May 1, 2020 11 min read

A Brush with Life - Issue #51 Large West Coast Wave Heading For Alberta

This would be a painting. A large west coast French Beach seascape, 30 x 40 inch walnut oil painting, sold to collectors in Alberta while still wet on the easel. The wave was barely rolling towards the foreground shore in the painting and I received a private message asking about its availability. Then the very next day, an inquiry came in from a corporate buyer in Switzerland seeking a work that has resulted in an 14 x 18 inch oil painting commission. It is an exciting subject that will take me back to when I was plein air painting beside the Rhine River in Basel, Switzerland. I will hopefully be able to share the progress on the new work next issue.

Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic and it is, so far, business as usual for this landscape painter. What does this mean? Who knows? I guess people still want meaningful art for their walls and as unique, original, one-of-a-kind gifts. I don’t really know what to make of it. Whatever the reason, while so much is uncertain, I am deeply grateful to still have an opportunity to do what I do best and expose the mystery in an ordinary day. My plan is to keep rolling along and painting my heart out for as long as I can! So let’s start with the newest work that already has one foot out the door...

New Large Seascape - sold

On Monday last week, I started a seascape on a cadmium yellow ground that is a 30 x 40 inch walnut oil painting of French Beach on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. On that same Wednesday, it came to “rest” and I told the painting that it could take its shiny-wet self to a quiet corner to dry.

Work-in-progress by Canadian landscape painter Terrill Welch

On Thursday, I did a few small adjustment on the canvas and an inquire of purchase from collectors living in Alberta was received. Then, before 10:00 am on Friday, I announced on social media that the painting was sold, still wet and sitting on the easel.

Sold - French Beach Vancouver Island British Columbia by Terrill Welch 30”x40”

Now to get the edges painted and dry so it can be shipped! My heartfelt thanks to the collectors and newsletter subscribers for their continued patronage during these unprecedented times. This is no small thing and is deeply appreciated.

But enough about painting for a few minutes before I will introduce the third emerging artist that will be represented by the Terrill Welch Gallery...

Spring Happenings

The sheep on the farm below us have recently been sheared and the lambs are now separated from the ewes to be weaned. Their lamenting during this time is as predictable in the spring as the frogs singing in the pond. We always get a text or phone call from the farmer to let us know she is “weaning lambs” so we do not think that something has gone terribly wrong with all the ruckus.

We have been watching the nesting geese chase lambs and sheep around the upper part of the field for a while now. There should be a goose family showing their faces soon.

In the early evening at Oyster Bay, this blue heron decided to pose for an historic Chinese painting. I almost expected to see an old monk with his inks and paper sitting on one of the shore logs, moving his brush with the gentle rhythm of the slack tide.

Tiny rose pink mushrooms can provide many minutes of discovery and delight.

Familiar views offer fresh perspective to sheltering eyes.

I step carefully along the trails looking for small fair slippers or lady’s slippers shimmering above the moss and needles under the tees. I am not disappointed. It is a good year for wild flowers and blossoms of all sorts.

The Japanese Garden blushes in cherry blossom pinks...

I marvel at the beauty created by all the hard work of volunteer gardeners.

Over at the old homestead on St. John’s Point the ancient apple trees were pruned sometime in the past months and new blossoms are starting to bud.

There deep pinks will open up into a cloud of softer round petals soon. I always think of them as the roses of fruit tree blossoms.

These local neighbourhood events, augmented by the occasional hike or just a poke around in the sun or a stroll through the Japanese Garden, have provided a solid foundation to our daily shelter-in-place lives over the past two weeks.

Introducing Painter Jennifer Peers

With continued delight the Terrill Welch Gallery introduces Jennifer Peers who is the third emerging artist now represented by the gallery. Here is one of three paintings we are currently featuring...

