases – none of which are released as I am not sure of their completeness. Maybe they will remain studio studies or maybe just a few brushes of paint and they will separate from the creative process and stand on their own. But complete or not it is time to bring you my dear friends into my painterly space.

I start arranging and exploring the possibilities for the still life with my usual camera sketches.

Should it be this way?

Or maybe this way?

And then of course there is just the plums…

What would Paul Cezanne have to say? Well, very little probably. He certainly wasn’t know for his eloquent oratory. Rilke on the other hand and to our good fortune gifted with words:

It’s as if every part were aware of all the others – it participates that much; that much adjustment and rejection is happening in it; that’s how each daub plays its part in maintaining equilibrium and in producing it: just as the whole picture finally keeps reality in equilibrium.

(Paris Vie, 29, Rue Cassette, October 22, 1907)

Shall we begin?

The first challenge is to get the still life up to a desired level for painting so that the view-point is similar to that of the photographs. This is likely not all that common an issue but it is one I have discovered to be a significant difference between painting from life and using my photographs for reference – I often photograph on my knees and almost always paint standing. I like the low angle so how might we do this with this chair and still life arrangement?

By setting it on the coffee table of course. I set three framed and finished paintings behind the set up not for any other purpose than to leave me room in another part of the room for the wet canvases. But after I did it I liked the effect and added a few cushions under the chair to pull everything together. Now it is time to paint.

I feel very much alone in the studio. With the ground on the two new canvas I will be painting today, I wait for a little more natural light to reach the great room where I am painting. While I wait, I review yesterday’s work in progress images looking for clues that can possibly be brought forward in an even more conscious way into today’s work. It is interesting to me that one day can feel so different from the next. Well, there is only one thing to do – paint.

I am happily painting and visiting with Paul Cezanne when Henri Matisse shows up.

There are distinctive elements of Cezanne work that go far beyond his use of colour to represent form. He had a way of presenting different viewpoints in his compositions that was and is exciting. This is something that Henri Matisse continued to explore while allowing the paint to become colour fields of flat surfaces. At this point of the development of this work I had a choice. I could continue to build up the colour fields or I could continue to follow the light and movement within the landscape. Matisse of course was arguing for letting paint be paint in its colour and simplicity. Cezanne was slowly working his way into the tension of form and structure of the still life using colour as his guide. I observed. I thanked the masters. Then I picked up my brush and continued to paint the light and movement between the forms until the painting came to rest.

AUGUST STILL LIFE WITH CEZANNE AND MATISSE resting 24 x 36 inch oil on canvas

I have done more on this painting now but it is not significantly changed.

But I am not done. I start on another canvas and move more towards form. Hovering between representation and abstract I bring us in close to the still life setup.

GOLDEN PLUMS AN APPLE AND GREEN VASE resting 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

I am left wanting for a chance to peer over his shoulder as he painted and I assume paced his way through long periods of time constructing the structure and rendering his still life paintings. How did he decide to have falling fruit, and tilted vases, tables, paintings or twisted warped, walls and furniture with more than one view-point in a single painting? What was it that brought him to these considerations? The results are of course a still life that is anything but still.

I set up a third canvas

PLUMS APPLES AND MOSTLY SUNFLOWERS – resting 20 x 24 inch oil on canvas

The light IS filtered for most of my painting session this morning. Hence the contrasts are minimal as I paint the spaces in between enjoying the colours and the tension in the relationships.

I set up a four and small 8 x 10 inch canvas.

But after looking at it for a few moments I realize I am done. I have exhausted my drive to capture this particular still life. So with a room full of colour I begin to muse about these three works.

These three paintings are “resting” and they are still very much attached to the process of their painting. I have left them here in the window so that I may look at them unintentionally as I go about other tasks. I am checking to see that I truly feel they are complete. Sometimes this process takes hours before I am sure and other times it takes months. While I am doing this evaluation, a question came to mind:

Which room in a home or office would be best suited to hang these paintings?

You might think this is an odd question but many people who buy my paintings and photography prints hang the work in their bedrooms or in their private office space. I see these as the two most intimate places for people to choose to hang the pieces. Much of my work is in quieter colours with lots of natural blues, greens and earth shades. The paintings and photographs are full of movement yet the compositions are simple and spacious. Hence, it is easy for me to understand why the work might enhance restful and thoughtful spaces.

