10:16 am: in 1978 i made a series of portraits of greek artists i knew and were friends of mine. an article about these portraits was published in the art magazine popular at the time: zygos. the article was written by one of the artists i painted: the late rallis kopsidis. he painted in a style very much influenced by the byzantine tradition, and he himself looked a lot like one of the byzantine saints. at a later date i'll translate the entire article and post all the portraits. for now, here are the first few sentences, which i just now translated. and this is my portrait of kopsidis, in egg tempera on board.
this is my translation of the first few lines of text:
life’s journey is written upon the human face. saints and murderers speak through their painted eyes and reveal what they tried so hard to hide. philip tarlow is one of those artists who paints the human figure, as do many of us artists. he doesn’t prettify whatsoever. he paints them just as he sees them. this is a tough art form; there are painters who idealize their subjects. then, the portrait loses it’s beauty, because it’s beauty lies precisely in it’s truth.
