The Riviera

May 15, 2014May 27, 2018 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

From north-western Italy to Southern France it is The Riviera and stunningly beautiful.

It could be an afternoon in Manarola

with “lady of the grapes”

or sipping local wine by half-bottle

next the sea in Rapallo

Then again, it could be a small Italian working fishing village

before coming to the big city host of Nice France

with its amazing square

no matter which way you happen to look…

It is all good, fantastic and delicious! There is however, only one painting sketch and it is not of these grand views but rather a humble still life.

Basic Essentials – 25 x 35 cm acrylic on archival 185 lb paper.

Yet, it seems just right. Enough. Maybe even more than enough.

This is our last of three days in Nice France. Tomorrow we will be leaving for Aix en Provence and then Narbonne as we travel along the south of France. We will have no internet in the next places we are staying. Therefore, you may or may not hear from us again until we reach Barcelona Spain on May 23, 2014. So don’t worry. We are fine – just a little disconnected 😉

If you were to summarize the basic essentials of one of your favourite places what would be included?

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

Good Morning Rapallo Italy

May 8, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

With oranges picked from a tree and sliced to eat to lemons, fresh eggs from the hen-house and an enthusiastic young niece to our host to greet us we felt right at home in our tiny house style apartment up in the hills of Rapallo Italy.

This morning before walking down the hill to get groceries I walked up a ways until I could see the Mediterranean Sea.

We are surrounded by hills with little spots of inhabitants scattered around.

I believe there is a bus that goes around to the area across from us. I hope so because it would fun to have a closer look at this hilltop.

But it is the sea that is calling me right now.

The Bird of Paradise blooming outside our door

nor the abundant number of prickly beauties

and not even the roses will keep me on the hillside today.

We are off on the twenty or thirty minute walk to see the sea and get a feel for this place.

What is holding your attention today?

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

Olive Tree en plein air

May 6, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

On occasion a painter is mesmerized by a subject. In this case, I have fell under the spell of a particular olive tree in the Tuscan hillsides of Florence Italy. I have added it to two previous paintings – once because it was actually there and the second time because I wanted it to be there. This morning I made a third attempt. It is our last day in Florence and the only chance I will have to set up directly in view of this prized olive tree.

I rough in an underpainting and settle in to work. Oh how my brush lacks the life of the moving light! I struggle with the acrylic painting, my limited ability to interpret what I experience so fully in front of this tree and the landscape that holds. The haze is heavier than I am used to on the west coast. The colours are richer and fuller in this May midday sun. I want to give up. I want to sit on the ground and toss the brushes in the air in defeat. But I don’t. I take a deep breath and I keep working. This painting will hardly be able to be called a sketch. It is already long past my self imposed 60 minute limit for a painting sketch. I care not for this limitation today. I am determined.

Finally the brushes still. I have no idea what is on the canvas really. I lost conscious track way back when the last long narrow tree was brushed into the distance. So let’s have a look together…

Well, it isn’t what I had imagined. Nor does it fully capture my intention. But it will have to do because no further brushstroke is asking to be added. This is it. Finished.

OLIVE TREE 25 x 35 cm on 185 lb coldpress archival paper

(Art prints available in my Redbubble storefront HERE)

I have no question for us today… what one would you like to ask?

Now I really must go and pack or we shall be in a flurry tomorrow morning.

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

Photography sketches of the Florence Countryside

May 1, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

There are times, as many of you know, when I am taking photography sketches that I will then be use as reference for paintings that I will do in the studio. It is tricky business to do these sketches as they are often a series of several photographs taken from different perspectives so that there is enough memory triggered in the later viewing to bring me back to that specific place and time. This is necessary as I need information from all of my senses to successful interpret a painting in a meaningful way onto a canvas. A few of these photographs are worthy of being considered completed works in their own right. Mostly though, they are reference work just like a charcoal drawing or quick painting sketch. That said, it was a nice walk and I thought you might like to come with me for at least part of it.

The air is full of seed pods with parachutes today. David has to keep his sneezing self indoors. So it is just you, me and the camera hiking along with a water bottle on this May 1st, national Labour Day holiday in Florence, Italy. The sky is trying to rain but just can’t work up enough gumption to deliver the goods. We will be fine. I promise.

We will turn this way, then that way, in a maze of back streets that take us to a high road where we can look across to some place north of where we came from.

A soccer game is playing over a mega-phone system or some such thing. At least I think it is a soccer game. Whatever it is, the sound seems fitting and odd all at the same time. The side of the road is very narrow where we are standing so we best go part way back the way we came and go in the other direction as it looked much more peaceful – quiet even.

Lucky us, the sun has come out for a few minutes and we have over an hour of these old bricked back roads to explore. There is only one problem. I need to be at least a foot taller.

About half of the view always remains a mystery to me. How about you? How are you making out. Oh heck, let me give you a boost and you can get a good look…. no, no! Don’t fall over the top! That sign said something about a dog. Pheeeewfff! Okay, no more of THAT! Lets just look in through the bars of the gate instead.

There will likely be fireflies in this olive tree grove this evening. If we wanted we could catch some in a jar and leave them beside our bed. In the morning the fireflies will have turned into one cent coins. It’s true! Just ask my host if you don’t believe me. Though she is pretty sure that her father had something to do with these results. However, in the whole valley all the small children would go out in the fields in the evening and catch fireflies. Then they would try to stay awake at night to see if they could see how it happened. No one ever did. But in the morning, sure as anything, there would be a few coins in the jar beside their bed and the fireflies would be gone. I saw my very-first-ever firefly two nights ago. I am going to go out tonight and see if the thousands of others have arrived yet. They are reportedly suppose to arrive in early May. A few small coins might be kinda nice don’t you think?

So….. maybe if it rains tomorrow or maybe not until I get back to Canada at the end of June but I am confident that at least a few of these photography sketches will become paintings.

What kind of creative sketches do you do in preparation for a final work?

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

The Value of a Lemon

April 28, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

What might be the value of a lemon? Or two?

Or maybe even a whole front yard filled with lemons?

Some of these lemon trees might be growing in pots. Then there are others that might be really large and trained to grow up the side of the house.

You might even be able to tell me in ways I can guess that it took four years for one of these lemon tree to get that big. What then would be the value of a lemon to someone like me who has never seen so many lemons on lemon trees before? What if you were to invite me in for a really close look? Then, what if you were to reach into your hip pocket for the pruning shears and reaching around under the leaves you grasp a huge firm most lemon-of-lemon-yellow-lemon ever. What if you went “snip!” and handed it to me as a gift?

What do you think the value of THAT lemon would be?

Note: For those that might think that I just have small hands which I suppose I do, here is another comparison of my lemon with a large orange…

These lemons were growing in a front yard in the southern most reaches of Florence Italy and were spied through the fence when I was out for a walk. Anyone who has ever traveled or moved to a country where they don’t speak the language knows how exhausting it can be to do simple things like figure out where to get bus tickets or mail a letter or buy the right coffee capsules for the espresso maker when you can’t read the labeling (neither that I got were the right ones by the way). However, this conversation with a fellow gardener was almost effortless and every time I sniff the lemon – I remember how the sun shone on this exchange between complete stranger with hardly a word that could be spoken in common.

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

Arriving in Florence Italy

April 24, 2014May 8, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

Our hosts, Nicoletta and Roberto, call me “Terri” just like my step-son-in-law who is from Malan, Italy. They said that the people of Florence like to welcome their guests and how true we have found this to be. They met us at a small train station in the industrial west side of the city and gave us a full tour on our way to the southern edges. We were presented with gifts of Easter cake, wine and coffee for the espresso machine. Yes, I did still sleep last night after doing some taste-testing before they took me to get a few groceries which in hindsight I should have made a bigger shop. But, oh well!

Today, when we were shopping for a larger supply of sustenance, strangers readily helped me several times until I was able to independently work the weighing machine in the produce section. In the stores we have been to in Italy, the buyer weighs their own produce and a purchase slip is then created by the machine and you stick it on the bag of produce for the cashier. Quite handy really and efficient when you get to the checkout.

A little while after that I was enthusiastically given tips about the area by a fellow motor-bike riding local photographer. Needless to say, we are finding the people of Florence the warmest, most friendly and inviting hosts in our travels so far. Granted, we are a bit off the tourist map. Just the same – we feel we are at home in less than 24 hours. The view across the valley last evening didn’t hurt either…

It is the end of the day as I walk around the yard exploring and looking.

