rocks and mussels

April 12, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 20 Comments

"rocks and mussels" oil painting by Terrill Welch

11X14 by 1.5 inches water miscible oil painting.

View full resolution image here.

“rocks and mussels” is inspired by a piece of remote the beach at Point No Point on south western Vancouver Island. It is a rugged area close to the end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and open sea. The rocks are of mixed texture and form. Some are large hard slate black stones rubbed smoothed from the surf and others are smaller, rounded and warm ochre and cream in colour. Seaweed seems to drape themselves over either. Though the when you look closely mussels appear to like the darker rocks. But since they are sometimes clustered together it is often hard to tell.

I have been coming to this area for over twenty years, sometimes for lunch and a stroll through the trails and other times to stay for a few days in one of the cabins. The last time I was there was in December 2009 for our honeymoon.

I had set a challenge when painting this piece to be able to paint the darker seaweed on top of the lighter rocks. However when I look closely, the light was the dark seaweed just at the crest of the rocks. Which made much more sense to me but the painting was still very challenging. I wanted us to feel like we were the sea about to wash over the mussels, the rocks and the seaweed. I also came to understand that the rocks are often washed away from the bottom quicker than the top as the sea pushes its way over the sand and withdraws back into itself. This leaves the stones with overhangs where there is no sand and the shadows seep in.

At some point this painting took on a life of its own and became separate from my reference images and slide down a path that was more about remembering how it felt, the smell of seaweed, the salt air, and the roar of the surf on distant rocks with the sun on my back lifting the mist off the trees on the bank above me.

Sprout Question: Have you ever discovered something different than what you thought you knew while creating?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

More Painting

April 8, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Power outage lends itself to another day painting

We had another power outage (due to winds knocking over a huge arbutus tree on Village Bay road at 1:40 am). I awake at 7:00 am. The power is still out. I decide to see if I can find a coffee before doing anything else. Ah yes! The bakery is serving coffee using generator power. Armed with to-go thermos cups filled with black gold, I return home and prepare our usual fruit, yogurt and grain cereal for breakfast. With few alternatives, I settle on my favourite activity of the moment – painting.

The wild underpainting had dried on my 18X24 by 2 inch canvas.

I go to work. At one o’clock this afternoon the power comes on again and I am ready to take a break and share the progress with you.

There is more to do but it is a good start.

Sprout Question: What is your creative activity of choice when the power goes out?

Note: My apologies for being late with today’s post but you will have to take it up with the wind and the arbutus tree… they have let me know they are taking full responsibility for the delay.

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

Sacred Rock

April 6, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 31 Comments

Did you have a nice holiday? Mine turned out very different from planned as a lengthy wind storm came up Thursday night and didn’t end until Friday evening. It took the power out for a day and a half which meant I didn’t go to Vancouver. Instead, I stayed on Mayne Island, cooked on the wood cook stove outside and kept a fire going in the outdoor fireplace for extra warmth.

Though I was terribly disappointed not to see my grandson other good things happened instead. My partner’s daughter came for overnight and we had an awesome visit and on Monday I worked on my paintings and went down to the beach to visit a sacred rock.

How do I know it is a sacred rock? Well I don’t really. It just captured my imagination and every so often I go and visit and see it if is still there. The rock is likely a little less than three feet wide and maybe two feet high. It doesn’t look like any other neighbouring rocks but is sandstone and possibly something else. So let’s have a closer look together shall we?

Isn’t it a beauty? So solid. So many interesting markings.

And the surface… what a design.

Close to the bottom the barnacles and little hats attach themselves.

Now I trust you can see why every so often I come down and have a visit sitting beside this sacred rock, admiring its beauty and looking out to sea. We have become good friends over the three years I have lived on Mayne Island.

I know that someday the sea will have battered drift wood against it long enough to wear it away. Or someone will have found an ingenious way of moving it to their country garden. But for now, it is a sacred rock on a beach in the southern gulf islands off the west coast of Canada.

Sprout Question: Has a place or thing ever inspired your imagination?

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

Early Easter

April 1, 2010April 1, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 27 Comments

Looking at that big sky I am reminded that today is the last Creative Potager post until the morning of Tuesday April 6, 2010. Early Happy Easter to you as we take one last quiet stroll before departing to family and friends.

Bull kelp rests where it was thrown during a high tide, its long tail reaching back into the sea. Bull kelp has been the inspiration for many a child who spies it on the shore. It is an annual and can grow 80 feet long in one season with leaves up to 10 feet long. They grow together creating an underwater forest.

Spring has arrived to the shoreline…

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Here is my personal favourite view looking down on the grape hyacinths, iris stocks and snapdragons growing next to the shore.

But mostly I want to share with you one of my favourite arbutus tree….

View and purchase full resolution image here.

If you look way across the Straight of Georgia that is where Vancouver, B.C. is, just below the cloud covered mountains. On Saturday afternoon, I will be waving back to you from there.

Sprout Question: How do holidays fit with your creativity?

All the best of the Easter holiday weekend to you.

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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

The Question of Who

March 26, 2010March 28, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

The sea snatches at sandstone mounds as gulls plead their case with the winds – which am I, sea, sandstone, gull or wind?

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Early morning – Flexible and Flowing… one of 64 cards drawn for today.

I can say more but this feels just right.

Sprout Question: Does the question of who come up in your creativity?

Have a wonderful weekend.

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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

What are you waiting for?

March 15, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

Brave the unknown…
Quick whistle of shore birds…. longer notes of an eagle in solo flight over head… waves cresting – moment by moment…

Rush, swish, rise and fall – connecting in a dance – moment by moment

Crisp dusk moves swiftly, heading off the last of today’s sun – moment by moment.

Cedars lose themselves in shadow yet remain unyielding in their whispered fragrance – moment by moment.

Last light is often the light most cherished. May darkness wrap you in a warm blanket of possibility,

as moonlight serenades the sea…

I have come to trust and know that nothing stays the same. We are all in our physical existence for but a split second of eternal time.

Sprout Question: What are you waiting for?

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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

Walk by the Sea

March 12, 2010March 12, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

I never tire of walking trail along the sea. I hope you are not yet tired of my images from these walks. The photos today are from a walk that you won’t find on any map. The walk is only known by locals. It is on private land and permission is granted at your own risk. It is a privilege and a honour that I do not take for granted. So I am not going to tell you exactly where this is on Mayne Island. If you know, smile wisely and enjoy the photo essay along with everyone else.

Come with me….

The trail is rugged in places. I often stop to be able to look up from placing my feet carefully between tree roots and sandstone sticking up on the rough trail. In the next few years, you won’t see many photos like this one where to show the trail in the deep shadows, the sea and sky over exposed. We will all know how to do HDR... but when we look in real time we must choose what we can see at one time… so I have also chosen in this photograhy.

As I walk, a sea lion surfaces off the shore. I know it is there because when it breathes I can feel it on the back of my neck. I look. There she is. I do not try to take photos as past experience tells me, my lens won’t reach. She rolls up to the surface. Breathes. Then rolls her long sleek body over and down she goes, surfacing again many yards ahead of me. I don’t see her the next time she surfaces.

About 45 minutes later I make my way to the point.

The sandstone is warm from the sun. I sit and wonder at the beauty of its shape.

Looking over on the other side I catch a wave coming in.

And then I think I know…

High tides and winter storms have carved out such a place where I now admire its beauty.

I don’t want to go. I want to stay and be part of the sandstone and then part of the sea, then part of the sandstone… until day becomes night and night day and time has no relevance.

I do go though. I am not sure what makes me leave, but I do.

Two hours later, I am putting the key back into the ignition. I go home. I make lunch. I leave these images in my mind until last night… or rather early this morning as I was still editing at 1:00 am. Now I have savoured them long enough… I can now share them with you.

Sprout Question: If you could do only one more creative of work in your life time – what would you do?

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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

Baby Lambs

February 26, 2010February 26, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 48 Comments

On this early Friday morning of west coast rain, I first want to thank the many faithful readers and sprout question responders of Creative Potager. This new blog began on December 27, 2009 with “A Gown Remembered: A beginning.” Today’s submission makes 45 posts with 442 comments and 3,342 views. Thank you. Your engagement, encouragement, humour and insights are an integral part of what makes for an excellent creative potager.

I must be off to a writing group this morning. The underpainting is still drying on my oil canvas and it is Friday on the last Friday in February. I thought I would share a series of photos from my visit to Meadowmist Farm to see the sheep with their new lambs yesterday. The babies always make me laugh with their curious leaping and bouncing around.

Mama keeps an eye out as we wander around the yard looking at the babies.

Here is Fat and Sassy running across the top of the knoll beside us.

Now what are these three up to? They have mischief written all over them as the scuttle across the lawn.

Ah yes – a game of “let’s chase the cat.” Bridget Joyce’s lovely farm dog watches on to make sure nothing gets out of hand.

And finally, I take a first family portrait.

Thank you Joyce Kallweit for a delightful meander with this seasons new baby lambs. The best of the weekend everyone.

Sprout Question: How do you play or have fun when taking a break from creating?

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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

Sandstone

February 24, 2010February 24, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

There is nothing more intriguing to my imagination than southern gulf island sandstone. The wearing and washing of the sea along island shorelines creates a beauty that is hard to replicate. With its abundance and ease to work with, sandstone is used for everything from walkways, front step, garden beds, to cob wall foundations. Our home, along with many others on the west coast, make practical use of this local natural material.

Yet, it is the sea that has the most talent in sculpturing this soft stone as shown in these photographs from East Point on Saturna Island.

View and purchase full resolution images here.

Sprout Question: What natural substance has draped you with creative possibilities?

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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

Redefining Underpainting

January 12, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

View image in full resolution here.

In focusing on creativity as a main adventure in my day, I am facing an internal struggle with what is “true creativity” in my creative process. Technology allows me to create in new ways I couldn’t have imagined ten years ago. In this process, I want to redefine “underpainting” to include the first selected and chosen photographic image.

This takes me to my passion for the concept of “underpainting” which I tend to use even when painting with watercolours. What has got me musing, and experimenting, is the technological advances that allow me to start with an image I’ve captured in a digital photograph and then begin “overpainting” until it is rendered as an oil painting or ink sketch in further digital applications.

( I’m not a photoshop artist nor have I yet ventured in the direction of actual layering images to gain a photograph that gives me a desired finished product. I may at some point – but it has not come to that yet.)

This is my question to self: “Is the finished work (which I am pleased with) having begun with a photographic “underpainting” and resulting in an oil or ink “overpainting” while never picking up a brush or hand-mixing a colour a legitimate creative process?”

Here is another example where I am equally satisfied with the “overpainting” and the original photographic “underpainting.”