A Brush with Life - Issue #44 The Giddiness Stage

Now that the announcement of an additional room for the gallery has been made, it is time to get things sorted. Ask for help with preparing and painting walls. Check! Send email to contractor to install gallery track lighting and and hanging system. Check! Gather the three artists together that will be represented in the new room along with me to talk about next steps. Check! Decide on paint colours for the new room. check! Postpone until fall or even next Spring the rolling out of the Arbutus Trees And Life Itself Painting Project. Signs. What about signs? Still need to do this. Painting! You must get painting. Okay, okay. New painting now resting. Income tax preparations for 2019. Yes, yes, yes. Prepare for winter studio guests. Done! Two selected paintings and four others hung for their consideration in the winter studio. And so it goes, from one short demanding day to the next. Everything seems to be in some kind of random sequences and about as organized as my teenage sock drawer. But I shall get it all done, one way or another, along with two week-long trips. The first is at the end of February when we are going to stay in a cabin right in the ocean near French Beach on Vancouver Island. The second is during Spring Break and a slightly shorter trip to Tofino area with family.

So with much grand waving and thrashing of arms through the air, let’s see what we have for this issue...

I was at an art collectors home the other day and the light was perfect to catch one of my paintings hanging on the wall with the sea shimmering through the windows behind. I asked permission to share it with you as I think it is always fun to see work in its new home. This is a 30 x 40 inch commissioned painting that left the studio a little less than a year ago. Doesn’t it look handsome there!?

Paintings on Walls

Another large Terrill Welch landscape painting has found a home of its own with someone who is also a kayaker. I feel it is in the perfect place because this work came with the following warning:

“This seascape has significant movement and has caused some viewers to feel seasick when standing or sitting in front of the painting for an extended period of time. The painting is best hung in a large room with enough space for the viewer to avert their gaze.”

The heavy ink-blue of the dark sea rolls up against the sandstone rocks as breaking clouds answer to the west coast blues. This is a large contemporary landscape painting which brings a view of the sea to any room that it is in - and so it has!

At the same time as the above painting found its forever home, the painting below has been taken in to be hosted until such time as it is sold. The painting on the far right is also one of mine in the home of this family member and art collector. It is a very early water colour work from sometime in the 1990’s. We hung it again shortly after this photo was taken but it was too dark to take any more photographs.

This painting is still available and inquiry options can be access through the link below...

Sea and Sun Cox Bay Tofino BC by Terrill Welch | Artwork Archive

After days of rain and storms on the wildest of the west coast of Canada, the sun came out and the waves caught the light on Cox Bay in Tofino B.C., Canada.

New Releases

The edges are painted but still tacking and we will need some better light to take final high resolution images than these rainy days offer. But these next two are now ready for released!

Arbutus Entertaining A Grey Day by Terrill Welch | Artwork Archive

As the elegant Arbutus tree curved around, framing Navy Channel, I thought it wanted to show me something. And I suppose it did. Who wouldn’t want to be admi...

A Dramatic Salish Sea by Terrill Welch | Artwork Archive

The September evening released the dark Salish Sea in a spray of dramatic light. The storm has broken. Georgina Point, Mayne Island, British Columbia

Work In Progress

These are always such favourites with so many of you that I have been making an extra effort to take images as I go.

And finally, still rough and raw on the easel on January 18, 2020...

The climb was magnificent and the day warming in the afternoon sun. Clumps of islands poked out of a grey sea, draped in fresh snow and reshaping the view. I envy the trees their everyday vista. Punctuated by a long sigh, I gather myself up to descend the backside of the ridge.

So there you have it! Three new works completed during the first three weeks of January. Well, almost completed. There is still the hanging wire on this last one and maybe the odd brushstroke. But still! A solid start to the year.

A Special Request

I have a special request for those that have been to the Art of Terrill Welch Gallery. Could you possibly find a moment to write a review on the pin marker for the Gallery in Google maps?

There are two listings on the map. One is for the gallery and the other for my home studio. I am seeking reviews for the Art of Terrill Welch Gallery listing.

Steps:

1. Do a general search in Google for - Art of Terrill Welch Gallery

2. The map will come up in the listings right away. Click on the icon marker on the on the map.

3. You will see in the pop up information where you can write a review. Note: you may have to be signed into Google to add a review... I am just not sure.

I have added an image of the Google Map below so you have a better idea what you are looking for when you do the Google search.

That is it and thank you so very much! 👩‍🎨🎨❤️🤗

What I am reading...

Oh I know, you are wondering when I ever find time to read. But I prefer reading often to the drivel provided on movie platforms. Yes, I do watch movies and series but if I am running short of reading time, this is the first to go. In fact, it is the first place I capture additional hours for almost anything... like writing this issue.

The following article came across my browser and I thought of you. Not because the information will be particularly new but because it will be affirming of your current practices. So here you go (just squish the annoying pop-up using the x in the top right)....

Why you Should Buy Art from Living Artists - The Lotus Fruit - Medium

A market for artists such as Warhol, Picasso or Kahlo is always lively, as everybody wants to add a piece from these great masters to their collection. However, there are plenty of living artists…

Can I possibly be your superstar artist?

I will let you know in advance, the odds are against it. But several years ago, I beat the first hurtle of the income barrier. Did you know, that in the United States (and there is no reason to believe Canada is any different) a recent study showed that 75% of artists earned less than $10,000 a year from the sales of their art work? And you guessed it, the percentage is even worse when separated out for women artists. I try not to read these studies because they are just plain too depressing and demoralizing. I know the barriers intimately well as a woman artist. I just refuse to let them get in my way and seek alternative paths that are open and accessible to me - even if it takes a backpack and hiking shoes to get there! I insist on applying my own ingenuity and playing to my strengths. Sometimes, it even works! However, a male art collector, who doesn’t hesitate to collect the art work of female artists, asked me what I thought - was it harder for women artists? Were women artists systematically discriminated against? The short answer to both questions is - yes. In fact, research, published in 2017, shows four distinct glass ceilings preventing a female artist from accessing the same levels of success as her male counterparts during the course of her art career. But enough from me. Here are two reference articles with the research details...

A New Study Shows That Most Artists Make Very Little Money, With Women Faring the Worst

A new study presents dismal findings that artists are getting poorer, with the majority earning under $10,000 per year from their art

The 4 Glass Ceilings: How Women Artists Get Stiffed at Every Stage of Their Careers | artnet News

A number of new studies examine precisely how much worse women fare in the art market than their male peers. It's not a pretty picture.

What can we say? Many great things have come from the margins. It is exactly where I have positioned myself on this small island off the southwest coast of Canada. I can think of no better place for a painter to expose the mystery in an ordinary day. Being a woman does not matter one hoot to the paint, the brushes, the trees, the land or the sea... or, if I am allowed an educated guess, to you for that matter. ;)

Until Next Time!

May the lengthening days awaken your own hopes and desires for the mystery found in an ordinary day.

Canadian Contemporary Artist Terrill Welch Landscapes and more by impressionist painter Terrill Welch

Canadian landscape painter, Terrill Welch, exposes the mystery in an ordinary day, reminding us that there is only one moment – this one.