Terrill Welch by herself - issue #37 Season Greetings and all the Best in the New Year!
As we balance our broad reaching concerns with gratitude, I hear your heavy sigh that lifts towards laughter like a long wave chattering over the shells tossed between the reefs. We are all in this grand shifting world together. This past year has seen me focus on the intimate power of inner and outer observations along the shoreline of the Salish Sea. Sometimes I even had company. 😉
As the year draws to a close, and winter solstice is just about to arrive, I am thrilled with the collection of thirty new paintings with various compositions from “landscapes of the small”, “drop in the ocean” and “child’s view”. This has been a year of exploration, experimentation and risk-taking that has led me to a lasting truth about my contemporary artwork and painting practice. Whatever the subject, or the range of mark making, my intimate connection with nature is visible in every brush stroke.
In addition, I have also learned that your art collector appreciation of my work comes in many forms from private notes about people admiring and asking questions about my paintings on your walls; to getting reproduction prints when originals are currently out of reach; to carefully choosing a new work for your collection; to requesting a commission for when I am finished my MA in Fine Art program, and finally, to receiving a text message with a painting you have that is presenting itself in particularly flattering light. It all warms my heart with how hard these paintings work everyday to help sustain our resilience and our sense of hope and possibilities. Our shared commitment to warmth, kindness and also accountability has my inner being singing for what we will collectively be able to accomplish during the years ahead.
I sense that my paintings are my best offer to a world in turmoil. I am fortunate to be able to see myself clear to continue painting and sharing my work for another year. I am looking forward to 2026 even though it is likely to be an extremely challenging year in ways I have yet to discover. If all goes well, I will begin my final unit for my MA in Fine Art programme in early February and I will have everything completed by the end of July, though the final marks will not be available until the end of September. I have tentative ideas for the way forward after this with a strong painting practice as the central component. However, we shall wait and see.
THE BEST 14 OUT OF 30 PAINTINGS IN 2025
I had a hard time choosing just twelve best artworks for the year. I eventually succumbed to a choice of fourteen from the thirty paintings completed and released 2025. Here is the chosen collection, in no particular order, in a private viewing room for your enjoyment!
I also took some time to present these works in a short 5 minute video with nature and studio references between each painting.
MOSTLY A TIME OF REFLECTION AND GATHERING ENERGY
I did very little painting this past month with the exception of a colour theory workshop with Jane Frederick through The Open College of Arts. My master’s programme comes with the expectation that I am already a competent risk taker with considerable practical skills already achieved in using my preferred tools. But there are occasionally undergraduate painting workshops that are offered to the student body which, if I have the time, I will sometimes sign up for out of interest. This was one of those.
To that end, I have two PDF recommendations, if colour theory is your thing or if you are simply curious.
The first is The Elements of Colour by Johannes Itten (1970):
https://monoskop.org/images/4/46/Itten_Johannes_The_Elements_of_Color.pdf
The second is an exhibition catalogue (with theoretical introduction essays) for ‘Painting as Terrain’ curated by Jyoti Bharwani for the Contemporary British Painting Exhibition, 18 Janaury — 26 April 2019:
During the past few weeks, I have mostly spent my time doing as little as possible that wasn’t essential. There has been one exception and that is pulling out a selection of canvas and arranging them around the studio.
Then I added hanging wires to those that will need them and painted all sixteen surfaces with yellow, orange or red grounds in preparation for next year’s work.
Everything is now dry and stacked up on the one wall for later. That is it for now!
WHAT I AM READING
One of my favourite reads recently is an inspirational story about Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860 to 1961) posted on the National Museum of Women in the Arts website at:
“She exhibited her work internationally into her 90s and painted until a few months before her death at age 101.” ~ National Museum of Women in Art
“The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition, “Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work,” open from Nov. 25 through July 12, 2026, is a sweeping retrospective that presents Moses not as a quaint folk painter, but as a crucial figure in art history. Through nearly 90 works, the exhibition reveals how Moses painted what she knew with an instinct for cinematic composition: tiny dramas unfolding within broad panoramas where every figure played a role in the theater of daily life.” ~ Samantha Baskin, Smithsonian correspondent.
You can read the full article, though forewarned you will have to read around the magazine’s advertising, at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/in-her-70s-grandma-moses-began-painting-lovely-scenes-of-rural-life-then-she-became-an-icon-180987732/
UNTIL NEXT TIME
May you have a memorable holiday season in whatever fashion you choose to spend it.
For those missing people who are no longer here, might your loss be softened by special memories of your time together in the past.
For those flinching from a harsh exchange or hurt feelings, might you find kindness from another or within yourself.
Special season greetings to you and yours and Happy New Year as I conclude this year with this one final issue of Terrill Welch by herself!
Warm regards as always,
Terrill 👩🎨🎨❤️
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