winter

Winter Solstice Reflections

/ Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

Still congested with a winter cold, I rest against the soft light of the shortest day of the year. Having canceled any interruptions, I am free to climb under the warmth of the down duvet on the day bed in the loft studio – to think about not much at all. Ideas and thoughts drift, rollover and crumble into yet smaller fragments. An older small painting surfaces and clings to the edges of fickle concentration.

And then the end of a poem by Mary Oliver…

thank you
old daintiest,
dark wreckage,
coins of the sea
in my pockets
and plenty for the gulls
and the wind still pounding
and the sea still streaming in like a mother wild with gifts –
in this world I am as rich
as I need to be.

~ from “Winter” p. 52-53 in New And Selected Poems Volume One, 1992, Beacon Press.

The oil painting is “Receding Tide Reef Bay” 9 X 12 inches and is one of a very few small oil on canvas I have left.

Happy Winter Solstice! May we embrace the quiet light of the shortest day of year for the gift that it is.

What are your reflections about winter solstice today?

 

© 2017 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

A Quieter Time

/ Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

For much of the year,  I thrive on a creative rhythm of quick short inhales with repeated exhales of joy and possibility in our ordinary day. Blogs are posted weekly. Classes are taught spring and fall. Solo art shows are proposed and curated. Requested application deadlines are met for the following year. I take us on hikes, painting trips, studio views of work in progress and this year into the new gallery. Then it is November. The days are short. Winter storms arrive. My internal rhythm shifts. The inhales are longer, deeper and the exhales reveal little to outside world until early spring. This is my restorative time. Social media posts become sparse. I always announce that I am taking a break during this time. I am not though. Not really.

Road to Everyday – 36 X 24 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch (available)

What I am doing is diving deep into my own creative well and wandering the trails, reading books, visiting with friends and neighbours and, with few interruptions, covering canvases with paint! This time of year I need this just as the rest of the year there is a steady flow of engagement outward. I know and trust we will all be better for it. Or, at least I will.

So, just so you know, posts of all sorts will be unscheduled from now until early in the new year. They will still happen but on my internal whim rather than a schedule.

What does your winter schedule look like?

© 2017 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Creative Potager – Visit with painter and photographer Terrill Welch

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

For gallery and purchase information about Terrill’s photographs and paintings go to http://terrillwelchartist.com

 

Happy Frog in the Snow

/ 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? 

 

© 2012 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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A Friday on Mayne Island in January

/ 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!

© 2012 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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Mayne Island Japanese Garden Dressed in Winter

/ Terrill Welch / 12 Comments

This morning is -4 Celsius or 24.8 degrees Fahrenheit here on Mayne Island. On the west coast this is chilly. We have a damp cold that seeps right into your bones without stopping to slow down much even for your woolies. There are still a couple of inches of snow left in the yard and the winter birds are thankful for the full bird feeder. Our hot water in-floor heating has a hard time keeping up when it gets below freezing outside. The Floors are beautifully warm but not much heat is rising to the loft. I have turned on the oven with the door open for a bit to circulate some heat up to the studio. A few more flakes of white stuff are expected over the next couple of days.

Now that we have dispensed with the weather report let’s have a look at some of the photographs of the Japanese Garden dressed in winter.

You may remember this image from “A Search for Colour…”

Winter has its grace with this beauty caught still dressed in her fall finery.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

The garden pond is partly frozen obscuring some to the reflections.

There is a peace which settles deeply when we drink in this snow-covered garden’s quiet.

The bridge seems to beautiful to disturb by walking across its whiteness.

Now stepping back and having a gaze at the whole picture… I hope you are smiling.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

May you be warm.

Sprout question: What makes you feel warmest when you get really cold?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

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Mayne Island in November Snow

/ Terrill Welch / 17 Comments

Here I am with a Creative Potager bonus post today. I am blaming it on the snow. Big flakes started rolling past our large picture window looking out over the valley at dusk. We don’t get much snow on Mayne Island and seldom in November. I was up before blue dawn like a kid on Christmas morning.

The far side of the valley was a bit warmer and did not get the same three inches of wonder as we did half way up the cliff.

David’s gate that he built a year and a half ago looks extra special in the snow.

And the prayer flags.

Then there are these red begonias.

And this is all I can see of the yellow calendulas shown in Thurday’s post.

But this is my favourite image of the morning. It is a photo I took as I was sitting down to upload and edit this morning’s photo shoot.

La casa de inspiracion has never felt better.

 

 

Sprout question: What are your favourite moments of winter?

 

Special Notice: I have made a decision. Two Fridays from now on December 3, 2010 I am going to place three of my larger 18 by 24 inch original oil paintings on sale for $950 Canadian over three days. The regular price is $1,200. I am going to introduce the first painting on Friday, the second on Saturday and the third on Sunday. All three will be shown together on Monday December 6, 2010. The sale will end at midnight PST on Monday.  Here is where you come in dear readers. You may want to buy a painting. Or you can tell others about the paintings. If a buyer identifies you as the source of the referral you will receive a $45.00 value gift in cards or a calendar of your choice. (Psst! The referral can even be to your spouse.) The referral gift is for the first referral identified by the buyer and there is only one referral gift per painting sale. The specific three paintings that will go on sale will remain a mystery until the day it is released. However, you are welcome to try to guess by browse some of this year’s paintings HERE. Look carefully though because some paintings are sold and/or are a different size or medium. Terrill-size cyber hugs will be given out for any right guesses.

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

 

 

Washed Smooth

/ Terrill Welch / 15 Comments

The heaviness of the cloud pushes down until I hunch under its dreary weight. West coast winter has arrived. Last nights winds were an early warning of what is yet to come. Today is smoldering quiet. Only small birds twitter in the trees as we walk.

I cast my eyes south,

then north along the shore,

stopping my roving gaze only when I look west and settle upon the smooth sandstone washed clean by years of waves.

I notice one small leaf also sitting in deviance.

 

Sprout question: What might you like to wash smooth?

 

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

 

 

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The Sustaining Rosehip

/ Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

The last few posts here on Creative Potager have been about the end of life – a necessary reflection in our creative and life journey, but not a place to dwell.

Today I want to shift us towards sustaining. What sustains us until the time of renewal? In the seasons the time of renewal is spring. The rosehip has always been a sustaining symbol and resource for me through fall and winter. When I was young, we were told we could eat rosehips if we got lost in the woods. My mother made apple-rosehip butter for a special treat on our hot porridge or toast. While playing outside, we would peel the rosehip skin off and nibble it sometimes pretending we were eating a piece of the sun, leaving the pithy insides for the mice and birds.

The nutritional and health attributes of rosehips are well known. They are used to make teas for the immune system and oils for the skin – just to name a few ways it is employed. So, when I see rosehips, I am filled with a “we can do it” attitude. I almost always smile and I sometimes laugh aloud when I see them. I feel hopeful. I feel able to reach into my stored reserves and snatch a piece of possibility right off one of those thorny branches.

Sprout Question: What sustains your creativity until a time of renewal?

© 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.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada