nothing..... /  by Philip Tarlow

4:02 pm: on the way to the studio......this morning on the way to my studio i wore my new keen hiking boots. they were on sale at REI, so we each ordered a pair. no other boots fit my feet as well as keens. every morning i walk past this beautiful fallen tree branch. it gets better every year. and i spied a cactus that seemed to be blooming, in spite of the fact that these cacti bloom every june, and the blossoms last only a few weeks. so it's a mystery why just this one plant had that vibrant pink color. ya think it was for me? the path you see leading to my studio has been created by my morning "commute." this land is so fragile that, if i were to stop using this short cut to my studio completely, it would take many years for the spare desert plants to regenerate.

2:21 pm: it was tricky, but i think i've settled on an image for the sister painting to parade 24,one of the two 48x48" parade paintings. it's drawn form the same image i used for parade 48, on the right. the reason for this is that while i'm waiting for new stretcher bars tp arrive from blick, i'm going to unstretch the 48x48" painting i re-worked a few days ago, parade 37, which, as i said in my post a few days ago, will not be a candidate for my nov. 5th houston show since it's gone in a different direction than the rest of the series. once i cut the canvas and make the drawing, you'll understand a lot better what i'm talking about.

BELOW: a pic of me, shot 3/2/15 working on parade 24 on the left, and the painting itself on the right. the image i've chosen, while not a direct match for parade 24, will have a similar spirit and tone.

 

12:14 pm: nothing. it's something when you think about it. if nothing is something, who are you?

planning the show /  by Philip Tarlow

3:42 pm: first let me say, to those of you who read these blog posts, THANK YOU! i can feel your support, and it makes a big difference. ever since i started blogging, i feel a wind at my back, and an inspiration to do better.

so i've got the image i'm going to work from for the sister painting to this one, which is 72x32," but i'm missing 2 32" stretcher bars, so i'll have to order them from blick & they'll be here next week.

in the mean time, since i'm low on stretcher bars, i can unstretch the one i worked on yesterday: parade 37, and use those 48x48" stretcher bars for my next painting. since it will likely be hanging next to the other 2 48x48 parade paintings, it has to have some relation to one of them. BELOW are the existing 48x48" paintings, one of which i need to match this next one to. on the LEFT: parade 24; RIGHT: parade 36. right now i feel more inclined to do something in the general ball park of parade 24. so i'll have to look through my images & see what i've got that turns me on. if it doesn't turn me on, forget it.

right now i'm back at the house, trying to maintain my rhythm in proofing the actionlab curriculum. i've actually completed all the chapters, but now i'm going back over them with a fine tooth comb....and finding lots of mistakes to correct. editing can be a bitch. but it must be said: i'm a worker-bee. i love working, and switching it up between painting and our work on actionlab feels perfect. we had a GREAT talk with the principal and the teacher we'll be working with starting the end of this month at the middle school in edwards, colorado, near vail and about 3.5 hours drive. they are totally psyched, having experienced our work with the kids last year, except now they can click in to the product, and it's a whole different ball game. the kids of course remember us (we told them they could call us flip & micky) and can't wait to see us again.the only issue with driving up to edwards in winter is......yep, snow. it can definitely get hairy.

1:10 pm: this morning upon entering the studio and looking at the changes i made to parade 37 yesterday (see yesterday's post), it occurred to me that, while i like what happened to parade 37, it's no longer a candidate for my november show. it's going in a different direction. 

so i turned it towards the wall and instead hung 3 parade series paintings i happen to have here in my studio. they just happened to be here, so the 3 paintings you see here, hanging on my east studio wall, won't be hanging side by side in the show. but they do give a sense of the tone of the work that will be hanging in november. 

so what i've done this morning is take the images of all 27 paintings in this series that are candidates and put them on one page, arranged according to size. that's so that i can see which sizes i want more of, which will help me make my final selection of images to paint and help me figure out how to divide up this 82"x180" roll of portrait linen. it's complicated, because we're talking about not only matching up sizes, like the 72x32" i'm currently looking at, but images or "subjects" as some would say. i'll post more about this process later, but now i'm starving, not having eaten anything all day, so i'm going to make myself some lunch while i consider what my next step needs to be.

a rad move- parade 37 revision / parade 51 completed / double rainbow / choosing an image for parade 52 / fresh colorado produce / parade 50 in the sun /  by Philip Tarlow

3:42 pm: a RAD move. ok, i said to myself. this painting is bugging me because it's fucking boring! so what've i got to lose? bupkus! the RAD move i speak of here is in this detail, on the right. it takes it from a more or less conventional painting with more or less conventional solutions, to something that takes into account and plays off the break-up of space that began oh so long ago with.....who shall i reference? the cubists? it doesn't really matter. once we no longer blindly believed objects are solid and time linear, then an arm becoming a wood grain partition or a head of hair disintegrating into strands in space; parallel marks.......so, having nothing to lose, i took a risk. i think it paid off. maybe not. the morning after will tell all. by the way, if those reflections in the upper right look familiar, i borrowed them from parade 51, which i just completed yesterday. scroll down to yesterday's post.

BELOW: LEFT- the painting before i started the rework RIGHT- after

2:12 pm: in reviewing the parade series paintings to date, i noticed that parade 37 needed work. so i dove in just now, starting with the wood grain that makes up about 1/3 of the lower portion of the painting. right now, it's drying under my ceiling fan so that the newly painted areas don't drip when i place it on the easel. BELOW: LEFT: parade 37 before re-work began; MIDDLE: working on the wood grain; RIGHT: on the floor drying under my ceiling fan. once i feel complete with the wood grain, i'll begin doing more work on the figures. you never know if you should have left well enough alone until you dive in!

upon entering my studio this morning, i saw the completed parade 51 on the easel.

9:58 am: in a little while, i'll head to my studio to begin the process of choosing the image for parade 52, and planning how the last of the rolls of artfix portrait linen will be divided up. the roll measures 82" wide by 5 yards in length, and i always try to maximize usage and minimize waste on this very expensive roll of linen.

9:38 am: yesterday afternoon we had monsoonal storms followed by a spectacular double rainbow, seen here from our east facing deck. every thursday during the summer months, kent & suzanne telinde drive about 3 hours to bring us fresh colorado produce. right now, we get mostly peaches & plums, tomatoes, corn.....plus we're now getting a box of fresh produce every thursday from our friends tom & lillian. tom drives across the valley from saguache, where their farm is loacted, and brings us a box filled with fresh fruit & veggies; whatever they've picked that week. always a surprise, always great.

BELOW:

9:50 am: yesterday evening after the storms and the rainbow, here's what the western sky looked like. and this morning at 6:30 am as we set out on our walk, here's what the sky to the east looked like (RIGHT) the temperature was 43F; the lowest it's been so far this summer.

this is parade 50, hanging in our entryway. the angles created by the sun falling on the painting compliment the angles in the composition itself.

like a van gogh? / parade 51 tweaks today / interesting TED talk /  by Philip Tarlow

2:38 pm: this is the completed parade 51. i did quite a bit of tweaking, and now it POPS! scroll down to compare with earlier versions. i went back into about 80% of the painting. the shadows on the cement floor are richer and more varied now, allowing the patches of light falling on the floor to sing. the two male figures have had the highlights on their shirts ratcheted up. and the large sculpture on the left has been extensively reworked, allowing it to come closer to the rich patina of the original piece. i love this sculpture! the sculpture in the upper center has more variety in the greys, and a section of wall has been introduced on the upper right, giving the entire composition more geometric interest and integrity. there is always, i feel, a certain mystery in these views from above.

i've frequently expressed my belief that a painting is a series of marks, more or less informed, energetic and masterful on a surface, whether that surface is the rock wall of an aboriginal cave, the wall of a home in ancient pompeii or the side of an apartment building in new york. the "subject" is actually the way the paint is applied, the use of space, light, drawing, etc. that said, it would be foolish to maintain that this is not also a representation of humans and in this case, sculpture and paintings interacting in a space. it's a frozen moment in time; a mystery.

