A painting only the artist can love

July 22, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

Sometimes it happens. From vision, to brush, to canvas a painting develops in large free strokes, dancing across the canvas engaging me in the swirling energy transferred in a sequence of creative exchanges. I stop. I rest my eyes upon the painting. I put my brush down. This is what occurred with “Cabin on Shore” It is a large brushed impressionist-style painting that maybe only the artist can love.

View and purchase high resolution print of “Cabin on Shore” original here.

18” x 24” by two inch 100% natural cotton gallery quality canvas water miscible oil painting

Below are a series of slideshow images capturing the creative process and detail.

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Sprout Question: Has your heart ever stopped your head in a creative process?

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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

Flower Salad

July 15, 2010July 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

It is almost getting to hot for salad greens now but I have a spot where the mixed greens are out of the hot sun by about one o’clock in the afternoon so they have stayed nice a little longer. I also grow calendula and nasturtium flowers especially for salad. The tomatoes are from an organic Vancouver Island greenhouse. My tomatoes are not yet ripe but if we peer into the three feet tall vines I wonder what we will find?

and

And there is another one…

Also I saw this interesting 2.5 to 3 inch long dragonfly fellow this morning. Not sure what kind it might be but very interesting.

Carrots are looking good.

Oh! While you are out here, can you water the garden please?

Sprout Question: If you could grow one new thing in your creative garden what would you be willing to weed, water and love until harvest time?

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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

Summer Holidays

July 6, 2010July 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

A young boy, maybe 11 years old, coasts his bike down the hill towards us. He makes eye contact and grins. I grin back. No words are necessary. It is the first week of summer holidays. The evening is warm and the sun is coming down between trees with bugs dancing in its soft rays.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

With the tide being low, I am able to get closer to where the seals sunbathe in Oyster Bay. I can’t help thinking how their shapes on the rocks mirror the jaggedness of coastal mountains across the water. How many years of July days have seals rested on these rocks?

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We walk on and coming to Reef Bay. Carefully I meander out onto the sandstone. Tall grasses are trapped in a golden glow in front of the beach house.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

But it is the waves that are calling me. Sitting on the warm sandstone, I study them. I listen. I feel. I smell. I see. I engage with their presence….

wave one

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wave two

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wave three

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and wave four

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I hope you have enjoyed your summer evening walk with me here on Mayne Island… swisssshhhhh!

Sprout Question: Are you taking your creativity for a summer holiday?

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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

Mayne Island Summer Group Show part 2

July 3, 2010July 3, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

There is nothing that says summer like July and August on the southwest coast Gulf Islands of British Columbia, and no summer is complete without the Mayne Island Trincomali Community Arts Council Summer Group Show. The show will open at “the library” on Friday July 9^th 7-9 pm and the Mayne Island Reading Centre will be bursting with creative abundance for your viewing pleasure.

Last Saturday’s part 1 of this post gave us a glimpse of what to expect. Today’s post will provide a few more enticing examples…

First, is an intriguing image from photographer and artisan Barbara McIntyre with Nomadic Routes Inc. where she is creating healthy choices for people and planet (she has the most amazing handmade soaps).

New Zealand by Barbara McIntyre

Second, here are a few snippets of words submitted from one of her works in progress by author and artisan Leanne Dyck

“My need for the backpack was how we ended up in a sporting goods store talking to one of the cutest guys I’d ever meet in my life. Or, rather, how my Dad ended up talking to him as I tried not to drool.

‘Our little girl.’

Little girl – honestly, Dad, that’s how you’re going to talk about me to the cutest guy in the whole universe. Our little girl – kill me, kill me now.

A red rash rose from my neck and spread over my entire face.”

A prolific writer, Leanne Dyck has published Novelty Yarn and Maynely a Mystery. I also know other great things are in the works such as Turning, Maynely Hidden and The Sweater Curse. You can find out more at her website http://www.oknitting.com .

