photography

August Mist

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Today, Tuesday August 10th, is one year since David had his stroke. He has almost completely recovered – so much so that you may not notice the difference from before and after. There are little things he is still working on. But aren’t we all? I give thanks for the continued gift of his company, his love and his full engagement in life.

Sunday. I walk alone.

Through the mist flies a great blue heron over the quiet sea. Time reaches into infinity and wraps us in the moment…

 

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A driftwood stump waits for the next tide to continue its journey. Fog and misty rain keeps us both company.

 

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 Meditative careful steps along the shore as hushed resilience springs forth.

 

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It is morning, in the misty rain on the west coast of Canada.

Low tide.

Humid.

August.

Sunday.

Sprout Question: What are you noticing today?

Note: Creative Potager has a new page Artist Biography and yesterday I posted an announcement for my solo exhibition “SEA, LAND AND TIME.” Please share both as appropriate.

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Sea Land and Time

/ 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.

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

A trip to the high desert property

/ Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

Where to begin. On Friday July 30, 2010, I left Mayne Island for a visit to Oroville Washington and out into the high desert. I was invited on a camping trip for the long weekend to come and see the 20 acres that my son, daughter-in-law, David’s daughter and three other friends had purchased last year. I am excited. It will be a five hour drive from Vancouver but I had heard so much about how it was the home of the rattle snake. And how it looked and felt like Clint Eastwood would ride over the hill any moment. And about how it hardly ever rained.

Well, I didn’t get to see a rattle snake. We  tried to  ensure that didn’t happen as we climbed up the dry cliff side. I didn’t get to see Clint Eastwood – but I thought I might from the looks of the hills. And it did rain – both evenings. The thunderstorms were glorious and refreshing after the heat of the day.

Here is a quick snippet of what it was like as the waves of hot air brushed my skin in the early morning sun. The light is more yellow orange than usual because of smoke in the air, likely from forest fires started by lightening.

Just around this bend…

Is the property a good part of which is an amazing bluff…

and here is the other end of the bluff…

can you smell the sagebrush I’m standing in?

What else I wonder might we see somewhere near a grove of small poplar trees?

Oh my what do we have here?

A wild turkey hen and over here is one of her four chicks…

We won’t go any closer as these fellows are still very small.  The grasses and drying flowers are particularly beautiful.

Later in the morning we climb part of the way up the cliff side. This is where I am most worried I might see a rattle snake. My son assures me that it was too early in the day. He advises that I step on the logs and rocks, not over them, so the snake will hear and feel the vibration of my foot steps. After all the snake doesn’t want to see me either.

There is a spring that comes out part way down the hill and it still has a small pool of water for the birds. Even so, I was surprised to see this colourful fellow on the branch of a ponderosa pine…

It is a western tanager. Though fairly common they are a bit shy so this is only the second time I have seen one.

My apologies for being late getting the post up today. I had some computer trouble and then it was time for lunch. As you can see we had a marvelous trip. I will do another post a little later of just the rolling hills and grasses. Next time I go, I hope to bring you photos taken from the top of the bluff. We shall see.

Special thanks for having me along go out to…

My son Kris, eating sunflower seeds while the ants pack the shells away as fast as they hit the ground.

My daughter-in-law Tina, who doesn’t know I took this photo while she was cooking up one of her many outstanding dishes made with fresh vegetables and lots of herbs and spices.

My step-daughter Anya, soaking up the cooler late afternoon sun.

My grandson Arrow,

who was also my photo-shooting partner.

Sprout Question: How do you release your creative expectation and remain open to possibility?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

BC Ferries share the Salish Sea sometimes to its own peril

/ Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Yesterday’s post introduces the first blog clip about a series I am compelled to paint about the newly named Salish Sea. Today I am going to take us on a photo journey where BC Ferries share these busy waters, sometimes to its own peril.

The main thoroughfare between Vancouver, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island is Active Pass and it is as busy as the name implies. BC Ferries share these waters with fishing boats, freighters, kayakers, pleasure boats, sail boats, whale watching boats, tug boats and float planes… in addition to whales, seals, salmon, sea lions, sea otters, eagles, cormorants and seagulls.

