Jun 25, 2021 9 min read

A Brush with Life - Issue #81 Summer Show Opens - Next to the Salish Sea

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. Our recent months of staying close to home has only deepened these connections, observations and experiences for landscape painters Jody Waldie, Jennifer Peers, Glenda King and Terrill Welch. The Arbutus Room summer group show “Next to the Salish Sea” featuring these artists will bring you to our Mayne Island shores with refined appreciation.

Featuring paintings by Glenda King, Jody Waldie, Jennifer Peers and Terrill Welch

The walk-in hours are increasing as provincial and national travel to and from Mayne island is again welcomed. The gallery’s Arbutus Room is available for walk-in viewing 10-4 Tuesday to Sunday through the support of Vania Williams at the Dragonfly, our neighbouring business. Gallery owner and artist Terrill Welch will be on site Saturdays 11-2 and by chance or appointment to show you both gallery rooms. We are also, as always, most happy to assist you through our online gallery and virtual conversations and tools. Protocols will be adjusted with Provincial requirements.

Here is a photograph of our entrance again, in case it will be your first visit…

Front entrance for the Terrill Welch Gallery. Level access around the side.

Location: 478 Village Bay Rd

Mayne Island, British Columbia, CA. Day trips are possible between either Vancouver or Victoria, British Columbia. To avoid disappointment, appointments are recommended for traveling visitors and if coming from Vancouver, make sure you have ferry reservations for a both directions.

“Next to the Salish Sea” summer group show

Can you tell we are really, really excited!? I am so amazed and proud of the work we have been able to create during the past six months during a pandemic that saw half of our gallery artists in this show needing to move, sometimes more than once, others taking on additional family responsibilities and opening a new business along side their art career. We have had partners seriously ill (though doing well now), requiring additional medical trips from our small island and one permanent change of address back to the city. Like everyone else, we have had hands to wash, masks to wear and needing to stay physically away from our family, friends and colleagues to keep us all safe. Now however, everyone has their second vaccine shots, Covid-19 numbers down and the province is opening up to Provincial and Canada wide recreational travel and we are ready to welcome you! I just want to go out into the middle of the road with a great big sign and shout “We did it! We did it! We did it!”

So before we provide the Artsy link to this inspiring new show, allow us to celebrate with you through this less than a minute quick video tour…

Next to the Salish Sea Summer Show | Terrill Welch Gallery

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...

And here is the link to the whole show, including images of the missing painting…

Next to the Salish Sea | Artsy

How about a couple more featured here though just in case you need more time before taking a long browse? Yes? I thought so…

Jody Waldie | Dancing with Sea and Sky (2021) | Available for Sale | Artsy

Available for sale from Terrill Welch Gallery, Jody Waldie, Dancing with Sea and Sky (2021), Oil on canvas, 18 × 24 in

Jennifer Peers | Sit and Just Breathe (2021) | Available for Sale | Artsy

Available for sale from Terrill Welch Gallery, Jennifer Peers, Sit and Just Breathe (2021), Oil on canvas, 24 × 18 in

Words From a Serious Fan...

“Every time I see these geographic themes of land and water in your omnipresent photos that become less and less photos and more the feeling of just being there/everywhere, I see a meeting of minds [of land and water], an agreement to coexist for dynamic reasons, a suggestion of how things got started or how things [might] end up with a promise that any/either way is just fine as open skies look down bearing witness.” ~ Bryan-Carlton Flournoy

Thank you Bryan-Carlton and here is another recent image to add to our shared collection of moments…

Summer sunrise Reef Bay by Terrill Welch

Art Collector’s Recommended Read

Sometimes, I receive notes about articles that art collectors feel are important that we not miss. Here is one of those articles that other art collectors may also appreciated and benefit from reading.

Note: this is another of those beautiful scrolling New York Times reads and may require an account….

How to Buy a Work of Art - The New York Times

With the help of gallery owners, patrons, collectors and artists, T explores some of the complications behind an obvious question.

Thank you our longtime art collector who thought to share this interesting and intriguing article. These exchanges add so much richness to our community knowledge.

If opening a New York Times account is not aligning with your stars, there is also an article on our website that covers much of the same information in slightly less detail that I wrote several years ago and it is still well received by readers (and no signing up is necessary 😉)…

Seven Tips for Buying Original Paintings, Canadian Contemporary Terrill Welch Gallery, West Coast Landscape Paintings

What are you going to put on those walls? – Seven considerations when buying an original painting. Homes and offices are places we spend a lot of our life. We want and need them to serve us well. The walls and what we put on those walls are a big part of being in that…

Glenwood Farm Lookout Painting Morning

When there is a new view to explore that requires a climb with a heavy plein air backpack, it always wise to get an early start, especially in June during the longest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. I was all set up to paint by 8:00 am. A rather slow set up since I arrived at the Glenwood Farm Lookout at 7:25 after leaving the side of the road below at 7:00 am… and only having just finished my first cup of coffee.

By 8:52 am the light had changed enough that I had to either stop or start over. I stopped.

As luck would have it, I had company and Glenda King took this photo of me before I started packing up. Now that is the smile of one happy landscape painter!

Glenda was on a reference gathering mission and did some sketching after taking photos in the best light.

This is my plein air backpack all sorted and as light as I could make it. It felt like 30 pounds as I carrying it up the hill to the lookout while trying to visit at the same time. But no. I weighed it when I got home. It came in at a feather weight of 16 pounds… but still felt way heavier to me… maybe I won’t talk so much next time I go up and Glenda won’t need to wait so often for me to catch my breath! 😂

We sure had a great visit and a great morning though and here are my small scale plein air painting sketch results…

“Fresh Cut Fields” by Terrill Welch, 8 x 10 inch acrylic on gessobord sketch.

A large 36 x 72 inch canvas is ordered for this view. I am picking it up today. But I have time for a couple more plein air works before I get started on a grand scale, live painting the canvas in the Arbutus Room. More about this adventure in our next issue.

What Has Sold

”Arising and Dissolving Along a Shore” by Terrill Welch has sold from the gallery’s Arbutus Room before the end of the previous show. When a painting finds its perfect home our hearts are full and sometimes there is that extra something that tells us that its adventures are just beginning. Congratulations to the art collector and her family who all came to confirm the final decision to purchase this work.

Sold! Terrill Welch | Arising and Dissolving Along a Shore (2020) | Artsy

From Terrill Welch Gallery, Terrill Welch, Arising and Dissolving Along a Shore (2020), Oil on canvas, 16 × 20 in

Artist notes: The trail along the sandstone cliff is only gently visible even though well traveled over the crumbling hard surface. There is often a sense of groundlessness, almost vertigo, if one completely releases themselves from the many small visual clues in the landscape. Here is the trail. There is the last rock at the edge. That is the sea. Here is an arbutus tree. I am upright. I am sitting on a log. However, this particular trail can release my mind from what it thinks it knows. My hands can reach out and my arms can pull my cheek to touch the unexpected coolness of the arbutus tree as I pass. Ravens drop sprigs of berries from the tall reaching branches far above. Their calls mix with the lapping of the sea while I place each foot carefully with awareness of how it rolls over the surface, catching the movement as the sole of my shoe slides unexpectedly over a dry twig. I pause. I am alive. Very much alive.

Show is closing soon!

We have deeply enjoyed showing the vibrant “Promise of California Greens” by Elena Maslova-Levin in our online exclusive exhibition. However, our time with this show is drawing to an end Wednesday, July 7, 2021. If you would like to take one more browse and see if there is something you would like to add to your art collection, now is the time.

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.

Thank you Elena for sharing your expressive figurative abstraction renderings of landscapes with us. It has been a pleasure as always!

We conclude our time with Elena’s paintings with a feature of one of my personal favourites in this show…

Elena Maslova-Levin | Rhythms of Time (Timber cave) (2014) | Available for Sale | Artsy

Available for sale from Terrill Welch Gallery, Elena Maslova-Levin, Rhythms of Time (Timber cave) (2014), Oil linen panel, 16 × 20 in

Until Next Time

I am so full of hope and possibility for a welcoming summer with the added benefit of even making our online exchanges easier due to being more relaxed and deliciously - hugged! Like for real! By family, our chosen family and our friends. So as much as I want to see you in person when it is safe to do so, I want you to see and b with you special people even more. I am excited about live painting a large canvas in the gallery’s Arbutus Room. I am excited about more plein air painting and I am excited that you are going to get to do more of the things you love with the people you love. I hope you enjoyed this latest issue as we welcome summer with open arms and hearts.

Terrill 🤗🎨❤️