> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://terrill-welch.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Catching a September Painter’s Breath - Terrill Welch by herself issue #51 - URL: https://terrill-welch.ghost.io/catching-a-september-painters-breath-terrill-welch-by-herself-issue-51/ - Published: 2026-09-04T13:00:15.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-04T13:00:15.000Z - Author: Terrill Welch - Tags: art, art gallery, artist Terrill Welch, Canadian art, Close to Home series, contempoary art, Mayne Island, terrill welch, Terrill Welch by herself, terrill welch gallery While Canadian schools prepare for their first classes this coming Tuesday, I am ready to catch my breath with longer hikes on the quieter and cooler Mayne Island trails. September can also be one of the best months for plein air painting as light becomes golden with the lower angle of the sun. One more painting, that I introduced a couple of issues ago, has sold to the art collector who commissioned it. Several people have written or stopped me in the street to convey how much my work means to them and I want to speak to this in a general way because of the positive reciprocital nature these exchanges have on my practice. This will take us to a reminder visit and link to do so for my individual exhibitions in our group FIVE SEASONS MA Fine Art, Final Show. I have also included an entertaining story under what I am currently reading as a little levity seems fitting about now. I want to explicitly note changes to how the Terrill Welch Gallery Pod will be available for the off season. Finally, I am still thinking about what more I can do for art collectors in various countries because of the Trade War dispute between the United States and Canada. There actually might be nothing at all except to keep our communication open and letting art collectors respond as they must or see fit. But I will keep thinking. Ideas are welcome if you think of anything. I am looking for online virtual gallery opportunities in the United Kingdom and Europe to round out what I am participating in through the galleries and my own gallery plus regional in-person shows. However, mostly I am focused on painting and developing my new “Close to Home” series. **WHAT HAS SOLD** As I mentioned this work that has sold is a commissioned work and the best way to share this sale with you is where the painting is held by one very pleased art collector! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/2026/09/IMG_5074.jpeg) Art collector picking up their commissioned painting from the Terrill Welch Gallery. My deepest thanks to this art collector and all the others who have taken paintings home so far this year! On another note, I won’t be accepting any further commissions in the near future but if you have something in mind and can wait until spring, let me know. **MY PAINTING PRACTICE AND AN ENGAGED AUDIENCE** It would be foolish to try and say that I am not influenced and inspired by the ongoing engagements with those that visit with my work in every manner of fashion. These conversations and observations sometimes go back more than 30 years. Friendships have develop to a level of frankness and directness that supports both the work and me in the process. Other times exchanges are fleeting and speckled with random questions or comments as I stand on the steps of the gallery pod while visitors browse inside the bright small room. Something Martin Gayford mentions has me curious — “Artists, as Anthony Caro put it, are eaters. They consume themselves, their own memories and sensations, and gobble up other people’s ideas” (Gayford, 2024, p. 326). It kind of takes all the benevolent goodness out of a meaningful painting practice, doesn’t it? Still, I find that my best paintings are often grounded in some real life event(s) that leave a mark and the residue is left behind with my brush on a surface, especially the ordinary events and habits that are less accessible with words and tend to go unnoticed, such as the muck on the seafloor. I do collect ideas, bits of poetry, sensations and imagery with an insatiable verve. In the process, there is a randomness that develops between this collection of creative sludge which I pull apart and rearrange into something meaningful, at least meaningful to me. This inspirational debris is different from traceable and cited quotes. There is an abstractness to it that tingles through my cells and then swishes into a mark on a surface. A mark that was intended to be nothing more than an afternoon painting on the shores of the Salish Sea. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/2026/09/IMG_5117-1.jpeg) Terrill Welch plein air painting on her birthday at Oyster Bay on (what is now called) Mayne Island in British Columbia, Canada. This work isn’t quite ready for release because I am still looking at it out of the corner of my eye to see if it is asking for anything more. **REMINDER - FIVE SEASONS MA FINE ART FINAL SHOW** If, by chance you have not yet had the opportunity to view my individual exhibition and those of my fellow artists in this uniquely designed online group show. Here is the link again which also has the link to sign up to the zoom call to ‘Meet the Artists’ where we will each give a short presentation about our work and answer questions. [Terrill Welch Five Seasons MA Fine Art Final Show - Terrill Welch‘Close Encounters at the Tideline’ presents Terrill Welch’s nature-centric, reparative painting relationship with the Salish Sea.