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

If I were an owl

July 8, 2010October 11, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

If I were an owl I would spend a lot of time looking at the middle of trees, as I dozed away an afternoon. The view we have of our big fir trees is like that. I set my easel up on the west deck and decided to paint an owl’s view.

The big easel I’m using was a gift from my parents the year I graduated from high school. That was awhile ago. I’ve packed and moved it so many times I don’t even care to count. It’s a treasure.

Now back to an owl’s view….I started with one of my favourite yellow-orange underpaintings but neglected to take that first photo when it was set aside to dry. Here is the next pause in painting.

And the next.

Then I made a mistake. I didn’t let it cure long enough… only a couple of days. I just couldn’t wait. So I painted. And I painted. And I painted some more….

It was okay but the painting had lost its life. The darker and more vibrant colours had lifted and mixed in with the lighter ones I was painting. Basically, I had a muddy gray mess. I was pretty sad and I felt kind of silly. I knew I couldn’t work the painting that hard so soon and I stubbornly did it anyway. So this time I left it sit for a couple of weeks. I looked at. I mused and I considered.

Did I want to try and breathe life back into it or should I just leave its carcass on the canvas?

Ah, what the heck nothing much too loose. I gave it another try. Here are the results.

View and purchase print of original here.

18X24 by 2 inch 100% cotton canvas water miscible oil painting.

Now I am happy. I love painting trees. Just for fun, here is a close up of one of my favourite parts of the painting. I decided it would make a nice card or print in its own right.

View and purchase print of original here.

Sprout Question: Do you have a favourite subject that has kept you creative company for years?

Note: these images are available at my online store front http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch for viewing and purchase. But they seem to be having some website issues this morning so I will go back and make direct links for you later today.

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

Winter Sun Oil Painting

May 11, 2010August 21, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

There is something about the late dawn of winter sun, a bruised heaviness that seeps across the sky. I started this painting thinking it might be abstract and lighter, maybe even cheerful, but my subconscious seems to know where to take the brush. Though the quick marks of paint give impressions rather than detail… it is clearly not an abstract painting. And though colourful, I am not sure it is cheerful. In fact, I’m sure this painting is deeply melancholy with bittersweet recognition that the sun is rising… lifting, lifting, lifting us into another, and possibly, better day.

I started by brushing water (it would have been spirits but I’m using water miscible oils) and linseed oil onto the canvas. Then I began adding colour, an underpainting of sorts…

I never let it completely dry but kept working the paint into the canvas as I added more colour.

Using a good sized brush (10) I swished the sky and clouds on and softened them with a cloth and feathery brush. Then I flipped the rocks and sea loosely into place and left them like that.

I came back yesterday and tidied up a bit … as I listened to kd lang’s performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction of Leonard Cohen in 2006.

You might want to do that too as you take in “Winter Sun”

18X24″ by 1 3/4″ water miscible oil painting on 100% natural cotton canvas

There are a few more small edits which I will make and then replace this last image, but it is close enough to complete to share with you.

Sprout Question: What has been your latest personal discovery through your creativity?

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

Far Shore oil painting

May 6, 2010December 5, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

18X24″ by 1 3/4″ water miscible oil painting on 100% natural cotton canvas

I worked on this west coast painting much of yesterday afternoon and into the early evening. At one point I move out onto the covered deck because the natural light had faded in my loft studio. I believe it is to the “tweaking” stage or almost or maybe even completely finished. It is resting now and I will begin another while it lingers in the great room as the day’s light passes overhead. I will peer at it every now and then with a critical eye. At a later point I will take another photo for my redbubble account.

As I was working I mused on a couple of ideas. The first is something my son said when we were talking about song writing. He commented on how sometimes it is best to leave a song and start a new one that will be better rather than try to fix one that is not working. I think this is true for most creative work. Our learning is cumulative. With a certain amount of detachment, we take the work as far as we can, then release it and start again. Drawings in sand, ice sculptures and cake decorating come to mind as ways we can make marks and practice creative detachment.

Speaking of making marks, this is something humans have been doing for a long time. These markings are telling not only of our present but of our past and our imagined future. There is a collective bandwidth of creativity with most creative work gathered around the centre and much less work being created along the margins or fringes. The great work of the fringes will sometimes move to the centre of the bandwidth and new work will develop along the margins. William Blake , Claude Monet, Walt Whitman come to mind as well-known artist who worked in the margins of their time and yet held our attention until their work became accepted and even revered, at which point their creative views and style moved into the centre of the creative bandwidth. This process of margin to centre has always fascinated me because some work just falls off the margins and disappears while other creative work is shuffled into the centre. Most of us work comfortably in the full rich stream of the centre. Only some of us are compelled to work in the margins. Work in the margins is often recognizable by the name calling – bad art, lacking technique, improper, breaking the rules and shocking.

