re-stretching canvases today in preparation for re-working a few gaze paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

4:56 PM: today i re-sretched gaze 36 and mounted it on a plain stretcher bar sans masonite backing. it's now hanging in our living room, where it dominates.

after living with them for many months, it's become clear which of the 24 seems unresolved. here are 3:

can you discover what it is about each of these that doesn't work? I'll start working on them tomorrow and continue when we're back from our next edwards trip. 

with the work i did yesterday, resolving gaze 36, i set myself a new, high bar. my intention, to shake it up, took me past my known capacities. here's a detail.

 

shaking it up /  by Philip Tarlow

9 stages of gaze 36, starting in the upper left with the most recent:

12:50 PM: shaking it up,,,,shaking it up....permeated my consciousness as i worked this past hour. no pains, no awareness of the constant ringing in my left ear or the blurred vision in my right eye or the emerging sun or the bird crazily bursting it's beak against my window or donald trump, even! i remembered the little colored pencil note i scribbled on a scrap of paper a few days ago and left on the pillow for mikela, as a surprise upon reorganizing the sheets & comforter on the bed earlier. and i borrowed from it. the scribble. then i perused some graffiti images online. and i was inspired by them and borrowed from them, in a very loose kind of way.

and suddenly, as i awoke fomr my reverie, i saw that one of the shapes i cut out and collaged this morning formed gabriel's wing and rubens' 16 year old luscious bride became an angel with wings, whispering to the world "i am not an angel; i am a PAINTING!" and it was good. and crestone/baca was once again bathed in sunlight. and it was good.

gaze 36, 32x32" at 11:15 am

 

 

 

11:29 AM: a friend used that phrase this morning in an exchange about a potential collaboration; something neither of us is completely comfortable with. and it has already begun filtering into my work today, allowing, even encouraging me to take chances with the familiar status quo. not that i haven't taken chances with each and every painting in the gaze series, but this is something new.

here's where it's at right now; more changes on the way...

taking it further /  by Philip Tarlow

1:26 AM: this morning a wave of energy swept over and through me. tempting to label or otherwise identify it. no need, really. rubens' 16 year old bride, provocatively posed in a fur rug, gazes at the viewer. here's the story in ruben's own words: 

“[…] I decided to get married because I was not yet ready to live in the renunciation that is celibacy. […] I took a wife from a good but bourgeois family, although the whole world tried to convince me to marry a lady of the court. But I feared the pride, the plague of nobility […], and thus I liked the idea of taking a wife who does not blush when she sees me pick up a brush.” 

i have elongated her chubby face. i delighted, as did rubens, i'm sure, in painting of the white band round her forehead, her simple yet all important earrings and her vivacious eyes. 

that said, let's remember, this is a painting. yes, this is rubens filtered through the consciousness of a 21st c. painter. but, when all is said and done, these are marks on a 2 dimensional surface. they either enliven and bring that surface to life, or not.

new image /  by Philip Tarlow

2:25 PM: today i did some rubens research and was taken with the portrait he made of his 16 year old bride, helena forment in a fur robe. he married her was he was 53, after his first wife died from the plague, the image is still taking shape and i'm stopping for the day so we can walk up to the stupa, the previous image was not that exciting to me, and ended up being quite a downer. you can detecy, to the right of her face, a background influenced by vermeer's the art of painting. while rubens is known to have collaborated with brueghel on at least 25 paintings, i am creating an after-the-fact collaboration with vermeer.

continuing work on gaze 36 /  by Philip Tarlow

12:16 PM: i got started right away working on gaze 36 so that i could stop early & accompany mikela to our local school. i eliminated the detail of vermeer, with his back to the viewer, painting his the art of painting masterpiece. it was a good example of trying unsuccessfully to repeat something that worked in a previous painting, gaze 35. i did however draw inspiration form the magical background in that painting, which you see to our right of her head. 

overall, gaze 36 has maintained the rich softness and warmth which appeared for the first time in gaze 35, and which i am in part attributing to the cloudy vision i'm experiencing in my right eye as a result of a "ripening" cataract, which will be evaluated on 12/16.

i plan on bringing gaze 36 to the house this afternoon to evaluate where it's at, and receive the input of our dinner guests, who will be coming to it with a fresh perspective.

back to work on gaze 36 in a few hours /  by Philip Tarlow

2:52 PM: i did a lot of work today, but it's not there yet. it was a beautiful painting yesterday, but it seemed too easy. trying to integrate a portion of vermeer's the art of painting has thus far been more in my head than the visceral experience it needs to be. wrapping up for the day.

11:42 AM: ABOVE: scrumbling gaze 36 before continuing to paint into it. more pics as i progress. 

with gaze 36, 32x32"  2 days ago

8:15 am: i should arrive in the studio about 10 am & get back to work on gaze 36 shortly after making my morning matcha tea & toast. the excitement and mystery, the anticipation of entering uncharted waters fuels my aliveness, creating an almost palpable sexual tension. 

editing today /  by Philip Tarlow

1:54 PM: i had some urgent video editing to do today, so i didn't work on gaze 36. but that did give me the opportunity of looking at it on and off during the morning & getting a sense of where i might take it tomorrow. it's a tad chilly today, at 29.9F, but i think we'll take another walk up to the tashi gomang stupa again to keep our bodies moving.

looking back/looking forward /  by Philip Tarlow

BELOW: 3 stages of gaze 36, starting on the left at 11:20 am

with gaze 36, 32x32", at about 2:15 pm.

2:21 PM: stopping for the day. usually, at any one of the early stages you see above, i'm tempted to stop and let it be. at that point i sometimes invite mikela to walk over and give me feedback, and she encourages me to keep going. at least i have a record of these stages in the development of all the paintings in my gaze series.

keep in mind, i'm still finding my way with the acrylic medium, which i had sworn earlier in my career never to go near. in part, it was kind of a snobbish, purist thing. and in part it was purely a technical thing, since i am so fond of the painterly and associated sfumato (allowing tones & colors to blend into one another gradually) capacity only available with oil paint. i think one of the things you will see if you scroll through the 23 ...this makes 24...paintings in the series, is an increasing capacity to mimic that sfumato effect, using tricks i've developed over the past year. if nothing else, this is good for ones brain. they say one of the things that keeps the brain vital as one ages is learning new things & switching it up.

the other variable here, as i've mentioned over the past week in my posts, are my ripening cataracts, mildly clouding my vision right now in my right eye. other than a general softening of the image & fewer hard edges, i can't quite put my finger on exactly how else this is affecting my painting, but in reviewing gaze 35, and now gaze 36, i see a distinct difference. and i must say, i like it!

 

 

11:24 AM: as anticipated in yesterdays post, an image has appeared in gaze 36, this time inspired by one of the figures in vermeer's christ in the house of mary & martha, which hangs in the national gallery, scotland. this is still a very early stage, but there's a possibility a second image inspired by a different vermeer painting may enter the picture plane.

it's a very windy day, with temperatures just below freezing. snow is falling above 12,000 ft. but the morning clouds have cleared and the sun is shining here at 8,000 ft.

kuan creek  16x66"  oil on linen  dated 3/9/13

i was about to start working on gaze 36 when i ran across this image on my desktop. it was painted in 2013, at a time when i was making a series of creek paintings inspired by smaller plein air paintings done at north crestone creek.

once i start work on gaze 36, i'll post pics of my process, with commentary.

tweaking gaze 35 with care/ starting gaze 36 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:28 PM: first stage of gaze 36, 32x32"

it's likely an image will appear tomorrow, & there's a good probability it will be based on a detail of a vermeer painting; perhaps two. a fresh wind is blowing in my sails. based upon some hi-def images i've been exploring over the past hour, a direction is starting to appear, having to do with intersecting gazes combined with other still life-like elements of vermeer's work, background maps, reflections in windows.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:35 AM: i was up at 4:30, anticipating and preparing internally for today's all important tweaks. which is why i think this painting is actually resolved! and it's only 11:35! a few critical highlights were added to the face on the left, as well as to her neck, necklace & garment. only the lips and the shadow beneath the nose was adjusted on the face to the right.

my investigation into the clouded vision in one eye due to cataracts and the softer appearance of this painting continues. lets see what happens with gaze 36, which will commence momentarily.

BELOW: before & after

BELOW: details of the tweaked gaze 35

gaze 35 on the easel, ready for tweaking

10:22 am: i'm about to begin the process of adding tweaks to gaze 35. it's beautiful the way it is, but i can tell i pretty much left it as is following the last scrumble, a few days ago. so while i love the warmth and subdued, subtle tones, it does need to pop a bit more. i'll post pics as i work, as usual, so you can follow the process.

re-stretching gaze 35, stretching canvas for gaze 36 /  by Philip Tarlow

6:06 PM: no painting today; un-stretched & re-stretched gaze 35, did some editing & re-organizing of the studio, with mikela's help. 

once i brought it back to the house again, it became clear that small but crucial tweaks are needed, so that's my first priority tomorrow. it demands walking a fine line between being totally focused on those very subtle tweaks and my attachment to the soft beauty of the painting as is. 

here's the painting in our entryway, bathed in late afternoon light.