INTRODUCTION
‘Close Encounters at the Tideline: selected paintings in Terrill Welch’s reparative, nature-centric seafloor series’ is an individual online exhibition by Terrill Welch that is part of the FIVE SEASONS, MA Fine Art Final Show with the Open College of the Arts university in England. The FIVE SEASONS, MA Fine Art Final Show features artists Kate Aimson, David Crawford, Murray Hamilton, Maggie Taylor and Terrill Welch.
We are a group of visual artists connected by mutual threads of art woven together during our MA Fine Art Degree Course. We have shaped a shared, rich tapestry of our experiences and now respond in our own way to the title of our exhibition ‘FIVE SEASONS’, creating a legacy that speaks to the Fifth Season, another way of being. Our show is a platform which unites a common theme, champions devotion to our work, and explores individual strands of meaning. We have nurtured our practices and each other, given encouragement, welcomed our differences and cherish the opportunity to embody our creativity. Our aim is to engage you, the viewer, in our experience by letting you into our inner worlds, revealing ourselves, our ideas, hopes and dreams. Let’s have a dialogue and travel through the various exhibitions of work together. A short introduction to the other FIVE SEASONS artists and links to their individual exhibitions is provided at the end of Terrill Welch’s exhibition.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a landscape painter connecting art and nature one brushstroke at a time.
The ‘Close Encounters at the Tideline’ paintings catch the ocean’s strength, fragile beauty and my relationship with the Salish Sea on (what is now called) Mayne Island, BC Canada. Through my reparative, nature-centric making-with painting practice, I aim to deepen my bond between humanity and our nature world. In oil on canvas or wood and acrylic on gessobord, I render the internal dialogues that these close encounters evoke through selectively acknowledging my autoethnographic painting experiences.
My creative process begins with immersing myself in a specific place through full sensory observation. I explore, investigate and record my experiences by employing my examined situated observations, photographic and video recordings and in paint on a small surface. In the studio, I then develop larger oil paintings working wet-in-wet over several focused days until each work feels complete. Through endeavouring to identify my situated knowledges, I am responsible and accountable for their impact on my decision making within my nature-centric art practice. This means critically observing and engaging with my subject and also being aware of how my subject engages with me and influences my practitioner-led research.
My inspiration lies in my fostering curiosity, wonder, and awareness. I paint with the intention that these works encourage me to pause, reflect and recognize an essential truth: without our natural world, our human existence is at risk. This mission guides my ongoing artistic journey.
‘Close Encounters at the Tideline’ offers an intimate and immersive experience of my making-with interpretations of the seafloor. These paintings are an opportunity to eavesdrop on a conversation in paint between nature and artist. I have selectively included text in the form of my ‘artist notes’ below each artwork that reveals aspects of the reparative, nature-centric and autoethnographic content and my intrinsic connection to my subject. Specific aspects of my theoretical and research framework will not be revealed all at once but is dispersed throughout the text that accompanies each painting. Think of it as a gentle incoming tide of information rather than a wall of water crashing towards the viewer.
A set of question prompts is provided to enhance our experience and engagement with this exhibition:
In viewing all of the paintings, what is the smallest detail you notice?
After spending time browsing these seafloor paintings, what is a sound that describes your experience?
If you could describe this body of work with only one colour what would it be?
Is there a particular texture or painting mark that stands out for you?
If you were a shore crab, which painting would you most like to inhabit?
THE WORK
Artist notes: I had been scrambling around on the sandstone reefs looking in the tide pools while a gentle afternoon tide came in. This when I spotted the most perfect arrangement of shells and wee stones twisting lazily on the surface of the water. I had seen floating shells before but never arranged as perfectly as this! There is something satisfying and intimate about taking such a small subject and painting it large.
Artist notes: With certainty, resting in a web of stones on the seafloor is to expect a wash of sea on an incoming tide. Not even the heavy fog can slow this predictable procession. In this moment, the viewer is a seashell on the seafloor as the water rolls in at the shoreline. The bright blue patch is either a piece of a mussel shell or plastic. Mostly it is blue paint leaving evidence of the artist’s brush.
Artist notes: A slow incoming Salish Sea tide, arranges the seafloor gently, shifting particulates by weight and volume, compassionate, sensual. Filling the depths beneath the sand and pebbles with icy coolness. Gathering small broken bits to float on the surfaces. Nudging larger worn shell shapes into place. The sea moves as if sharing intimate secrets that I recognize but cannot quite decipher. I stay. I watch. I listen for more clues.
I continue to explore the tension between figurative and abstract mark making with the intent to only offer the bare minimal of descriptive detail yet enough to spark some familiarity for the imagining. My comfort level with painting the Seafloor has strengthened to the point that I can work from memory and imagination rather than a few specific references. This offers additional freedom of expression.
