ORCAS IN EVENING original painting by Terrill Welch

February 4, 2012January 26, 2013 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

I am sure many of you remember my recent “A Whale of a Story” where I was gifted a chance to photograph Killer Whales or Orcas from our Mayne Island shore on one of my recent January photo shoots. If you have a look at that post you will be able to see where I the inspiration for this painting came from.

ORCAS IN EVENING is a 12 x 12 inch oil on gessobord with a 2 inch wood cradle

In many ways this painting was a stretch for me. I seldom paint animals or birds into my paintings of sea or landscapes. This time I wanted to have the Orcas included. It was such thrill to see them like this I just felt “I must!” However, I wanted to do this in a way you could “feel” rather than just “see” the Orcas in their natural environment at sunset. This is why I anchored my work in the quote from Claude Monet and intention from an earlier post “Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive.” I wanted to paint the impression of whales as seen from “the glance.” What do you think? Was I successful?

I also was thrilled to have the chance to paint pinks, oranges and mauve. Though still grounded in the body of cool-blue tones that are our foundation here on the west coast of Canada these “hot colours” are not common in my work. I couldn’t help but think of the paintings of a colleague and artist Lena Levin. You can view her work on her website. Though she has primarily still life work at the moment, she did do a seascape a while back that she felt had been influenced by my work. Now it is my turn to share that this piece was definitely influences by her astounding palette development in these sunset colours. Do check out her Ten A Penny experiment as well. It is an idea I am watching closely. Even though I don’t do a lot of what are called “studies” I really like the concept. Lena is also on G+ HERE if you want to drop by and say “hello” or browse her recent posts.

SPROUT: Who is having a profound influence on your work of late?

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

ROCKS AT SUNRISE original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
REACHING THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

A Rare Sighting on an Ordinary Day

February 3, 2012February 3, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

There is sometimes nothing particularly outstanding about a particular day and yet my shoulders relax and I breathe just a little deeper than usual into the pleasantness of it all. Such a day is this.

Possibly this is what led to a rare sighting of Terrill Welch out on a photo shoot.

Covered in dirt from scrambling for a particular angle on an image and complete with weather-tangled hair, I confirm she was having a good day to hand the camera over to her husband, David Colussi, so he could take this photograph. Besides, she has never claimed to be inclined towards making fashion statements. At a rather round 5′ 3.5″ tall, on a good day, there never seemed to be a need or desired. Now, as for making photographs and paintings that would be a firm yes! 🙂

SPROUT: What is your favour photograph of yourself that seems capture the “real” you?

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

Good morning and happy Friday to you!

A Friday on Mayne Island in January (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
A Wisp of Winter (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Waving at you from Mayne Island with Monet (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Painting the Desperation of Wanting to Stay Alive

January 31, 2012February 1, 2012 / 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.”

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?

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

REACHING THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Seaweed Triptych

January 29, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

I was fascinated to learn that our eyes only see clearly a small area at a time and then the brain translates and stitches the image through memory into a whole view. At times we seem to be fixated on creating photography with overall sharp focus, leaving no room for the eye to rest and the brain to create and complete the image – as it so loves to do.

This triptych plays with the concept of viewing one eye frame at a time.

I may not leave it like this but have an idea about printing it on canvas and using paint to complete the work as mixed media decorative works.

We shall see.

SPROUT: What are you waiting to see?

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

Three Mayne Island photography landscapes go to Vancouver (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
A Good Day By The Sea (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Waving at you from Mayne Island with Monet

January 26, 2012March 28, 2012 / 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.

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

Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Mayne Island Dawn of 2012 (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Studio Tour Tomorrow (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

REACHING THE SEA original oil painting by Terrill Welch

January 25, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

I never really know where a painting will take me. We start together from a humble beginning

and begin to build on those first foundations towards synergistic vision.

I find it is easy to get lost on a large canvas such as this 30 X 40 inch piece — lost in both structure and colour. I put paint markers like mental blazes in place to be able to stay on course. This is a larger colour palette than I usually select. But the painting seemed to be requesting it, so I went along.

Gradually the light and shadow references begin to take shape.

Good! Everything is still nice and loose. Unfortunately, I need to leave it for a few days. I enjoy a couple of details in the underpainting

that I know will eventually disappear.

Days pass and I walk by the painting pondering and anticipating my next chance to settle in for a good long stretch working my brush across its canvas. The time finally comes. I spend the day happily trying to “reach the sea.” But something is off. The painting is struggling and seems to be twisting on the canvas. What is it?

Hum! There that is what it is! Painting seascapes is a little like being a carpenter – measure the horizon line twice and paint once. I was down by half an inch to the left. I will let you in on a little secret. This “down a little on the left” is common for me both in painting and in my photographs. For whatever reason, I will pull down to the left. I am left-handed and see better out of my left eye so this might be part of the issue. But leveling takes care of these things nicely. How many times to I paint the horizon line in a seascape? Many. It is critical to getting the distance or depth in the paint and getting it to “settle” on the canvas. Time to pause for a moment.

There are a few challenging and unusual elements to this painting. First, the focal point is the lower top right third. Most often, we expect the composition to work from details in the foreground to less in the background. This painting is forcing the viewer’s eye past the foreground towards the reflections near the end of the reef. Hence the name of the work “REACHING THE SEA.” Secondly, the sun is in front of us reflecting on the water creating deep shadows and light patterns that are more difficult for me to represent by having my brush following the light. It is a painting that is moving towards the viewer and demands, not asks, that the viewer meet it two-thirds of the way into the frame. That was the painting’s idea. I am usually much more polite.

We are almost there…

The painting has never really tightened up and the layers have built themselves in the generous way of land and sea in perpetual transformation. I have heard many times that green is one of the most difficult colours to mix. The green of seaweed. The brown of sandstone. The diverse blues of the sea. The brightness of the facing the midday sun. The deep shadows of the shoreline. Thank heavens for the light, softness of the sky! … I see a few wayward brushstrokes, maybe a little lighter over here and yes, a little darker over there. Done!

REACHING THE SEA 30 x 40 original oil painting by Terrill Welch

As usual, I need to paint the edges yet before putting it on the market. But very soon. I will just need to make a day of it do nothing but paint edges!

SPROUT: What unusual adventures has your creativity taken you on lately?

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

SEA AND CLOUDS original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Begin 2012 with what you have – oil painting in progress (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Coastal Winter Storm original oil painting by Terrill Welch

January 18, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

This morning as I stepped out in the dark on our side deck to hand grind my morning coffee beans, fine snow brushed my cheeks. It smelt of winter and reminded me of damp wool and hot chocolate.

COASTAL WINTER STORM (12 X 12 inch oil on canvas) is like this.

It is like today on the southern Gulf Islands.

Yesterday’s post “Begin a painting with no punctuation” is the only process image I captured. But here is a detail of the final image so you can better see the loose layering of paint.

The painting still must have its edges painted so is not quite ready for the online gallery ArtsyHome where I am the feature artist this week. (feature has the capacity to leave a comment too – which would be nice if you feel so inclined) But soon. However, you can lay claim to it now if you want. Just send me a direct message and we can work out the details. The price is $550.00 U.S. including shipping.

When I become a really famous artist I will have an assistant who will paint the edges of my paintings, add the picture wire, put them in the inventory program and then package them up to send to buyers. I shall paint and only take a break to make soup and go for long walks with my camera.

I am also a featured member in the Beautiful BC Art redbubble group this week. You may want to drop in and see all the stunning work that is on display by other photographers, including an image by a fellow Mayne Island photographer Toby Snelgrove.

A happy customer posted the arrival of my painting STORM COMING and talks about the dilemma of where to hang the painting so everyone in the family can enjoy it.

So it seems it is a good week to be an artist and I am ever-so-grateful for you company, support and encouragement. Thank you!

SPROUT: What will you hire an assistant to help you with when you become famous?

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

THE SEA TO ME original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SPILLING OVER original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
SEA AND CLOUDS original oil painting by Terrill Welch (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
Begin a painting with no punctuation (creativepotager.wordpress.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.

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

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)

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.

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

Studio Tour Tomorrow (creativepotager.wordpress.com)
PRECIOUS SECONDS – Mayne Island in paintings and photographs (creativepotager.wordpress.com)

Begin 2012 with what you have – oil painting in progress

January 1, 2012 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

I am hoping to get down to the seashore for dawn but the rain has arrived first. So, refusing to be left empty-handed on the first morning of the year, I have decided to share a detail from a painting in progress.