November Studio Tour held at the Terrill Welch Gallery

November 8, 2017November 8, 2017 / Terrill Welch / 5 Comments

For several years now, I have participated in the Mayne Island November Studio Tour. This year I will host the open studio event in the Terrill Welch Gallery at 478 Village Bay Rd. from 11 – 4 on Fri. Sat. and Sun. November 10th to 12th 2017. This morning I zipped down and gave everything a little tidying up after hefting, with help, a new approximately 350 year old addition to the gallery room. Can you spot it?

Let’s get a little closer and see if that helps….

Yes! It is a 1660s wooden trunk or more accurately a Charles II oak coffer complete with iron loop hinges.

It will be used to store smaller paintings that are 16-18 inches on one side. And this weekend there will a few 2018 Mayne Island Landscape calendars, tote bags and throw pillows gracing the plank top. I have brought these items in, along with a refreshed collection of greeting cards, special for the studio tour from my Redbubble storefront that you are also most welcome to visit and place your orders from directly. But back to the wooden trunk! I tried to find out what it may have originally be used. It seems it could have held many household items as it was the storage of choice before the dresser bureau was designed. They were made everywhere at the time by carpenters and not cabinet makers – think strong and sturdy rather than elegant, decorative and finely finished.

I am absolute fascinated with old working pieces of furniture! I can spend hours imagining where this coffer was first made and the many adventures it had before we purchased it in Victoria British Columbia some 350 years later. Can you imagine the conversations it has heard? The secrets and confessions? The laughter and tears? Oh! I get shivers just thinking about it!

What story might this wooden trunk tell about you in another 350 years?

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

In the News and more good News

October 23, 2014October 23, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 9 Comments

Yaaaaaahoooo! Yippee! Ta da! Almost! Do I sound enthused? I sure hope so because my Open Studio Double Event is coming up fast! How many sleeps is it to November 8th? Here is the scoop…

Open Studio Double Event – including over 60 original oil paintings

On November 8th and 9th of 2014

From 11:00 am to 4:00 pm

or 24/7 online

At 428 Luff Road Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada for face-to-face guests

(#19 Mayne Island Brochure and #1 Artisan Studio Tour maps)

And on a special event page at TerrillWelchArtist.com for online guests! Drop on by to check out the “what’s up” at:

http://terrillwelchartist.com/artist-terrill-welch-open-studio-november-8-and-9-2014 or just click on the photograph.

Psst! For the curious, as shown in the poster, Terrill Welch and her art were mentioned in the British Columbia Provincial newspaper, The Province, in a feature article by reporter Paul Luke on Sunday, October 19, 2014. Though the photographs are all at the top in the online version, you can read the full article at http://www.theprovince.com/business/Need+career+change+Here+reinvent+yourself/10304341/story.html

I think this is about all for now.

Question: What would be your quotable quote if a reporter was to call YOU this afternoon?

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

ONLINE GALLERIES include –

Artsy Home for most original oil paintings currently available

Redbubble for most photography prints

Art Studio Spring Thaw Event

February 24, 2014February 24, 2014 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

When the southwest coastal trees of British Columbia in late February remind me of a northern winter, I am incline to take action.

Let’s turn up the heat!

Here is my Artist’s invitation to SPRING!

With the release yesterday of RED GATE (30 x 40 inch oil on canvas contemporary landscape) all of my current available work is now posted.

So here is what I propose: Including shipping, save 20% on a choice of over 60 original oil paintings by Terrill Welch during the next four days. The offer ends at midnight on February 28, 2014.

To access this savings, go to my Artsy Home Gallery, scroll down, find the painting you are interested in purchasing and then click on “Make An Offer” to send me an email that says “20% Heat Please!” and I will apply the Spring Thaw to the purchase price.

Alternatively, you can send me a direct message using any social media or an email at tawelch@shaw.ca and we can get things melting from there.

How can you turn up the heat on this spring thaw even without adding a painting to your collection?

Share, share SHARE. With each share a we are raising the temperature on this Art Studio Spring Thaw Event. Thank you for helping me turn this snow to green grass and daffodils 🙂

p.s. update to add a wee short Mayne Island winter wonderland video…

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

Tribute to Canadian Artist and Painter Joseph Plaskett

October 3, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 4 Comments

Recently I had the good fortune to see an exhibition of Joseph Plaskett’s most recent paintings at the Winchester Gallery in Oak Bay, Victoria B.C. The date on many of the paintings is clearly marked as 2011, a practice we do not often see on the front of a painting anymore. The wisdom is that it may impact its saleability if the painting has not sold for a few years. But in this case, my mouth dropped when I realized that the exhibition was celebrating Joseph Plaskett’s 95th birthday year. He was 93 years old when he painted many of the paintings in the exhibition and by my observation may be some of his best work in a long life of painting.

Here is a quote from the artist that is posted on the Winchester Gallery page:

“The work I have produced in a long life has always been in constant change. What I show this year at Winchester Galleries is, I like to think, only the beginning of another change which now becomes more obvious with each canvas, but will not reach the public exposure for a few more years. This present show was chosen months ago. The changes have become more drastic. There is, I like to think, a complexity and a daring to experiment with both colour and composition. Only one canvas goes back more than a few years. It is a large still life which I have been refusing to put on the market, wanting to keep it in my possession as long as I survive. It is a brilliant example of an earlier and safer act of creation. But now I am producing work that is the beginning of something more complex and dangerous. I am taking risks, letting myself go.

I like to think I am not repeating myself. I am influenced by much of what I see in contemporary art. I will give one example. Two years ago I was excited by the huge exhibition of the work of Peter Doig which I saw in both the Tate in London and in Paris. It made me proud to think of him as a “Canadian” painter, as, though born in Scotland, he spent much of his childhood and early youth in Canada. I can only envy the originality of his work. My work is changing, but it is still a way of painting that is my own.”

reference: http://www.winchestergalleriesltd.com/artists/plaskett/2012_1 (first painting shown on the Gallery’s page of the artist’s work is one of my favourites.

The photograph of the work I am sharing here is from the BAU XI Gallery in Toronto website. The title of the painting is “Still Life with Apples (2)” 38 x 45 inch oil on canvas listing at $21,800.

Joseph Plaskett is considered to be one of Canada’s most talented and established painters. In the spring of 2001, he was awarded The Order of Canada for excellence in the field of visual art. Since the 1940’s, he has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with work in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. He has exhibited with the Bau-Xi Gallery, both in Vancouver and Toronto, since 1973.

Born in 1918 in New Westminster, B.C., Plaskett studied art in Banff, San Francisco, New York, London and Paris. He has lived in Paris since 1951, and more recently in England. His chosen subjects have always been intimate expressions of everyday life – interiors, still life, and portraits of friends and models. There is a warm humanity to his work, a love of light and form and colour that is evident in every painting he produces. The works are composed with such superb quality of painting that the ensuing results are masterworks of visual delight.
reference: http://www.bau-xi.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=24
(the several web pages of Joseph Plaskett’s paintings on this Gallery site are actually very easy to view)

Joseph (Joe) Plaskett studied with many prominent Canadian painters like A.Y. Jackson, Jack Shadbolt, Lawren Harris and Jock Macdonald. Joe Plaskett was a pupil of Hans Hofmann in New York and Provincetown in 1947^[1] and 1948.

In 1950, he arrived in Paris where he studied with Fernand Léger, and Jean Lombard, etching and engraving with Stanley William Hayter. He taught intermittently in Canada until 1957. After that date he settled definitely in Paris where his studio became an informal salon for Canadian painters, writers, poets and filmmakers, interfacing with artists from other countries.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Plaskett
I hope you have as much fun poking around and exploring his work as I have done over the past couple of weeks.

May at least some of us still be painting some of our best work this late in a long life of painting. As an update, I did hear from the staff at the gallery that he is now no longer able to paint and is quite frail but still – what a painting adventure to still be painting quality work at 93 years old!

How might you want to be celebrating your 95th birthday year?

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

Recent sales of Terrill Welch oil paintings and pending price increase (terrillwelchartist.com)
August Still life with Cezanne and Matisse (terrillwelchartist.com)
As retired Canadians live longer, many are starting new careers (theglobeandmail.com)
Golden Plums An Apple And A Green Vase Still Life Painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

West Coast Blues in photography and painting

March 6, 2013December 22, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

Yes, my yes! We do have sun! I am always fascinated how our west coast blues means a bright sunny day to me and yet often other will comment that it looks rather cold 🙂

Of course it is a bit brisk for sure but not cold. I am wearing only a sweater as I press myself as close to the water as possible…

(Image is available in my Redbubble storefront HERE)

Ah the Salish Sea and our west coast blues. Oyster Bay on Mayne Island has never been more compelling. I love how these moments so easily connect land, sea and sky as one. What a morning!

Of course the very next day… I just had to take out my brushes. It was something that just must be done!

WEST COAST BLUES study 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

In less than 24 hours after this painting study was completed it has been sold. It never made it to being posted in its work-in-progress “resting” state on my Creative Potager blog. Nor did it make it to being posted as “released” on my Terrill Welch Artist website. The buyer scooped it up from its post on Facebook yesterday. Still to wet to move, its new home is waiting for its eventual arrival. This kind of early sale of a still-wet oil painting seems to be happening more frequently than one might expect.

What do these early sales of wet paintings mean for buyers and collectors watching and waiting for “their painting” to come off of my easel?

My advice would be to make an offer as soon as you are sure about a painting. But even if a painting disappears before you get the chance to make an offer, have faith that, in time, I shall paint another you will find suitable. Or a buyer can commission a size and subject matter for a painting that they would like. Because of my painting style and my general character, I do not do specific commissions where the end result is predetermined by the buyer. Canvas size and subject are about as far as I can commit.

The other stickler that sometimes keeps buyers waiting until after the painting they would like has sold is of course – money. Even my smaller studies are pricy and are due to increase in price again by the end of the month. However, for buyers where there is some level of mutual trust, I can do a lay-away purchase option where the painting is purchased in three equal payments (or by some other agreeable payment plan) and is then delivered to the buyer when the last payment has been received. As a full-time artist and photographer, this option has always been a win-win for both me and the purchaser. If I have a few sales being made by this method, then there is always the known expectation of funds coming in and the paintings are more accessible for purchase by the buyer.

Well, enough about all that! Many thanks to all who enjoy and support my paintings and photography that are mostly of the west coast of Canada.

What creative Blues do you find most inspiring?

P.S. New Featured Oil Paintings are up at Terrill Welch Artists.

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

Winter Afternoon West Coast Ferry Home oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Sliced with a Tear – a large autumn Canadian landscape painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Evening Thunderclouds over the Strait of Georgia – dramatic seascape sky painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Artist Studio in real time (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Pear Trees in Winter First Light – small oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)

Artist Studio in real time

February 3, 2013February 3, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Today my art studio is feeling and looking like a real mess.

I can see I have paint that has now dried onto my enamel table top. Not very pleasing at all. Nor is the unfinished applications for our expired passport renewals and neither are the stacks of receipts to be sorted for my 2012 tax returns either. However, there are ten completed paintings in my 2013 folder with six still to release. Three paintings have sold already this year and there are enough supplies in the studio to keep going for another few months.

But darn! Every time I think about those pesky administrative tasks, well I just squeeze more paint onto the palette, put another canvas on the easel and turn my back on it for another day. So this week I have made myself a promise. I either do passport applications, sort receipts for the bookkeeper or paint the edges on my big paintings. It is a toss-up which of these three tasks I dislike the most. The outcome is sure to be the ideal result because completing any three of these tasks this week will be a win.

Now, how might I set up the last of my large 60 x 36 inch canvases to do that fir tree painting I have been thinking about? Oh! Yeah. Hum. Must wait until edges, passport and tax files are completed….

The artist’s slumps a few inches closer to the studio floor her face longer than the gray winter day outside the window. Then, squaring her shoulders, she begins cleaning the studio. It is Sunday after all. No one does paper work or painting of edges on Sunday. Do they?

What is your least favourite “must do” task and how do you get it done?

And an ever so slightly more cheerful note, here is one of the newest paintings that is yet to be released.

AT DUSK 10 x 12 inch oil on canvas will be released over at Terrill Welch Artist later this week along with at least a couple more that are also in the completed folder. All paintings that are currently available can be viewed in the Artsy Home online gallery HERE.

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

Greetings Fir Tree and Your Simple Goodness – poem by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
What happens in an art studio if the painter catches a cold? (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Reef Bay Mayne Island observation to painted experience (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Evening and the Arbutus Tree – a large west coast oil painting (terrillwelchartist.com)
Selling Art (pmontezchronicles.wordpress.com)

Spurious relationships between photograph and painting pairs

December 31, 2012December 31, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

I have been requested several times to create another art book that includes pairings of my photographs and paintings. The difficulty with this task is that I don’t generally paint directly from one particular photograph. I sometimes paint en plein air and other time using my whole experience and a large handful of my own reference images will paint in the studio. The two approaches are simply used as tools to capture my impressions of the world around me – a world that emotionally and physically influences my everyday because it IS my everyday. Here is a pairing that demonstrates this almost spurious relationships between what looks like a natural pairing.

