Terrill Welch by herself - issue #18 Wild Flowers Hikes, Small Paintings, High Tea and Northern Lights
Seasonal delights are definitely walking through small forest meadows of wildflowers. I shared a couple wildflower beauties at the end of our previous issue. This issue I will share a more abundant excursion and adventure on Vancouver Island at Mount Tzouhalem near Duncan in British Columbia where there are many forest trails and also an ecological reserve. In addition, I have three new small paintings completed for your consideration as I scramble to have lots of choices for the 20% savings for 20 days that will begin June 19, 2024 and end July 8, 2024. Of course, as paid subscribers, you do not have to wait to take advantage of this offer. However, your opportunity will end with everyone else on July 8th. I have a some room to do a few commissions… but not much. If this is what you would like to consider, let me know sooner rather than later. Finally, there has been a scramble of effort to get paintings ready for the new high tea room and the new conference room at the Mayne Island Resort. It has been a super special project to choose paintings for these rooms and I think they came together really well. Next we have the spectacular northern lights event that reach all the way down to Mayne Island and beyond! Let’s begin with the wild flower hike…
MOUNT TZOUHALEM WILDFLOWER HIKE
I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver Island for two nights and a day in mid April while my husband David’s eldest son came to stay with him. As you might remember, David is only able to manage part of a day on his own anymore. Due to recent cognitive changes, his family doctor has made a referral to a Geriatrician to be assessed for Vascular Cognitive Decline/Dementia. But I do not need a diagnosis to know what he needs to be safe and feel secure. This situation is what it is and, for now, we are managing quite well actually. This too is part of living a full life. I share this brief synopses because it does impact my daily life as an artist, my painting practice and my art business. The current results are that I will not applying it take my Master of Fine Arts this fall and in general, the world will need to come to me for the next few years and I shall continue to work close to home except on those rare occasions when someone is able to come and give me some relief. I will use this relief time mostly for paintings trips and to visit family. This time I went to visit family and took advantage of the first morning to plein air paint in a salt marsh. I will share more about this with you later in on.
I went to stay with my daughter Josie and her husband and two boys. On one of these days during my visit Josie and I went to hike on Mount Tzouhalem and find wild flowers. By the time we were done, we had covered 7.8 km of uneven hilly terrain at the pace of a photographer- slow! I kept stopping to take photos and Josie kept saying- mom, we are not there yet! At one point she took a photo of me taking photos of shooting stars and I asked what she was doing. She told me that she was documenting the slowest hike in the history of the mountain. Let’s see if all that slowness was worth it…
The Erythronium oregonum or Giant White Fawn Lily is always a personal favourite. It often grows in swaths of ideal habitat causing me to get low and try and see from underneath.
Though not a flower, the Fomitopsis pinicola or Red-belted Conk is a magnificent hard boring mushroom that grows in trees. Particularly when they are young, they tend to grab our eye as we scan the forest.
The Collinsia parviflora or Maiden Blue Eyed Mary can be found on the cliff sides of Mayne Island as well. They always make me think of a historic novel with romantic intrigue.
The Cardamine pratensis — pink cuckoo bitter-cress or sometimes called milkmaids is new to me.
Pink cuckoo bitter-cress grows abundantly in damp meadows and is often found in the partial shade at the edges of meadows. Herbalist John Gerard (1545-1612) explained the common name this way: "These floure for the most part in April and May, when the Cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant notes without stammering."
Dodecatheon hendersonii or Henderson’s shooting star is part of the primula family and is stunning when they are in boom.
They like to grow in the Garry Oak meadows but can be found elsewhere as well.
Also new to me is the Lomatium utriculatum or Spring Gold which is small and low to the ground and loved by pollinators as you can see in the photo.
Another tiny flower that puts on a show is the Plectritis congesta or Sea blush. Often they are in clumps but someone nibbled around this one.
Camassia quamash or camas is a beautiful and important flower to the Coast Salish people as it was and is an important cultural and food source. The camas were just starting to bloom when we were there.
The word kwetlal means “camas” in Lekwungen, the language of southeastern Vancouver Island Coast Salish people.
In pre-colonial times, Indigenous people not only harvested camas lily plants, they carefully cultivated them in family plots using traditional techniques to promote bigger bulbs and larger crop yields. They also took great pains to weed out a similar, toxic bulb known as “death camas,” which can grow nearby. Pit-cooked camas fed families, but it was also a valuable commodity and an integral part of trading culture. Reference: https://terralingua.org/2020/05/12/camas
Deltoid Balsamroot a rare red listed indigenous Vancouver Island sunflower that we were lucky enough to see. It only grows in a couple of locations and this one was in the fenced area of the ecological reserve. They are about 12 - 18 inches tall and definitely are recognizable as a sunflower.
My daughter’s favourite wildflower is the Fritillaria biflora or Chocolate Lily.
In fact, I was down on the ground attempting to capture a swath of the meadow…
when I could hear laughter in her voice as she said “make sure you are taking a photo of the right wildflower.” I couldn’t figure out what she meant until I looked over and saw that she had spotted a Chocolate Lily.
The forest hike was grand and the view from meadow ridge is stunning!
Josie set up her phone camera to take a photo of us and at that moment everything felt simple and rich and completely fulfilling.
Josie had carefully chosen this adventure to do together as she knew it was something I would deeply enjoy. Her thoughtfulness and relaxed pleasure in sharing this special spot near her home with me warmed my heart like the rays of the Spring sunshine. I may not paint anything from these wildflower references but they are treasures in their own photographic right for the memories they hold and that I have now shared with you.
NEW PAINTINGS
I deliberately took the early ferry, leaving the house at 6:30 am so that I could be in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island at around 9:30 am with one stop at the viewpoint on the Malahat to look south at the Olympic Range in the United States.
Then, with my plein air pack on, I headed out along the flat trail with fields on one side…
and a tributary and salt marsh on the other.
It was a gorgeous morning with a few birders and walkers already returning as a more of us are heading out as part of a later morning adventure. The red and yellow winged blackbirds sang and the quails cooed and chirped. Great Blue Herons fished amongst the reeds along the water which hosted a variety of water fowl. I had been to this spot before on another trip a several years ago so I knew where I wanted to go to paint and I then just chose the best spot for the time of day and the light.
The painting is now done and, though I made a few small changes back in the studio, it still feels like that morning in the salt marsh to me….
“Morning the Salt Marsh” by Terrill Welch 8 x 10 inch acrylic on gessobord plein air.
Artist notes: The black birds and quail were singing as I stand painting along the trail beside the water. Distant barns advance under my attention and clouds begin to fill the sky as I paint. It was good morning to be an artist.
The next work is another one of those small seascapes I am so fond of painting. It began with an orange ground in acrylic and then had a few blocking in swaths of paint also in acrylic to assist me in keeping track of where I wanted to take the painting.
I followed this by working up the sky in oils.
Pretty soon the whole surface was blocked in oils with just a little of the orange acrylic ground and reference markers showing.
Then, it was just a matter of more paint.
Until the final painting was alive and complete…
“Strait of Georgia Blues” by Terrill Welch 11 x 14 inch walnut oil on gessobord.
Artist Notes: An icy northwest wind whips up the Salish Sea in the Strait of Georgia with such playful laughter that I forget that I didn’t put my wool sweater on under my rain jacket. Such abandoned glee can do that.
For a small work, it holds its own nicely…
This next painting was completed following a new “art at the inn” drop in creative group visit. I wanted something that was small, easy to transport and straightforward enough I could visit at least a little as I worked. As usual though, once I start painting, I do more working and less visiting. Still, it was an enjoyable, welcoming and pleasant morning.
“Rhythms on the Sea Floor” by Terrill Welch 8 x 10 inch acrylic on gessobord.
I suspect that I may do more of these shell paintings because I really like painting the curves And overlapping shapes. It is like putting together a puzzle to determine what is in front and what is behind.
We shall see but the possibilities seem endless...
From standing edges to large flat all over paintings.
There are natural raw raku-like references…
to those of delicate porcelain…
As usual, I have way more ideas than time. Yet, just consider for a moment the pleasure of loading a brush with thick paint and taking on something like this…
Ah but for the limits of time!
WHAT HAS SOLD
This month we have one special painting that has found a home it has been waiting to join for about five years.
SOLD - “Winter At the Beach House” by Terrill Welch, acrylic on gessobord panel, 8 x 10 inches.
Artist notes: Quick winter plein air sketch at Point No Point on Vancouver Island.
I am thrilled both for the art collectors and the painting.
PAINTINGS AND THE HIGH TEA ROOM
Sometimes being an artist is so much fun it almost doesn’t seem like work at all. I spent a good part of a Friday and a few hours on the Saturday choosing and bringing paintings to be hung in the new High Tea Room at the Mayne Island Resort. I didn’t even have to do the hanging as the owners use to have a gallery and Daryll Martin is a professional and skilled painting hanger.
With the tables set Janice Martin snapped the shutter!…
A short while later, David and I joined another table with two lovely guests for high tea. I told them that they seemed to be paired with my painting that was directly behind them.
I slipped in after the tea to take a few photographs just to give you an idea of what else is on the walls.
The carving in between these next two paintings is by a local Indigenous artist, Wayne Thomas.
PAINTINGS IN THE NEWLY TRANSFORMED CONFERENCE ROOM
This room will comfortably host 30 people and I have a feeling it will used for many workshops, weddings and meetings in the future. The tables are set for its inaugural gathering to host the Mayne Island Community Chamber of Commerce.
With the lights off, there is this quiet anticipation of what is to follow.
With them on, we get the full sparkle of what is to come in a few hours.
The vases in the middle of the tables are by our local Quasimodo Pottery. They have their own studio gallery as well as pieces available at the Mayne Island Resort.
I am thrilled to be the “artist in residence” for the Mayne Island Resort and I’m happy to have them now presenting 32 of mostly my larger paintings in various areas of the inn. It has take a fair bit of work to pull everything together and move it from the loft studio in our home to the resort. It has also been well worth the effort when I see the paintings in those large spaces and people come to the gallery pod after seeing the work there or go there after seeing the my paintings here. Time will tell but we are off to an excellent start!
NORTHERN LIGHTS IN SOUTHWESTERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
As you will likely have heard we had a rare event in our night skies recently and the northern lights happen to make it all the way south to over our house. I did share these images on social media but just in case you missed them…
It was late and just after 11:00 pm when I stepped outside to see what I could see.
I love how the stars shine through.
I think about doing a painting of these and then resist. That glow in the night sky just might be beyond the reach of my brushes.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
As you can see, I have had a varied and exciting art focused month!
I hope you are also having a strong Spring time surge of energy that takes you out into the sun for the good part of most days. I love this time of year as it is not yet too hot but the chill has mostly gone from the night air and the windows frequently remain open creating that outdoor freshness within the warm shelter of our home.
My fir tip, lemon balm and mint herbal tea made from my snippets around the garden has steeped and is waiting for me. On this note, I shall close off and wish you all the very best as usual.
Terrill :)
P.s. If you would like to comment on this issue and share your own thoughts you are more than welcome. Also, feel free to email me directly at anytime and reach out to tawelch@shaw.ca as I am always pleased to hear from you.
Terrill Welch
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