yesterday's creek walk / resuming work on "ano kato 54" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:03 pm: stopping for the day. i did a lot on this painting today, and i feel like i want to let it sit and digest the changes it experienced before i dive back in. yep. i do think of each painting as a living, breathing being with needs and desires. in the morning it may tell me which direction it wants to take.

on the right, an interesting detail that may or may not stay as is.you know from previous paintings in this series that sometimes there are "unfinished" areas that actually enrich the space.

1:29 pm: current state of the painting; a quick iPhone shot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

7:54 am: yesterday afternoon we walked up north crestone creek trail. in our prep for hiking up to the lake; about 5 miles up the trail, we walked further than ever. we went up to about 10,000 ft., a total of 2.25 miles starting at the trail head, 8,300 ft. we had a spectacular view of the valley and of the peaks above us.

continuing work on "ano kato 54" 32x72" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:14 pm:  final state of ano kato 54 for today. now we're off to walk up the creek, getting ourselves in shape for the bigger walk up to north crestone lake, which should be about 3-4 hours each way. 

1:32 pm: latest version of ano kato 54, with a detail on the right, BELOW

12:09 pm: ABOVE-current state of the painting (this is a DETAIL of the left half); still working....more soon....

10:18 am: i'd like to get to work early today, so i won't say much yet. i'll update the pics as work progresses.

 

 

BELOW: left-this morning's eastern sky as seen from our deck  right- mikela on our walk yesterday afternoon

starting "ano kato 54" today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:28 pm: i KNEW iwasn't feeling complete with this painting for the day. there was more i needed to do. just then, the sun broke through, light came streaming through my big north windows, and i was able to bring ano kato 54 to a much better place. the outline/drawing in blue on the legs is interesting, isn't it? reminds me of what ron gremillion, owner of the gallery in houston where the 22 paintings in this series will be shown next month, said to me last week as we reviewed the images online. RON: so philip, these are abstract paintings......PHILIP: you just made my day, ron.

3:13 pm: it's a wrap. the skies darkened and the rain began falling. i'll continue tomorrow.

1:19 pm: here's stage 1 of ano kato 54, which is 32x72"

 continuing to work; more when i wrap for the day.

 

 

 

 

11 am: cloudy & chilly; in my studio ready to squeeze colors onto my palette & begin painting. trying not to think about the logistics of getting the 22 paintings to houston till later today. pics of the first stage as they become available.

ano kato 54 stretched /  by Philip Tarlow

6:56 pm: this evening's sky, about 30 minutes ago.

1:42 pm: it's a cloudy, dark day, not ideal for starting a new painting. so i stretched it & will start painting first thing tomorrow morning.

the wrinkes you see in the lower left corner will be eliminated by going over the back of the canvas with a damp brush. the linen will shrink and, in the process, the wrinkles will smooth out. it usually works....we'll see.

drawing for ano kato 54 / today's creek walk /  by Philip Tarlow

8:31 pm: today i made the drawing for ano kato 54. it would have been parade 54, but the whole series is now going to be named ano kato. are you confused?

this painting will replace ano kato 39 at the crestone creamery. that painting will be shipped in the next week to houston for my show, opening 11/5. it will remain at the creameryit's one of 3 paintings i'm submitting for acceptance to the art of the state juried show of colorado artists.

this afternoon we walked up north crestone creek. it was, as always, a trip. on the right, a tree that fell over the trail in a wind storm. i've hit my head on it twice. hard.

yesterday in edwards / the crestone creamery /  by Philip Tarlow

7:58 pm: this morning scott & don, owners of the newly opened crestone creamery, visited my studio, with the intention of finding paintings for the interior of their beautifully designed space. right now they sell mainly home made ice cream; some of the best we've ever had anywhere, and we've travelled extensively. we ended up, after a vibrant conversation at our house, selecting 3 paintings. because these paintings will be shipped to houston in the next week, this is a very short term loan. but we're already in discussion about a commission painting or paintings the imagery for which will be the crestone creamery filled with crestonians, viewed from above. i'm totally excited about this, as it's been a vision of mine for years to somehow paint the people of crestone. i thought they's be portraits, but this is SO much better!

a fox news reporter came to crestone from colorado springs to report on the opening of the crestone creamery, which is already changing the look and feel of crestone in an unexpected and refreshing way. john, the reporter, did a video interview with me about my life and work as a fine artist. he was one of the finest interviewers i've experienced. why? he's a great listener. i'll post the link when it becomes available. BELOW: photographs form this afternoon's adventure.