Artist notes: Kneeling close to the seafloor with no reason to name, I feel my way into and across the shapes, textures and patterns remembered. Leisurely, layered, abstract marks meander onto the painting surface with consideration that is devoid of expectation. Then, a purposeful addition of a bit of soft sun yellow. I find myself rhythmically letting go and reclaiming in a way that is similar to the movement of tides.
Artist notes: Bunched along the bottom of the reefs, broken and whole empty seashells have been organized by the tides into abstract shapes and muted patches of colour. I never see the same combination twice. Each visit offers something new to discover as I get down close to the landscapes of the small on this pungent seafloor. My intention is to move rhythmically between figurative and abstract shapes offering a few identifiably seashells with more obscure abstract coloured shapes that anchor to the mystery of tides while letting paint be paint.
Artist notes: Going as far as I can uncomfortable go with sweeping large brushstrokes of colours that are faded by the sun and washed by the sea. Leaning way over into pure sensations, I am anchored by a figurative drop of ocean with a thin slice of horizon pressed lightly into place by a forgiving sky. I hear the crunch of barnacles on sandstone as it whispers expectantly to a gentle wave coming in on the outside of the reef. Getting as close and low as possible to the shells I keep one eye on the sea and the other on the sky. This is my first ‘drop in the ocean’ landscape that is smaller in visual scale than previous ‘landscapes of the small’ painting studies.
Artist notes: I was scrunched down low to the seafloor in the bottom of the reef. We have names for the various seas though the clams, mussels, oysters, limpets, barnacles and snails seem more concerned with temperatures and salt content than actual physical geography. I look closely at a few in the reference I had gathered earlier as my peripheral vision simplifies forms into soft abstract coloured shapes. Days have passed and I am alone again in the studio. It is midday this time. I transform into an empty shell as I paint. I tumble and toss with the rhythms of the sea while nudging and pushing up against my neighbours. A piece of me breaks away and slips deeper into the seabed. I do not mourn this loss because it is inevitable. None of us or any other thing remains whole for long.
Artist notes: Days of crunching over the sandstone reefs under September smoke-filled skies leave their mark. It has been hot and dry for weeks. Mussels break open their perfect shells during the long hours of midday low tides. My thoughts scatter with the gulls when a lone eagle flies over. The moments are rich with softness yet held together by broken bits of texture and shapes stuck to the stones and piled up in the bottom of the reefs. There is a calm core deep that supports a much desired inner peace. Yet, at the same time, the energy hums with anticipation. Soon it will rain. Maybe, she whispers. This full figurative/abstract expression intends to capture all of these complexities on the canvas.
Artist notes: I set up on the reef with an outgoing tide in the Sunday morning sun. Shape, colour and texture wash up against the edges of my conscious intent. Leaving aside form and light effects, I begin. I take no references once I have picked up my brushes and do not look at what I have already recorded for later. Seagulls squawk on the outer reef in reply to the conking calls of a raven. As I lift the brush to the deep yellow acrylic ground on the canvas board, a kingfisher clicks swiftly somewhere behind my left shoulder. I focus on the sounds of the waves and the clean scent of fresh sea draped over scattered seashells with small shore crabs scuttling for shelter. What are these elements without figurative mark making? I leave it to my relaxed whole body and mind sensory system to decide.
Artist notes: The title ‘The Long Goodbye’ is frequently used in reference to living with someone who has dementia and experiencing how they slowly lose their ability to think, communicate and control their bodily functions. The loss is relentless in its grief and continuity, frequently taking years to complete its cycle towards death. This painting is about a similar process in relationship to our planet as it slowly loses its ability to support human and animal life. The data and our own experiences record the physical changes. It is then up to each of us to find our emotional path while knowing we may not have the capacity to come to terms with what is before us. In my figurative and abstract rendering of a Salish Sea tidal pool, I have asked myself to brush, push, slide and scrap my way forward while letting go of any specific outcome, both for the canvas and for living in these beautiful broken moments.
Artist notes: Pushed by the tides, empty mussel shells spoon together as sea life is eating and being eaten. The seafloor is anything but a safe quiet place and would be better described as a hotbed of reproduction and digestion that can quickly cloud and distort any romantic notions under closer observation. Yet, it is also a place of renewal and continuity. I have leaned into my full range of mark making sensibilities from figurative to abstract as a means to hold several possibilities at once – the hard edges of clarity, soft smudges of ambiguity, wide strands of chaos, broken bits of destruction and a harmony of quiet renewal.
Artist notes: Like this sugar kelp, everything living must release at some point. A rough sea tore the kelp’s holdfast loose and it drifted into the reefs on an incoming tide. I find this to be a good reminder. Do not hold too tightly to ideas. Be open to being torn loose from habitual ways of knowing. I only want to hold a position for as long as it is working for me in the way I intended. I want not to be afraid to drift for a while before deciding where to attach my focus next.