Third, we pause for a moment to view an image from well known (on Mayne Island anyway) fine arts and freelance photographer Toby Snelgrove

Edith Point North by Toby Snelgrove

Toby Snelgrove’s stunning collection of BC Ferry images is just completing so if you haven’t yet, please do drop by the library and take in a startling original perspective on the ships we rely on to link to the rest of the civilized world. Toby’s show is not to be missed and the photographic exhibition runs until Wednesday July 7^th.

Finally, I will also be showing a series of five photographic images “Window with a View” that were featured on my post “Simplicity” back in February of this year.

window with a view by Terrill Welch

This series of five images is a lovely segue into my solo exhibit “Sea, Land and Time” that will follow the Mayne Island Summer Group Show and open on Friday, September 3^rd. I will have more about that in a few weeks. In the mean time, you can browse my online storefront at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch and see if you can pick out some of the oil paintings and photographic canvas prints that will be included.

In addition to artists, artisans and writers mentioned in blog posts part 1 and 2 for the Mayne Island Summer Group Show, there will also be Native art by Wayne Thomas, sculpture by Cedar Christie plus Tina Farmilo, Donna Williams and Bill Maylone, along with others, will bring their vibrant creativity together for a spectacular exhibit.

The Mayne Island Summer Group Show will run from July 9, 2010 to September 1, 2010 and after the opening night can be viewed during Library hours 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

If you are thinking of coming, the Mayne Island B.C. website (which also has a link to the Mayne Island Chamber of Commerce ) can help you with your planning.

Sprout Question: What is your favourite comment or review about your work?

Note: special thanks to Bill Maylone for allowing me to “borrow” parts of his text from the MayneLiner Magazine article.

And, psst! I just received the 2011 calendar for “Sea, Land and Time” and I am so happy with the images and large calendar squares – big enough to write all your important notes. And don’t be fooled when the website calendar cover says 2010 – You can set the start date for whenever you like.

: westcoast winter by Terrill Welch

Cover image. View the whole calendar at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch/calendars/5320339-8-sea-land-and-time All the images in the calendar are taken from Mayne Island.

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

Mayne Island Summer Group Show part 1

June 27, 2010July 3, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

A bright corner of Mayne Island is going to get even brighter on July 9, 2010 to September 1, 2010 with the opening of the Mayne Island Summer Group Show with work from about a dozen participants. Do you want to come? Yes I know, for some of you it is too far away. But for others it may be down the road or just a ferry ride for a weekend get away.

Most of you know, I live on the wee Mayne Island with about a 1,000 people year round and maybe 3,000 hanging around during the summer. These 23 square kilometers in the Southern Gulf Islands off the west coast of Canada are home to a thriving art, artisan and writing community with its own arts council. The Mayne Island Trincomali Community Arts Council hosts a series of art exhibits at the Mayne Island Reading Room or “the library” throughout the year.

Whether you will be sipping wine and nibbling treats at the opening with us, between 7:00 and 9:00 pm in the heart of Miner’s Bay, on the evening of July 9^th or you must suffice with my blog review, I hope you enjoy the offerings.

Here is a sneak preview…

Author and artisan Leanne Dyck has submitted a natural fiber art hand knit purse appropriately named “Summer Daze” that is begging to be slung over a shoulder and taken to a summer picnic. I laid it gently on this fir bow to photography. It appears to be right at home.

Quasimodo Pottery creates unique, extremely high quality craftsmanship and functional art in its pottery pieces. Here is a group image of pottery from their website.

The Quasimodo casserole dish was featured recently Creative Potager in the post “Quiet Grace.”

Artist and message therapist Shakeira Wynde’s vibrant abstract acrylic painting will fill the exhibit all by itself with its brilliant colours. She graciously allowed me to slip by her home and take this photo for our early viewing.

My oil painting “East Point Cliff” asked me to put her forward for her debut in the Mayne Island Summer Group Show as well.