Someplace a little further to the left of this, I am told that Galileo’s observatory can be seen through the trees in the winter. I haven’t spotted it yet but it isn’t for lack of trying. It is warm here but not hot like in the summer when is common to have 40 degrees Celsius.

We are staying alongside a narrow one-way street that runs along a hill and is part of the old via Romana or old road to Rome from Florence. The street is now called via del Podesta.

One of the side roads has poppies blooming along the edge of the stone wall…

and a great view which I will show you on our return.

We walked over the top and down the other side to get our groceries for the next two days as tomorrow, April 25th , is Liberation Day in Italy, a national holiday. The country commemorates the day that the nation was liberated from Nazi Germany. This means most everything is closed.

The country commemorates the day that the nation was liberated from Nazi Germany. – See more at: http://www.florencewebguide.com/things-to-do-in-florence-in-april.html#sthash.ush8QP2p.dpuf

While shopping, I haven’t had so much fun in a long time. Our hosts had taken me the evening before with their car so I would know where to find the store. I only had a small amount of cash on me so just got enough for supper and breakfast. As we were returning they told me about the national holiday. I knew then that our main task for today was going to be to get a few more things to eat. Well, the great little store with fresh produce and oven-fired bread was packed shoppers. We jostled our way through with the locals who were laughing and joking and being helpful all at the same time. It was a hoot! When we finally got ourselves out on the street again with our pull-cart full of supplies, I told David, we couldn’t get a better experience of local life than shopping on the last day before a national holiday in a neighbourhood store. But, I assure you, now that we are back up the hill and have the provisions tucked away, anything we forgot, we are going to live without 😉

I didn’t take my camera with me but right around noon walked back to that place with the wonderful view.

This is when I ran into a fellow photographer on his motor bike and he gave me a bit of a rundown on other places to check out in the area. He was born and raised in this neighbourhood but had also made a trip to an island of the Pacific Northwest of the United States so he had some idea what it was like where I was from.

In conclusion, I have decided that my Italian name is Terri and to say it properly you have to roll the “r” just slightly – not too much and leave the emphasis on the “i” and give it more of a long “e” sound. It is very pretty said this way and I will answer to it without a moment’s hesitation.

What is your name in another language that you might like to be called?

is ‘Liberation Day’ in Italy, a national holiday.

The country commemorates the day that the nation was liberated from Nazi Germany.

– See more at: http://www.florencewebguide.com/things-to-do-in-florence-in-april.html#sthash.ush8QP2p.dpuf

is ‘Liberation Day’ in Italy, a national holiday.

The country commemorates the day that the nation was liberated from Nazi Germany.

– See more at: http://www.florencewebguide.com/things-to-do-in-florence-in-april.html#sthash.ush8QP2p.dpuf

is ‘Liberation Day’ in Italy, a national holiday.

The country commemorates the day that the nation was liberated from Nazi Germany.

– See more at: http://www.florencewebguide.com/things-to-do-in-florence-in-april.html#sthash.ush8QP2p.dpuf

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

Venice Italy on a Short Tether

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Where is Venice? Silly question you might answer. It is in Italy of course. Well, it can be. But I am going to postulate that Venice Italy is mostly in our imaginations. To demonstrate, I am going share my unscientific nine days of observations and reflections. You see, we are under rather peculiar restrictions while in this ancient city of canals. We must, for the most part, avoid frenetic crowds. To avoid dragging a snarling frothing-at-the-mouth tourist through the narrow complex pathways of Venezia, I must pick our times and our locations with care. The most noted touristy locations and activities are therefore passed over.

Though I did get a nice shot of the Canal Grande from the Ponte dell’Accademia

and the long view…

and another Canal Grande from Porte degliScalzi

Plus, there is the gondalier polishing away while waiting for riders…

and an inspired painting sketch…

or two

oh, make that three!

and there is the laundry I showed in my last Venice post.

There are also the narrow wabi-sabi alleyways…

So far so good, we might say. It all seems to be just about what one might expect in Venice. But this is where the imagined truth begins to slip and the many faces of Venice start to show themselves in the shadows.