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/icon/cropped-artwork-archive-use-of-terrill-welch-painting-in-her-studio-by-allison-mullally-_mg_5876-85a8da27-d2ef-460b-ab98-bacbb2fdce44.jpg)Terrill WelchTerrill Welch![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_3732-1-cf8a174e-033c-4aac-8b25-44d76e4de997.jpeg)](https://terrillwelchartist.com/terrill-welch-five-seasons-ma-fine-art-final-show/?ref=terrill-welch.ghost.io) **WHAT I AM READING** There are many non fiction texts and books I am reading but sometimes I read just for the pure enjoyment of a little forest magic like this snippet of a story by an author friend, Laurie Buchanan. It is vivid with sensory engagement and makes my eyes laugh from the enjoyment of exquisite storytelling: [Every Coffee Order Deserves an Elf NameWhy We Should All Use Creative Aliases in Public, and the Full Backstory Behind Mine![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/icon/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2Ffcf78e8f-fcec-42ac-a350-9c8720324934-2Ffavicon-48x48-d0a09224-122e-44db-a924-5ddbbab7d09b.png)Pines & Quill • Musings from the Ink WellLaurie Buchanan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/thumbnail/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F5d38ebc0-e065-4622-a264-fb80043db779_1024x1024-afa3738e-27fa-4de6-861b-d07c2269e2ac.jpeg)](https://lauriebuchanan.substack.com/p/every-coffee-order-deserves-an-elf?r=319mec&utm%5Fmedium=ios) **OPEN BY APPOINTMENT OR CHANGE FROM THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER TO THE END OF MAY** The Terrill Welch Gallery Pod has reached its four anniversary since opening and we now have a reasonably good handle on the access needs of our art collectors. Most serious fans and art collectors do make arrangements in advance for personal assistance. We do get many more walk-in visitors from the beginning of June to the end of August and will keep these months available for self-browsing. However, during the quieter off season from the beginning of September to the end of May, we will be open by appointment or chance unless otherwise noted for pop up events. A simple text or email exchange will place your visit into my available schedule and you shall have my undivided attention and hospitality to look at both the paintings in the gallery pod and what I have on my easel in the studio that takes you past a whole selection of available work. This change is designed to better serve art collectors and also to allow me to sequester my energy and focus on my painting practice without having to have one eye on the gallery pod with unscheduled guests coming by that then require me to keep the house and art studio ready for random visitors who are seriously interested in my work. This change has little to do with the actual time commitment of keeping the gallery pod open daily but rather freeing up ongoing psychological commitments. I am excited to give this change a try for the next few years and see how it works for art collectors and for myself. I opened my first gallery space in the village during August 2017 after having begun painting full time in 2010\. That was eight and sixteen years ago respectively. This is a long time as a sole-entrepreneur and independent artist to continually keep up a public availability presence day after day, month after month and year after year. In my self evaluation of what is most fruitful for my painting practice and for my art collectors, I decided this “viewing by appointment” for the gallery pod during the off season would be one of the most useful changes to make. Some of this is possible because of the support offered by other art galleries representing my work and some of it is because of the ongoing availability and desire to view my work online. The other change I have already implemented is to move my exchanges to primarily my Creative Potager art research blog and this newsletter rather than a robust posting schedule on social media. It is not possible to completely walk away from social media but it is possible to drastically reduce posting and engagement in this space by making these other two platforms the focus of my posting schedule. So this is where we are! I love hearing from you and seeing you and will be most thrilled to schedule a gallery visit with you over the months ahead. **UNTIL NEXT FRIDAY** The next issue will see us almost to the middle of September. My intention is to have a few more plein air works completed by then before the weather becomes more unpredictable. We shall see. No promises. It will also be the final week that I write to you before I do my “Meet the Artist” presentation that following Thursday. I have everything ready to deliver and will do a few practice runs and hopefully not stumble over my words when the time comes. This is absolutely my final commitment to my MA Fine Art programme. I must admit I am looking forward to having it behind me. Then there is just the wait left for final marks that will come in at the end of September. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/2026/09/IMG_4302.jpeg) Family time amongst the ‘Terrill Welch paintings’ during the summer of 2026. I have chosen to focus on my art practice and time with family and friends rather than global political unrest, other than shopping for “Made in Canada” items and services wherever possible, because it is something that I can influence and in most cases control how I engage. This is where my resilience expands and nurtures creative possibilities and my wellbeing. Wherever you live in this fine world, I wish you all the best in finding the same kind of focus for at least part of each day. This is what will keep us whole and critically engaged when we need to be. This is what will allow us to find our way through unimaginable challenges, hardships and heartbreak. All the best as always, Terrill 👩‍🎨🎨❤️ [Online Art Gallery for Terrill Welch Paintings - Terrill WelchExplore Terrill Welch’s online art gallery, featuring her original oil paintings inspired by the rugged beauty of Mayne Island, BC. Browse available artworks or view sold pieces to appreciate her evolving style.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/icon/cropped-artwork-archive-use-of-terrill-welch-painting-in-her-studio-by-allison-mullally-_mg_5876-7c5d69aa-3809-4f4f-b3ab-143f8f3546d7.jpg)Terrill Welch![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/6d/fc6d57d1-84f5-451a-9c0b-d6622f52daa6/content/images/thumbnail/3EEB68CF-24BE-41CB-9AB9-116B38EF66D3-9fd3fbad-6c56-42b5-92eb-7409b326ef88.jpeg)](https://terrillwelchartist.com/online-art-gallery/?ref=terrill-welch.ghost.io)