starting work on grey 14: the drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

3:29 PM: .....and in a sudden pivot, he shifts the image to another version of the female figure in vermeer's self portrait from behind, the art of painting. just as i began to shift the imagery, the skies darkened and the natural light began to fail as snow began falling. so i'll clean my brushes and we'll see what tomorrow brings.

thus far, the juxtaposition of one image over the other in combination with the shapes and colors of the collaged pieces, is creating a rich, provocative surface; a balance of draftsmanship and the fortunate accident, with sexual innuendos and brazen gestural delight.

a cup of rich, thick hot chocolate on the champs elysees would be perfect right about now.

12:25 PM: stage 2 of the preliminary drawing and stage 4, just before shifting the imagery.

 

 

 

 

 

11:39 am: just made a drawing on the canvas for the next grey series painting: grey 14, which will be based on a portion of vermeer's the music lesson. pics of todays process as they become available.

grey 10 decisions / stretching a 32x32" to start new grey series painting /high wind warning /  by Philip Tarlow

5:08 PM: so my decision is to stay with grey 10 as it is. below are some details.

1:25 PM: we have a high wind advisory today, and our normally crystal clear sky is filled with dust being swept across the valley. in the shot below on the right, the san juan mts. would normally be clearly visible in the distance.

so we won't be taking a walk today, and instead will review our newly revised actionlab360 business plan.

12:29 PM: i made some changes to this grey 10 painting a few days ago, and am deciding whether to leave it or make more modifications. the previous version id on the left, current state on the right, (click to make them full page; move back & frth to identify the changes. BELOW:

grey 7 revisions /  by Philip Tarlow

grey 12 hanging in our east living room

7:57 PM: so yuwipi installed the devices yesterday and, after a few tweaks on the phone with the tech support guy, i've got a solid wi-fi connection with decent speed, considering the signal is being sent 500 feet from our house. no more pics of my process today; it was a rare day, when i was simply too tired to get any painting done. at this point, i'm not sure grey 10 is going to make it. i don't feel the juice. so we'll see what i do tomorrow. when the juice is not there, you suddenly realize you've been taking it for granted. when it's there, you're flying. when it's not, you look around your studio and wonder out loud, how the fuck did i do all this?"

 

 

ON THE RIGHT: grey 12 hanging in our east living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:27 PM: haven't yet decided the topic of my april 7th talk at space gallery, but it might be art as play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:23 pm: in the studio, about to scrumble, a word i made up:

*scrumbling: a word i made up to describe the process of loosly applying a wash of off white to the entire surface, and then scraping/rubbing/dragging the palette knife over the surface while it's still wet, then painting back into it. the eye, rather than getting stuck on the details, such as her lips or hat, moves smoothly across the picture plane. there is more choice, more freedom on the part of the viewer to alight here or there. the mind/eye fills in suggested details as it fabricates it's own meanings. one has the capacity to dream more easily, while at the same time being able to notice and appreciate the painterly passages as painterliness.

9:36 AM: grey 7 is now unrecognizable. i have no idea what will happen today. here's the previous version and what it looked like at the end of the day yesterday.

revising grey 10 /  by Philip Tarlow

grey 10 at 4 pm, after todays revisions

today i may make some changes to grey 10. i'll post my process this afternoon, after my ne wwi-fi connection has ben installed in the studio.

5:29 PM:long day. whizzi arrived at 2pm and has been working ever since. he should complete the work shortly, and then i'll walk over to the studio to check & make sure i have a signal.

returning to grey 12 /  by Philip Tarlow

grey 12 at the end of my painting day

2:47: after looking at it for a few weeks hanging in our living room, i wasn't satisfied with grey 12, although i was interrupted by the onset of an ocular migraine half way through and had to stop & lie down, i think it was good that i decided to go back into it. 

the painting has definitely improved after todays work. it's more cohesive. as usual, i'll know in the morning whether it needs further work. my discovery of pressed bubble wrap drenched in color as a means of creating texture is exciting, and i'm trying not to overdo it. mindlessness sucks. but i feel it does mirror vermeer's use of the camera obscura to break the image up into little dots of color.

BELOW: upper left: he painting as it looked before starting work this morning. row two: half way into today's changes. row 3: the painting at the end of my painting day, with a detail on the lower right.

late posts till monday /  by Philip Tarlow

talking about the completed grey 13

3:55 PM:  i've grown used to documenting my process of making a painting hour by hour. so not having a signal in the studio is a drag. the technician came today and scoped it out. there are a few things he didn't have with him, so he'll be back sunday afternoon to install the devices on the roofs of the studio & the house, and i should have a far stronger and more dependable wi-fi signal. 

until then, i'll be doing these afternoon posts. today was about un-stretching and re-stretching so i could take grey 13 to the house after getting it off the stretcher bar with the heavy wood backing. that's right, the same one that fell on my head.

so now i'm ready to start painting again tomorrow. in the mean time, i discovered something very interesting about vermeer's girl with the red hat. i'll write about that, with pics, later, when we get back from our walk.

also, i'm doing a short 20-30 minute talk at the opening of the 4 person show i'm in, on april 7th, so i'm thinking about what points i want to make.

really really back to work today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:29 PM: i felt ready to really dive in today and worked steadily for over 4 hours. BELOW are pics showing today's process.

Back to work /  by Philip Tarlow

18 days after this painting fell on my head , causing a concussion, i feel able to get back to work.

 

4:05 PM: i was able to work for a little over an hour. when i felt overwhelm, i stopped immediately, as my physical therapist suggested. if you examine the details below, you'll notice a pattern of grey and pink dots. i found a cool way to do this, and i may do more tomorrow before going back into the painting with collaging and brushes.

resolving my wi-fi problem /  by Philip Tarlow

7:51 AM: my break from painting continues and will continue until the symptoms subside and i feel able to engage in the very physical activity of creating the grey series paintings. 

yesterday i rested. in addition, i solved the problem that sprang up 2 days ago, after a power surge blew out our wireless router. our local provider gave us a new one free of charge, but it doesn't have a port for the cable that goes to our external antenna and delivers the signal to my studio. this system has not been working well, so i've been getting a weak, intermittent signal in the studio. a pain in the ass.

the tech person at crestone telecom recommended a "nano station" solution, with a device on the roof of our house (thus avoiding the tree branches) sending the wi-fi signal to a second device at the studio. this device works well up to 1/4 mile, and the studio is only 500 ft. from the house, so this will give me a far stronger signal than i've had in the past, and should solve my problem. it arrives tomorrow and will be installed on thursday.

break /  by Philip Tarlow

8:32 AM: detail of grey8/young girl with a flute 32x32" so yesterday, i made a small abstract collage just to start getting my hands dirty until i feel ready to return to the larger paintings in this series. It was an ok collage, but where I'm really at is this grey series.

today is a break because we have a BERNIE event at noon, but i'm hoping to jump back in tomorrow. i share this stuff because i really feel your support, and i want very much to get back in my groove tomorrow. so if you're reading this envision me feeling recovered enough from this concussion to do a good days work in my studio tomorrow. it's important to me.