1:11 pm: below are yesterday's version of parade 51 on the LEFT, and today's so far, on the RIGHT

parade 51  35x56"  oil on portrait linen

9:45 am: i'm a little late, so i'm just going to post this extraordinary shot from space of the never before seen 3 hurricanes in the pacific. don't you think it looks a lot like a van gogh? more when i have updated pics of my tweaks. mikela visited the studio yesterday afternoon and pointed out some areas of the painting that need to pop more. as usual, i tihnk her observations were spot on, so that's what i'll be working on today.

 

 

 

 

copy & paste to check out this TEDtalk:       http://www.ted.com/talks/phil_hansen_embrace_the_shake

A UNIQUE HURRICANE EVENT:

excellence / yesterday's pizza: always better / 3 stages of morning sky / parade 51 continues /  by Philip Tarlow

1:50 pm: something took hold of me today and i was in one of those states where you don't think at all, you just paint. so now i'm looking at it and evaluating whether it's complete.

LATER: i'm going to go back to the house and do more actionlab proofing. i'll look at this painting again in the morning and decide then if there's any more i need to do. i suspect there will be.

parade 51 35x56"  oil on portrait linen

11:43 am: EXCELLENCE: what is it? are you striving for it? how do you know if/when you've achieved it? think about this and i'll be back soon; right now, i'm striving for excellence, but trying not to take it too personally.

9:24 am: at 6:30 am, as we left the house to take our 2.25 mile walk, i shot the sky 3 times, 5 minutes apart, revealing the shifts in color, light and cloud formations over just a 15 minute period. right now the temperature is at 49F, a first for this late in the morning and a harbinger of fall. after i mediatate & make mikela's second thermos of a unique blend of 3 ethiopian beans, i'll go to the post office in crestone; about 3.5 miles to send some stuff that's got to be mailed today. so i might get to the studio later than normal, where i'll resume work on parade 51. pics as available.

yesterday i mentioned the delicious pizza we ate at moonlight pizza in salida monday night. we couldn't finish it, so they put the remaining 2 slices in a box & we took it home. yesterday evening i took them out and doctored them, adding great quality italian parmezon, local tomatoes and my favorite turkish olives. i stuck it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and it was absolutely delicious. mikela threw some arugula sprinkled with balsamic on the plate, we boiled some local corn and, along with twilight summer ale, a seasonal from deschutes brewery in oregon, i had a perfect dinner.

i'll continue this post once i'm back from the P.O. & in the studio.

our salida trip yesterday / continuing parade 51/ the yak / a new school arises from the rubble /  by Philip Tarlow

3:29 pm: i'm stopping here for the day. all the work i did today can be found in this detail. the full painting is below.

parade 51, 35x56" at the end of my painting day today

1:39 pm: here's the current state of parade 51:

1:43 pm: this morning before starting to paint i put together a proposal for a commission. i won't say any more about it unless it happens. part of the process was creating a business card that would go with the subject, which you see on the left, below. the other two images are of my lunch, which i'm eating right now.

​

our local yak herd seen yesterday grazing just off the "T" road, 10 miles from crestone

8:16 am: as i had mentioned, we drove to salida yesterday for a doctors appointment and to celebrate completion (for the most part) of the actionlab curriculum. our dinner at moonlight pizza was delicious, as was the local pale ale. on the way back, we saw this local herd of yak grazing. they are much wilder in spirit that cattle; no comparison. and of course they're used to the tibetan high altitude and very cold temps. so our 7,500 ft. valley is a walk in the park for these guys, accustomed as they are to 11-12,000 ft. altitudes.

we also saw the ruins of the just demolished moffat school in big piles, in front of the brand new recently completed school in moffat, about 15 miles from crestone. i was on the local planning commitee last year, where we discussed the various architectural options. as representatives of our community, we  had a voice in critical planning decisions before the final plans were drawn up by the architectural firm that had won the bid. we had to match the grant money the state was offering, which we were able to do.

when i head to the studio around 10am, i'll continue painting parade 51. this painting is based on photos i shot from above at the july 31 opening at space gallery in denver. here's a detail.

short painting day / this morning's sky / learning to speak lingerie / crestone conglomerate /  by Philip Tarlow

1:51 pm: that's it for today; gotta get going to salida. i'll have a full day of painting tomorrow.

parade 51 at 1:45 pm today. it's 35x56", oil on portrait linen

11:02 am: on the way to my studio, i photographed one of the vast number of crestone conglomerate rocks on our land. this formation is very rare and was formed 300 million years ago, although some of the rocks you see melded together here are much older. here's a link to an article about it in our local monthly paper, the crestone eagle.

http://crestoneeagle.com/archives2005/headlineB1.aug05.html

8:40 am: i'm reading a very surreally entertaining article in the new yorker about chinese merchants selling sexy lingerie in egypt. copy & paste the link below to your browser.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-speak-lingerie

today is overcast with a good chance of rain later in the day. we'll drive to salida; about 60 miles over poncha pass, around 3. i have a dr. appointment, but we're mainly thinking of it as a celebration. we have mostly completed work on writing & proofing the actionlab curriculum, which took a couple of years. we plan on going to moonlight pizza; the best in salida for dinner. they also have an in house brewery with superb beers. before heading out, i'll continue work on parade 51 and post pics as they become available.

a few shots of the sky this morning at 6:30 as we headed out for our morning walk.

upon entering my studio / yesterday's palettes / neat or ocd? / resuming work on parade 51 / a wonderful dinner /  by Philip Tarlow

2:45 pm: here's where i'm stopping today, to go back to the house and do more actionlab proofing. every day that passes brings us closer to the moment, now just a few weeks away, when we finally introduce our product into the schools. we've tested it before, but we hand delivered it to the students. this is the first time students will actually be able to click in. 

1:49 pm: this is the current state of parade 51. click on the images below & mouse over for a description.

A WONDERFUL DINNER

last night we had our friends dan & lilly over for dinner. dan thought he might have to leave early to see a patient at the hospital in salida, but he received a call letting him know that he didn't need make the 60 mile drive over the pass; the patient was doing much better. so we got to hang, have dinner followed by lilly's tasty desert: banana bread, and enjoy one another. that's all there is to the story; it doesn't take much to enjoy life. good friends, good conversation, good food & wine (beer for philip). as we finished our main course, lilly, who was seated facing our west looking windows, pointed to the sky. another gorgeous SLV sunset.

10:59 am: upon entering my studio a little while ago, here's what i saw. that painting, in it's current state is provocative. pregnant space. a sculpture seemingly ready to fall right on the viewer's head. beware!! on the RIGHT: yesterday's palettes.

NEAT or OCD? you be the judge. here's how i arrange the moka pot & various accessories after i make mikela's 2 thermoses and clean up.

and today's strap choice: the original rubber strap that came with the watch. this is my preference today. no leather, just rubber. black. stealthy. and now, lets get to work! pics as they become available. today's challenge: painting the large cement floor in a way that it's not too dark, yet allows the beautiful reflections of hung paintings to come through.

happy birthday dad! / more amazing skies / resuming work on parade 51 / /  by Philip Tarlow

2:50 pm: i'm cooked! so i'll quit for the day and resume tomorrow morning. so this piece of sculpture is by stephen shachtman, and was included in the exhibition i photographed at space gallery, which is up for one more day. i'm newly a member of the gallery and don't know stephen, but, as i said earlier, i've fallen in love with this piece, with it's geometric rigor and subtle, painterly colors and marks. i see in it a suggestion of reference to the human form.

i can't wait to get back to work on this painting and see how it evolves.

BELOW: 2 details of parade 51.

1:35 pm: we have dinner guests tonight, so i'll stop around 3. right now i'm working on parade 51 & will share photos shortly. remember a few days back when i talked about falling in love with a large sculpture in the composition, which i was drawing that day? well, i'm painting it right now. and the more i paint, the more in love with it i fall. you'll see what i mean soon enough....