Taking a Stand by Jennifer Peers – 20 x 26 inch oil on canvas

Artist’s Notes: May can have clouds, perfect to show off new greenery on an iconic arbutus tree at Lighthouse Park. The incoming tide brings change to the beach below the tree.

Additional viewing and purchase information in online gallery HERE or feel free to just email the gallery directly to inquire.

Biography: Jennifer is a Canadian artist, wife and mother of two beautiful gifted young adults - her greatest creation! Add to the mix her young grandson who lights up her life! Art has always been an important part of her life growing up. Drawing and painting throughout her childhood, she graduated from the Graphic Design program at MacEwan University in Edmonton. Her profession as a graphic designer was a fulfilling way to use her creative talent.

Since moving to Mayne Island, BC from an Ontario farm she now focuses her work on locally inspired landscapes, seascapes, and some abstract pieces from her studio. Her eagerness to enhance her abilities lead her to international acclaimed artist Terrill Welch who has been an amazing mentor and influencer to strengthen her painting skills. Pleinne air experiences have led to enhanced usage of colour, shapes, shadow and light. Jennifer loves to work large, she has switched to oil paint a medium that works well with her attention detail creating the realistic aspects of her subjects.

Jennifer participates locally in the Souther Gulf Islands Arts Council, Mayne Island has a strong arts community with many public art shows and floating galleries on the ferries! Her work is hung in private collections across the country. She is eagerly anticipating, and painting pieces for the opening of the Arbutus Gallery. This dedicated exhibition space is hosted by Terrill Welch, the space will feature the work of three invited island artists, an exciting venture for all.

Jennifer loves to paint and create - she loves letting go and allowing for her desire of self-expression!

"I hope my evolving creative work can be an inspiration to the viewer"

Artist Statement: I love to paint! The process is part of the pleasure seeking out fun and exciting subject matter, Mayne Island has an ever ending supply of ideas! It's amazing how awareness to daily living makes your subject matter and event! The simplicity of a walk generates so many creative thoughts for canvas, I'm always taking photos of potential subject matter. As an artist the world is eye candy amplified!

Once I choose my subject, I will do a sketch of what my intention for the piece is, and note my observations from the day I took the photo. What size and shape of canvas will I choose, let the fun begin! I can't wait for my ground to dry (the background to begin a painting), so I usually have a couple oxides and canvases ready to go!

Armed with my subject matter, notes and a freshly set up pallet...this is where I get lost and absorbed in letting go with my brush to canvas!

View other paintings by Jennifer Peers being represented by the Terrill Welch Gallery on our new work-in-progress website page at:

Featured Artists in the Terrill Welch Gallery, West Coast Landscape Paintings

Featured Original Oil Paintings by Terrill Welch Morning with Arbutus Trees by Terrill Welch - 36 x 48 inch walnut oil on canvas Artist’s notes: To stand quiet and alone with these arbutus trees during a late summer morning is to find the spirit of the place, resting next to my bones with the slow…

I have greatly enjoyed becoming familiar with Jennifer Peers’ approach to her subjects and a canvas. She was an experienced acrylic painter when she arrived in my oil painting classes and has continued to strengthen and expand her skillset since then. Jennifer loves details and has taken the wet into wet methods towards these finer and sensitive conclusions. I hope you enjoy her keen eye as much as I do.

Opinion piece

Social or physical distancing is hard work for humans even when our lives depend on it! I have thrived over the past 11 years since David has had his stroke (which required a curtailment of family and friends visiting our home) because of my vibrant online social networks. Because of so many of you! ❤️ David and I are most often alone, just the two of us. I can count on one hand with several fingers left over how often I get to see my children or grand children in a year which has at times been an heartbreaking adjustment for me. Yet, I seldom feel lonely. So you can appreciate how this stay-at-home and social-distancing is very little different than our usual experience in recent years. It was a small adjustment of course when the Provincial orders and requests came through in early March to physically distance and self-isolate but it was more the worrying about what was going to happen if a whole bunch of people got sick and the extent of community spread of the virus. Thankfully, because of our collective actions, and doing the one thing that was asked of us, British Columbia has done very well during this initial stage at flattening the curve.

