We are celebrating the past decade of contemporary landscape painting by our very own Canadian artist living on Mayne Island off the southwest coast of British Columbia. Terrill Welch exposes the mystery in an ordinary day. During the past decade 2010-2019, she completed over 300 contemporary landscape paintings. Of these, about 260 were released for purchase and 150 sold to private collectors in eight different countries.
From the beginning of the decade…
… to the end of the decade, our connection and enjoyment of these significant works of art is evident!
To celebrate this past decade, Terrill Welch has chosen 20 of her favourite paintings and created this short video trailer introduction!
At the close of each year, Terrill Welch reaches back and picks up the best bits and tosses them forward, leaving stepping stones for the year ahead. In this way, she is fortunate because this year, she has so many solid and elegant gems for tossing.
In the words of the artist herself….
“Gathering a monk’s collection of polished simplicity, I find myself preparing for painting adventures with a traveling bag full of painting problems, desires, half-baked ideas and unknowns. My meager tools and methods are but a few hundred years old. Will they be enough? Am I enough?”….
After all, works of art are always the results of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further. (Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters on Cézanne, 1907. Published in English in 2002)
This quote opens up the introduction by Elena Maslova-Levin of the catalogue Conversations on Edgethat was published in the spring of 2018 for a two-artist show with Welch and Maslova-Levin in the Terrill Welch Gallery on Mayne Island in British Columbia. Excerpts of Maslova-Levin’s introduction about my work is one of the pebbles of observation I am tossing forward…
Landscape painting might not seem like a particularly dangerous
adventure: you take your easel, and paints, and a canvas, and go
outside, and paint what you see. What danger can be there?
It is the danger of seeing what nobody else has seen, the danger of shattering conventional and comfortable visual reality.
Paul Cézanne once said that Claude Monet was “just an eye, but what an eye!”
This remark may seem disparaging – unless you know what it takes to see what your eyes really
see. Every human being receives an infinite richness of visual
information every waking moment, but the brain habitually filters out
almost all of it, and builds a simplified picture of visual reality for
the mind to consume, based mostly on what we already know. This
mechanism is there to protect us, and it takes both courage and mastery
to switch it off, and to fully open your mind to the unspeakable
infinity of world’s beauty. To go through the experience of seeing all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further.
Although a student of Claude Monet’s in many ways, with an eye as
attentive and discerning as his, Terrill Welch is much more than an eye.
The space of her paintings is more than the familiar three-dimensional
space of visual reality. It encompasses not just vision, but all sensory
dimensions of human experience – the sound of silence, the smell of
distant snow, the cool touch of shadows, the taste of ocean water (and,
occasionally, a hearty winter lunch, too). This is how she inhabits the
multidimensional space of ever-present Now. That’s how she fills with
life and light what might seem like empty space to a lazy eye.
It is this multidimensional space that opens up from the deceptively
two-dimensional surface of her paintings. We see not only the visible,
but the invisible too. And this experience – a peak visual experience –
can expand your sense of vision, your perception of reality, and
ultimately, your consciousness, but only if you allow yourself to fully see how she feels her way into the space of a landscape and fuses it with her inner space.
Her paintings invite us to share in the treasure she brings back from where no one can go any further.
This excerpt is the criteria Terrill Welch shall use to select her personal, in no particular order, SEVEN out of twenty-seven BEST of 2018 paintings – these are the painting pebbles that she shall toss lightly ahead of her as she moves into the stream of a new year.
Best SEVEN Paintings of 2018
Restless Salish Sea –8 x 10 inch plein air acrylic sketch on gessobord
The day was fantastic! The waves were being whipped up by a good breeze
but it was still warm enough to be comfortable standing around. A
favorite kind of plein air painting day!
A small Emerald Bay Mayne Island BC – 24 x 18 inch oil on canvas – SOLD
The emerald waters in the bay sparkle with the clarity of gems as the
sunlight reaches over top of the hill. I stand in the calmness for a
while then cast my thoughts farther afield to the smoky skies across the
water.
Oyster Bay Morning Rain – 8 x 10 inch plein air acrylic sketch – SOLD
The old arbutus on St. John’s Point tells the story of winds, dryness,
winter rains and endurance as it curls up and back over itself for
balance. The morning fog leaves its shape exposed and gathering more
attention than usual.
Late afternoon sun catches the curves of a grand old arbutus tree
reaching out into Campbell Bay on Mayne Island in British Columbia. I
want not to move or even shift my gaze for a very long time.
Winter with the Old Fir on the Ridge – 48 x 24 inch oil on canvas
The snow on the north side of ridge slows my progress because I need
to take several stops to catch my breath. But the climb was worth it! I
have the Mt. Parke ridge with its fresh snow all to myself! Just me and
this big old fir tree were there when the sun broke through the rushing
clouds and warmed our backs.
This could be many places in British Columbia in the winter and
certainly took me on a memory meander around the province when I later
painted the moment.
Now, standing at the easel, brush in hand, Terrill Welch shall step cautiously, yet confidently, forward with the advice of Mary Oliver in verse 4 of her poem “Sometimes”
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
(from page 105 in Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver, 2017)
Happy New Year!
What about you – what stones, pebbles and gems are you tossing forward for your journey in 2019?
Never Miss the Good bits! Sign Up Now for the curated editorial Terrill Welch newsletter HERE published on the 1st Friday of every month.
ONLINE GALLERIES include –
ArtWork Archive original paintings and acrylic sketches currently available
Redbubble painting and photography prints and merchandise
Work in progress BLOG –
Creative Potager– first place new work is unveiled. Subscribe to stay current.
Spring, summer, fall and winter – art shows always it seems! Next up is Art!Vancouver Fair, May 25 – 28, 2017 at the Vancouver Conference Centre, East 999 Canada Place. Terrill Welch is showing her paintings with three other Canadian artists in 30 feet of booth space sponsored by Artists in Canada. More about the Art Vancouver Fair HERE.
Northeasterly Morning Strait of Georgia Mayne Island BC, 20 x 40 inch oil on canvas, is one of the paintings that will be available.
Pre-sales are always welcome and further information is available in the online gallery for this specific paintingHERE.
The Gala Night is Thursday 25th May 2017 from 7-10 pm and this year has a Red Carpet dress code. Terrill has a few complimentary tickets for this evening event. If you would like join her, send an email request to tawelch@shaw.ca and we will get you sorted.
In other news, two more paintings have left the studio to join three other works in the home of prominent art collectors of Terrill Welch paintings.
Sold before it was ever featured on the website! Morning at Bennett Bay Beach Access, 20 x 16 inch oil on canvas
Sold! Oyster Bay Mayne Island BC with fresh snow, 16 x 20 inch oil on canvas
To view all other paintings currently available click on the Artwork Archives link below for Terrill Welch’s online gallery.
And more work is coming soon as Terrill prepares for a six-week solo exhibit opening June 30, 2017 on Mayne Island B.C. at Shavasana Art Gallery & Café. More will be available about this show later in May or early June.
If you are visiting or planning a visit to Mayne Island, studio visits are always welcome by appointment.
Never Miss the Good bits! Sign Up Now for the curated editorial Terrill Welch newsletter HERE published on the 1st Friday of every month.
From larger to small, oil paintings to painting sketch, five new works are being released. As you can see, the art studio has been a busy place since the beginning of 2017. Let’s start with the east coast of Canada first shall we?
West Point Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island is a storybook gem, complete with a resident ghost. Its compelling placement along the red sand shores and the rather unique black and white facade give rise to fancy.
West Point Lighthouse PEI 30 x 24 inch oil on canvas
Now coming back to the southwest coast of Canada and starting with our gorgeous Arbutus trees rendered on a magnificent grand canvas.
The earth turns and the sun comes up. The earth turns again and the sun goes down. This is one simple measure of a day. What time will it be tomorrow morning when the first light reaches the eastern side of the island? At about what time this evening will it be too dark to safely take the compost down the stairs and under the trees at the edge of yard without a flashlight? When will the snowdrops start to bloom on the southwest side of the house? What difference does a day make, or even a few hours? These questions are possibly best answered by trees. At least, this is what I am musing about today as I continue my inner travels.
Storytelling Arbutus Tree Bennett Bay Mayne Island BC 60 x 40 inch oil on canvas
To give you an idea of scale, here is a photograph taken in the warm pinkish light of the Spring Art Gala this weekend on Mayne Island. The window opening is about the same height as the painting at 5 feet tall.
It is definitely a painting a viewer can walk into, proceed down the trail and disappear into nature!
Next we have a smaller quiet seascape of Reef Bay on Mayne Island.
The moody violet mauve of a west coast winter afternoon resists the temptation to become bruised and pensive. Resting lightly on our awareness it holds us well within the confines of melancholy rather than just plain old miserable.
Following the winter’s late afternoon light drifts pass on its journey to the cloud bank quilting the Coastal Mountains. Our gaze crosses the Straight of Georgia and returns. We are called to the shore and sea as they perform a tango that is as old as as time.
Winter Late Afternoon Georgina Point Mayne Island BC 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas.
This winter has provided the southwest coast with a series of snowfalls. Here is a rare walnut oil quick plein air painting sketch of the Japanese Garden in the snow.
Early March Snow Japanese Garden Mayne Island BC 11 x 14 inch oil on gessobord
In other studio news, one very large Canadian landscape painting and two painting sketches have left the studio on adventures of their own.
Sold! Seaside Mayne Island 60 x 36 inch oil on canvas
Sold! High Winds Strait of Georgia Mayne Island BC 8 x 10 inch acrylic sketch
Sold! Strait of Georgia from Cotton Park 11 x 14 inch acrylic sketch
Also, you may want to starting planning to attend spring group show in Vancouver B.C. and a solo summer show of Terrill’s paintings.
Art!Vancouver Fair May 25 – 28, 2017 at the Vancouver Conference Centre, East 999 Canada Place. Terrill Welch is the lead artist showing her paintings with three other Canadian artists in 30 feet of booth space sponsored by Artists in Canada.
Solo exhibition “West to East Coast Canadian Landscapes in Paint” at the Shavasana Art Gallery & Café, Mayne Island, B.C. from July 1st to August 15th 2017. More about this 150 year celebration of since Canada’s confederation landscape solo show will be shared soon.
Of course, you can make an appointment to come by her studio if you find yourself on Mayne Island off the southwest coast of Canada or visit the online gallery listed below anytime.
