re-inventing gaze 34 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:42 PM: here i'm pointing out some of the changes to gaze 34 towards the end of my painting day.

i switched to a different fayum portrait; one i've drawn from in an earlier gaze painting: gaze 32. this particular fayum portrait has a special poignance and seems to me more contemporary in feel than others. the cross hatched off white lines will likely fade as i continue work tomorrow. i took special delight today while  painting as i reflected on our conversation last night with our friend kemp. we haven't spoken in a long time, and the sound of his voice, filled with passion and enthusiasm, acted like a tonic for us both (we had him on speaker).

in about 45 minutes, we'll walk up the trail. mikela is now feeling recovered enough from her painful pinched nerve to take these walks with me every other day; i was missing her presence during the 6 or 7 weeks it took for her to reach this point in her healing. BELOW: 3 stages of gaze 34: oct. 25, 26 and today.

 

 

 

 

 

12:06 PM: another layer of paint & collage is happening as we speak....more later today

school today; no studio time /  by Philip Tarlow

4:09 PM: we were in the  classroom today, where the kids were presenting their project ideas and plans for fleshing them out, 

here's gaze 34 resting in a corner of our living room with late afternoon sunlight creating patterns. it will go back to the studio tomorrow for another round of work. it's relieved at this 24 hour reprieve, but knows it can't possibly continue to exist in it;s present state.

painting is painting is painting.... /  by Philip Tarlow

2:03 PM: a full day, i'd say. up at 5, to work by 10:30; next stop, the trail. i got to work a bit later than i could have because i ran an errand, which turned out to be a wasted half hour. elephant cloud market was all out of organic red lentils, which mikela needed to cook dinner for our friend Ann this evening. 

as i began working into yesterday's version of gaze 34, getting messier and messier, i became aware of the process; my process; any painterly painter's process. painting is painting now, just as it was for goya, for bonnard, for deKooning. you keep going back in, using your gut and your seasoned eye as guides at the same time you're re-inventing painting. and if you're not engaged in that way, something is very wrong.

below: yesterday's version on the left; today's on the right. only her left eye remains intact.

getting to work early today /  by Philip Tarlow

2:23 PM: i did some tweaks to gaze 33, which is a portrait based on a 1992 photo of mikela in a hat, and i think they made a big difference, and that the painting seems resolved now. on the left below, the previous version, right: after today's tweaks. areas i worked on that you can compare: left brim of the hat, which was extended upwards; whites of her eye, where a slight accent was applied; white accents on the t-shirt; modification of the area above her right eye, so that the dots are less prominent; slight breaking up of the area of grey to our right of her face; subtle highlight on the tip of her nose and a few highlights on the gold color of her earring.

then i continued work on gaze 34, which has morphed several times and is now inspired by a 1st c. fayum portrait. it has potential, but it's far from resolved, so we'll see what happens tomorrow morning. below left: how the painting looked this morning, right: at the end of my painting day today.

9:56 AM: as i slip back into my groove after returning from our travels, i should be getting to work shortly, as soon as i have my matcha tea.

not yet sure what direction i'll take; the good news is, it's totally my call!

here i am with gaze 33 & 34,  in a preview of my halloween outfit.

revised image for gaze 34 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:17 pm: following in the footsteps of it's predecessors in the gaze series, gaze 34 has once again morphed and is now based upon a 1st c. fayum prototype, which is a portrait of a woman. more than ever, i see the universality of these fayum portraits. clearly, as my dear friend euphrosyne doxiadis states in her award winning book on the topic, they have been painted by artists whose ancestors, a few generations back, were ancient greek portrait painters. while none of those paintings have survived, the fayum have, as they were placed in the traditional egyptian mummy caskets and safely buried in the warm dry sand, far from any damaging light or moisture.

today's work was interrupted by an unexpected at&t snafu, so i didn't get as much done as i would have liked. i'll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning. and now, another trail walk with mikela!

re-entering the studio /  by Philip Tarlow

gaze 34, 38x36,"  as it looked at the end of my painting day

2:34 PM: it's way too gorgeous out to not do a short trail hike, so i'm stopping for the day. i ripped back in to gaze 34, obliterating the first image of a myrtyred kurdish fighter & returning to vermeer's woman with a necklace. while it's far from resolved, i like the way the space is broken up now, and envision something similar happening with gaze 33, which is too attached to the photo of mikela in a hat & needs to break out of that form. judging by recent history, it seems i just can't learn that the integrity of the image & the picture plane trumps all else. so i simply have to keep it real, and continue to wander out on that always frightening and engaging precipice. 

 

 

12:51 PM: getting back to work on gaze 34, and preparing to revise gaze 33, which i brought back to the studio this morning. when we returned from our trip last night, it jumped off the wall in the house and begged for revisions. so once i've resolved gaze 33, which is hanging on the wall, i'll go back into 33, which is on the easel.

returning to crestone /  by Philip Tarlow

we had a most excellent trip to edwards, where the middle schoolers made impressive progress in choosing and developing their first round of projects. on our way back to crestone, we stopped for a few days in denver, where we returned our vehicle and leased a new one. we're excited to drive it home and try some of the overwhelming variety of new technological features that now come standard on most new cars. this is a long time for me to be away from my studio, and i hope i still remember how to hold a brush!  it's good that i left gaze 34 unfinished, so i can pick up where i left off. this is one of the earliest paintings in the gaze series, which can be viewed on this powerpoint i posted to youtube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOTv9uHllZs&feature=youtu.be

photos from edwards /  by Philip Tarlow

a few photos from our stay here in edwards and our time at the middle school. in the shot of me video taping the class, my name tag, written by one of the students, says "GRU" which is the name o the character you see on the computer screen, who wears a scarf similar to mine.

an afternoon walk along eagle valley trail /  by Philip Tarlow

this weekend we have off from school. so this afternoon we took a walk along eagle valley trail, which runs alongside the creek. i got some great ideas for paintings from looking at the rocks, which are quite different from our crestone rocks but no less strikingly beautiful. filled with swirled patterns many of which remind one of brush strokes and dotted with yellow lichen, they are at their best in the afternoon light. tomorrow we'll go a bit later, when the angle of the light might be even better.

edwards pics /  by Philip Tarlow

1:02: being in school every day is always a revelatory experience. i don't have much time right now but here are some pics i shot today, with short descriptions: