Terrill Welch by herself - issue #12 Seeking Peace Through Nature
More than ever, during times of war and global unrest, wisdom comes from making peace with our transient and imperfect nature both around us and within us. Embracing wabi-sabi as a landscape painting focus for enhancing world peace is my theme and direction for 2024. I can feel what this is at the core of my being. Yet, few words come forth to articulate what this means to me. However, let’s give it a try shall we?
Peace amplified through nature might be something like:
Acknowledge and honour what is flawed, imperfect and irregular.
Patch, mend, repair and rejuvenate nature and our relationships.
For example, in nature we can plant a tree in the forest, redirect a path around a sensitive ecosystem or develop an organic garden space. In relationships we can call a family member or friend who we haven’t heard from for a while and seek out resolution to hurtful exchanges. We can develop a strong practice of forgiveness of others and of yourself. We can endeavour to preform numerous meaningful acts of random kindness.
We can be reminded that as humans, we are part of nature. We are animals first and are not separate from nature or the impacts on nature.
We can be present and grateful for what we already have.
We can be modesty by seeking just enough and no more.
We can embrace what is seductively simplicity and in its aesthetic beauty.
How might I do these things as a means of seeking peace through nature?
I shall achieve these aims by cultivating a meditative landscape painting practice that exemplifies nature’s colour palette, textures, balance and harmony. I shall do this while embodying the principles outlined above.
It is a start. What do you think? How does this approach feel to you?
I searched my collections of past work to see if there are any paintings that can be used as an anchor or starting point. This is where it becomes more challenging.
I do have a painting about peace that I painted at the beginning of the full invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
It was right for then. However, now I want something with a more consistent hum or sustaining vibration.
I also have the “One World” painting.
This work might have the right colour palette. Yet, somehow emphasizing the horrors and tragedy of war does not support harmony and peace in my mind.
So, do I have anything else?
There is the latest plein air of the maple trees.
There is the last painting of Garry Oak trees shaped by the constant southeasterly winds on East Point at Saturna Island that is shown below under what is new off the easel.
Neither of these are large and each has just the necessary number of brushstrokes and no more. Maybe they can be a start? I am not sure though. Let’s keep looking.
There is “For The Record” with its soft blues and simple sandstone forms with sea and sky.
There are the “Arbutus Tree Poem study” and “Red Line Fire Moonrise” plus “The Thief Left it Behind”…. maybe?
Then there is the Paris painting. It is the palette of this painting that draws me to it for this next peace project. I also wonder what it might have to say about humans being part of nature - with zero separation.
I feel that these are getting closer and still not exactly it. This space might live with a particular time of day when nature is quietest. I have a feeling it might be someplace in the space that is between all of these paintings. This is what is going to take me to something new which I have not yet explored. Something softer, less strident and slightly more worn and comfortable than current contemporary notions. After all, we have not ever achieved world peace have we? We are still searching. I am still searching. With this in mind, it shall be another year for painting discovery and adventure!
WHAT IS NEW OFF THE EASEL
Since I have last written, the large seascape has been released and a few more smaller works completed. The Made on Mayne Fall Tour has come and gone and I am truly settled into my winter studio painting practice. There is still just about another month of my Canadian Landscape class with the Vancouver Island School of Art and instructor Neil McClelland. I have already signed up for the second half of his class that will begin in mid January. It is, I think, a good match and companion project to support the new theme of “Seeking Peace Through Nature” that I want to work on during the coming year. However, here is what we have since I last wrote are…
Artist notes: Storms are frequent but the southeasterly winds are unrelenting at East Point on Saturna Island. A grove of Garry Oaks lean into the shelter available from the cliffs behind them. Nature tolerates neither heroes nor fools. Trees know. If trees do not bend to the elements and take advantage of supports on offer, they will break.
Artist notes: The southwest coast of Canada’s first and possibly only snow of the year turns the trail into a mix of leaning whites and gestures as if the landscape can’t quiet make up its mind. Or perhaps, it is the painter who is hesitant to commit to something that will not last but an hour or so.
And this last one is still VERY shiny and wet.
Artist notes: Just inside the urban areas where homes and farms intervene with forests, I was introduced to a piece of the Cowichan Valley Trail that has magnificent, almost sentimental, views. On this specific morning the clouds were forming at ground level from fog. The moment is brief and fleeting … until it was rendered on my canvas for viewing over the next few hundred years.
Let’s put it in a room view to give us a bit more distance.
NEW VIDEO ABOUT PAINTING “WINTER SONG OF THE SALISH SEA”
I have managed to find a few moments to record and edit another painting video for us that I thought you might like. It is only about 13 minutes long and yet long enough to give you a sense of the process and my intention for the work. Enjoy!
WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED
I love poking around and finding things that are possibly on the fringes of my own interests and yet loosely connected. It is like adding a bit of new spice to a dish that I already love. One such discover was the Himalayas paintings of Nicholas Roerich.
Many of his paintings can be physically seen in the Roerich New York Museum at:
I hope you enjoy seeing these and reading a bit about him and his wife and their fascinating adventures. When you click on the link you can view the paintings as thumbnails and then click on one you want to see large and it will come up along with more information about the painting.
Next, I came across this short video about artist David Hepher where he talks about exploring the ordinary in the urban landscape at:
I find David Hepher’s large scale paintings and painting process fascinating because his intention is often very similar to my own and yet his approach to the painting challenge is so different.
UNTIL NEXT TIME!
I want to welcome our newest paid subscribers to “Terrill Welch by herself” and thank everyone for your ongoing interest in my work and painting practice. Your support, as always, is deeply appreciated.
Before I forget, following up from the last issue, my dad is recovering nicely from his open heart surgery and has just celebrated his 87th birthday. My parents are all cozy in their new rental home close to town for the winter. It was a crazy time for all of us but everything has gone extremely well so far.
On our own home front, David has done a three day trial at the respite hotel to see what he thinks and it wasn’t a good fit. We are now considering other options. I am going to need time for visiting with my family and taking painting trips that are maybe not so close to home. These are going to be imperative to my own wellbeing. So we shall see. It may seem odd to include these events in relation to my painting practice but painting is embedded in my everyday life. To be fully a painter is to be fully human. Therefore, I sometimes, selectively, share these more personal life events.
Our next issue will be published just 10 days before Christmas and though I am not doing a painting calendar this year, I do have an idea for something special that I will tell you more about then. This idea will give you just the Calendar art in an email on the 1st of each month. I think it should be fun and gives us the best part of an art calendar during a time when most of us now use digital calendars. This Calendar Art project would be for all subscribers. Anyway, do let me know what you think of the idea if you get a chance and we shall see how it goes.
All the best, as usual, until next time!
Terrill 👩🎨🎨❤️
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