contemporary landscape paintings

The Olive Tree – a contemporary landscape painting

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This work is created using reference painting sketches, photographs and Terrill Welch’s  memory from her travels this spring to a farm outside of Florence Italy. The painting of the olive tree seems to collapse history and time onto a contemporary the canvas. As a 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas painting,  it provides a good-sized view of the Italian countryside.

THE OLIVE TREE

The Olive Tree 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_11_01 032

The painting can be viewed in detail with purchase information by clicking on the image or HERE.

Usually work-in-progress images are shared on Terrill’s Creative Potager blog. This time however, the unfolding of THE OLIVE TREE seems to ask to be part of the painting’s debut and release. Enjoy!

The Olive Tree in progress 1 40 by 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_02 044
The Olive Tree in progress 2 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_02 048
The Olive tree in progress 3 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_02 052
The Olive Tree in progress 4 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_02 064
The Olive Tree in progress 5 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_03 005
The Olive Tree in progress 6 40 x 30 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_10_03 006

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Garry Oaks viewed from Brown Ridge – Canadian landscape painting

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These muted hues have endurance and awe brushed into their presence. So often painters seem to feel the need to resist the gray and brown and heaviness of our southwest Canadian rainforest. This is a mistake because there is beauty to explore in these melancholy landscapes. There is fuel to feed our own inner strength. We need not brush it over with artificial colour. We need only to seeking deeply into the hues and hold this wonder on our canvas. These are this artist’s musings as Terrill Welch worked on this oil painting inspired by a resent hike when the mist was rolling along the ridge, the air damp on her skin and her body warm from her steps.

GARRY OAKS ON BROWN RIDGE 14 x 18 inch oil on canvas

Garry Oaks on Brown Ridge 14 x 18 inch oil on canvas contemporary Canadian landscape art by Terrill Welch 2014_09_15 025

Following the goat paths where the Garry Oaks lean into Brown Ridge on Saturna Island is a beautiful sight. We must stop before looking up from our feet and out over the inside passage towards Saltspring and Vancouver Island. Contemporary Canadian landscape art is eminently present in this view.

A few words from the painter:

Painting the spaces in between whilst keeping ones visual balance to capture the feeling of being high on Saturna Island’s Brown Ridge is a challenge that this landscape painter is prepared to breathe life into. The intention is to allow the viewer’s eye to escape the edges of the canvas and find themselves imbedded within the view. But not comfortably. I desired that sense of wanting to look, feeling the wisps of sea air in our ears while we steady ourselves on the narrow path. I wanted the painting to be saturated with not quite clear emotions of awe, wonder and eternal loss. This may be a tall order for one relatively small canvas but I had to give it my best didn’t I?

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Canadian Landscape Artist Terrill Welch Paints Montagne Sainte-Victoire

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Canadian landscape artist, Terrill Welch, renders a contemporary modern-day classic of Cezanne’s Mountain morning and evening. The story begins when the artist travels to Europe in the spring of 2014 and finds herself on the painters’ ground in Aix-en-Provence.

The resulting work from this experience are two 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas paintings completed back in Terrill Welch’s studio on Mayne Island off the southwest coast of Canada. One painting is of Cezanne’s Montagne Sainte-Victoire in the morning and the other in the evening.

on the easel Evening with Cezanne's Mountain 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_08_31 111

Though this complimentary pair or diptych illuminate each other and together comprise a distinct piece of art, they are available separately.

MORNING WITH CEZANNE’S MOUNTAIN

Morning with Cezanne's Mountain 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch Montagne Sainte-Victoire 2014_09_15 041

Detailed viewing and purchase information is available by clicking on the image or HERE.

EVENING WITH CEZANNE’S MOUNTAIN

Evening with Cezanne's Mountain 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch Montagne Sainte-Victoire2014_09_15 050

Detailed viewing and purchase information is available by clicking on the image or  HERE.

The story of the artist’s climb to the painters’ gound, being accidentally photographed by a professional photographer and completing a 20 minute plein air acrylic sketch for later reference, along with a handful of photographs, is told in her Creative Potager post “Aix en Provence with Cezanne and photographer Mme Miceli Brigitte on the Painters Ground”

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Red Gate – Canadian contemporary landscape art

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Released today…

RED GATE – 30 X 40 inch oil on canvas

On a rare snow day, the whites reach for colour through the fog over at the field with the red gate on Mayne Island, British Columbia Canada. Please do feel free to walk into this southwest coast contemporary landscape painting and stay awhile. The 1.5 inch edges of this work are painted and no framing is necessary.

Red Gate 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_01_09 014

Update July 18, 2014 : This painting is now in a private collection and no longer available.

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Sky and Sea in three west coast contemporary landscape paintings

/ Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

These three recent paintings are mostly sky with the sea playing an important but supporting role in the landscape composition. Due to the similarity of subject and the orientation of the viewer, they are being released together.

The first contemporary landscape painting captures dusk on the winter west coast of Canada sea with clouds washed in colour.

ALMOST HOME 14 x 18 inch oil on canvas

Almost Home 14 x 18 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_01_21 104

The second painting tells the story about how the fog has been hesitant to raise her skirts resulting in a poem to accompany the work.

PROMISE

The fog has been hesitant to raise her skirts
much above her knees on the island ridges.
We can’t really blame her.

After all, we have been gawking without shame,
seeking even the tiniest glimpse of blue sky and
sunlight between her cottony ruffles.

Today though,
within the deep winter quiet,
we are given brief moments of reprieve
from her dowdy grey garments.
It was not a dazzling display
but enough to leave us momentarily content,
hopeful even.

PROMISE 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas

Promise 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2014_01_21 069

The third and final painting renders a  storm as it breaks in the late afternoon sky leaving behind a rainbow mountain and pink sky.

RAINBOW MOUNTAIN PINK SKY 16 X 20 oil on canvas.

Rainbow Mountain Pink Sky 16 x 20 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2013_12_03 085

Each painting has been approached to bring you into the landscape, experience its fullness and moment of wonder. Their simplicity of structure is purposeful and a deliberate intention to ask for your pause and reflection on the landscape as you pass through a time of contemporary busyness.

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Storm Watching – large contemporary seascape

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The continuous motion of the winds and the sea stir sea-spray high up onto the cliffs above. I want that. I want that feeling of stirring and motion. With as few brushstrokes as possible on this large canvas, I want us to be slightly queasy from it as we are swayed in the waters and crash against the rocks within our viewing of this painting.

STORM WATCHING 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas

Storm Watching 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2013_12_11 003

Contemporary as this painting is, if J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851) comes to mind you can be forgiven because, without any reference to the artist in my original post, his name appeared on the recommended tag list. I have therefore included a few links to his work in the related articles section below for your reading pleasure.

Also, there is a detailed in-progress post on my Creative Potager blog  HERE which includes reference images from my photography shoot that inspired this painting.

UPDATED OCTOBER 13, 2014:  Short video (less than six minutes) where Terrill Welch talks about this painting and the intentions behind her work.

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A Tall Tale of Autumn – contemporary landscape painting

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On this Christmas Eve day off the southwest coast of Canada it seems the right painting to share and release as it is fa work filled with memories.

A TALL TALE OF AUTUMN STUART RIVER – 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas

A Tall Tale of Autumn Stuart River 16 x 12 inch oil on canvas by Terrill Welch 2013_12_24 003

These are my childhood trees – popular trees growing on the riverbank. They are my first subject of paintings. I cannot pick up a brush to render them without being transported back through time with its many stops before these trees. These are trees I met before there was even a field in front of them. These are trees I introduced my first lover and later others. Then much later my now husband. These are trees I walked beside while I carried my babies and then with them while they carried theirs. These are the trees that my mother and father have walked with me since they were younger than I am today. Painting the spaces of light and shadow in between is filled with the residue of many visits. It is a tall tale that gets taller with each telling. All I intended to do was to use up the paint leftover on the palette.

Detailed viewing and purchase information is available HERE.

ONLINE GALLERIES include –

ArtWork Archive original paintings and acrylic sketches

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Related articles