photography

Naked

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

With my nightgown hung on the line, I’m reminded that there is nakedness when I am home. Nakedness that usually has little to do with bare skin. Home is actually where we rarely entertain and seldom share the space with others. I think of it as the freedom to allow my energies to easily flow in the space around me. Home is sacred space… when we invite others in to our home – it is to share that sacred space with us.

On Saturday, I cleaned and cleared the cooking and eating utensils. I asked myself – how many people are we really going to have visit at one time? How much cutlery do we need? How many wooden spoons do we use?

The answer was: “far less than was actually in our stash.”

Hence, a great lovely bundle of goods are ready for the thrift store.

Then, the next afternoon, we went for a long walk in a Valentine’s Day Sunday sun. I realized that this too is part of what I considered “our home.” “Home” extended beyond our property. “Home” is Mayne Island a place where my energy flows easily within sacred space.

View and purchase full resolution image here.


View and purchase full resolution image here.


And, in honour of Valentine’s Day, the arbutus tango…

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Welcome to our home.

Sprout Question: Does your creative self have or need sacred space beyond your studio or writing desk?

© 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.

Fast Water part 1

/ Terrill Welch / 13 Comments

Over the weekend I had the most extraordinary opportunity. I was invited to go with a group of 13 to 18 year old students and two coaches for an outdoor pursuit hike along the Cowichan River near Skutz falls on Vancouver Island. These students are amazing and I absolutely enjoyed the pleasure of their company and the opportunity to be their guest.

The Cowichan River is fast and high this time of year.

There is little time to capture its beauty because I am keeping pace with these young bodies as they leap and skip along up the south side of the trail heading west. They are quiet, talking softly in small groups as they walk single file with the river glimpsed through the trees and over the steep edge of the narrow trail. I sense a relaxed intrigue rather than boisterous, frenetic, silliness I might have anticipated. For some, this is their first semester of outdoor pursuits. They may have spent very little time before today walking on the earth’s soft uneven surface. Through the soft steady rain, low cloud coverage and mist we walk together – as if we have been doing it for years.

A smaller group of older students had separated from us before we crossed the first bridge and gone up the north side trail to practice making stretchers. They will lead teams in stretcher exercises when we meet up with them later on our return. I will cover this in more detail tomorrow.

There are protected groves of Gary Oak in the park where we are hiking. My daughter, Ms. Herman, is one of the two coaches. She waits while I grab a couple of quick photos (with no idea that the camera is pointed in her direction).

We move swiftly to catch up to the rest who are gathered for a lesson on the river bank.

I snap a couple of river shots and totally miss what this particular lesson was about. Sorry Mr. Norman.

View image in full resolution and purchase here.

Next I see a series of switchbacks in front of us. A hill – this is where the 15 year olds are separated from the 51 year olds. I am thrilled to reach the top still being able to talk and not having had to stop and rest part way up. The view was worth it.

View image in full resolution and purchase  here.

It is a perfect spot to give a quick lesson on using a compass. The students learn how to gather all the information they already know and begin to locate themselves on a map and learn how to read and set a compass direction.

We continue on. The strength of the trees as they withstand the water flowing around them is amazing.

View image in full resolution and purchase  here.

Tomorrow, more about how stretchers are can be made from coats, backpacks and tarp as creativity is applied to survival skills.

Sprout Question: When was the last time you got fired up, along with a group of teenagers, on a creative adventure?

© 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.

Barefoot

/ Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

I wrote the following quote last night for a friend. This morning I realize that is perfect to accompany us on a short stroll we are about to take.

As we “face the winds of the world” stand barefoot on mother earth. If the winds become fierce, go lower and place your belly against hers. In this way we can remain vulnerable, humble and filled with fire-strength to see our vision through.

