underpainting

WATCHING original oil painting of a cougar by Sue Wiebe

/ Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

I have a treat for us today with a feature post and a painting by another artist. I hope you enjoy the adventure.

Do you ever get that feeling that you are being watched? Then you turn around, slowly, and sure enough you are being stalked? In this case, artist Sue Wiebe’s daughter, Courtney, found that it was a cougar and was able to take a photograph of it that Sue used as a reference for her original oil painting WATCHING.

Fortunately for us, Sue took some photographs of her painting in progress. We will start with a look at the underpainting.

Next we see the painting building and coming alive.

In the finished work it feels like the cougar is ready to spring from her hiding spot under the edge of the log – those ears slightly flattened, attentive, watching.

WATCHING 20 X 30 inch original oil painting by Sue Wiebe.

I asked Sue if she could tell us about her experience of painting this incredible painting:

It is the biggest oil on canvas I have done so far.  It taught me to painting standing up so I had a better range of motion.  But the truth of the matter is, I think, the name says it all.  The cougar watched me through the whole painting.  I would set her aside, sometimes for long periods of time, as other aspects in life needed to be attended to or I puzzled over achieving the effect I wanted, but she was always watching and waiting.  Sometimes, even demanding, that I take the time to finish.  She is finished, and yet, she watches.

If you remember from time to time over the winter Sue would comment on Creative Potager about the hours it was taking to paint fur. Well now you know the rest of the story.

Sue has been featured on Creative Potager in the past but for those of you who didn’t know she is my sister. Painting is something that we share with equal passion. On Friday I have two more of her paintings that I will post for you to see. They are a still life with the most stunning shades of orange AUTUMN BOUNTY and a limited palette painting called COURTNEY IN THE MOONLIGHT.

Sprout question: What is a creative passion you share with a sibling or other family member?

STUDY OF BLUE  solo exhibition opens Thursday June 27, 2011.

© 2011 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.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

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

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Story of the HENDERSON HILL Original Oil Painting

/ Terrill Welch / 37 Comments

Have you every had that feeling where you know you have made a mess of something and there is nothing you can do but start over again? My painting of HENDERSON HILL has come out of such an experience.

The beginning started reasonably well. I had decided to do my underpainting in blues so I could paint on it wet.

The elements of the composition settled into place without much trouble.

I continued to paint, working happily away until…

It was a mess. I poked and dabbed and added and moved the paint around on the board. It did no good. The painting appeared to be resisting my best efforts. There was nothing left to do. I scraped.

But the idea for this painting still intrigued me. I waited. This past Saturday, ten days after my first attempt, I try again. It needs some finishing touches but I believe it will make a painting.

Yesterday, I finished it.

(prints available of this image here)

HENDERSON HILL 20 X 16 inch original water miscible impressionist oil painting on gessobord with 2 inch birch cradle by Terrill Welch.

This painting will be part of my upcoming solo exhibition “STUDY OF BLUE” opening June 30, 2011 at the Oceanwood Resort onMayneIsland. The painting is currently priced at $900 Canadian. Please contact me directly at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca if you would like to hang this lovely on your wall.

Sprout question: When was the last time you walked away from a creative mess?

UPDATE May 15, 2011:

Every once in awhile a special connection is made between a painting and another creative being. In this case it is with poet and more, Bat-Ami Gordin

Henderson Hill

On Henderson Hill any time of the year
  the branches arabesque in the breeze.
Birds boldly appear, on the tips of twigs
  that smear into clouds from the trees.
As a doe grazes calmly with her twins,
  the heavens and sky, seem to  freeze.
Prepare your mind to paint serenity;
  equanimity pacifies enduring unease.

© 2011 Bat-Ami Gordin, All rights reserved.

Posted with permission. You may have notice her poem posted in the comments below but I decided it needed to also be places up here next to the painting. Thank you so much Bat-Ami Gordin! It is an honour to connect in such a collaborative way.

This week is jammed! There is voting on Monday and going to pick up the truck. Dentist appointments on Tuesday and a full day of meetings and commitments on Wednesday. I shall be able to get back into the studio on Thursday IF I am lucky. Who knows what I will have to share on Friday. We shall just have to wait and see. Have a wonderful week everyone.

© 2011 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.

FromMayne Island,British Columbia,Canada

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

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Be Patient

/ Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

Can you remember a parent or grandparent saying “Be patient!?”

Well this is what I told myself this morning. I am so close to finishing the last original oil paintings for my solo exhibition STUDY OF BLUE opening June 30, 2011 at the Oceanwood Resort on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. Two of their luxury rooms are already booked with guests who are planning on coming to see my paintings. One painting has sold as part of the pre-sales offered. Images of thirteen of these paintings are now in a folder on flickr in preparation for their journey to be posted in the Art of Day online gallery.

Would you agree that this is a fine start? So why am I be asking myself to be patient.

I have two paintings to complete to reach my self-imposed fifteen minimum for the show. I wanted to complete them this week. I have no particularly good reason for wanting them done this week other than I am so very close to finishing. This nearing-the-end-of-a-big-project is always a critical time for me. Starting with three “seed paintings” I have been holding the energetic space for this creative process since November of last year. I have set aside my photography to focus on my impressionist painting. I have said “no” too many things as make room for this one priority. There is an energy that builds around this kind of step by step flowing determination to reach a goal. It is like seeing the last 2 km marker when running a marathon. We know we are going to make it to the finish line but we must hold our focus for a strong finish.

This is where I am at. I have the underpainting reading on a 24 x 36 inch cotton canvas.

And I have a bit of a mess I have scraped and started again on a 16 x 20 inch birch framed gessobord.

I went to sleep with the intention of rushing flip-flopping to the finish line today. But instead, when I awoke, I told myself “be patient and finish strong.” So instead of picking up my brush, I looked at the calendar. Tomorrow is Good Friday and it is Earth Day.

It is the beginning of a four-day weekend with one more week in the month of April. I have time. I can finish these last two paintings at a moderate and inspired pace. I can finish strong. Afterall, they are not my last paintings – just the last two on this leg of my artist’s journey. The solo exhibition is an arbitrary self-defined finish line. I am about three weeks ahead of schedule. I shall be patient.

Sprout question: When was the last time you needed to be creatively patient?

Note: The next Creative Potager post will be on Tuesday instead of Monday due to the long weekend. Have a most pleasant and enjoyable Easter Weekend.

© 2011 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

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

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FIR TREE original oil paintings by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

This week my hard drive crashed and it is not recoverable. Fortunately, most things were backed up and my photographs were on an external hard drive and most of them are backed up again on flash drives. I lost a few images but not many. Lucky! However, I did lose all my newer email addresses so if you have exchanged emails with me in the past year, and would like to continue to be in touch, drop a line and I will add you to my address book.  Somehow this all seems to be less of an issue now that we have facebook, twitter and such. I might even be persuaded to pick up the phone 🙂

I plan to write a more about this experience on Monday in a post called “impermanence.”

Now, let’s have a look at this week’s painting. I started out just going to paint a few edges but these two small canvases had a ground on them and were sitting beside the easel. Well I looked at the edges of another painting and I looked back at the two canvases. The 8 X 8 inch pair just had to be done.

I knew what I wanted to paint. We have been getting a lot of evening sun here with glorious gold light hitting the trees just before it leaves us for dusk.

Starting from “ground.”

A ground is different from a underpainting even though it may be the same colour. With a ground there is just a layer of paint that is put down with no intended painting blocked in or even in mind. Yes, I dislike wasting paint so these canvases were just too close to the last underpainting I was doing and they were grounded 😉

The painting took shape quickly.

I didn’t stop again until close to finishing.

When hung, the two paintings would be separated by a couple inches – I think, maybe more. Or they could be hung like this ….

This side by side is possibly my favourite.

Here they are trimmed up pretty with no distractions.

FIR TREE SKY original oil painting by Terrill Welch

FIR TREE POND original oil painting by Terrill Welch

I haven’t had a chance to decide if I will sell them separately or only as a pair. What do you think? Should they be kept together or be allowed to go into the world separately and be a surprise to some unsuspecting buyer that there is another half to their painting?

These paintings will be part of my upcoming solo show “Study of Blue” opening June 30, 2011 at the Oceanwood Resort here on Mayne Island.

UPDATE: FIR TREE SKY has been SOLD at the opening on June 30, 2011. FIR TREE POND has been SOLD to a separate buyer at the close of the show on July 27, 2011.

Sprout question: What keeps you rolling through unexpected events with ease?

© 2011 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

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

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SALISH SEA 4 original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

I am introducing the painting process of SALISH SEA 4 with a quote from Elizabeth Rosner’s book Blue Nude published in 2006:

It was what he admired about Bonnard, or at least what he loved about the famous stories in which Bonnard was applying paint to works already hanging in other people’s houses. Something about never letting go, always feeling there was one more stroke to be added, one more note of the Unfinished Symphony. As if even death wouldn’t be the ultimate form of completion but just another stop along the way.

(p. 58)

The underpainting that is the foundation of this 24 X 48 inch canvas was included in Monday’s post “The Breath of Stones.” There are 10 images in today’s post capturing the beginning to end… if there is one… of creating SALISH SEA 4. I will make an effort to be brief but there seems to be much to say.

They are a little hard to see but the top right paints are French Ultramarine blue and Viridian. These two colours will play prominently in the development of today’s painting. I sometimes use my own photographs for painting reference but I am not known to “paint” a photograph. I often take several reference images for paintings — similar to how artists used to sketch and then use these as reference for developing a painting when they got back to the studio. Though sometimes a painting may be close to the reference image, the photographs are meant to influence and guide but to not to be copied. Otherwise, I might as well keep the photograph and print it on canvas …. and sometimes I do just that!

Are you ready? She’s a bit bright but here we go …

A gray beginning and it doesn’t look like much yet.

I am using mostly a 2 inch brush here. My aim is to keep the painting loose and flowing. The small palette knife you see there is just being used for mixing. Now to add a little teal blue.

Working for a long while and equally using a #10 brush, along with my 2 inch brush,  I get basic elements of the painting in place.

A part of me wanted to pause right here and not go any further. But after a break I decided to keep working.

Picking up the large 2 inch brush again I whisk paint onto the canvas in big strokes. The sea is rolling in and I am riding each wave. If you remember my challenge was to bring the viewer into the painting from the top left and move their eye forward and down to the bottom right. See at the end if you think I have succeeded.

I have started working with three different large palette knives to build up selected texture. Then I add some highlights but the painting is saturated. There is a glare from bright sunlight and my body and being are tired.

It is time to stop – for now.

Over the next two days I spend a few hours adding a stroke here and there. I brighten up areas that have become muted from painting wet on wet. Mostly, I observe, feel, breathe and let it be.

Then on Thursday morning I started in early painting and had it finished in a couple of hours.

Well, almost… I think!

SALISH SEA 4, a 24 X 48 inch cotton canvas original oil painting by Terrill Welch. This painting will be shown as part of solo summer exhibition opening at the end of June. If you are interested in purchasing in advance of the show please contact me directly via email at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca .

This is one painting dear readers, that I suspect more than one of you will be completely enamored with an earlier version. But that is how it goes when you are privy to the creative process of a painter.

I dedicate this painting to French Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) who also favoured using violet in some of his painting.

SALISH SEA 4 is definitely another stop along my way.

Sprout question: How is your creativity just another stop along the way?

Happy April fools day and best of the weekend to you!

News Flash: Introducing Terrill Welch’s Online Gallery at http://terrillwelchartist.com (okay it is a small flash… there is still a lot of inventory to enter but it would be great to hear what you think)

© 2011 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 Breath of Stones

/ Terrill Welch / 30 Comments

Stones find their way into pockets, onto windowsills, or making a path in the garden. They hold my gaze when their weathered washed shapes appear in clusters. It could be a stream, lake shore or the ocean. I feel a deep resonance to their various sizes, colours and textures.

This week my underpaintings are ready for completion. I have the larger 24 X 48 inch and two smaller 8 X 8 inch. Maybe the little ones shall be paintings of stones – the patterns and how the earth breathes through their presences.

 

Sprout question: Where might we find your most inspiring stones?

 

© 2011 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

 

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When the Sun Comes Out

/ Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

First, thank you everyone who zipped, shone light, sent energy and prayers to Josie this week. I believed she has turned the corner and is on the mend. Whaaaahoooo!

The week started out with much reorganizing to make room to paint my 24 X 48 inch cotton canvas.

The composition has been adjusted somewhat but the reference photograph you see of  “stones throw” with the canvas is the one I am using for this next painting. There will be much less sky for sure. It will be challenge because the movement is from the far outer top left moving forward across the canvas to the near bottom right – towards the viewer. I am excited to see if I can make it work.

Then something happened. There was this unusual yellow glow in the sky on Tuesday morning. I was pretty sure it was the sun but I couldn’t be positive because that brilliant addition overhead hadn’t been seen in these parts for quite some time. Well, nothing would do but we had to go down to the beach and check it out. On the way we stopped to check out the field of daffodils.

They were almost open but if we check back to last year on March 11th they were already in full flower long before this time last year. However, they are coming along just the same. This sun will certainly help.

Now let’s go to the beach. Wow! The tide is way out.

David went to stroll along the shore while I clambered over the sandstone reef. I found some beautiful barnacles, mussels and snails.

(the image “BARNACLES, MUSSELS AND SNAILS” may be purchased here.)

I liked this image so much it is my desktop background right now. There were lots of oysters too but I didn’t photograph them – muddy gray looking critters.

I can never get enough of the contrast of sandstone and blue sky. Sigh!

But this is show stopper for me. I was just sitting on the rocks relaxing before heading home when I turned my head back to the sea and this is what I saw…

(the image “VESSEL” may be purchased here.)

The natural abstract beauty had me exclaiming “Yes!” before I could even get my camera out of its case. Martha Marshall this one was captured because of you and your consistent influence on my understanding of abstract design. Thank you!

I did finally get back to my canvas and the underpainting is now ready for a good run of painting next week.

Have a great weekend and I hope you find some sun!

Sprout question: What is the most outrageous creative adventure you have ever blamed on the sun?

© 2011 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

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HEAVY CLOUD original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

I remember being asked one time to paint a scary monster. It was a class exercise to get us out of the habit of creating beautiful paintings. I had a horrible time. I painted a dragon-type monster. The instructor laughed a deep belly laughed and told me it was a great monster but would not likely scare anyone. I think my painting “HEAVY CLOUD” has also suffered from my optimistic nature. It is obviously heavy cloud but not very dreary.

Let’s have a look…

Starting with the underpainting you saw on Monday I began building up the painting.

It isn’t really making a lot of sense yet but feels good so I keep going.

Then I painted for a long while. I left it to rest overnight and I did a few minor edits. I believe it is done. But I reserve the right to change my mind.

HEAVY CLOUD 10X12 by 1.5 inches, cotton canvas original oil painting by Terrill Welch

This painting will be shown as part of solo summer exhibition opening at the end of June. If you are interested in purchasing in advance of the show please contact me directly via email at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca . The price of this work is $420 Canadian unframed.

I most often see a little light coming in from somewhere no matter how gray it gets. There is just a touch of sun catching the sky above the mountains and it is coming to rest on the tips of just a few of the great coastal peaks so we are sure not to miss it. It seems to be saying – tomorrow is another day.

Have a great weekend!

Sprout question: What creatively allows you to express dreariness, gloominess or your darker side?

 

© 2011 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

 

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Impression of an Artist

/ Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

Week after week I visit myself on the canvas of a painting, through the frame of an image or between the words of a paragraph. Do these impressions provide any further insight into my being and my interpretation of my world?

I like to think they do. I like to believe that these creative endeavors cast at least a shadow of truth on what I often think of as my core essence – that part of me that isn’t body or earth-bound in this life time. But is this really a possible truth?

As the paint is chosen, mixed and applied without thought, I like to believe there is a subconscious part of me that knows what it is doing. But maybe it is all accidental fragments of my conscious mind colliding with the paint, the canvas and the movement of my brush.

I am doing a study of blue – a series on the shades of blue. What I am discovering is that blue is more than a colour. Blue is a spiritual void for reflection… as I paint the sea… the shadows of the trees… or the sky. If I had known how wide this void would open up, would I have committed to the series?

Ah, no point in musing about what might have been.

This week I have one 10 X 12 inch cotton canvas underpainting ready for completion. In my imagination the heavy clouds press down with formidable force over the dark seas. May I be able to hold this moment long enough to reach in and pull out something that is the essence of me, of you and of the very world itself.

Sprout question: What impression best describes your creative self?

© 2011 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

Salish Sea 3 original oil painting by Terrill Welch

/ Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

From start to finish a painting often has many pauses. Salish Sea 3 is a prime example as this small 8 X 10 inch seascape oil painting took two weeks from start to finish – mostly “resting.”

I begin as usual by working the underpainting.

In this series of paintings I have been inspired to paint the sky first and work into the picture from this vantage point. This isn’t a usual approach from me but it is what has been happening for the past two paintings. So we will go with it.

Next I start building up the blues.

As I continue to work a context is created for the painting to begin to breathe on its own.

Sorry about the bad photograph. I was having trouble with some glare from the light coming through the window of  the studio. Note to self: holding a painting and photographing it is not a useful strategy to resolve glare.

I begin to find my way into the painting – it is like running your hands over your bedding in the half-light of early dawn. You know where you are but there isn’t enough light to see beyond a few vague familiar shadows.

This is most often the place I pause. There is an excitement that rises from my bones and spreads up to the hairs on top of my head. I watch and wait sometimes only for a moment, sometimes stopping for tea and sometimes stopping until the paint dries. Today it was only long enough for tea. I wanted to work in the waves wet on wet.

Now it is time for a rest. It is a rest that last for nine days. I puzzle and muse. I move the painting around to different locations. I sleep on it. I glower at it. The painting is “okay… I guess” but it doesn’t have the SNAP I would like it to have. Finally, I decide what it is and what I need to do. A couple of small changes really. I will leave you to discover them if you choose. Or you can simply enjoy the finished work.

Salish Sea 3,  8 X 10 inch cotton canvas  original oil painting by Terrill Welch.

This painting will be shown as part of solo summer exhibition opening at the end of June. If you are interested in purchasing in advance of the show please contact me directly via email at tawelch AT shaw DOT ca . The price of this work is $280 Canadian unframed.

As for my other intentions, I started another underpainting but the taxes and tune up for Miss Prissy had to be rescheduled for next week. As my father would say “it’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.”

But this is far too light-hearted as I pause for a moment send light to Japan and all areas experiencing the impact of the 8.9 quake and tsunami. This post was written before I heard the news last night on twitter about an hour after the earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan.

Sprout question: Where might your creativity need a pause?

© 2011 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