12:33 pm: this is me with my dad about 6 months before he died. today is his birthday. happy birthday dad!

behind us is just a small sampling of his books. he was an inveterate researcher into topics related to jewish mysticism and had strong opinions, most of which the rabbis in the temples we attended vehemently disagreed with. he objected to the word god and preferred instead creator. he was deep into the zohar and felt strongly about the tragic mistranslation of the old testament which, in his own humble way. he spent years working on correcting. "tragic" because such mistakes as "and man shall have dominion over the beasts of the field" have been directly responsible for our decimation of species, when in fact the original is more like "and man shall be custodian of......" i learned a lot from my dad. his name was roy. roy tarlow. a sweetheart of a man.

8:38 am: yesterday evening there was a very powerful thunderstorm about 2-3 miles to our southeast, over the sangres. the sky turned a color you'll find hard to believe, but this shot is not doctored. i only adjusted the size and clarity of the image, not the colors. 

just after the sun set, this storm produced very high winds at our house before it dissipated. no rain however; it was all to our southeast.

more when i get to the studio.....

musical notes / mikela / ifka's castle spire / evening skies / getting into parade 51/ dimitri /  by Philip Tarlow

2:18 pm: i'm taking this one even slower than usual, putting a lot more attention on the figures, which thus far are the only things i've painted. leaving them alone in a vast space with a red drawing.

MUSICAL NOTES:

1:14 pm: after listening to santa fe/beautiful obsession: at his very best, van morrison may be one of our closest singers to a bard. a poet/storyteller.

12:55 pm  after listening to the four insurgent generales by ernst busch and chorus:

at the moment, reading a horrific rolling stone article about the dire situation in yemen, and after listening to this song, which at the time made people aware of the slaughter going on in franco's spain i began to wonder: who will write the yemeni version of los quatros generales? who will tell the story to the world of the of the saudi  rockets and bombs killing thousands of innocent civilians?

11:24 am: mikela and i met on the island of mykonos in 1984. this is her on a fishing boat off the coast of a still virgin santorini a few days after we met.

i just updated the section of my story page about my son dimitri. click on the story menu item above and scroll down to DIMITRI

 

 

 

11:02 am: re: homer....a person, a group of people....we don't know really. we're pretty sure the epics: the odyssey and the illiad were meant to be sung. so what would that have sounded like? was there wine involved? why, in homer's telling of the story, do women play such an important role as decision makers at a time when women were property? why were the odyssey and the illiad so non-linear in construction? 

10:46 am: squeezed my colors, ready to rock. A BRIEF STATEMENT IN FAVOR OF RANDOM: i love random/abstract. it's my type, according to certain psychological/emotional models. so i've got my shuffle on. byzantine followed by james taylor (ron hates him) the dylan, prokofiev, led zeppelin:over the hills and far away....and on it goes. keeps the energy moving. mikela's in saguache (30 miles across the valley) for a meeting and i'm here in my magical big box, switching watch straps, moving my brush, remembering to let go of the past every moment. the song of the sirens is the past. don't go there. just don't. 

that said, let's go into my past. birchwoods. ca. 1955 rainy morning after breakfast, gloria leads us in songs. i never found out whence this one came or why or if it was a translation from, say the russian. can you see the waving grains and hills? and can you see what seems to be a young boy's head, with flaxen locks that could be mistaken for blowing grasses? ah, but no,no.........we don't even want to ask about ifka

beyond the hills

of gold and green

a young boy's head

is plainly seen

a hooya hooya hooya-ya, swiftly flowing water

a hooya hooya hooya-ya, swiftly flowing lava.

but ah 'tis not his lifted head

'tis ifka's castle spire instead!

a hooya hooya hooya-ya..........etc.

9:03 am: LEFT: looking east at crestone peak yesterday arounf 6 pm; RIGHT: the same view an hour later.

i'll be heading to my studio in about an hour to begin painting parade 51, which i began yesterday afternoon. (see yesterday's post). i'll post updated pics as available.

i haven't forgotten about expanding on yesterday's comments about homer's odyssey. true to the form of that epic, my comments will occur in a non-liniar fashion.....