Happy Frog in the Snow

January 21, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

It rained all night and our snow is mostly gone. Now our world is all heavy gray and deep water-soaked browns with a few leftover sad splashes of white. So instead of anything serious this morning I have decided to share this happy frog in the snow I captured on Thursday. I just feel like something light and cheerful to start my Saturday!

I hope it makes you smile and brightens up your day as well. Enjoy!

SPROUT: Where are you finding something to brighten up your day today?

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From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

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A Friday on Mayne Island in January (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
A Wisp of Winter (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

A Friday on Mayne Island in January

January 21, 2012January 21, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

There is still some soggy snow left but the warm dripping of rain is overpowering its January grip on the Mayne Island landscape. High tides meet the surviving remnants on shore.

Even the seagull seems to be hunch over in gloomy resistance.

We leave the bleak sourness of it all and head for home. My old ford pick up, Miss Prissy, rounds the corner on her last climb up Wood Dale drive before ducking down into nowhere. I looked up at the uncompromising cliffs.

(image may be purchased HERE)

I guess it is not all that bad after all. I smile and click my heels before sliding back into the truck.

SPROUT: How long will you hold out to find a bright spot in your day?

Happy Friday and the best of the weekend everyone!

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Meet me at the Salish Sea for Sunrise

January 15, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

I wish I had an easy way to settle us into this early morning adventure but the sun is getting up earlier and we are greeted immediately with a mauve Salish Sea sunrise.

(image may be purchased HERE)

Let’s get Miss Prissy stopped and get that camera out! Quick! We have some photographs to take. Careful though, there is frost and things are a might slippery.

Oh look now! Such a splendid pink.

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The tide is high so we will have to stay on high ground. But it looks like there is just enough room to inch over to a comfy spot there and lean on a large sandstone rock. Ah yes, now the mauve and pink are together.

But it will change quickly again. Well, good morning! For a dawn like this, one must clean up don’t you agree?

(image may be purchased HERE)

And off he goes to test the morning air. Such freedom in this flight at dawn.

(image may be purchased HERE)

Circling around and coming back as if on angel wings.

(image may be purchased HERE)

Breathe in, rest and give thanks for another day with a beautiful dawn on the Salish Sea. Now are you not glad you met me at the Salish Sea for sunrise?

Be sure to join me again tomorrow for a whale of a story.

SPROUT: What gifts of today’s dawn are you thankful for?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SEA AND CLOUDS original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

The Song of Waves

January 13, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

The waves – their energy sings to me as they come to shore. The melodies may change but the music is as recognizable as my favourite band.

Sometimes I just roll with it…

Rock or Sea

Seaweed or Wave

Swish splash!

Sing to me, I say – sing to me!

SPROUT: What sound in nature is as familiar to you as your favourite music?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

The Coast is Clear (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

The Coast is Clear

January 12, 2012January 13, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

The last few days with stretches of sun have seen for many a photo shoot. Over the next few posts I will share the bounty. Today we shall start with a lovely and way to rare opportunity to focus on the B. C. coastal mountains as seen from across the Strait of Georgia on Mayne Island.

When the coast is clear the Mountains command our attention. It is like a huge surprise and hard to believe they have been their shrouded in clouds all along.

Vancouver high-rise buildings are dwarfed at their feet and compressed in the sliver of space between mountain and sea. If I learned how to “stitch” photographs together I could give you this outstanding string of pearly mountain peaks up and down the coast. But we shall just see it in sections today. Here a Freighter comes into view. This is something that is common for the Strait of Georgia as they head for the Vancouver harbour.

I tried out another black and white for the next image as I find the neutral tones more satisfying in being able to focus on the mountains.

Still, it is a struggle and I am not completely happy with the results yet. More learning is necessary I think. These grand beasts deserve the best I can give them. However, I enjoy this view of Mount Baker. Her soft profile now graces the background on my computer.

SEED: How does a photographer best capture mountains? This is my learning curve question at the moment. It is not as easy as one might think and I have not got what I am seeking in a photograph yet. So I went on a search and found this great article in the Landscape Photography Magazine by Darwin Wiggett “How to Photograph Mountains”

SPROUT: Where is your inner soft mountain grandness showing up today?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Abstract Sensing (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
West Coast Shore Photo-study (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Galiano Island looks to the Strait of Georgia

January 10, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Today we have sun. It is a day very much like this one in February 2008 when I first got my Canon EOS 40D. The rain and heavy clouds and fog had us visually grounded for days and then here was the sun. Just like today.

So you won’t see much of me over the next few hours. I have plans for a long walk, traveling light and enjoying the crisp coolness of a “cold sea destination” as a consultant recently describe our location.

May your day unfold as you wish!

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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

Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Winter fishery on B.C. coast may put herring stocks at risk, scientists say (canada.com)
10 Extremely Useful DSLR Camera Lenses (inspiredm.com)

For the Love of Brown-Eyed Susan

January 9, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

The gray and rain of January give a person a chill that can only be warmed by thinking of summer while sipping a hot cup of mint tea. This and a photograph of a clump of Brown-Eyed Susan taken during my August trip to Saturna Island are providing a zing to my Monday.

These beauties were in the lush garden of the Saturna Lodge B&B.

SPROUT: What are you doing to warm-up from the winter chills?

P.S. MY original oil painting STORM COMING is on its way to a new home in Ohio today. I will miss it but I know it is going to a very good home.

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Saturna Island in September (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Abstract Sensing

January 6, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Sometimes nature delivers the finest abstract compositions such as yesterday late in the afternoon at Georgina Point on Mayne Island. We only had a few moments of sun but they were a nice reprieve from the gray and rain of west coast winter. I was glad I was there, camera-at-the-ready, to take this photograph.

Good morning, happy Friday and the best of the weekend to you!

SPROUT: What natural abstract composition has recently caught your attention?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Terrill Welch online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com

PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Singing Seas with Tafoni Rhythmic Response

January 3, 2012January 3, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

The musical voice of the sea is forever calling me to its shores. Sandstone, washed and shaped by the tidal chorus, seems to hold the notes of the sea in rhythmic response. The small holes in the stones are called “tafoni” – such a beautiful smiling kind of word.

(image is available for purchase HERE)

SPROUT: What are you listening to singing its sweet natural song today?

SEED: Have you ever wondered about what makes these fascinating holes in the sandstone and other rock formations? They can be found in many places in the world not just here on the southwest Coast of Canada. I didn’t the formation of the holes had a name until quite recently. I am not sure if it has been decided just exactly how or why the holes exist in the patterns that they do. Here is a link to a lengthy explanation by Nick Doe http://www.nickdoe.ca/pdfs/Webp26c.pdf Whatever the reason or the means by which the rocks are as they are – I love them!

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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

Oh How the Sea Calls to Me (sincitygirl73.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver

January 2, 2012January 3, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

The year of 2012 has started out on a high note here at la casa de inspiracion. A new collector of my work will shortly be receiving three extra-large approximately 20 X 28 inch photography canvas prints to complete the remodeling of her home in Vancouver. Shall we have a look to see what she has chosen for her walls? Yes? I though you might say that.

MIST

(image is available for purchase Here)

ARBUTUS STRAIT OF GEORGIA

(image is available for purchase Here)

and the ever popular…

TRAVELING INTO THE MIST

(image is available for purchase Here)

SPROUT: If you could collect anything you wanted what would it be?

SEED: Have you ever wondered how I define “a collector of my work?” It is someone who has three or more pieces of my Fine Art. It could be three or more photography prints or three or more original paintings or a combination of both. Here is a link that I recently wrote for my Google Plus – Terrill Welch Fine Art page about buying an original painting https://plus.google.com/115927302973552189234/posts/aVAcdo661WE The same advice holds to be equally true for photography Fine Art. In addition, I would like to suggest this fantastic article by art consultant, advisor, author, and independent appraiser, Alan Bamberger, “How to Collect Art Like a Pro – Building a Collection.” It is like an advance course in learning how to buy what you love.

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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