Sprout Question: Where would you place your work on the current bandwidth of creativity?

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

Paint to Great Blue Heron

April 15, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

I included two of Sue Wiebe’s paintings (“The Cow” and “Water Lilies”) as a bonus feature in early March. Sue has another painting to share with us. As an artist I find there is nothing more satisfying than when I look at my painting and I no longer see paint but rather the image I have been inspired to create.

Sue had sent me this early photo of her “Great Blue Heron” painting in progress.

A few days ago, she sent me this photo of her completed painting.

I get frequent opportunities to observe these great birds. I feel like this one is watching me and if I take one step closer it will take flight, squawking its prehistoric song in annoyance because I have disturbed its fishing.

Thank you so much Sue for allowing us to share in your creative process and you’re your beautiful paintings.

I often feel like there is a transformation of the individual doing the creating in the creative process as well as the transformation of letters, paint, light, or sounds into what ultimately become the “finished piece.”

Sprout Question: Can you tell us about a profound experience you have had in creating a piece of writing, art, photograph or music or…?

(And please, links to the work you are writing about are always welcome:)

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

rocks and mussels

April 12, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

"rocks and mussels" oil painting by Terrill Welch

11X14 by 1.5 inches water miscible oil painting.

View full resolution image here.

“rocks and mussels” is inspired by a piece of remote the beach at Point No Point on south western Vancouver Island. It is a rugged area close to the end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and open sea. The rocks are of mixed texture and form. Some are large hard slate black stones rubbed smoothed from the surf and others are smaller, rounded and warm ochre and cream in colour. Seaweed seems to drape themselves over either. Though the when you look closely mussels appear to like the darker rocks. But since they are sometimes clustered together it is often hard to tell.

I have been coming to this area for over twenty years, sometimes for lunch and a stroll through the trails and other times to stay for a few days in one of the cabins. The last time I was there was in December 2009 for our honeymoon.

I had set a challenge when painting this piece to be able to paint the darker seaweed on top of the lighter rocks. However when I look closely, the light was the dark seaweed just at the crest of the rocks. Which made much more sense to me but the painting was still very challenging. I wanted us to feel like we were the sea about to wash over the mussels, the rocks and the seaweed. I also came to understand that the rocks are often washed away from the bottom quicker than the top as the sea pushes its way over the sand and withdraws back into itself. This leaves the stones with overhangs where there is no sand and the shadows seep in.

At some point this painting took on a life of its own and became separate from my reference images and slide down a path that was more about remembering how it felt, the smell of seaweed, the salt air, and the roar of the surf on distant rocks with the sun on my back lifting the mist off the trees on the bank above me.

Sprout Question: Have you ever discovered something different than what you thought you knew while creating?

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

More Painting

April 8, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Power outage lends itself to another day painting

We had another power outage (due to winds knocking over a huge arbutus tree on Village Bay road at 1:40 am). I awake at 7:00 am. The power is still out. I decide to see if I can find a coffee before doing anything else. Ah yes! The bakery is serving coffee using generator power. Armed with to-go thermos cups filled with black gold, I return home and prepare our usual fruit, yogurt and grain cereal for breakfast. With few alternatives, I settle on my favourite activity of the moment – painting.

The wild underpainting had dried on my 18X24 by 2 inch canvas.

I go to work. At one o’clock this afternoon the power comes on again and I am ready to take a break and share the progress with you.

There is more to do but it is a good start.

Sprout Question: What is your creative activity of choice when the power goes out?

Note: My apologies for being late with today’s post but you will have to take it up with the wind and the arbutus tree… they have let me know they are taking full responsibility for the delay.

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

Evening Sea Oil Painting

April 7, 2010April 11, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 40 Comments

The sea hag swished her skirts then drapes them elegantly over dark rocks. Embracing the shore she pauses – then glides away, only to return again. Ah what a temptress. With the last light of a sunset sky caught in her folds, she lays the sea before us.

“Evening Sea” is painted on 100% natural cotton, 11X14 inches by one and a half inches.

View full resolution image here. (much more detail)

I do not have any process shots of “Evening Sea” beyond the initial underpainting that I shared earlier. It is one of those times that I settled in and painted until I was done and then fussed a bit around the edges the next day. This doesn’t happen often when painting but it did this time. I still look and see something that I might want to change but the roll of the sea is caught in the patterns of reflection and the movement is trapped in the paint showing through from underneath. So I don’t touch it. I leave it and watch the sea in its evening beauty.

Sprout Question: Can you tell us about a piece you created with ease?

Note: If anyone has any tips for photographing oil paintings, I am all ears (or eyes). They are much more difficult to get “true” then my watercolour paintings and I’m struggling a little with it – okay I’m struggling a lot (it took about 20 shots to get this the way I wanted it) but a person has to start someplace.

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