This is the final painting in the seafloor series, for now. It is a subject and framework of exploration into my reparative nature-centric painting practice that I have held for two years. Now it is time to let go and pause ever so briefly before committing to what is next in my painting practice. This painting is not just a means of observation. It is a vessel for reflection and growth.
Note: Of these twelve works, the five paintings completed in 2025 which include ‘Floating Arrangement of Shells’, ‘Sea of Thoughts’, ‘Sea Breeze’, The Long Goodbye’ and ‘A Breath between Sea and Sky’ are from Unit 2 and are included in this exhibition of selected works, out of a total of over 40 paintings completed during the MA Fine Art programme, to provide a fuller and richer experience of my developing conversation with the Salish Sea at the tideline on (what is now called) Mayne Island in British Columbia, Canada.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT EACH PAINTING
For further information, including additional detail images, prices and purchase opportunities please feel free to view this body of work together in a private viewing room at:
https://www.artworkarchive.com/rooms/terrill-welch/e9a7fc
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Beginning in the late 1990s, Terrill Welch’s watercolour and oil paintings and acrylic sketches have been exhibited globally and are held in international collections. Since 2010, she has completed over 500 paintings, with more than 300 now in private collections. She has been painting (with) the sea for over 15 years. The seafloor at the tideline of the Salish Sea on (what is now called) Mayne Island in British Columbia, Canada has been her specific focus of study over the past two years. Born in 1958 in the village of Vanderhoof B.C., Terrill began her artistic training at the age of 14 years old when she was invited into a community college level oil painting class. Alongside a career in social justice, she completing an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies and a graduate certificate in Executive Leadership Coaching while continuing to take art courses, developing her creative practice, exhibiting and selling her paintings and teaching oil painting classes. She completed a two year MA in Fine Art at the end of July 2026 with final assessment concluding at the end of September 2026.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
S,ḴŦAḴ or (what is now called) Mayne Island, where my home and the Terrill Welch Gallery are currently located, is within the traditional and unceded lands, seas and sky of Coast Salish Peoples, with special recognition of W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations: Tsartlip, Tseycum, and Tsawout. In humble gratitude I give thanks and acknowledgement for the long past, unresolved present and yet to be determined future of this special place. With an open heart, I respectfully commit to living lightly, creating fully, playing wholeheartedly and loving unconditionally during my brief time on these unceded lands of Coast Salish Peoples in the Salish Sea.
With respect and kindness,
Terrill Welch
CONTINUE EXPLORING THE FIVE SEASONS MA FINE ART FINAL SHOW
There are multiple entry points to our individual exhibitions for our online FIVE SEASONS show. To continue, click on any one of the artist’s website links below:
Kate Aimson. My research led practice is firmly based in the East Midlands of the UK and the traditional technique of English Paper Piecing (EPP).
(Website link to be added soon)
David Crawford. My visual arts studio is based in the Northeast of England. My research led practice is informed by Western Esoteric Traditions and is rooted in Psychoanalytical concepts.
(Website link to be added soon)
Murray Hamilton. I am a visual artist specialising in scanography, and I am based in the East Midlands of the UK.
(Website link to be added soon)
Maggie Taylor. My painting practice reflects my subjective feelings, and I use a reduced palette to capture the moment and tensions at play within the cultural landscape of the Humber Estuary of the UK. My practice-led research explores line and space, memory, absence and nostalgia, seeking a quiet stillness, evocative of time and place.
(Website link to be added soon)
Or return to the main exhibition page on the Open College of Arts website at:
(website link to be added soon)
Thank you kindly for joining us on this part of our journey!
For questions or comments, please email Terrill Welch directly at TAWELCH (at) SHAW (dot) CA
Thank You
Thank you to my fellow artists, Kate Aimson, David Crawford, Murray Hamilton and Maggie Taylor for their many gifts of camaraderie through shared learning challenges and triumphs over this past two years of our MA Fine Art programme. Thank you to our professors Caroline Wright, Michelle Whiting, Hayley Lock and Kimberley Foster for your guidance, commitment and belief in our ability to take risk and succeed. Each engagement has enriched my practice, my theory and research development and my life as we journey through our collective creative worlds.
In addition, thank you to my art collectors who have joined me through my newsletter publications as I shared and developed a new and unique body of work and thank you for added some of these seafloor paintings to your collections. Thank you to my children and grandchildren for postponing end-of-unit visits and arranging to come during breaks. Your support and respect for the work that needed to be done has been noticed and appreciated. Thank you to my parents who have always believed in my ability to do whatever I set my mind to accomplishing. Your unconditional love and support has always stilled my worst personal doubts. Thank you to my significant other who has pulled a pillow over his head for all the 4:00 am classes on Thursday mornings over the duration of each of my three units of study. Such love makes almost anything possible. Thank you to you all!
Warm regards,
Terrill Welch