impressionist painting

STORM COMING oil painting in progress

/ Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

We have been issued a wind warning by Environment Canada this evening: Sustained southerly winds of 70 to 100 km/h with peak gusts from 100 to 140 km/h will develop Wednesday morning. So if you don’t hear from me for a bit… it is only because the electricity is out.

I was going to post this painting on Friday along with another I painted this week. But the title of this painting is “Storm Coming.” I decided it would just have to be a Wednesday painting post. Seemed like a perfect day to share its progress.

Starting with the most yellow orange underpainting

I carefully selected a few colours. I’ve decided to capture my palettes for each painting and thought you might like to see.

Everyone has their own methods of organization.

I am not big on organizing my paints in a certain way. I think about what I am going to need and organize them in a manner I will use them.

For example, I am left handed and often work counter clockwise on my palette. Generally I work the whole canvas at once but this painting developed a little differently.

I chose my main brushes and palette knifes often having two brushes and a palette knife in my hands all at the same time.

STORM COMING 8 X 10 inch cotton canvas original oil painting is resting. It may be ready by Friday but maybe not.

Sprout question: What creative storm might be coming your way?

© 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

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New Oil Painting Orange Sea

/ 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!

© 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.

New Oil Paintings BREAKING THROUGH and FOREST

/ Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

How does the song go? Two out of three ain’t bad?

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post heavy cloud cover made it undesirable to paint. Hence, only two of three paintings are completed. But better two than none which might have been the case if I had not set the intention on Monday morning. Can I admit to being just a little excited about sharing the results of this weeks work? I hope you don’t mind but if you could see my face there would be this grin from ear-to-ear.

I will likely take other photographs of both these oil paintings on a brighter day but for now this is what we have…

BREAKING THROUGH

(36” X 48” by 1 ¾ inch cotton canvas original oil painting)

FOREST

(18” X 14” by 1 ½ inch cotton canvas original oil painting )

If  you are interested in purchasing either of these paintings please contact me directly at tawelch@ shaw.ca .

I am sure we may all agree that these two paintings are very different.  Yet, I recognize them both as being painted in my usual impressionist style. As the artist, I can stand back and see my struggles and successes to capture, to express and to embrace my creative process. This is why I am excited and why I am beaming with satisfaction – it is for the love of painting and seeing something through to completion!

Sprout question: What are you noticing about your creative process this week?

© 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

Red Bowl

/ Terrill Welch / 34 Comments

Before I share with you my experience with the red bowl, let’s be clear about this week’s intention. This week, I shall finish up the three paintings I have underway.

The first of these is breaking through or “the big one” posted in A Week Painting.

The second is the forest and the third is orange sea both of which were posted this past Friday in Hot Coals.

I have one more canvas I can begin if the spirit moves me. Then it will require a shopping trip to continue.

Now about the red bowl

Last week I started a six week photography e-course with Kat Sloma from The Kat Eye View.  I first met Kat through her comments on Creative Potager. When I read her e-course description I knew this e-course was for me. Here is the first paragraph…

Photography is art, and like any other art, is an expression of the heart and soul of the artist.  In digital photography, the camera and computer become tools for creative expression the same way paints and brushes are tools for painters. But learning the tools alone does not help you find your eye and express your heart and soul; it can only be the starting point.  You have to learn to dive deeper into experiencing the environment around you and understand what calls to you in order to develop a unique photographic style of your own.

(by Kat Sloma. More about the e-course here.)

Her first exercise has to do with understanding how light can affect your subject. For this exercise I chose a bowl where the inside is red. Flickr is the format I am using for the Finding Your Eye e-course photojournal. You are welcome to check out my before and after images of the red bowl in different lighting at Bowls – finding my eye entry 1. All ten images are of the same red bowl.

I know I said I am going to focus more on painting than photography this year. However, I am taking the liberty of adjusting as the creative spirit moves me. I have decided it likely going to be a both/and year – Both painting and photography.

On that note, here is my favourite photograph from the past few days.

Alder in the Sun

(image may be purchased here.)

AND

The Fallen

(image may be purchased here.)

 

Sprout question: In what direction is your creative spirit moving you this week?

 

© 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

Hot Coals

/ Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

Original oil paintings in progress…

First painting.

Forest 1

Forest 2

Forest 3

Forest 4

Second Painting.

Orange Sea 1

Orange Sea 2

The best cooking fire is hot coals because they provide a body of even heat which will penetrate and cook without burning your food. Sometimes painting is like this for me. At first the flames of an idea blaze with excitement and I paint away with nothing but burnt remnants to show for my efforts. But sometimes I need to build a good fire first so that there are enough coals for a long cooking process.  The painting Forest needs a good bed of coals to accommodate its density. The painting Orange Sea requires that I steadily add a stick or two at a time so that it can simmer without boiling over. Neither painting is finished. They are still cooking.

 

Sprout question: What kind of creative fire are you cooking with today?

 

© 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

 

A Week Painting

/ 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!

© 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

One Year Ago Today

/ Terrill Welch / 16 Comments


One year ago today I posted the first Creative Potager post – A Gown Remembered: Beginning.  With one quick comment and my reply and eleven views it was a quiet beginning.

