so what did you do today, tarlow? /  by Philip Tarlow

10:30 PM: so tomorrow i plan on revisiting lacemaker III, which doesn't quite integrate with the other 12 in the grey series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2:28 PM: un-stretched & re-stretched grey 16; made a birthday card for a friend whose surprise birthday party we're attending tonight in del norte, which is about a one hour drive.

a brief tour of the elements of my talk, above left: starting at the top & moving counter clockwise:

study of rocks & water in oil on canvas, 2002; below it are old palettes i've saved to use in collages; how to read chinese paintings, by maxwell k. hearn, published by the metropolitan museum; one of my warm-up exercises from 2012, done while looking at the calligraphy of huang tingjian, 11th century chinese calligrapher, in hearn's book; plein air painting in oil on linen, 2012; more abstracted plein air painting in oil on linen, 2014; the catalogue of the tsarouchis retrospective in 2010; grey 13, 32x32", mixed media on canvas, which was just completed.

you can guess what the unfolding of story will be, and how it all relates to the abstract collage/paintings i have in the reMARKable show opening this coming thursday at space gallery.

grey 16 resolved /  by Philip Tarlow

8:42 AM: after gazing last night & this morning at grey 16 in the house, i feel it is now resolved. so i'll take it back to the studio, un-stretch it and re-stretch it on stretcher bars without the masonite backing (which facilitates collaging) and hang it in the house, along with it's brothers and sisters.

a tweak to grey 16 before moving on to grey 17 /  by Philip Tarlow

1 PM: latest version, and i'm going to stop here for the day so i don't over-tweak, and re-visit it tomorrow morning with fresh eyes. but i do think i did very good work today, although now i think there may be something i need to do with the other eye; her right eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:20 AM: the first round of tweaks has taken place.  round two, coming up. the reddish-siena colors on left side of her face may have become too pronounced. it's a delicate adjustment, but one i should do soon, before i eat brunch. food clouds my perception; something you don't want when you're making tweaks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELOW: yesterday's version on the left. notice how her left eye has been pushed back, giving her a less menacing appearance; her right cheek has been made warmer; the patterning on her white collar and her yellow sleeve has become more pronounced; as have the white ribbons in her hair.

 

 

 

10:22 AM: when i brought grey 16 to the house yesterday afternoon, mikela immediately and accurately pointed out an issue with the left eye. i'm about to work on that & will post pics soon...

scrumble first, then ask questions..... /  by Philip Tarlow

grey 16  32x32"  as it looked at 3 PM

3PM: my painting day has ended a bit early. the skies have darkened and it's begun snowing again. this is part of a strong winter storm system that has moved in from the west. temps have dropped, & once again it feels like winter.

i'll drive grey 16 back to the house, which is the best way for me to get a sense of where it's at. mikela's feedback is tremendously valuable as well; she has a great eye which, combined with her intimate knowledge of where i'm at on all levels: artistically; emotionally; energetically....

the pattern in this series seems to be that i pivot a lot until i find my groove. a space where nothing shouts or grabs your attention. rather, your eyes are guided to caress the picture surface; to experience the enigma and to enjoy the sensuality of the painterly surface. one of my goals in keeping this blog is to give you a window into the process of a painter, which is rarely if ever available in real time. obviously, a digital image can't substitue for the vivaciousness of the real, living work of art in the flesh. that said, i think the opportunity to follow the journey, my journey and the process each painting goes through, can give you, the visitor to my daily blog, a deeper appreciation of what i, and artists in general are up to. 

 

grey  16 drying after a morning scrumble

 

 

 

 

BELOW LEFT: grey 16 after a morning scrumble

BELOW RIGHT: grey 16 at 12:45 PM

 

 

 

11:43 AM: grey 16 underwent a scrumble first thing this morning and is now drying under my big-ass fan (not the brand, just a large, powerful fan)

it remains to be seen WTF happens next! that's right, i'm in a mood. not enough sleep.

starting the day with a big scrumble* /  by Philip Tarlow

2:55 PM: stopping for the day; suddenly felt that wave of physical tiredness that starts around your eyes and radiates out to your entire body. not complaining you know; i did a lot today. this is a departure in many ways from the grey series to date, which were all inspired by vermeer. i have to gaze at it for a while; maybe i'll bring it to the house, hang it, then bring it back tomorrow to work more on it, if it feels like it needs more.

when i painted his hand, i was suddenly reminded of the greek painter diamandopoulos. he is greatly under appreciated. at the time, in the '60's, many felt that tsarouchis had borrowed heavily from him, but i think it was simply a case of simultaneity. at any rate, he was a beautiful painter. gotta clean up & get back to the house. the wind is gusting to gale force, and if i want to bring this painting back i'll have to drive it, so we don't both get blown away!

1:25 PM: a system is moving into the stae, so right now & few the next few days, we've got high winds & uncharacteristically cloudy skies. it's kinda dark, but that hasn't stopped me from working. i've always been a huge admirer of terborch, who's paintings i've studies carefully in the met & elsewhere. i'll probably paint for another hour or two. we have a dinner guest tonight, so then i'll go help out with prep.

12:45 PM: beginning to sketch out the face.

 

 

 

 

11:45 am: i make the drawing, based upon terborch's "interior with 3 figures." the details of the cloting on this figure are good enough to eat! it's as if clothing, at least the stuff wealthy individuals of the time wore, was designed to drive us painters insane with painterly abandon! terborch, a contemporary of vermeer, is my second most favorite 17th c. dutch genre painters. his way of drawing the figure has, in my mind, something in common with the great greek painter, el greco, or theotokopoulos, which was his real name. an elongation and slightly mannerist treatment of the figures one might almost imagine was the result of a slight anomaly in the artist's vision. on the LEFT: terborch's interior with three figures.

 

 

 

 

 

11 am: lots of collaging has taken place. a new image will be introduced after i get my oatmeal going. in case you hadn't noticed, there are many sexual references in the shapes i cut out and collage onto the canvas. my hand, with the mat knife, moves more fluidly when i'm cutting out a breast or penis shape than a generic biomorphic shape.

10:23 AM: as promised at the end of the day yesterday, grey 16 is undergoing major changes today, starting with a healthy morning scrumble!

starting grey 16 / looking back at a 1972 fayum study /  by Philip Tarlow

3:30 PM: grey 16 will definitely transform tomorrow. this stage was fun, but it's not where i'm going with this series. see you tomorrow!

2:30 PM: a panorama of my studio shot just now.

2:30 PM: as you can see, i did do more work on grey 16, and i think the painting is the better for it. the bubble wrap technique i invented (i'm sure others have used it, but i just stumbled upon it) replicates the marks one sees as a result of the multiple seams between the thousands of mosaic pieces. this, i believe, is a variation on vermeer's breaking up of the space as he observed his subject through the camera obscura. however you arrive at it, it's very seductive for a painter, allowing us to see macroscopically and microscopically simultaneously, and providing a richness to the surface.

BELOW LEFT: detail of the original mosaic

BELOW RIGHT: detail of grey 16

1:25 PM: stage 1; so far, i'm into this mosaic prototype and have no urge to pivot.....we'll see where it goes. it's pretty fucking gorgeous just as you see it, and there's always that desire to leave it in it's primordial state...really? primordial?? here are some synonyms:

instinctive, primitive, basic, primal, primeval, intuitive, inborn, innate, inherent, visceral

drawing for grey 16, 32x32"

 

 

 

11:39 AM: drawing for grey 16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10:48 AM: i'm about to start work on grey 16; pics of my process as i progress

this is a study i made in 1972 at the british museum in london, of a fayoum portrait painted in the second century AD.

prep day for grey 16 /  by Philip Tarlow

in front of the blank canvas, holding one of my favorite fan brushes

3:27 PM: so i stretched a new canvas, which is 32x32" and decided on the imagery which, as was the case yesterday, could change mid-stream. in an hour we're going to take our afternoon walk, despite the cold temps, which are still below freezing.

with each passing day, i'm more intent on finding the right gallery to show the grey series; preferably in berlin. any leads out there?

 

11am:i decided this morning not to do any further work on grey 15. i could have, but it's just too fresh to mess with. popped out of the womb and needs to enjoy the fresh air unhindered.

so, after working on a top secret project, which i can reveal in late april, i got to work cutting & stretching the canvas for grey 16. the sun is out, after a foggy start. we broke the record for a low temperature last night; it dropped to 3F! and for a low high temp yesterday, of only 26F, breaking the old record of 38F.

grey 15 drawing on a snowy day /  by Philip Tarlow

STAGE 4: grey 15  32x32" mixed media on canvas

3:15 PM: stage 4; that's it for today. we had arranged to visit an old friend at 3:30 but pushed it to wednesday because of snow. good thing. i would have had to stop right in my sweet spot, which often occurs just half an hour before i stop for the day. i dare say i am achieving some life long dreams and goals here. i have my heros, and have looked long and hard at them in the museums of the world, especially the met. i know the passages in each painting that feel almost orgasmic to me. rubens'study of two men in the met; goya's the forge in the frick; courbet's the origin of the world; lautrec's rousse; vuillard's the lilac trees in the musee d'orsay; van gogh's drawings in the van gogh museum, amsterdam; my friend and mentor tsarouchis' extraordinary paintings, drawings and set designs, which i was fortunate to see regularly in his studios in maroussi and paris, as well as the rich retrospective in 2010 at the benaki museum in athens...and of course the life and work of my former mother-in-law in athens, niki karagatsi, whose capacity to transform the every day into great art remains a core inspiration....to name just a few. 

it feels to me like now is my time of integration. the time when i have the opportunity to integrate all that i have looked at and admired and make it, as far as that is possible, my own.

2:15 PM: stage 3: and, in an unexpected pivot, he shifts the game to vermeer! you know you were expecting something like this! follow the juice! now, in all fairness, she does have what could be read as snakes in her hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:30 PM: stage 2 

 

 

 

 

 

12:18 PM: stage 1

preliminary drawing for grey 15

 

 

 

 

11:23 AM: i launched right in to the drawing for grey 15 which, as you know if you're a regular, may change totally. i'm about to apply some collaged bits and will post pics as available. 

departing from the vermeer variations brings up some fear & trepidation, which is a good thing. uncomfortable is good. otherwise, i'd put on my slippers, which i don't own, sit in my easy chair and read the NY times, which is not available in crestone and which is now just part of the vast, dreaded establishment.

i ahd wanted to prepare my talk for april 7 at space gallery today, thinking the poor light would be an opportunity to do something different. maybe later this afternoon....

a new day /  by Philip Tarlow

example of a gorgone placed on an ancient building for protection

3:50 PM: got all the work done and made it back to the house just as it started blowing & snowing. i was able to stretch a new 32x32" canvas so i should be able to get started tomorrow morning. i'm leaning towards shifting, as i mentioned away from vermeer for now and using instead an image of a gorgone from ancient greece. the gorgone was a mythological creature. there are a few versions: one had hair made of living venomous snakes; the other turned those who looked at her to stone. take your pick!

because of this power, gorgones were placed on buildings for protectoin. the one that interests me visually is depicted in a mosaic found in the archeological museum in athens.you'll see the early stages tomorrow. but it's supposed to snow, and if it's too dark, i may not be able to paint.

 

 

 

 

 

12:44 PM: the slow, painstaking task of removing the staples to un-stretch and then re-stretch a canvas.

8:03 AM: a sunny morning, but clouds will increase as we experience a new round of snow tonight into tomorrow. before even going over to the studio, i'm pretty sure grey 14 is now complete. so i'll start my day un-stretching it and an older grey series painting, both stretched on masonite to facilitate collaging, and then re-stretching fresh canvas for two new paintings. on the right, grey 14 shot in a softer light and adjusted closer to the original.

as the paintings in this series multiply, i flip between two feelings; one is something like "why am i doing this?" and the other is urging me to find the right venue to show this new work, which i think is in europe. i am by no means finished with this direction, and now, in my studio at 11:15 a.m., i.m preparing for the next 2 paintings. more later.....

grey 14 continued.... /  by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: calling it a day; about to wash my brushes & go for a walk with mikela up north crestone creek trail. as with most of the paintings in this series, this one has a subtlety and atmosphere that simply cannot be reproduced. i'll see tomorrow if more work is needed. right now, i'm exhausted!

i may have mentioned this in one of my posts, but my ideal for this series is to show the entire series in a gallery either in amsterdam, berlin or munich. i've shown in amsterdam, but never in germany. right now, i'm researching to determine which galleries might work.

BELOW: details of grey 14

 

 

 

 

1:41 PM: current state; still painting

12:04 PM: continuing work on the new grey 14, i began the day with a scrumble* and am now taking a short lunch break as i continue to work. i've learned a lot from making variations on this detail of vermeer's the art of painting. i love painting her crown of leaves. the title of this series will change. it began as grey, which goes all the way back to late november 2015, when we returned from my solo show in houston and i launched into a series of paintings where grey was dominant. those then morphed into the current "grey" series, but i'll have to find a new name, since they are all inspired by vermeer, and almost all are faces that dominate the picture surface.

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.

BELOW: left: scrumbling the surface,  right: current state, at noon