However, I know from years of having to keep David’s world calm and quiet, with only very infrequent visitors (who most often stay only for a couple hours at a time), this social distancing way of living is hard on even introverts who thrive on their own company. Even David sparkled and lit up when someone stopped by our table at the bakery for a few words and often hugs... or he was teased by the staff about not having whipped cream on his mocha. In addition, the bakery owner Linda Steele’s laugh is as infectious as my own. We both miss these casual everyday kind of moments. We humans need these physical and social exchanges. So, it is with some hope, that in limited, careful and slow ways, we will find the opportunities, to start making plans to open things up a little sometime in mid to late May. But it is going to be tricky! The risks the virus poses are not gone. We are just modifying how we proceed to better manage these risks. So, I shall be listening closely to Dr. Bonnie Henry this week to see if she is ready to give us some of those specific “opening up guidelines”.

For the Terrill Welch Gallery, it will likely mean a continued focus on sharing and viewing paintings mostly online. It may mean viewing is possible by appointment with masks worn by visitors and myself or maybe lining up six feet apart individually or in household groups along the walk way of the Arbutus Room entrance and going in one door and out the other. But one thing is for sure, it will not be the free flowing crowds of 40 people through the gallery in two hours on a Farmers Market summer Saturday. This is not going to be happening this summer season. This I am certain about. We will come up with something and will have practices in place to keep us as safe as possible but it won’t be like in past summers. If you have ideas about what you would like to see within these limitations, please do let me know because I won’t be able to do everything. I will have to make decisions on what is manageable and safe for you, for me and for the highly vulnerable person in my household.

In the meantime, I would like to echo Dr. Bonnie Henry - be kind, be calm and be safe. This isn’t forever. It is for now.

New Release for The Mailer Series

I have new three small painting sketches released for you going back as far as my birthday in late August 2019. Enjoy!

Arbutus Over Sansum Narrows Salt Spring Island by | Artwork Archive

The day is filled with light and west coast charm as I stand in front of my easel taking in the old arbutus tree overlooking the Sansum Narrows. It is a good...

Standing Before an Old Fir Tree Study by Terrill | Artwork Archive

Do you ever stand before a tree and just marvel about what it has seen? Sometimes I spend more time than maybe ought imagining those glimpses of the same vie...

Wickininnish Beach Study by Terrill Welch | Artwork Archive

The sea swirled around the rocks on the edge of a long sandy shore with an in coming tide. I can feel myself standing there long after travel has taken me aw...

What I am reading

A collector and newsletter subscriber sent me the link to a book about the last part of Claude Monet’s life by historian Ross King that I am thoroughly enjoying. The writing is poetic, references carefully documented and the story intriguing and well told. I purchased an e-copy but just might need to add it to my hard copy collection. Here is a brief passage to spark your interest...

More than a century later, an Impressionist expert at Sotheby’s in London called Monet “the great anti-depressant.”18

This “great anti-depressant” was, however, a neurasthenic who enjoyed anything but peaceful meditation as he worked on his paintings. Geffroy described Monet as “a perpetual worrier, forever anguished,” while to Clemenceau he was le monstre and le roi des grincheux—“king of the grumps.”19 Monet could be volatile and bad-tempered at the best of times, but when work at his easel did not proceed to his satisfaction—lamentably often—he flew into long and terrible rages. Clemenceau neatly summed up the quintessential Monet scenario of the artist throwing a tantrum in the midst of blissful scenery: “I imagine you in a Niagara of rainbows,” he wrote to Monet, “picking a fight with the sun.”20

Here is a link to the book so you can check it out further for yourself...

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

Mad Enchantment book. Read 215 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Claude Monet is perhaps the world's most beloved artist, and among...