Our stroll is on a day that it is late morning before enough daylight seeps into the corners of my studio to warrant turning the lamp off. The heavy clouds wrap around me like tangled blankets in a nightmare. We go for an overdue lunch. Our usual walk is only a sultry possibility against pending rain. A drive seems like our best option. Bumping around potholes under the tall trees I have a moment of total defiance. Without comment or signaling (we have met no one on the road in the past fifteen minutes) I dip the old Volvo down a side road to Navy Channel. Once there is it a short slop to the waters edge.

At first there seems to be little to see but gray clouds, flat silvery water and high tides.

Then my attention is drawn to things closer to me – things near my feet.

When was that rock so soft that it squished like that? Or is its smoothness from wave action?

Oh look, there is a rock embedded in that piece of driftwood. How long they have been together? How far have they traveled?

All the while, gentle waves slowly move in and out over the sand, bumping the driftwood and calming my jangled west coast winter nerves.

I become one with the moving water, the stone the wood.

I move closer, crouching. It is here I find my still-point. I find my inner peace within the heavy solitude.

View image in full resolution here.

Okay, we can put our socks and shoes back on now. Yes, that pebble… the one that was caught between your toes – put it in your pocket to remind you.

Sprout Question: When was the last time you were vulnerable and barefoot against the belly of mother earth?

© 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.

Good Luck Creativity

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

View image and purchase of “Arbutus in the Fog”  here.

My partner of many years (and the lovely man who has recently become my husband – December 10, 2009) and I have a banter that goes something like this…

I ask with raised eyebrows and a tone of dismay “how did you ever end up with a wild and crazy woman like me?”

With his eyes snapping, he responds “just lucky I guess.”

The truth is my wildness is not of the usual kind – having mostly to do with my vivid imagination and free spirit. And his “good luck” has mostly to do with acting on his preparedness when the opportunity presented itself. But we shall not be entertaining you with our love story today.

What I want to talk about is good luck and creativity. Some time ago, I read Deepak Chopra’s definition of “good luck” in The Seven Spiritual laws of Success (1994). Every since reading his description, it has embodied much of my perceptual understanding about what constitutes good luck. His exact passage reads:

You can look at every problem you have in your life as an opportunity for some greater benefit. You can stay alert to opportunities by being grounded in the wisdom of uncertainty. When your preparedness meets opportunity, the solution will spontaneously appear. What comes out of that is often called “good luck.” Good luck is nothing but preparedness and opportunity coming together.

So there you have it. Now what does this mean when it comes to our creativity? If we are writing, drawing, painting, taking photographs and enhancing our skills daily we are more likely to be prepared when the opportunity arises. When we have “good luck” by this definition we are overjoyed by the unexpected success that befalls us. This is certainly the case with these two images (one above and one below) that I share with you today. In each of these photos the exact coming together of the elements in the images are not likely to repeat themselves readily. In both cases I was prepared. I had my camera with me on my daily walk. I was watching, searching the beauty and the mundane around me. Then as if by magic the image was there – waiting for me, inviting me to capture it.

View and purchase “Holding the Moon” here.

Sprout Question: What part does “good luck” play 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.

My Art for Haiti

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

As I am catching up, after two days of being off-line due to high winds, I drop in on Martha Marshall’s blog and discover her Art For Haiti post. I must participate. Below are the three images that I will donate 100% of post-production profits until the end of February 2010 to AVAAZ Stand with Haiti. I’m providing my redbubble link for each image for full resolution and purchase of various products including cards, matted and framed prints and canvases.

View “Sandstone Shoreline” (a new image) in full resolution and purchase here.



View “Last of the Season” watercolor image in full resolution and purchase here. More about publishing of “Last Rose” in River Poets Quarterly Journal here.


View full of resolution of “Stand with Haiti” image and purchase here. More about the rose-hip and Stand with Haiti image here.

If you are on twitter, you can help by tweeting “RT @terrillwelch  My Art for Haiti http://bit.ly/77EG0b #art4haiti ” in your update.

In closing, I offer a special thank you to Martha Marshall and her outstanding An Artist’s Journal Blog for this inspiration.

Sprout Question: How has your creativity been useful in contributing to the greater good of others?

© 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.