making small collages on paper today /  by Philip Tarlow

6:19 PM: g-o-o-o-od night baca grande!

1:18 PM: stage 2 of today's collage. a week away from my studio plus the concussion symptoms are impacting my level of certainty. as well, shifting gears temporarily away from the vermeer/grey paintings and working on paper is strange. there are little or no brush marks involved, so my whole body is not engaged, as it is with the canvases. i'm hoping that by monday i'll feel up to returning to the grey series.

 

 

 

 

 

12:27 PM: i discovered yesterday that i'm not up for work on larger pieces yet; still a bit dizzy & foggy. so i'm making some small collages on paper, 11.5x11.5"

here's stage 1 of the first one:

back but can't paint yet / an early evening walk /  by Philip Tarlow

6:49 PM: we took a short walk just opposite our house at sunset, enjoying the vast expanse of our SLV valley. the valley floor is 7,500 ft. & our house is at 8,000 ft. i decided today, because of my post concussion lingering symptoms, to do some works on paper for the next few days, which requires less physical energy than the larger works on stretched canvas. 

12:40 PM: i entered my studio this morning for the first time in a week. when i began scanning the paintings on my studio wall, one of which (the middle one) i had planned on working on today, i realized right away i just wasn't up to it. in that moment, i realized just how much focus and energy painting demands. my body let me know immediately. 

it's a great day to walk up the trail, but i don't know if i'm up for that either. maybe i'll try walking up a little bit with mikela and see how it goes. tricky, these concussions. they demand patience.

back in my studio on friday /  by Philip Tarlow

grey 12  38x38"

6:36 PM: one final sunset in edwards before heading home after school tomorrow. my concussion symptoms are better, but still lingering. being home will help a lot. being back in my studio, even more. the grey series will continue, and a few of the completed paintings in that series will be revised, like the one you see here.

 

gooo-o-o-o-d morning vail valley!! /  by Philip Tarlow

7:50 PM: glued to the tv watching michigan results as bernie remains ahead. a win would be a huge coup and a turning point for him, and for US!

 

RIGHT: a late, 1953 jackson pollock painting currently hanging in a dallas museum show, up through march 20. i was not aware of this period in pollock's work. in large part, this is due to the heavy emphasis by art historians and critics, especially the late clement greenberg, on his drip paintings. the fact that pollack was able to boldly come full circle and was not stuck, as were the critics on his iconic drip paintings, shows, in my opinion, his true stature as a monumental 20th century artist. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELOW: nine shots frmo today's adventures. if you click on the images, you'll see what they're about.


7:30 am: ready to go in 5. got the video camera, lunch box, and off we go to school!

snowy day /  by Philip Tarlow

we woke up to 4 inches of new snow, with high winds and icy and snow packed roads.

i continue to recover from my concussion, so school this morning was a bit of a strain. had a great session with my physical therapist, who gave me excellent tip on how to hold and move my body when i'm working in the studio. 

after being reminded of the guts and passion behind the landscapes of tetsis, the great greek painter who died a few days ago, i've decided, after taking a one year break, to make a new series of plein air paintings this spring. here's one i painted on november 7, 2014 at north crestone creek it's 16x16" oil on linen. this is the last in my series of 2014 fall plein air paintings, the last day before winter temperatures arrived. frequent visits to the creek from august through november  allowed this level of simplification and abstraction. 

snow moving in / bernie calls / looking back /  by Philip Tarlow

at our friend kat's home, 12:25 PM

10:29 am: snow moves into the vail valley this afternoon and continues through tomorrow. we are warm & cozy in our friend kat's house, preparing to make our bernie calls to michigan this afternoon at 3pm. the ingenious system they set up makes these calls as effortless as possible; you connect your mobile to your computer & the dialing happens automatically, so that you can make way more calls than if you had been dialing yourself.

BELOW: looking back: january 2, 2016, at work on grey 6/the love letter and the completed painting on my studio wall.

Tetsis /  by Philip Tarlow

10:17 AM: sitting in starbucks in edwards, remembering the great greek painter, panayiotis tetsis, who died a few days ago at 91. he was a friend, although i wouldn't say we were close friends. the last time i saw him was on andros, where he was having a show at the goulandris museum. when we sat down for coffee in the square, he was, as usual, in his expansive mode, long arms swinging when he told a story, a look of deep observation in his glance, his shock of grey hair blowing in the mild meltemi blowing that day. his large oil landscapes were stunning. very rare to see large landscapes that have the intimacy of small format paintings. no brush marks wasted, none unconscious, all essential.

i was moved when he showed up at my 2006 and 2010 shows at skoufa gallery in athens. as always, generous and spot on with his observations and comments, he was an uplifting presence, always. this photo, which was posted on facebook, eloquently reveals the depth of his passion for painting, and how he made the greek landscape his own. it takes BIG balls to do what you see him doing here. thank you, tetsi.

4:46 PM: tetsis has inspired me to resume my plein air paintings starting next month. i took a one year break, and now i feel ready to dive back in. i can't wait to get back out there with my rocks and the roaring creek and the fresh new leaves popping out. this time, instead of working on linen, i plan on using american easel wood painting panels. they can be gessoed, but i'm going to see what it's like working straight onto the wood. that will also allow me to collage onto the wood before starting to work. i have no idea how it will go, but i know the grey series will influence how i work on the new plein air paintings. i always have to take a 6 week break from late june through the end of july, when our mosquito season comes to an end.


more vermeer /  by Philip Tarlow

as i recover from my concussion, i continue my vermeer research. these are two details from the art of painting. another example of how, through the use of optics, her breaks up the solidity of the surface of this curtain, turning it into a magical display of painterly strokes.

 

attacked by my own painting, matzoh ball soup and more...... /  by Philip Tarlow

3:39 PM: remember my Feb 27th post, where i was so excited about the next 4-6 months of paintings i envision? well, in my enthusiasm, i was moving my easel to a better spot to begin working, when the masonite backed canvas on the easel, weighing about 35 pounds, tipped over & fell squarely on my head. It was a very hard knock, which threw me to the ground. 

i had the usual pain at the site of impact, but thought nomore about it, till last night when i woke up with a splitting headache. i don't normally get headaches, plus i was feeling fuzzy and disoriented all morning at school, and the sounds of the kids voices were painful.'we went to the ER in vail & i was diagnosed with a concussion. so i have to rest, and all that. but the worst part, the absolute worst part? no BEER until i feel better...probably a week or so. does that not SUCK? attacked by my own painting!

before going to the ER, we had matzoh ball soup at the belmont deli in edwatds, owned & run by our friend mike. i'll repeat what i've said before: this is the best matzoh ball soup outside of nyc.

looking back at grey 7, 48x18" /  by Philip Tarlow

5:25 PM: ready to head to the poa hall, where mikela will lead the caucus tonight, which starts at 7 pm. we leave at 5:30 am for denver, then edwards.

here's one of the grey series paintings hanging in our entryway, which will soon be shipped to gremillion & co. fine art in houston, along with the rest of the grey series.

gotta run to the caucus.