Catching Fall

September 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

Even though it is a holiday Monday here in Canada and in the U.S.A., I am ready to resume my Monday to Friday posting schedule with more frequent and shorter posts. Today it is raining. The soft soaking kind of calm that leaves us reaching for our book and putting on a pot of homemade soup. Yesterday, the sun was out but the shade cool as we saw the beginning of the leaves falling.

Warm browns traced the edges of summer.

View full resolution and purchase catching fall here.

This week I will post images about catching fall as it sashays through on every breeze.

Sprout Question: Where is your focus right now?

P.S. The opening of Sea, Land and Time was a wonderful success with two large prints and one medium print selling along with cards and calendars. Plus, I had an offer to have my cards and calendars in a local décor store and possibly photograph prints as well. We shall see. Of course, two oil paintings had sold as part of the presales for the show. The best part is that we all had a great time. Family, friends and colleagues came from away. New friends, colleagues and acquaintances from Mayne Island came by and several helped with the opening. It was fabulous! Wish you could have been there.

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

Bring your cheque book

August 29, 2010August 29, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 26 Comments

There is something I forgot to tell you about my solo art exhibition, Sea, Land and Time, opening this coming Friday, September 3, 2010 at 7:00 pm. Bring your cheque book or cash. There are a few smaller pieces, such as cards and calendars and small photographs printed on canvas, but some of the larger oil paintings are over a thousand dollars. I personally recommend you bring your cheque book. I do not accept credit cards and I wouldn’t want you to leave disappointed.

I have heard from many of you and I am extremely excited to see your smiling face. It is a busy long weekend on Mayne Island so you will want to secure your sleeping arrangements in advance. Hum, that does sound like an interesting proposition doesn’t it?

Here are a few of links that you may find useful in your planning.

BC Ferries http://www.bcferries.com (read the ferry schedule carefully it is the most complicated schedule in the world changing with each day)

Mayne Island Accommodations http://www.mayneisland.com/accommodation/index.htm

Specific information about SEA, LAND AND TIME https://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/sea-land-and-time

Just to let you know, two oil paintings have already sold during the publicity for this show. Come early for the best selection.

If you are not able make it, leave a sprout anyway and wish me happy birthday. I always love to hear from you. Yes it is my birthday today or rather that would be yesterday in blogging time 🙂

Sprout Question: What sprout question are you asking yourself today?

P. S. I am away all day Tuesday. The next post will be on Thursday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography .

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

Falling Sun

August 26, 2010August 27, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

As the tiredness of the end of summer swings into the soft cloud-covered dawn, I notice a sunflower on the deck and think of a falling sun. Labour Day weekend is approaching. The days are shorter and the nights cooler. On the island, the tension between those who will stay for the winter and those that are seasonal or tourist is palatable. Smiles are slightly tight around the edges of lips between those longing for solitude and those wishing they could stay.

But these tight lipped words are seldom spoken with the tension that rests on the morning dew. If said at all, they are said in jest. Next year will bring another fresh sparkling sun-kissed summer, another brilliant sunflower.

Sprout Question: Is there a shift in your creativity come fall?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and a post announcing my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

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

Only the SEA

August 19, 2010January 9, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 39 Comments

View full resolution and purchase print of painting here.

The original has been sold to Annie Q Syed and now hangs in a sun-filled apartment in New York City. To learn more go to Annie’s post “The Soul of the Sea.”

It’s me. It’s me. The sea, it’s me, it’s me.

Calling, calling, calling.

Winds blow clarity into my being, while the sea continues to call. Every ounce of my earthly body is drawn forward… heaven-ward. I remind myself – it is only the sea.

This wee painting of a mere 8X8 inches on gessobord mounted on a 2 inch birch cradle has only one image… the final image. The painting spilled onto the surface like a wave coming to shore. No effort really. A simple whuuwwwwiiisssshhh! There it was. Well, actually hours had passed but I didn’t notice. I didn’t stop. I painted. I remembered to breathe. That was all.

Sprout Question: What will mesmerize you?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and a post announcing my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

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

Big Fat Red Champion

August 17, 2010August 17, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I have been painting but that is not what I want to show you this morning. Remember back in April when I showed you the new garden bed I was digging? There is a big fat red champion in that garden I would like you to meet.

We already ate his bigger cousin sliced thick with fresh basil, sea salt and hand ground black pepper on homemade oat and honey bread. Soooo good! But this fellow is a good size as well. Let’s get a bit of a closer look.

Yep looks and feels delicious.

Our recent warm spell has started these tomatoes ripening on the vine. They are only two weeks behind those grown in local organic greenhouses. We have those huge fir trees all around us and this is the most sun I could find in the yard within the deer fence. So I decided to give it a try. I’m impressed because the sun doesn’t reach the plot until 10:00 am and it is in the shade again by 4:00 pm.

Look at that – a full 3.5 inches across. The small tag in the ground tells me these are Champion Tomatoes. I have four kinds of tomatoes growing. There are these big guys, a patio tomato and two kinds of tomatoes that volunteered from the compost I put down.

We are also eating baby carrots and green beans. The lettuce greens and peas are about finished and I have lots to dill for salads. However, it is these large plump tomatoes that really make me smile. This fall I will double the size of this garden bed for next year.

Delightful and supportive Leah Piken Kolidas is hosting the theme of FIRE for the month of August at Creative Everyday. I think these large plump red tomatoes qualify.

History tip: Did you know that in the early 1930s Japanese farmers of Active Pass Growers Association had eight acres of tomatoes under glass and produced 50 tons of tomatoes a year for the city of Vancouver B.C.? Source – Mayne Island & The Outer Gulf Islands A History by Marie Elliott.

Sprout Question: What creative gifts has the heat of summer warmed for you?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and a post announcing my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

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

Sea Land and Time

August 9, 2010August 12, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

You are invited to TERRILL WELCH’s

Solo Exhibition of original Oil Paintings and Photography on canvas

Sea, Land and Time

September 3 – 22, 2010

Opening Reception

Friday, September 3, 2010 7 – 9 pm

Mayne Island Reading Centre (the Library)

Miner’s Bay, Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Take a creative journey with Terrill Welch, British Columbia artist, photographer and writer, as she expresses island life in Sea, Land and Time. Her exhibit displays all new work showcasing the beautiful, mysterious, and rugged southwest coast of Canada. Terrill’s distinctive palette, quick sure strokes, and photographic images capture forest, sandstone, sea, and sky reminding us that there is only one moment – this one.

Terrill Welch’s paintings and photography have been described as impressionist, intuitive and attuned to the essence or resonance of her subject.

Following the opening, the exhibition can be viewed during regular library hours 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

Full ARTIST BIOGRAPHY at https://creativepotager.wordpress.com/artist-biography

Terrill Welch

Artist, Photographer, Writer

Creative Potager blog: https://creativepotager.wordpress.com
Photography: http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch
Twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch
Email: tawelch@shaw.ca Phone: 1-250-539-5877

Site 21 Comp 32 Mayne Island, B.C. Canada V0N 2J0

Terrill Welch would like to thank Mayne Island Trincomali Community Arts Council for this opportunity.

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

Salish Sea painting series

August 3, 2010July 30, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

I’ve never been one to do a series of paintings on any subject. But I find myself wanting to now. I have three water miscible oil paintings in what may become a lengthy series of seascapes about the beautiful and mysterious Salish Sea.

The first oil painting in the series you have already seen as it is “Winter Sun”

The second is painted on a 16X20 inch gessobord in a birch wood cradle 2” deep. It is the first time I have painted on a hard surface other than finished plywood. I used a palette knife and was so involved in the painting there are very few shots of the progress.

A start…

working to bring the blue forward…

And now for the finished painting…

View and purchase full resolution print of painting here.

For now and maybe forever it is called “Salish Sea 2”

On Thursday I will show you “Salish Sea 3” which is an 8X8 inch gessobord in a birch wood cradle 2” deep that is an abstract oil painting… or at least more abstract than most of my other work…. You will have to wait until Thursday to see though.

Sprout Question: If you could sail the Salish Sea with me what might you like see?

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 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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

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

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?

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

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?

View and purchase full resolution image here.

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