Painting

ALONE BY THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Don’t even ask what I was supposed to be doing this Friday because whatever it was it isn’t done. Instead, I worked on this new 20 x 20 inch oil on canvas painting that is of East Point on Saturna Island and one of Canada’s newest national parks. I took some artistic license and made the building slightly taller than it is in real live. Other than that the scene would be most recognizable to anyone who had walked out to the end of the point during a low tide and then looked back towards land.

This painting is in answer to a request by an admirer of my paintings. She asked if I could paint something with bright colours and maybe more contrast. We exchanged several posts as I remarked on how my subject – the southwest coast of Canada, is often quiet and the contrasts subtle. But I accepted her request as a challenge and asked that she leave it with me. I have been wanting to paint this particular scene for a while and I thought it would be a perfect with its deep shadows under the bank and in the crevices of the sandstone. It was a good painting problem and I greatly enjoyed saying one of artist Gabriel Boray pieces of painting advice over and over as I worked – exaggerate,  exaggerate exaggerate! This led to a whole other internal dialogue about my propensity to understate. So when all the tensions, struggles and musings had finished playing themselves out on the canvas this is what I am left with. Oh I might play a little with it yet but mostly I think it is ready to be set aside to rest. Enjoy!

UPDATE June 10, 2012: I played with the painting more than just a little based on the following feedback from colleague and artist Lena Levin –

In your painting, the building looks a bit like a child drawing. I think it fits, in a way, — in that it kind of conveys your feeling of it sticking out, as though a man has been childishly modifying the nature, which looks mature and much more solid and eternal.

But just in case this look wasn’t intentional and you want to change it, it is due mainly to distortion of perspective (horizontals of the building don’t converge on the horizon line) and, as far as I can see from the photo, the lack of variation in the red of the roof (also probably the fact that two planes of the building are of the same value, as though it’s flat).

I did want the building to enhance that feeling of temporary tension between human habitation and the landscape. However, I also wanted the building to be somewhat believable. So I went back in this morning and made some minor adjustments which then led to a few other changes leaving us with what I hope is now the final painting. The building now looks much more like the actual building on this historic site. My thanks goes out to the Lena for her critical observation.

I also had a nice surprise this week. One of my small paintings “Morning” sold at the Green House Bar and Grill. I hadn’t even had a chance to show it to you yet.  However, I am going to do a separate post showing just the small paintings and will include it with these.

SPROUT: When was the last time you were glad your Friday went sideways?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Midday in Navy Channel oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

The day was bright with shifting clouds. I was asked by a student if I would paint something in our private lesson so she could see how one might start and then work a painting through to completion. A visual and tactile learner I felt compelled to honour her request. So we worked through the usual coaching process for her to choose what she was going to paint and her learning goals. Once she was underway I set up by the open door and began to work on this piece. We broke up the session with conversation and observation of the development of each painting which were of different subject matter. I punctuated our conversation with the need to honour and develop ones own painting fingerprint even while learning technique and painting processes. Time drifted at warp speed and this small 5 x 7 inch painting study emerged from the afternoon.

I am pleased with the piece. The questions asked by the student in this interchange influenced steps that I took in its creation. For this I am thankful and appreciative because as a teacher we are also forever a student.

 

SPROUT: What is your best experience of sharing a creative “how to” where you learned something in a new way? 

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Claude Monet is quoted from a conversation with an American neighbour in Giverny as follows:

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever…. merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, hear a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene before you. (reference Claude Monet 1840-1926 by The Art Institute of Chicago catalog published 1995)

I suppose you think I am going to argue with this sound advice!? No I agree and my brushes feel the same. Yes, of course I consulted my brushes and they spoke to the canvas and we are all in the same painting with Monet. However, as we conferred we also notice that Monet had left something out in his recipe for painting. It is not enough to get the colour just right or the shape just so.

A painter must paint the desperation of wanting to stay alive.

Here is a very wet detail from my painting today where I worked on this “must.”

Image

No matter how beautiful and accurate the painting of the light or interesting the composition, the painting must leave the viewer with an understanding that the painter knows that the moment in the painting is a gift in time – one worth being alive to experience. This must be said in every brushstroke, every slice of the palette knife, every squeeze of the paint tube and in absolutely every decision the painter makes to execute her vision into that brief second of a moment on a canvas.

SPROUT: How do you create with the desperation of wanting to stay alive?

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Waving at you from Mayne Island with Monet

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

My morning is very French here off the southwest coast of Canada. I slept late (9:00 am) hand ground my coffee beans, made espresso and baked the chocolate croissants. The sun is shining.

Wave photographs are almost the equivalent of my warm up sketches in a figure drawing session. The process gets me stretched down low to the ground in odd angles and into that place where my eye starts to relentlessly compose and frame the world around me. Waves also feed an acceleration that pulls up any lazy cells in my being that thought they might just coast along through the photo shoot. NOT! We are here to capture the movement of light. Time to get to work.

Good morning and Happy Thursday to you!

SEED:  Speaking of the French, I made a most treasured purchase a few days ago. It is the 282 catalogue (or catalog) published  by The Art Institute of  Chicago for the 1995 exhibition of Claude Monet‘s (1860-1946) art work. Did you know that he used to get angry and slash his canvases and may have personally destroyed over 500 paintings? His art career was 60 years long but he is best known for his earlier paintings during the impressionism hay-day and of course his lilies. Though my paintings and even my photography have often been said to remind people of Monet I have never studied his work – rather I reclined into embarrassment and pride at being compared to such a great artist, too scared to even give it serious consideration. I personally had felt my work may have more in common with Camille Pissarro but that is another story. But over the next few weeks and months I am going to read about and study Monet’s work closely and see if I can see what it is that has people so often making this connection.

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Mayne Island Rain Wind and Snow

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

How quickly it all changes. Yesterday’s winds have given way to rain. How those branches did bend for fear of snapping as others had in the past.

We did not go out to the shore. I get too nervous in high winds to hardly leave the house. This photograph of the valley was taken while stood at the kitchen sink preparing lunch and being thankful that the electricity was still on.

The day before however we did venture out into the blustery weather. The sandstone shore of Georgeson Island was particularly lovely in the soft light of the winter afternoon.

(image available for purchase HERE)

But this morning it is raining. I sit quietly hunkered down under a down quilt on the old couch in the loft marveling at how different each day can be from another. It was only four days ago I overheard these daffodils muttering in the snow “I told you it was too early.”

The snow is now long gone for this  young deer that browsed under the trees by at the edge of the forest, hunched up in the damp cold. I wonder where it sought shelter yesterday as the winds howled like jet planes crossing over the top of the cliffs?

A flicker had called from the beam on the covered deck to ask if I might come out for awhile.

I did. But even the oregano was snow bound.

However, it was the day I captured winter by the pond

(image available for purchase HERE) 

and enjoyed the grass against the snow…

I noticed that which was undisturbed.

This is the noticing that comes with the sudden change of snow covering much of our dark greens, grays and browns during the overcast west coast winters.

Much is still dreary though.

I thought of lighting a fire in the outdoor fireplace but then went back inside to paint – as I did yesterday. I painted on the ample 30 X 40 canvas. I wonder how the weather will be evident in my brushstrokes? We shall see on Wednesday I think. Here is a snippet of a small detail I liked that no longer exists.

The painting is almost complete. A couple of wayward blustery brushstrokes to tame and it will be done.

SPROUT: How might the weather be impacting your creativity?

 

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

 

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A painting starts with a humble beginning – reminding me of Séraphine

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Darkness is settling heavily down on an already soggy afternoon. I have worked with my daylight lamp most of the day, finishing a painting and then touching up a new one and an older one. Now, I am roughing in a 30 X 40 inch oil on canvas tentatively called REACHING THE SEA. Each painting starts with a humble beginning, filled with hope and possibility. I love this stage. It is easy to put expectations aside. Later I will have to be firm about staying in the process but not now.

It doesn’t look like much yet and as I struggled to get quick shot of it to share with you, I wished for more light. For some reason, this reminded me of the French Artist Séraphine Louis, also know as “Séraphine de Senlis,” who would work during the day as domestic worker – and then she would paint by candle light late into the night. She also had to find and buy the ingredients to mix her own paints. At this moment, I hug my digital camera and give thanks for my daylight lamp, my prepared paints and canvas, and the luxury of being able to focus just on my art.

SEED: Who is Séraphine de Senlis? I first became acquainted with her through the 2008 French film Séraphine directed by Martin Provost. Sam Juliano from Wonders in the Dark was the first to bring the film to my attention. Yolande Moreau is brilliant as Séraphine and the film won seven French Cesars (Oscars). But who is Séraphine – the artist born in 1864 and who died in a mental institute in 1942? I am off to find out!

© 2012 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Nothing Heavier and calling on van Gogh

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

There is nothing heavier than west coast winter clouds that reach down and touch the toes of the earth for days. It is a never-ending dull dawn that is late coming and then softly sinks back into night sometime after lunch. A person can lose perspective and become disoriented as she waits and waits for the sun to make an appearance. But for now the curtain is down. Slightly disgruntled and a little restless, she slowly turns the pages in her book.

Good morning… I think 🙂

Sprout: When was the last time you saw the sun? Tell me, how is she doing?

