Jun 11, 2021 10 min read

A Brush with Life - Issue #80 Stepping Lightly

An essential rush of early dawn drapes over the curves of an Arbutus tree along the Mayne Island shore. Waves roll up and separate into cascading jewels. Seagulls rest in a moment of quiet communion. Dreams and memories meld into imagined and remembered places. This has been an unprecedented year for sure. But what does this mean for landscape painter Terrill Welch? As we linger with her recent works, we can sense the need to step lightly, to pause and softly brush a branch aside for a clearer view. Nature has spoken. All our thrashing and inward self-absorption can easily be set aside. We shall mature away from our financial means. We shall because this is what happens in the wholeness of life. Grief and hope lay in universal overlapping brushstrokes of trees and the sea and the shore.

Detail “Rolling up on the Strait of Georgia” by Terrill Welch

Through her paintings in this solo exhibition, Terrill Welch invites us to stand with her during this unique space and time, together. We shall open up in ways that we have never thought mattered, by design, filled with purpose, rising towards possibility. Do you dare?

If you wish, browse “Stepping Lightly” at the link below…

Stepping Lightly: pandemic life within our landscape | Artsy

Some of these paintings are going to move between the two gallery rooms. In totality, they will all be in our physical show rooms, except for the one that has already sold. Plus, there is another on hold that may be gone in the next couple of weeks as well. However, here are a couple of paintings to contemplate…

New Release

This is a 40 x 36 inch oil painting that has joined the “Stepping Lightly” solo show temporarily and will be moving to the Arbutus Room group show later in June…

Artist notes: How many times do we feel like we are conducting an orchestra as we direct all the moving parts in our daily lives? This clump of Arbutus Trees demonstrates nicely how it can be done with ease and grace. As I walk along the outside path next to Navy Channel in Saint John Park, these Arbutus trees in particular always have me smiling.

Terrill Welch | Conducting An Orchestra (2021) | Available for Sale | Artsy

Available for sale from Terrill Welch Gallery, Terrill Welch, Conducting An Orchestra (2021), Oil on canvas, 40 × 36 in

Time Remembered and Imagined

Sometimes how we remember and and imagine creates something new that is somehow more true to the moment then the raw materials of a specific geography….

Artist notes: There is a place remembered only in an old water colour painting and dreams about a long weekend in August 1994. The dream and the painting take us from along the Stuart River to Honeymoon Island on Stuart Lake. The cut banks are from along the river and the popular trees are dancing on the lake shore. This is not possible in real time. Only in dreams and paintings.

Terrill Welch | Dancing by the Water (2021) | Available for Sale | Artsy

Available for sale from Terrill Welch Gallery, Terrill Welch, Dancing by the Water (2021), Walnut oil on canvas, 18 × 24 in

A Glimpse of “Stepping Lightly”

Since, many of you are far away or still not yet able to travel between our health regions to Mayne Island, here are a few images of the new solo show. Almost like being there in person…

As we enter the Garden Room, a Reef Bay painting welcomes us.

I have moved the desk to its summer location next to the sliding patio doors.

Small painting sketches populate the lower spaces. Some are new for this show.

These three may need to be spaces a little farther apart. But they are up!

How was this? Did it give you just a wee sense of having been able to come to the show? Not quite enough? How about a two minute video then? Might this do it?…

Stepping Lightly Terrill Welch Gallery

Through her paintings in this solo exhibition, Terrill Welch invites us to stand with her during this unique space and time, together. We shall open up in wa...

Opinion piece by Terrill Welch - financial means

Maturing away from our *financial means - what could I possibly be talking about!? Let’s see if I can explain… Generally, I am guessing, most of us understanding that our wellness and well-being do not centre around money. Or more precisely, how our wellness and well-being does not centre around how much money we have at our disposal through work or investments or inheritance. We have known this philosophically for several generations or maybe even since the beginning of time. The pandemic has brought this understanding into our bones, as we walked the meaning up our spine, through our throbbing hearts, past our welling tear ducts and embraced the full impact of this understanding against our mental constructs of what is truly important.

Once and for all, I do believe, humanity has a better grasp on our interconnectedness to our natural world and to each other. The trees have always known this. Resilience is a shared responsibility. It is only humans who have a tendency to neglect our wholeness in favour of a collection of singular parts, placed in columns that are added up to exact amounts. How unimportant these dollar procurements become when we must focus on washing our hands, putting on our masks or leaving a loved one at the door of the hospital emergency room… or worse. How insignificant these financial distractions become when we miss seeing and hugging our children and grandchildren and friends! Except, there is an exception - this exception is when our basic needs for housing, food and health care go unmet. Then, if there is not enough money, we can find ourselves in dire circumstances. This is the fear that drives those that already have enough to keep acquiring more and more and threatens the wellbeing of those that do not. And this is the rub.

If we are living a mindful life, how much is enough? Such a difficult question to answer! I have no specific sum for us. I am just pretty certain that it is most likely a LOT less than those who have more than enough believe that it is. We can look to nature for some help to figure this out. Science tells us, trees provide water and nutrients to other unrelated trees in need, not because of altruistic values, but because it is more efficient and improves the wellbeing of everyone in the ecosystem. So, when we have enough of whatever is needed, then it is in our own best interest to share… like vaccine, for instance. Hoarding vaccine between borders is obviously foolish. In fact, it is in our best interest to share even if we receive nothing but more vaccinated people in return. Now, let’s apply this to the rest of our lives…

Once we have enough to meet our basic needs for shelter, food, water, and love and belonging, as the poet Mary Oliver asks in her poem The Summer Day, - “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

The singer songwriter Leonard Cohen surmised from his rented hotel room “I do not want to work for pay. But I do want to get paid for my work.”

This is what I mean when I say we are about to mature away from our financial means. It is not that we will turn our back on the importance of meeting our needs financial. But with this kind of maturing, money has the potential to become more of a shared ingredient, along with a whole host of other ingredients we have at our disposal…. rather than become a central primary adult task to collect and manage… simply because it is more efficient and better for everyone (and the planet) if we only produce or procure as much as we need… with just a little extra to share with others from time to time who might be short.

But how can we determine our personal essential needs? We know these change during a lifetime and in different circumstances, many of which are beyond our control. So how do we discover what these needs are for today?

I do have a method I sometimes use. It is called “the five whys”. If I gently and with deep kindness ask myself “why” I think I need something and when I have my answer, I ask “why” again for at least five times in a row, I eventually spiral down to the core need I am trying to fulfill. Once I have this, then I can ask “is this the best way to fulfill this need?” And “what other way might also work that doesn’t require money or will more purposefully use my financial resources?”

This is about it. If you decide to try this I would love to hear how it works for you.

*Financial means is frequently defined as the standard used to determine if someone can afford to purchase or make payments on an assets and maintain that asset, such as the financial means to purchase a dwelling…. or maybe even a painting, speaking of more a purposeful use of financial resources. 😉

What Has Sold

Sometimes a painting resonates so deeply that it almost surprises even the art collector. “The Red Chair,” a 12 x 12 inch oil on canvas by Glenda King, has just yesterday arrived safely to its perfect home in Alberta. Our congratulations to both the art collector and the artist!

Room View - Sold! “The Red Chair” by Glenda King

View other paintings currently available by Glenda King at the link below…

Terrill Welch Gallery | Artists, Art for Sale, and Contact Info | Artsy

Our gallery program brings extraordinary connections to ordinary moments in our natural landscape. The Terrill Welch Gallery opened in August 2017. Since then, the gallery has more than doubled its physical gallery exhibition space and online reach.

What Terrill is Viewing

I have seen several videos of interest this past couple of weeks. I have chosen just one because I am guessing there might be new discoveries for you in this examination even though the image of the wave is widely known. James Payne does an amazing job with his research and presentation. I am confident you will find that your 15 minutes will be well spent…

The Great Wave by Hokusai: Great Art Explained

"What a brilliant series this is" - Stephen Fry on Twitter 12 December 2020 Great art explained. James Payne discusses the Great Wave.I started "Great Art Ex...

Secondly, here is a beautiful and sumptuous up-down scrolling (left scrolling commentary with a slide show on the right that changes as you read) about a specific painting by Berthe Morisot in the New York Times - “The Impressionist Art of Seeing and Being Seen” by Jason Farago, published on June 4, 2021

The Impressionist Art of Seeing and Being Seen - The New York Times

It looks like a gentle scene of a seaside vacation. But this painting by Berthe Morisot, perhaps the most underrated Impressionist, is a layered vision of a dawning modern age.

My only misgivings about sharing this link is that you will likely need an New York Times account even to watch it for free. However, if you love this artist and want to really dig into the structure and context of this painting, then it is worth it!

Up Coming Group Show

Our next group show opens June 24, 2021 in the Arbutus Room. However, as newsletter subscribers, you have early access below…

Next to the Salish Sea | Artsy

On our bellies leaning over a dock in Horton Bay, bracing against the winds in a storm to capture large rollers coming ashore or lengthening our stride along a forested seaside trail are all part of life on Mayne Island next to the Salish Sea.

Art Collectors Corner

One of my long time art collectors received the following painting as a birthday present from her partner in the late 1990’s. Back then, I was doing a lot of conceptual paintings while I was working on a Masters Degree in Gender Studies. At the time of this painting I was reading Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature by Donna J. Haraway, first published 1991 (before we all had smartphones or even home computers). Can you see the goddess behind the cyborgs? She is kind of like the boats in the Great Wave painting by Hokusai in the video earlier and is not immediately noticed.

Intellectual Cyborgs and Goddesses by Terrill Welch, water colour painting.

Fortunately, my artist notes were still attached to the back of the painting which is how I did things before I had an online inventory program like I do now. When I received the image of the painting, I went to the bookshelf and pulled out Haraway’s book, as if remembering an old friend from over 20 years ago. But this is better because it was what I was actually thinking about at the time…

The art collector has recently retired and moved to a new city and home. It is not the first adventure of several hundred miles this painting has had with her but I get the sense that there is a desire for this to be their home now for a very long time. To this end, the painting has a refurbished frame and has been cleaned and tucked back in. I am not sure of the paintings exact size but this room view will give you an idea of scale.

In Art Collector’s home - Intellectual Cyborgs and Goddesses by Terrill Welch

Until Next Time!

May your days be filled with the mystery in the ordinary as we each find our way into our wild and wonderful world of reopening and reconnecting! We wish you all the best as always.

Terrill 👩‍🎨🎨❤️