Today is post 205 and it starts the day with 26,600 views while building on 3,440 comments. It is a good solid beginning. Thank you everyone for your part in making this a great Creative Potager year.

Going forward, we will see a shift in posting in order accommodate my intentions for the 2011 year. Creative Potager will have a Monday morning post that will include my intention for the week. Friday morning will conclude the week with a report on the results of the intention set at the beginning of the week. With these book-end-posts there will be occasional but not predictable post in between. Each post will continue to have a Sprout Question for your musing and comment.

My intention for 2011: I will be focusing more on oil painting en plein air than photography. The purpose of my work remains the same – to ground the viewer to their physical earthly environment – in nature. Zen impressionism. Quiet abundance. Joy.

This painting “Winter Sun” and a few of my other 2010 oil paintings are for sale go to ART of DAY, at the ART of DAY store. More of my work will become available at this location in the near feature.

With an intention to be painting more and also to be painting outdoors I hope you can see why there is a shift in this years posting structure. The nice thing about blogging, if something doesn’t work we can wake up in the morning and change it. This new schedule will begin on Monday, January 3, 2011. You can expect to see Creative Potager posts today through to Friday, December 31, 2010.

Sprout question: What intentions are you setting for 2011?

© 2010 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

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Third original Terrill Welch oil painting in sale Far Shore

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Far Shore captures the west coast mist as it tumbles over tree-covered Galiano Island jutting from the sea in Active Pass.

Deep green winter reflections wrestle with rolling fog dressing and undressing the forest. Glimpses of naked trees are quickly covered only to appear again further on. Never quite able to grasp the wholeness and the detail at the same time, the viewer’s eye dances across the canvas.

A slice of the painting resting at easel-angle shows a sliver of the deep green unframed canvas sides.

 

This detail holds the movement and mystery of the larger painting.

 

Creative Potager post “more painting” shows a couple of images of Far Shore in progress.

TO BUY THIS PAINTING: Critical information for Buyers including the price is posted on a separate page HERE.

Far Shore is the third of three original oil paintings on sale over three days. After each of the three paintings become available they will remain on sale until sold or midnight PST Monday December 6, 2010, whichever comes first.

The first painting East Point Cliffs is still available at the time of this posting.

The second painting Owl’s View is still available at the time of this posting.

 

Please share this post with others who may be interested. Thank you for coming by and support of my work.

 

Sprout question: Can you tell us about your most inspiring experience in the fog?

 

© 2010 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

 

Second Original Oil Painting by Terrill Welch in Sale Owls View

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Owl’s View brings us up close to the mighty textures of tall fir trees as they stand together. This painting was painted on site or en plein air with the shifting light of the day changing until evening began to creep along the edges of the valley.

The sides of Owl’s View have a soft no-fuss finish. It is complete without a frame but I have a hunch it would be enhanced with your choice of materials to fit a specific location.

The detail below is very much an image its own right and one that makes a beautiful card available in my redbubble storefront. Creative Potager post “If I were an owl” shows several images of this painting in progress.

TO BUY THIS PAINTING: Critical information for Buyers, including the price, is posted on a separate page HERE.

Owl’s View is the second of three original oil paintings on sale over the next three days.. The second will go up on Saturday and the third on Sunday. After each of the three paintings become available they will remain on sale until sold or midnight PST Monday December 6, 2010, whichever comes first.

The first painting East Point Cliffs is still available at the time of this posting.

Please share this post with others who may be interested. Thank you for your interest and support of my work.

Sprout question: Would you stay or fly if you were this owl?

© 2010 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

First Terrill Welch Original Oil Painting in Sale East Point Cliffs

/ Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

This painting is a shape-shifter through time. More than any other painting that I have painted East Point Cliffs absorbs the light and transforms with the time of day. Bright and lush on a sunny day …

Quiet and peaceful on a cloudy day…

East Point Cliffs looks as if there is a full moon shining when it is near dusk. It is rightly the first painting of my online sale as it was the first painting in oils I had done in thirty years of working in watercolours. Oil was the first medium I used when I started painting and selling my work at the age of fourteen. It is ever-so-wonderful to return to a slightly modified water miscible oil paint.

With the oil painting’s deep edges roughly textured, it awaits your personal touch in choosing of a frame to fit your chosen location or it can be left as is, reminding the viewer that it is canvas and paint that has become art.

A close up reveals the layered impressionist strokes on canvas.

East Point Cliffs is inspired from a trip in February to Saturna Island British Columbia, Canada. The deep blue of the sea and the sandstone cliffs were mesmerizing. An early post provides more about the process of painting East Point Cliffs.

TO BUY THIS PAINTING: Critical information for Buyers including the price is posted on a separate page HERE.

East Point Cliffs is the first of three original oil paintings going on sale over the next three days.. The second will go up on Saturday and the third on Sunday. After each of the three paintings become available they will remain on sale until sold or midnight PST Monday December 6, 2010, whichever comes first.

Please share this post with others who may be interested. Thank you for your interest and support of my work.

Sprout question: If you were mesmerized by East Point Cliffs where would it take you?

© 2010 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