But these three are possibly not as visually quiet so it got me to wondering where they will most likely be hung. What do you think? If you were going to choose one or all three where would you hang them?

To help with size needs the smallest is 12 x 16 inches, the middle painting is 20 x 24 inches and the large painting is 24 x 36 inches.

So my curious mind wants to know – if you had a choice and these paintings arrived at your home, in what room would you hang them?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

Saturday Art: Henri Matisse (my.firedoglake.com)
Cézanne: A Life by Alex Danchev (3quarksdaily.com)
Cezanne? Sez who? (richardnilsen.com)
Sold – End of Day with Arbutus – Contemporary Canadian Landscape Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
The Mt. Baker Reach – west coast seascape study (terrillwelchartist.com)

Doing a Henri Matisse in three new paintings

January 2, 2013January 2, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

There is some much pressure on artists to be consistent in their body of work. Galleries like it as it is easy to show. Patrons like it because it is familiar with other work by the artist that they love. But artists, at least this artist, do not necessarily like it. There is something awkward and unfamiliar with limiting palette and stylistic expression to such a narrow range that the work is immediately recognized as coming from the same creative process. Somehow the painting process often unfolds in quite a different manner.

Today, I did what I refer to as “doing a Henri Matisse” which is the process of digging as deeply as possible in a variety of directions to find what best way to interpret my subject, my desire and my intention.

It started with a reworking of “At The Beach” a plein air painting that had fallen out of my favour.

There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with this painting but again, there wasn’t anything particularly right either. So I used it a foundation for today’s warm up which was no small task since I had taken a lengthy painting break during the seasonal holidays. Here is the resting results of my efforts.

“At the Beach another Time” 12 x 12 inch oil on canvas resting.

I now am much happier with how the light bounces across the canvas. I like the deep contrasts and the mystery the painting evokes as the sun rests off to my right shoulder on this August day.

Next, I took on a late December sunrise. I wanted to use bold decisive strokes that would give the sense of a colours woven together by sea, sky and the morning sun.

“Late December West Coast Sunrise” resting 6 x 6 inch oil on gessobord resting.

The change in palette and foundation from canvas to gessobord gives me the freedom to devour the winter sky with my brush. It is not about getting it right but rather about getting it live.

Then the final painting of the day came with yet another change in how I use my tools. The palette knife edged and sculptured my subject while the brush smoothed it back into its environment.

“Pear Trees in Winter First Light” 8 x 10 inch oil on canvas resting.

So there you have it. Today’s work in all its alla prima glory. Are they finished paintings? Maybe or maybe not. It matters not. This artist’s curiosity has been has been satisfied, at least for today.

Henri Matisse would be pleased I think. Matisse’s vast oeuvre encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic arts (as diverse as etchings, linocuts, lithographs, and aquatints), paper cutouts, and book illustration. His varied subjects comprised landscape, still life, portraiture, domestic and studio interiors, and particularly focused on the female figure. In fact, it might be easier to show the range and diversity of his work than to lump it together into a gallery and patron series. This is not to say he did not do several paintings of the same subject. Indeed he did paint the same subject sometimes several times. But each time he handled it with sometimes significant differences in his search of “true painting.”

Matisse’s career can be divided into several periods that changed stylistically, but his underlying aim always remained the same: to discover “the essential character of things” and to produce an art “of balance, purity, and serenity,” as he himself put it in his “Notes of a Painter” in 1908.

Reverence: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954).

I can resonate with this underlying aim and if a painter is to discover “the essential character of things” it stands to reason that the approach, the palette of pigments and the tools will vary. It would also make sense I would think that the subject of inquiry would not be rendered at the same time of day or year and that a viewer might possibly be able to intuit the specifics of light and season if they were familiar with such subtleties. Therefore, at no time in the near future are you likely to see 20 or 30 of my paintings that look like they were spawn by the same in-bred tribe of pigments, canvases and brushstrokes.

Henri Matisse’s paintings are now showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibition, which curator Rebecca Rabinow has 49 paintings that Matisse made in pairs or trios between 1899-1948. As mentioned, he often painted and repainted the same theme in multiple styles, sometimes halting work on one painting only to continue on another, and preserving much of his own process along the way.

When was the last time that you did a Henri Matisse?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com