5:54 PM: AND, at the very last minute, he runs over to 6/10/2021 creek oil and…wait a minute…he’s grabbing a piece of paper, taping it to the canvas and…yes, an oil pastel and….yes!, he’s making changes just before heading out the door!
BELOW: 6/10/2021 creek oil this morning at at end of day
6/10/2021 creek oil at 5:30 pm
4:16 PM: and a revision to 7/9/2021 watering the flowers. it’s reduced in it’s dimensions to 18 3/4 x 20 in. and the composition has been simplified, particularly the area on the left. BELOW: before (left) and after images.
7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” oil & oil pastel on portrait linen
1:56 PM: yesterday, while waiting for mikela to walk over to the studio & give me some feedback on 6/10/2021 creek oil, I began a new painting in my ano kato series. it’s small relative to what i’ve been working/playing on lately: 16x20 in. the image is inspired by a series of photos I shot from an upper floor of moma, looking down on the visitors to the museum. I may leave it as is. click on the WORKS drop down menu above right, and then on ano kato or
copy & paste the link to see the ano kato series:
https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid
1:25 PM: revisions to 6/10/2021 creek oil continued today, with my main focus being the grey form above the figure. previously there was a large image of a girl stooping to pick something up from a grassy area. that was taken out a couple of days ago and replaced by a small female figure viewed from above. that didn’t work either. the grey area that was left seemed too large, too dominant, and needed breaking up. so here’s the latest iteration.
a section of a colorado map has been introduced, breaking up the mass of grey, to which the eye was previously drawn, and allowing the rest of the composition to sing. the blues, distributed around the composition, are much more available to the eye, and the large male figure seen from above and striding we know not where, appears to have a more purposeful gait. the blue, yellow and black vertical bands of color tie it all together and allow the playfulness of the bits of collaged pen drawings, such as the one on the upper left, to play a greater role.
the legs of the striding figure trail off into a drawn outline, giving us the message “i’m not finished yet with my journey.” which reflects how I feel too.
yesterday, in a phone conversation, my friend p.g. told me about a visit he had paid a few days earlier, to the renowned painter wayne thiebaud, who, my friend related, interrupted their conversation because he said he was late for his tennis lesson. thiebaud, best known for his paintings of cakes & other deserts, turned 100 in november. and after his tennis lesson he would return to the studio and spend the rest of his day painting. “i’m not yet finished with my journey!”
BELOW are the stages of 6/10/2021 creek oil, since june when it was born.
11:55 AM: I pulled out one of my older hard drives and was going through it a little while ago. this is one of the many paintings-in-progress I found on the drive. it’s titled 10/27/15 grey 4, stage 1. since it was painted over, this is the only record I have of it. it includes collaged elements, such as the map on the upper left, and is interesting to me as a record of the evolution of my work and the opening of my vision over the 6 years since this was created.
and now, back to my revisions of 6/10/2021 creek oil, which I was working on yesterday.
BELOW: as it looked at the end of. the day yesterday