9:59 am: yesterday & the day before we were working with 3 classes of middle school kids in edwards. this will be ongoing through the school year, and we'll visit the 2 edwards schools about once every month. we don't yet have the clickable version of actionlab to give them, so we hand delivered a few activities form our extensive curriculum, and the kids really loved it. they can't wait to work with actionlab, which should be ready by the end of this month or very early november. here's a drawing one of the kids did.

i'll be deciding on images for my next series of paintings today. the parade series, which will now be called ANO KATO, is complete and i'm preparing to send all 22, selected by the gallery director, to houston in the coming week. it's a busy time. i'll tell you more later. right now gotta prepare for a studio visit by the owners of a cool new local ice cream/pizza restaurant who are looking for paintings for their walls. it's a beautifully designed space, and will add a lot to the tiny town of crestone. more later.....

back to school /  by Philip Tarlow

ON THE RIGHT: a shot from the wood working shop in an alamosa middle school, where we worked with 3 classes this past monday.

7:13 am: we're sitting in starbucks. i brought all my coffee making stuff, but neglected to bring a key ingredient: SOY MILK!

in an hour we'll be at the edwards middle school, where we'll reconnect with all our student & teacher friends and begin the process of supporting the kids in fnding their project ideas, choosing one and developing it to the point where they present it in december. right now we'll be hand delivering our actionlab curriculum and the exercises, until the platform is ready to use at the end of october. i'll be video taping the entire process, through tomorrow. friday we present the product to a group of teachers so they can have a better idea of what it is before diving in. 

more about our day with the kids later, with pics.

edwards today / morning /evening skies /  by Philip Tarlow

7:38 pm: after a beautiful drive, with fall colors peaking in colorado, we arrived a few hours ago & went straight to beaver creek village to have dinner. we found toscanini, a great place to eat.  then we drove to our friend's house in edwards, which is where we stay when we come here to work with the schools. and now i'm getting as much editing done as possible before going to bed early so we can get up at 6 & be in the classroom at 8.

i received an email from the gallery with a list of the 22 paintings ron chose for the show. i'll share them with you tomorrow; also, the title of the show is now certain: ANO KATO, with the sub title: UPSIDE DOWN, whichis what ano kato means in modern greek. 

right now gotta get back to editing. BELOW: some shots from the car, from beaver creek village and of our meal there.

1:01 pm: in an hour or so, we drive to edwards, colorado near vail, a three hour drive. we'll being going about every 3 weeks to resume working with middle schools there. by the end of next month, the kids & teachers will be able to use the actionlab platform, as that's then out IT team will have it ready to go. for now, we'll get them started on the process of finding their idea for a project or series of projects. once the site is up & running, they'll each have their portfolios and hundreds of exercises to choose from, designed to support them in finding and developing their ideas for projects.

this morning at 6:45 we took our walk, staying close to home, as we dodn't have time to go up the north crestone creek trail. Here are some shots of the morning skies, as well as one from last night.

actonlab in alamosa / more about janet's observations at last night's dinner /  by Philip Tarlow

7:53: just back from alamosa, where we continued introducing 3 classes of middle school kids to our actionlab curriculum as a way of finding their projects ideas and developing them. we won't have the digital version that they can click into until late october, so until then, we're hand delivering it. so far, they love it. but we can't for the life of us understand how teachers do this every day, day in day out. we're exhausted! and tomorrow, we're off to edwards, near vail, to work with the middle school kids there.  this is our second year in edwards, and we know & love the kids there, as well as the topnotch teachers.

in yesterday's post, about last night's dinner, i mentioned our friend janet's observations of and comments about some of my parade series paintings.she was especially excited about these shadows under the figures in parade 23, 60x60? which you see here.

and below are the individual figures she singled out. i brought up rubens as an example of a great artist who, i believe was was as excited about the opportunity for painterly strokes this beard provided him. in a similar way, these figures provided me the opportunity to to make those painterly, fluid liquidy marks.

dinner last night / zeroing in on parade 54 image /  by Philip Tarlow

2:58 pm: so i've settled on the image for parade 54. it's related to parade 44, which you see here. the photograph it's based on was shot the past august in the denver art museum, where materials were provided for the kids to draw & paint. there's something about these 3 figures i find deeply moving. 

 

 

11:48 am: we had a great dinner with friends last night at our house. mikela cooked an excellent meal; our guests brought one of the best wines we've tasted; they got to see the entire parade series before it ships to houston; i was able to get a look at linde's amazing book of photographs of a remote region of chile; it was huge fun!

the photo on the right, intentionally blurred, may be a candidate for a future painitng.

i hung 4 of the parade series that don't fit in the house on my east studio wall, which is what i saw when i entered the studio this morning.