As you can see, there is a diverse collection of work in the show. We will be back to take another glance behind the Mayne Island Summer Group show curtain next Saturday before the opening the following week.

And here it is, next week already. Please come on over to Mayne Island Summer Group Show part 2

If you are thinking of coming, the Mayne Island B.C. website (which also has a link to the Mayne Island Chamber of Commerce ) can help you with your planning.

Sprout Question: Where are you showing your creative pieces work this summer?

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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

Uniquely Common Place

June 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

View and purchase full resolution image here.

An image search in Google for “blue iris” brings up 4 million possibilities. Why would I bother taking a photo of a blue iris? Why would I bother to show it to you? Because this iris captures a moment near the end of a day by the lighthouse on Mayne Island. This iris reminds me of a moment that was filled with the beauty and wonder of the world as I grappled with the devastating BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I was feeling overwhelmed with hopelessness about the extent of this tragedy. I was angry at humanity for its greed and stupidity. Then I saw the blue iris. I stopped and drank it in, and as I did, all my fears melted down into the ground beneath my feet. I had this one moment with this blue iris, a moment that stilled my anger – a moment that allowed a sad sigh to be released and replaced with a soft smile as I traced the spiral curves of the intricate blue petals with my eyes.

When we think about how many sunsets have been painted or how many survival stories have been written or how many love songs have been sung, or how many photos have been taken of babies and old people we could ask – do we need any more? But we don’t or at least I don’t. I don’t because these common place moments are part of humanity’s mind, body and spirit motif. I can always look at an iris, baby or the weathered face of an elder with fresh eyes. I can always read about a hero having survived a war and a trip over the Himalayas with an open heart. I can always listen to a love song with new ears.

Yet when creating, we are encouraged to offer something new, something fresh… something that has never been done before. How can we do this when these engaging topics have been presented and consumed some 4 million times, like the blue iris above? I believe the answer lies not in the frequency of an old tale but in the precise uniqueness of its moment of telling. There are no two moments that are the same. Trust that if you are present to the creative moment you are in that is all that is required. You will see, feel, hear, smell and sense your subject in the uniqueness of that moment. Moments are temporary. Little lasts from one moment to the next for us to revisit. That is the nature of living. As creative beings we can create, capture, write and sing as if this is the only moment there is… because it is. There will be no other like it.

Now there are four million and one images of a blue iris in a Google search.

Sprout Question: What is your favourite work by another about a topic that is common place?

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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

Quiet Grace

June 8, 2010June 8, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 29 Comments

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Often it is the quiet grace of a scene, individual or object that draws me in. There will be brighter hues in the evening sky, or a more colourful character at the cafe or a shinier pebble on the beach, each providing a flash of engagement. They are not the ones that hold me. I will be waiting for the softer moments to appear – ones that I can linger over and savour. The sunset in Dinner Bay above is a perfect example. And so is this pottery pot.

When you see this lovely pottery pot on the shelf with other more brightly coloured cousins it may be tempting to pass it by. But all you would need to do is pick it up to know and see its unmistakable beauty and quality. As with many of the potter’s pieces, it is multipurpose and can be used to cook a small roast, chicken or bake a stew, casserole or beans.

Just look at the detail on the lip of the lid which fits smoothly onto the pot.

Here is a dew-covered snapshot of the bottom. Are you smitten yet?

Mayne Island Quasimodo Pottery creates unique, extremely high quality craftsmanship and functional art in its pottery pieces.

Of course, there is no point in having a pot like this without a good recipe for homemade baked beans. This recipe is from my mom and given to her by her mom. It was my favourite dish as a child and I used to request it for my birthday dinner.

Homemade Baked Beans

1 lb dried beans (pinto beans)

1/2 tsp dried mustard

2 tbsp dolmolso (dark) molasses – I use about 3 tbsp with another tbsp maple syrup or bit of brown sugar but it is a matter of taste and what kind of pork you use will change sweetness.

A piece of unsliced bacon, salt pork, smoked pork hock, ham bone, (or beaver tail if that is all you have)

1 small onion

2 stalks celery (and I add a couple of carrots)

black pepper to taste

*Note: don’t add salt until partly cooked and tasted because of salty pork

Cover dried beans in lots of water add a dash of baking soda and soak overnight. In the morning, rinse beans add fresh water and simmer for about an hour on top of the stove. Then put beans in roaster or bean pot with other ingredients and enough of the liquid to cover. Bake at 250 degrees until done – probably will take all day. Add water if and as necessary – very important when using a roaster as beans tend to dry out more easily than in a bean pot.

This pot of beans was served with fresh wholewheat sourdough bread.

Sprout Question: How would you describe what attracts you in creativity?

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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

Canada Geese on family swim day

May 18, 2010May 18, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

I happened to see a family of Canada Geese going for an early morning dip in Georgia Strait at Georgina Point on Mayne Island… would you like to join them?

Time for our morning swim everyone!

Yes that means you too. Now move along...

Don't worry we will show you how it is done.

There easy does it...

Now stay close.

I am so hungry

Me too!... Tasty little morsels

Keep an eye out for junior.

Well, I think they have it figured out.

Oops! There they go again...If you're not careful you are going to be eagle breakfast!

Everyone look right... that's it, beautiful!

I could hear the goslings’ little peeping voices as they swam along. And the eagle flew off to see if he couldn’t find a salmon for a morning snack but he sure watched closely before giving up on a small goose feed.

Sprout Question: If you were to take your creativity for a swimming lesson where would it be?

Bonus: Hatchlings are covered with yellowish down and their eyes are open. They leave the nest when 1-2 days old, depending on weather, and can walk, swim, feed, and even dive. The mother goose leads the way on the first family swim and the father goose takes up the rear. Young Canada Geese or goslings grow so quickly that they are virtually indistinguishable from adults in only about nine weeks. With a lifespan of up to twenty-five years, the oldest known wild Canada Goose was 30 years 4 months old. They mate for life with very low “divorce rates,” and pairs remain together throughout the year. Geese mate “assortatively,” larger birds choosing larger mates and smaller ones choosing smaller mates; in a given pair, the male is usually larger than the female. References – mostly http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/lifehistory and a few other brief stops on a googling wild goose chase.

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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

Summer is coming

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

Creative Potager’s summer blog schedule begins the first week of May

budding possibilities - wild rose

The first post for Creative Potager was December 27, 2009. I have been posting a blog Monday to Friday, except for power outages caused by windstorms battering our little island in the Pacific Northwest. Including today, there are 83 posts each with their own sprout question. There are 1,165 comments documenting our creative conversations and 8, 596 times you have come to visit. Creative Potager has become an enjoyable habit to wake up to during the week where I say to myself “what shall I post today?” However summer is coming. I yearn to be outside in the garden, tramping the trails and painting on site rather than inside snuggled up to my laptop. Like the summer wild flowers in this post, I bloom best in untamed places.

each day is precious - wild tiger lily

So after giving it some serious thought, I am changing my posting schedule to twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from the beginning of May until the beginning of September. I may on occasion post an additional submission. But these will be bonus or value-added posts rather than an expectation.

petite lady slipper

I am hoping you can live with this change and that we both will benefit from my scrambling around in the valleys and on the hills and down the beaches of Mayne Island and afar. I am hoping that we can still have rich and engaging conversations between posts even during the long days of summer. I am hoping that the sprout questions will be juicy enough to keep us inspired for the in-between times. I am hoping that you will trust that winter will come with its short days and unpredictable weather and we shall again be glad for our Monday to Friday sprout conversations fueled by the fruits of summer experiences.

drops of rain on white fawn lilies

Please let me know what YOU are hoping and what you think of this change – because most of the fun of this blog is my conversations with you!

Sprout Question: Does your creativity have a summer schedule?

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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

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

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada