Painting

Pulse

/ Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

So close to Valentine’s Day, with hearts appearing everywhere, I offer you a view of one of my watercolour paintings from 2001. Today, I’m reading and collecting creative inspiration. I’m reading through blogs on my blog roll. I’m browsing through blogs in my Gaia community. I am picking up pebbles in my tweet stream on Twitter. Today is about me experiencing the pulse of your creativity…

At the heart of things we are all simply human.

View and purchase full resolution image here.


Sprout Question: If your creativity had a pulse, what would be the rhythm of its beat?

© 2010 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.

Possible

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

Creative possibility comes from getting it wrong.

Studio mess – my home – time to de-clutter. 8’X11″ charcoal quick sketch.

“Oh, I could never draw or paint like that.”

“I’m not a writer like you.”

“My photographs don’t compare to yours.”

If I had a dime for each time I heard these comments or others like them, all of my creative work could be used for charity fundraising because I would be independently wealthy. The sad thing is these statements are not true. They are lies we come to believe because we compare our attempts with finished products rather than the process that lead to their creation.

Here is a best kept secret: creative excellence comes from getting things wrong. Yes, wrong. As I commented on Coffee Messiah’s blog this morning, one of my drawing teachers, Glenn Howarth, was fond of saying things like: “It is the shoulder or wrist you struggle to draw that teaches you the anatomy of an arm.”

This is why I have committed to showing you my first morning “awakener” sketch. These first sketches are to engage me in the creative process. My sleepy eyes begin to frame, compose and dig at the relationship between elements I am about to sketch. My stiff arm and hand begin to respond to these relationships. In these first sketches, few mental barriers about “getting it right” have been erected. My judgment is left aside – these are not “keepers” they are “awakeners.”

In a three-hour drawing class, I often do 30 quick sketches that progressively increase in length until it is time to settle into the last hour-long sketch. When I am doing a photo shoot, I may take 150 images with maybe three becoming “keepers.”

Hours and days of exploring “that which is not yet quite right” leads to the creative possibility for success. This is where we discover our unique creative expression. This is where we learn our craft. We learn what is possible by getting it wrong.

My first quick sketch of the day is to inspire you to say to yourself – “hey, I can do that!” And you can.

Here is the last of my chosen three out of 150 shots of mist…

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Sprout Question: What do you do to strengthen your creative possibility?

p.s. Glenn Howarth was the most outstanding art instructor I have had the pleasure of working under. I am forever grateful for the few short years I was in his figure drawing classes. Glenn Howarth died last year at the age of 62. Very little of his thinking and work is on-line but here is an article he wrote that was published in  Canadian Art and Art Resource Directory: “Pictophile – Plein Air Painting”


© 2010 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.

Unstuck

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Unstuck is so much better than being stuck. Thank you Tobin, Laurie Sue, Robert, Ryan and Sam for answering yesterday’s Sprout Question: Has there ever been a time when you were stuck and finding it difficult to finished a creative piece? What did you do?

Here are the results of yesterday’s work where I tried a number of the suggestions offered in the comments on the previous post “Stuck.”

But here is how it will be cropped when framed.

View image in full resolution here.

Yes, I think this is my  last edit to take out all that isn’t adding value to the final image. It is the photographer in my that likes to trim.

Arbutus driftwood and Sandstone may never be in the category of “one of my very best paintings” but I have a huge sense of satisfaction in having it “done!” Besides, I have long ago stopped deciding what is best or worst in my work because I have seen people overlook my favourites and purchase something that I was reluctant to keep (my mother has saved a few pieces from my compost pile that I am now glad she did).

Best of all, I can now move on to other work – like using my new water miscible oil paints. I haven’t painted with oils for 30 years. I am so excited to get started – after laundry and other chores of course… or maybe painting first then chores. How does that sound?  Like celebrating right? Shall we?

Sprout Question: How do you celebrate when you have a creative break through?

© 2010 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.

Stuck

/ Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

I’m stuck. The painting above is about half to three-quarters finished and somehow I have become attached – invested. The arbutus driftwood, sandstone and tide pool have drawn me into a deadly web of “don’t touch it!” When I’m painting with watercolours, more than with any other of my creative processes, I must work from a place of detached emotional clarity. Watercolors are transparent like steps in the sand. Every move shows until you start a new sheet (or the tide comes in).

Sometimes, if I wait for a few days the next step will become clear and release me from the fear of “ruining everything.” I’ve waited two weeks. Nothing. Sometimes, if I move the painting to a new location and see it in different light I can decided what is next. Still nothing. In fact, I’m even more attached than before I took the darn thing out of the studio. Yet, I know the painting is not finished. This means only one thing. I must push through allowing my intuition to guide me into new learning.

I must firmly say to my self: “It is water, colour pigment, and paper. That is all.”

If a muddy puddle of coloured water with mushy paper is all that is left by tomorrow, I shall compost it in the flower bed. If I end up with a finished painting, I will consider it the first in an exhibit I’m building about the arbutus tree. Either way, I shall take a photo of the results and share them with you.

Sprout Question: Has there ever been a time when you were stuck and finding it difficult to finished a creative piece? What did you do?

p.s. If you hear little from me until late tomorrow, I’m painting…or possibly composting.

© 2010 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.

Last Rose

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

(image may be purchased here. )

I just have to share my news with you.

I’ve known for some weeks now that one of my paintings was going to be printed in a quarterly literary journal – because the editor asked for permission.

Well, at 3:29 pm PST Friday, January 8, 2010, I received the following email:

Dear Terrill,
Thank you again for the use of your watercolor.  It’s lovely and has already received compliments.  Below is a link to the journal.  Just click on the River Poets Quarterly Autumn 2009 pdf file.  The painting and poem is on Page 11.   http://www.riverpoetsjournal.com/RiverPoetsJournal-Links.html
Warm Regards, Judith Lawrence

The best part – this came right out of the blue. I had no previous connection to the River Poets Quarterly Journal, or to the editor, Judith Lawrence, nor did I make a submission. I had posted the image with my article Last Rose of Desire which is now posted on Creative Potager as “The Crone’s Passion”  (I must ask how she discovered the painting.)

So please, choose your beverage of choice and celebrate with me. Raising glasses high, smiling and giggling… “To creativity!”

Sprout Question: If you were to receive a surprise request for permission to publish your work, who do you want it to be from?

© 2010 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.

Afternoon Delight painting

/ Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

View image in full resolution here.

In keeping with Creative Everyday’s 2010 challenge theme for January of “body,” I have chosen to revisit this 1993 water-colour painting Afternoon Delight.

The image of the original water-colour painting  is now rendered in oils for printed on canvas. The original painting has had three standing offers on it for years but I have been unwilling to part with it. Now I can offer a print of the image that I am sure will please those desiring to purchase the original… not the same but close.

My first paintings were in oils. I switched to water colours when my children were small because the medium was less toxic and had a faster drying time. I am thinking of going back to using oils or maybe one of the newer acrylic brands. Revisiting this image and using new technologies has again inspired me to venture into other painting mediums.

Sprout Question: Of your creative work, what can you revisit to inspire your current creativity?

© 2010 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.