The photograph “Good Morning Galiano Island” was taken yesterday at about 9:30 in the morning.

(available for closer viewing and purchase HERE)

The oil painting “Far Shore” was painted in the spring 2010 using a set of very grainy reference images from an earlier afternoon day when the fog was so heavy that the sun could just barely break through lightly onto the tip of the rock face.

(available for closer viewing and purchase HERE)

Is there a connection between these two works? Yes, but it is likely that the photograph is more influenced by the previous painting than the other way around.

Here is another example. The sunrise was deep in bruised mauve yesterday. “Mayne Island Dawn Dec 30 2012” is one of my favourites from this shoot.

The oil painting “Winter Sun” which was also completed early in 2010 using a different location as reference yet the feeling is the same, the light is the same and I can smell the same cool sea air when I look at both the photograph from yesterday and this painting from a couple of years ago.

(available for closer viewing and purchase HERE)

Well, here we are. This will be our last Creative Potager post in 2012. Also, it is a post that hints at what is ahead. I desire to take you deeper into the creative process and life of this artist. Right down into the unfinished tangle of thoughts, unfinished ideas, quick sketches and daily explorations. The posts will likely be longer and full of musings, more of a shared record, if you will, of the history behind the finished work that will eventually emerge.

ALL THE BEST OF THE NEW YEAR MY FRIENDS!

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

Greetings Fir Tree and Your Simple Goodness – poem by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Storm Clouds over Strait of Georgia – postcard oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Reef Bay Mayne Island observation to painted experience (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Twice Around

December 27, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Today is twice around the calendar year for Creative Potager. As part of my seasonal rest period, I have not posted for 25 days. It has been almost a month since I entertained a sprout question or gathered together my thoughts for a submission to all you wonderful creative beings. Yet, I have been thinking about Creative Potager – about its purpose and how it provides a sustaining sense of direction and community for me and maybe even for you.

The year of 2011 has seen many paintings completed and photographs captured. There have been interviews and guest post on other blogs. We have entertained special Salish Sea Saving days, home studio tours and seen publications of work in brochures, newspapers and on the glossy front page of a regional magazine Island Gals.

There has been the release of my new book Precious Seconds – Mayne Island in painting and photographs which many of you now have in your possession.

There has been the successful STUDY OF BLUE solo exhibition with more than half of my original oil paintings sold and finding their way to new homes.

I have received recognition for my photography and won several website features. Paintings, books and photography and painting prints, calendars and cards have been sold to buyers around the world. The introduction of Google Plus has offered a whole new community of more than 10,000 artists, photographers and art lovers have “circled” my profile.

I have been invited by a new online Gallery ArtsyHome to show my paintings and my latest original paintings are now easily available for purchase by international buyers.

On all fronts, it has been a creatively successful fine art year for me, one where Creative Potager has been a central connection for sharing my adventures.

However, a question seems to be presenting itself without a satisfying or conclusive answer:

What is next for Creative Potager?

My Google plus has scooped up much of my Twitter community and its micro blogging with gorgeous image capacity makes separate blog posting less of a necessity and in many ways less of a hub for connecting with my much larger Google Plus community. My Facebook has always been about family and closer friends for but it is not really a place of deeper contemplation and creative connection. I link these readers to Creative Potager for this even if they reply on Facebook. Some of you are part of all of my various social platforms. Others connect only here on Creative Potager or in only one or two other networks. So there is always the risk of repeating posts for some of you and of missing out on opportunities for others. Each platform comes with its own time commitment which is starting to take away from, rather than enhance, my actual creative process. I know I must shift and change something.

What should I do?

Some ideas are taking root but nothing has grown large enough to be a distinguishable pattern of lines and shapes. So, though it is the second anniversary of our creative connection here in the blogosphere, we must be patient until such time as the flip-flopping musings inside my head settle into a discernible direction. In the meantime, I shall post more frequently in a micro blogging fashion that is dispersed across my various social networking platforms. As my readers, you can choose your favourite means of connection to engage in our conversations. It matters not really though I do like to see the comments directly on the blog post because they are more lasting here and it is easier to skip through to your own posts.

The “sprout question” will become more sparsely presented as simply “Sprout.”

I shall also add a “Seed” which is a seed for creativity, learning and discover. It is a study element that I am introducing into my upcoming year. I thought you might like to be privy to this “seed planting” as well. “Seeds” shall generally have links and will only share a snippet to entice further exploration.

Possibly, not all posts will have a “seed” or “sprout.” Some may only have a photograph, a paragraph or painting. We shall just have to wait and see. Posts will have no prescribed time of day or days of the week. By now I trust that I shall post regularly. I desire maximum flexibility to create and to connect with a spontaneity that keeps both fresh and engaging and exciting. This is built on my belief and trust that both shall happen without prescription because they do.

Intention: For me, according to the answer to my I Ching question, this is anticipated to be a year of modesty and moderation. It appears to be a time of balancing extremes and harmonizing interests and requires a modest and sincere attitude and the limiting of obvious excesses while exposing myself to new areas of experience. This is also a time of conflict, external or internal, and one of spiritual maturing. It may lead to reconsidering my original premise. My intention is to be open, curious and unattached to what I know to be true so I can explore and honour what is yet unknown to me. Oh where might this take us? It promises to be a grand adventure.

As the sun comes close to setting on 2011, thank you so much for being and continuing to be part of my creative journey.

(image may be purchased HERE)

As we shoot for the moon…

(image may be purchased HERE)

with our arms full of flowers…

(image may be purchased HERE)

Sprout: What is currently soft and undefined in your creativity?

Seed: What new might we learn about composition? Has it changed through time? Are their histories of creativity that have handled composition with different views? These are the questions I am musing about as I begin my next painting. Let’s start with a good grounding in the basics of composition that are available on wikipedia.

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

Life and the Bounty Hunter (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Studio Tour Tomorrow (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Third Thursday Teaser (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Flying Through Home Studio Gallery Day

November 14, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 21 Comments

The Studio Tour was a great success with one original oil painting HENDERSON HILL sold to a collector of my work in Victoria B.C. Canada. You may remember that this painting was recently featured on the front of the regional magazine Island Gals. I will miss this piece but know it is going to a good home where it will be most appreciated.

Also large numbers greeting cards were clutched into admiring hands and are now ready for postage as an occasion presents itself. Notices were taken away to order my new book Precious Seconds along with information to follow my blog for new work and to order specific prints online at my redbubble storefront.

Mostly though, it was a great day meeting interesting people and talking about the wonders of the southern gulf islands. Considering it poured rain most of the day and was dark and dreary the sun shone brilliant with all the company at la casa de inspiracion.

Here are a couple of photographs from a few minutes before the first visitors arrived. I took them from above. Hence, this inspires the title of today’s post.

And if you look down into the sunroom….

There are more photographs and paintings than you can see here but one painting just outside of our view is part of a special project and I am not sharing it online yet. So you have to wait.

Best of the week to you and may you be inspired to create!

Sprout Question: What are you flying through this week?

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

I made the cover (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Studio Tour Tomorrow

November 11, 2011November 11, 2011 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I am almost ready! Tomorrow, being Saturday November 12, 2011, it is the annual Artisan Christmas Studio Tour on Mayne Island. There are eight Studios, two craft fairs and six shops participating. A few places are even going to be open on the Sunday as well as Saturday. Look for the red brochures at the Mayne Mall or drop by my Studio in the morning after 10:00 am. I can give you a brochure to get you started on a day of creative delights.

Here is a photo showing from last year’s Creative Potager studio opening to warm you up to the idea…

To find la casa de inspiracion, our home and studio, pick up the Mayne Island Community Chamber Brochure on ferry or at one of the local shops. Creative Potager is number 35 in the white square near the centre of the island. There are yellow signs to guide your right from where you turn on toWood Dale Road which is just as you come off the ferry. Just follow along until you get to 428 Bowsprite Crescent. I am looking forward to seeing you between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.

There will be several new original oil paintings, photography prints and greeting cards showcasing our lovely west coast and Mayne Island.

For those of you that are too far away to drop in, please feel free to browse my online gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com It is almost the same as coming by except you have to get your own cup of tea.

Sprout Question: What are you preparing for?

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