Often, whether on the one of BC Ferries vessels or on shore, the three blasts of the ferry horn can be heard warning another sea traveler to get out of its path. But an accident like yesterday morning where rope tangled around the propeller of the Queen of Nanaimo preventing her from slowing adequately as she came into the Village Bay berth at Mayne Island is, thankfully, a rare occurrence.

Four passengers and one or possibly two crew members were injured as a result of the accident. The vessel is reported to have sustained damage to the rubbing strake and bow door frame. The terminal sustained damage to the wingwalls, which are part of the berthing structure, as well as to the ramp apron. Village Bay has two berths, so the terminal remains operational.

On Friday July 30, 2010, I left Mayne Island for a long weekend visit to Oroville Washington high desert. The ferry terminal was waking with stunning beauty as BC Ferries vessels and fishing boats appeared and disappeared in the drifting fog.

The Mayne Queen departs after dropping off passengers and vehicles from Saturna Island who join us in the wait for the Queen of Nanaimo. Blasts from the ship’s whistle can be heard as she navigates through the thick mist

I slip into the back of my pickup truck “Miss Prissy” to get a better view as the vessel that left Salt Spring Island and then Pender Island approach the Village Bay terminal. I am on my way to Vancouver. The Queen of Nanaimo is the ferry that will take me there after another stop on Galiano Island.

In minutes we are on board and I move around the outer decks taking photos…

Morning coffee aboard the Queen of Nanaimo

fishing boat and BC Ferries

View and purchase full resolution image here.

and the mist hanging on Galiano Island as we enter Active Pass.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Yesterday, on my scheduled return trip, BC Ferries staff wait to reach me before I get to the Tsawwassen ticket booth. Do I have a reservation? I did. The Queen of Nanaimo has been in an accident. The ship can’t be moved. I am being rerouted to Victoria. I will be given priority on sailings going to Mayne Island at 3:00 pm and 4:25 pm. I won’t be charged any extra fare. I move forward in the line.

My mind begins to scramble with making all the necessary changes – make sure David has food for lunch, cancel my afternoon coaching sessions and all the other details that come to mind when our plans are set aside in the immediacy of the unexpected. I reach the ticket booth and hand over my credit card to verify my reservation.

Numbly I ask the ticket agent what happened. She gave me a brief rundown. The ferry hit the berth hard on its approach. The cause is under investigation. I ask if anyone was hurt. My heart sank as she confirmed that “yes, people had been hurt.” I line up in row 40 to wait for the large new Coastal Celebration ferry that will drop me at Swartz Bay around noon… just about the same time as I had expected to be home. I start making phone calls sorting out the changes to my day. It is summer tourist season. Many people around me are from someplace else speaking a language I don’t understand. I look for familiar faces and find one. We recap the morning sharing bits of information as we try to create a new reality that is different than the one we had imagined.

The rest of morning and afternoon I continue to make ongoing adjustments. No I can’t go into Victoria. The scheduled runs are overloaded. We are told to proceed directly to the terminal area for the Gulf Islands. Extra trips are scheduled but by the time it is decided who will go on which ferries and extra staff are found we leave at the scheduled 3:00 pm time only stopping at Mayne Island first before the Mayne Queen continues on to Saturna Island.

By the time I arrive home and see the Queen of Nanaimo still sitting in the berth at Village Bay – the very vessel that was to bring me home five hours earlier – I was exhausted but pleased with my ability to ride with the changing currents with the sun at my back and the wind in my face.

The Vancouver Sun reports:

Injuries to the passengers ranged from a concussion to a possible broken ankle and possible cracked ribs.

Mike Corrigan, B.C. Ferries executive vice-president and chief operating officer, said the preliminary investigation points to “a significant amount of rope in the propellers, especially in the port propellers.”

He said the rope, likely from crab or prawn traps, made it impossible for the crew to adjust the propellers. “So when the captain tried to go astern to slow the vessel down, basically the propeller was stuck in a forward position and wouldn’t let him do that.”
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Ferries+Ropes+tangling+props+caused+ferry+dock+hard/3354052/story.html#ixzz0vfG5tFE5

The Queen of Nanaimo will have to undergo sea trials before it is back in operation. A smaller vessel will try and do some of the regular schedule but it won’t nearly be enough at the height of the tourist season. This story won’t be news today. The world will have moved their attention on to other events. But if you live in the Southern Gulf Islands or were planning on coming to our beautiful part of the Salish Sea the waves of this incident will continue to ripple for days.

Sprout Question: When was the last time your day ran ahead of you while you skidded along behind hanging on to its tail?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The saying of wedding vows

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

David’s youngest son Dan

Okayyyyy, here we go...

married his long time love Deirdre June 27, 2010.

Together they continue their journey in life…

These previous two photos are courtesy of wedding photographer Federico Vanoli who can be reached by email at balores17 at hotmail dot com in Victoria B.C. Canada.

What is all this saying of vows about anyway? Well, there is probably a slightly different answer for each one of us that gets married.  But one of the wonderful aspects of these unions is thoughtful loving-kindness towards our family and friends.

We seem to be renewed by weddings.

David’s daughter Amy and her husband Fede (the wedding photographer) Dan and Deirdre.

The laughter, the love

Deirdre with her mom

and all the hugs.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse of our first wedding this summer… stay tuned and we will bring you some photos from the second wedding as well.

Sprout Question: How does your love for others appear in your 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Flower Salad

/ 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?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The Boys are Back in Town

/ Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

Morning is filled with the smell of west coast summer. I go out to water the garden. Snapping twigs and munching tell me I have company – a lot of company. I carefully raise my head from the geranium pot. Then I slip back into the house for my camera.

There is a herd of seven buck deer just on the other side of the deer fence browsing in the tall salal underbrush. I managed to get four decent images of these fellows well embedded in their natural environment. I have to whistle to get them to look at the camera.

Lucky for us they are curious animals and can’t help but wonder where that pathetic-excuse-for-a-whistle is coming from.

Our cool and lush spring leaves these fat and sassy devils more handsome this year than usual.

And for those of you who have never heard Thin Lizzy’s “The boys are back in town” from 1976, here you go….

Sprout Question: What caption would you give each photograph to tell a story as the deer?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Summer Holidays

/ 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.

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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

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wave two

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wave three

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and wave four

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I hope you have enjoyed your summer evening walk with me here on Mayne Island… swisssshhhhh!

Sprout Question: Are you taking your creativity for a summer holiday?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Mayne Island Summer Group Show part 2

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

There is nothing that says summer like July and August on the southwest coast Gulf Islands of British Columbia, and no summer is complete without the Mayne Island Trincomali Community Arts Council Summer Group Show. The show will open at “the library” on Friday July 9th 7-9 pm and the Mayne Island Reading Centre will be bursting with creative abundance for your viewing pleasure.

Last Saturday’s part 1 of this post gave us a glimpse of what to expect. Today’s post will provide a few more enticing examples…

First, is an intriguing image from photographer and artisan Barbara McIntyre with Nomadic Routes Inc. where she is creating healthy choices for people and planet (she has the most amazing handmade soaps).

New Zealand by Barbara McIntyre

Second, here are a few snippets of words submitted from one of her works in progress by author and artisan Leanne Dyck

“My need for the backpack was how we ended up in a sporting goods store talking to one of the cutest guys I’d ever meet in my life. Or, rather, how my Dad ended up talking to him as I tried not to drool.

‘Our little girl.’

Little girl – honestly, Dad, that’s how you’re going to talk about me to the cutest guy in the whole universe. Our little girl – kill me, kill me now.

A red rash rose from my neck and spread over my entire face.”

A prolific writer, Leanne Dyck has published Novelty Yarn and Maynely a Mystery. I also know other great things are in the works such as Turning, Maynely Hidden and The Sweater Curse.  You can find out more at her website http://www.oknitting.com .

Third, we pause for a moment to view an image from well known (on Mayne Island anyway) fine arts and freelance photographer Toby Snelgrove

Edith Point North by Toby Snelgrove

Toby Snelgrove’s stunning collection of BC Ferry images is just completing so if you haven’t yet, please do drop by the library and take in a startling original perspective on the ships we rely on to link to the rest of the civilized world. Toby’s show is not to be missed and the photographic exhibition runs until Wednesday July 7th.

Finally, I will also be showing a series of five photographic images “Window with a View” that were featured on my post “Simplicity” back in February of this year.

window with a view by Terrill Welch

This series of five images is a lovely segue into my solo exhibit “Sea, Land and Time” that will follow the Mayne Island Summer Group Show and open on Friday, September 3rd. I will have more about that in a few weeks. In the mean time, you can browse my online storefront at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch and see if you can pick out some of the oil paintings and photographic canvas prints that will be included.

In addition to artists, artisans and writers mentioned in blog posts part 1 and 2 for the Mayne Island Summer Group Show, there will also be Native art by Wayne Thomas, sculpture by Cedar Christie plus Tina Farmilo, Donna Williams and Bill Maylone, along with others, will bring their vibrant creativity together for a spectacular exhibit.

The Mayne Island Summer Group Show will run from July 9, 2010 to September 1, 2010 and after the opening night can be viewed during Library hours 11:00 am to 3:00 pm Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

If you are thinking of coming, the Mayne Island B.C. website (which also has a link to the Mayne Island Chamber of Commerce ) can help you with your planning.

Sprout Question: What is your favourite comment or review about your work?

Note: special thanks to Bill Maylone for allowing me to “borrow” parts of his text from the MayneLiner Magazine article.

And, psst! I just received the 2011 calendar for “Sea, Land and Time” and I am so happy with the images and large calendar squares – big enough to write all your important notes. And don’t be fooled when the website calendar cover says 2010 – You can set the start date for whenever you like.

westcoast winter by Terrill Welch

Cover image. View the whole calendar at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch/calendars/5320339-8-sea-land-and-time All the images in the calendar are taken from Mayne Island.

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Perspective Canada Day

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

Happy, happy Canada Day Canada. YOU are the BEST… but I only tell you this one day a year as it might go to your head.

stillness

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To be perfectly clear, this blog is about construct of perspective and it just happens to be Canada Day.

Perspective is to painting as grammar is to writing. It is useful to have some idea about the rules before you start breaking them. Both methods of organizing information have been equally tedious for me to learn except in an abstract fleeting fashion. In each case I have a tendency “to work at what I am creating until it seems right.” I usually only refer to the math of perspective or the grammar of writing when I have got myself mired and I absolutely refuse to give up. I then begrudgingly concede that I best go find out what the rules are so I can solve my problem.

Driven by combination of frustration and curiosity, I will pull out the appropriate books from my bookshelf and read what I need to read. Usually this results in a satisfying personal discovery that is far more exhilarating than warranted.

But sometimes new learning slips into my life more easily. The other day Elisa posted an excellent video comment to “Seeing and Creating” about an artist, Esref Armagan, who has no eyes and who can paint perspective using his fingertips. Esref has never “seen” a horizon line. How does he do it? I was so impressed with the link that I decided to bring it forward for a post focusing on perspective. Thank you Elisa.

And if you want to learn more about the history, science and mathematics of perspective….

“It wasn’t until the early 15th Century that a Florentine architect and engineer named Filippo Brunelleschi developed a mathematical theory of perspective through a series of optical experiments.” http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/reverspective/history.html

Mathematics and art – perspective

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Art.html

The history and theory of perspective http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/projects/perspective/theory.htm

Sprout Question: Are you remembered for your creativity in the way you want to be remembered?

Bonus: Around the middle of May this year Kathy Drue from Lake Superior Spirit blog decided to declare her dare on my blog post “Choose Your Dare”  and started a visual arts project. This morning I found the following comment on that post…

Terrill, well yesterday I realized that I needed to have those seven pages done…but couldn’t really get inspired to make a journal that would just be seen by me. So instead I made some more cards. Twelve of them. Then decided to start a “revolution”: http://upwoods.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/taking-back-the-world-one-card-at-a-time/

Thanks again for the inspiration!

I invite you to go have a look at her beautiful cards with their shiny images beaming back at us from the picnic table. Thank you Kathy for celebrating your success with us.

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada