motion 12 moves ahead.... / by Philip Tarlow

motion 12 before and after the adjustment to the brown triangle on the left

3pm: the dark brown in the triangle on the left was bothering me, so i did some work on it just now & brought it into alignment with the rest of the composition. i've been perusing the catalogue from a major deKooning retrospective we saw at MOMA in 2012.

something he once said:" the desire to make a style is an apology for one's anxiety.... better to make a picture that trembles with anxiety than one that is static because stylistically pure."

ABOVE:    the motion 12 under-drawing at noon, and the same painting at 1:30pm.

the 8/8/11 plein air painting, 16x16" which i'm referring to as i paint today

at work on motion 12, 1pm

1:41 PM: yes, motion 12 was enticingly attractive yesterday & this morning. but we can't get stuck on the under-drawing, can we? so i moved ahead, covering the drawing with a thin coat of warm off-white and drawing/painting into it with oils.  and sure enouch, that under-drawing peeks through enough, oh just enough to provide the mystical magical moving ghost image i was hoping for., surpassing the original 8/8/11 plein air oil i was loosely referring toand revealing a variety of biomorphic suggestive forms produced by a simple but informed twist of the wrist. 

i chose the 16x16 8/8/11 plain air painting you see on the left as my inspiration for motion 12 today.