We know that much of Venice was built by the 1500 as it is recorded in a woodcut print by Jacopo de’ Barbari. This aging and declining beauty hosts about 50,000 tourists a day. Finding a narrow calli not streaming with a procession of guests is often a challenge. Still, amidst the frantic excitement, its swaying elegance can still be hunted down to stand alone, quiet and charming in the afternoon sun. Distant clicking of carry-on luggage fades as it is jostle over the masegni then silenced when the owner picks it up to carry it over one of the more than 450 bridges connecting the city of islands. I have two full days left of my nine in Venice. My feelings are mixed. This photograph is the city I imagined. Yet, it is only one, and often seldom seen, expression on a declining, trampled profile of romance, elegance and power. I am not sorry I came. I am not even sorry I stayed long enough to see past the glitter and shiny bobbles. I am however slightly melancholy to visit this elderly lady on her last breath being sustained by tourism, mythology and will.

Let’s take a deeper view, one where I hope to still leave this fading darling of the world with some dignity – yet let the wrinkles of time add to her story.

we are connected

Italia in Venice

or just Italia?

1776 someplace in Venice Italy

I smell a rat nearby

Who broke the nose of Venice?

and then bit off her hand!?

Is this where Venice collects herself then?

Reflections in an antique shop window Venice Italy

Or is it here in the campo Nazario Sauro?

No, I think possibly the Venice we expect can be most frequently be found on this wall…

Wandering the back alleys in search of Venice Italy, I come across a happenstance poster collage that includes Ruth Orkin’s best know photograph early 1950’s “American Girl in Italy” amongst the mix. I carefully frame the collage within its original context and then edit the photograph to become a new image, a new work of art which emerges as a study of this earlier piece. There are bits of debris, wrinkles and wear showing on the paper. A piece of the brick wall is showing through the plastered images. Nothing is quite straight and true. There is more nostalgia than truth and this is Venice in April 2014.

More about “American Girl in Italy” can be found on a post written by her daughter at Ruth Orkin’s Archives:
http://www.orkinphoto.com/photographs/american-girl

Such a small cup Venice!

Yet, siblings can be seen looking at something from a bridge in Venice just above the daily beer delivery.

Canals are as much for heading to work in Venice

as they are for gondaliering.

Such gondola pride…

as they pass the open storage door.

and the practical posts at the edge of the canals.

The fancy ones are over in the Cannaregio district where the streets are wider, quieter and maybe not so interesting…

It is where Venetians live. It is where your coffee is only drank with milk before 11:00 am and the restaurants are mostly closed from 3:00 in the afternoon to 6:30 in the evening. It is where the boat with fresh fish makes a special stop before going to the larger open market over by the Rialto Bridge. It is where a small boy can through a plastic pop bottle in the canal and no one takes any notice. Still, just like the rest of Venice, the sorted refuse and recyclables will be hung out between six and eight in the morning where they will be picked up and trudged to the edge of the canals to be hauled away before the tourist day begins.

Who is this Venice with such a notorious reputation for love, superb expresso and fish that can sold in a restaurant for 13 euros a 100 grams – with the head still attached?

Who is this Venice behind these many masks?

Shuttered more often than not, she gives few clues…

As I make my way up and down the old marble stairs of our apartment again and again in the Santa Croce district,

as I reach for one old door handle after another,

and the city’s church bells swing a resistant ring against the graffiti walls…

I ask – where is Venice?

Then it rains. Sidewalks pool with water.

Canals welcome droplets as if being caressed awake from a deep sleep.

The passageways empty and leave the heavy light to a photographer on her knees. He brushes the red clay that is caked to the shoulder of her shirt where she leaned steady against the wall.

Darkness comes and still they walk – umbrella to umbrella, touching lightly on the delicate underbelly of exposed skin that is Venice. He asks what she is doing. She says she would like to frame those lights there, the ones dancing on the water. But she doesn’t. Instead, they keep walking, passed where the hustlers have packed up their purses and glow sticks, and passed where the usual sound of rolling carry-on luggage is louder than laughter and past where a couple is having difficulty deciding which restaurant they should go to for dinner.

Damp and satisfied, she leads them past the couple, and up the three flights of stairs to their apartment, opens a bottle of cheap red wine and makes sandwiches on white buns with local cheese for a late supper.

Early the next morning, there is Venice, waiting on the street for the garbage to be collected. A Venice that knows she can order a standing up espresso for a euro at the bakery where she will buy only what bread is needed for breakfast. About then – the light is just so! The masks fall from her imaginary vision and she says…

I am ready to say good morning to you Venice. I am willing to say I am in love with your many faces.

Only now, it is time to say good-bye – a long goodbye like that of Katharine Hepburn in Summertime (1955)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67MxIl795w

Venice, I think you will surprise me again.

Tomorrow, I shall be packed. It will be time for this humble artist to stow away her work and leave only her impressions behind.

Where is YOUR Venice? What one of her many faces do you love most?

Note: The painting sketches and some of these photographs are now available for purchase at my Redbubble Storefront.

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

Is it Venezia or Venice to you?

April 15, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

We traveled by train from Basel Switzerland through Austria and down the northeast part of Italy to Venezia or Venice. Being an English speaking Canadian I think of Venice rather than Venezia but the later sounds so pretty it seems a shame not to use it. I do have a blog post in the wings for Basel Switzerland. However, we are taking a short introductory walk around the Cannaregio area of Venice late this morning so I thought I would take you with us.

We are staying on quiet calla Gallion not far from the first bridge near the train station. In retracing our steps back towards the station, there is a chance for us to take in that postcard view of Canal Grande from Porte degli Scalzi.

Stepping down off the bridge we will turn away from the train station and take the Rio Tera Lista Di Spagna and have a look along the Canal Cannaregio.

Yes, this part is still fairly busy but it quickly becomes quiet as we wander into the Cannaregio area. I lose interest in canals for more mundane observations. I love laundry hanging on lines. Laundry in canals.

Laundry with a view.

Laundry with a colour theme.

Well, that is about it. The sun is too high for good viewing and it is time to return to our rooftop apartment for a wee snack and a nap.

Oh! Is it Venezia or Venice to you?

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

MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON original painting by Terrill Welch

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

This 16 x 20 inch oil painting on gessobord was inspired by the Manarola Collaborative Project between G+ Painters and Photographers 2011 -12

Yes I have kept it a secret for almost six months 🙂

What a journey of personal discovery! It was October 15, 2011 when I finally get a chance to settle in and explore the images provide by the three photographers Elia Locardi, Marisa Williams and Mike Brzozowski. I have it in my mind I want to do a winter mid-afternoon painting of the village. I have never used any other photographer’s images as painting reference and I feel like my being is strapped to a narrow window on a high cliff. This is a location I have never experienced. I don’t know what it smells like. I can’t hear the sounds in the streets. I have no idea how the light falls at different times of day. What temperature is it? Does the wind blow a lot or a little? What does is feel like from one location in the village to another? What are the daily routines of living? When is it quietest? I realize that these are all threads and fibers that ground me in my paintings. What was I going to do.? I had to know. I couldn’t paint without knowing. So I went on a long journey of research discovering more images, blog posts and youtube videos to my learn from so that I could paint.

Using information as references from the photographs of all three photographers and more, here is the end result of my impressions of what Manarola might be like on a winter mid-afternoon day with its golden light. The fishermen have spent the afternoon in the pubs as they won’t be going out tonight. There is a storm coming. It took hours and even days. Finally I painted.

MANAROLA WINTER AFTERNOON 16 x 20 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch wood cradle by Terrill Welch

(I haven’t put this painting on the market yet but but it will be about $900 U.S. If you are interested send me an email )

More Background: A small group of G+ painters are inspired to paint Manarola in the Cinque Terre of Italy. The painters have never been to Manarola Italy and seek photography reference from photographers willing to give copyright permission to use their images in the creation of these paintings.

A small group of G+ photographers agreed to participate. Links to initial images for reference follow each photographer. I used a combination of these three photographs plus additional research to complete my painting.

Elia Locardi: https://plus.google.com/112957708071337353347/posts/UhLzeW8dEqi

Marisa Williams: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116975473087103045706/albums/5630380399468681713/5630690138668613394

Mike Brzozowski: https://plus.google.com/photos/103053238748819026069/albums/5200107765813493457

My heartfelt thanks to these photographers who shared their work so that I could create mine. You can meet all of the artists who participated and see their paintings as well as those that the photographers contributed in this album gallery HERE.

SEED: I have this great desire to learn more about this small fishing villiage. I now have Manarola Italy on my travel list.

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

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com