Seed: Perspective is so much more than the relationship between the things on the canvas. I want to paint but the thought of all that gray showing up is enough to leave the paint brushes in the jar for just a wee bit longer. Maybe I will go hang out in Vincent van Gogh’s “Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun” painted in 1889. Just look at those brushstrokes!

Reference: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh

© 2011 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Twice Around

/ 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.

 

 

© 2011 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

 

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

 

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Third Thursday Teaser

/ Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Here we are with the Thursday Teaser for the final event for 2011…

My Third  Salish Sea Sunday Savings event is this Sunday November 6, 2011.

LINK your chances to win a small photography canvas print of  AMAZEMENT.

To qualify you must be subscribed to the Creative Potager blog (sidebar on the right) and share this blog LINK to the Third Thursday Teaser for the final  Salish Sea Sunday Savings event of 2011 anytime BEFORE the start of the event at 3:00 P.M. this Sunday, via ANY of these means – email, facebook, twitter, Google+ or on your blog. Each time you share your name will be added to the draw – the more shares, the more chances to win.

Remember, I MUST KNOW that you have shared the link to be able to add your name to the draw. So for whichever sharing means you use, apply the appropriate tool for a cc.

The winner will be announced on next Monday’s regular Creative Potager post.

Would you like a quick peek behind the sales curtain?

Selected paintings and photographs of my work will be reduced 40% for one hour ONLY from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm P.S.T. Sunday November 6, 2011.

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE FROM DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME FOR THIS SUNDAY OR YOU WILL MISS OUT.

This event will be hosted right here at the Creative Potager blog 

Available at this discount price will be:

One original impressionist 24 X 48 inch oil on canvas painting from my studio

Current price and more about this painting in the Art of Day online gallery HERE.

Two painting prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

Three photography prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

And…the  Mayne Island Tree Spirits calendar for 2012. 

See you there! 🙂

I look forward to receiving those LINK notifications and seeing you on Sunday. I will be avail real-time for 3:00 – 4:00 pm P.S.T. AND REMEMBER TO RESET THOSE CLOCKS TO STANDARD TIME. So grab your beverage of choice, your slippers, and your credit card and drop on by and see what is posted.

As previously mentioned, this event is intended to accomplish two things.

First, I wish to show my thanks to established fans and collectors of my work. You have shown amazing support and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. With Christmas just around the corner it is the least I can do.

Second, I want to increase the number of fans and collectors who can say “oh, that is impressionist painter and photographer Terrill Welch’s work.”

Today’s Sprout Question: How do you creatively express your amazement?

© 2011 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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Second Thursday Teaser

/ Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

Psssst! My second Salish Sea Sunday Savings event is this Sunday.

LINK your chances to win SIXTEEN 4 X 6 greeting cards from selected images frommy redbubble storefront.

Here is a sample card to get you inspired…

To qualify you must be subscribed to the Creative Potager blog (sidebar on the right) and share this blog LINK to the second Thursday Teaser for the 2 of 3  Salish Sea Sunday Savings event anytime BEFORE the start of the event at 3:00 P.M. this Sunday, via ANY of these means – email, facebook, twitter, Google+ or on your blog. Each time you share your name will be added to the draw – the more shares, the more chances to win.

Remember, I MUST KNOW that you have shared the link to be able to add your name to the draw. So for whichever sharing means you use, apply the appropriate tool for a cc.

The winner will be announced on next Monday’s regular Creative Potager post.

How about a sneak preview?….

Selected paintings and photographs of my work will be reduced 40% for ONE hour ONLY from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm P.D.T. Sunday October 16, 2011.

This event will be hosted right here at the Creative Potager blog 

Available at this discount price will be:

One original impressionist 10 X 10 inch oil on canvas painting from my studio

Current price and more about this painting on my gallery site HERE.

Two painting prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

Three photography prints in any format including cards to canvas prints from my redbubble

And…the   Sea, land & time MAYNE ISLAND  calendar for 2012. 

See you there! 🙂

I look forward to receiving those LINK notifications and seeing you on Sunday. I will be avail real-time for 3:00 – 4:00 pm P.D.T. So grab your beverage of choice, your slippers, and your credit card and drop on by and see what is posted.

As mentioned in the previous Thursday Teaser, this event is intended to accomplish two things.

First, I wish to show my thanks to established fans and collectors of my work. You have shown amazing support and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. With Christmas just around the corner it is the least I can do.

Second, I want to increase the number of fans and collectors who can say “oh, that is impressionist painter and photographer Terrill Welch’s work.”

Today’s Sprout Question: If you could choose to receive a card in the mail, who would you most like it to be from?

© 2011 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

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

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