say goodbye to gaze 34 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:25 PM: changes to my home page: when you click on one othe paintings on my home page, you now see directions for viewing more of the paintings in that series in the dropdown menu..

1:36 PM: going back into these gaze series paintings is like jacunezi polybligs. in other words, there are no words. except ones you make up. i deliberately....sort of...worked with the canvas flat one the table. one thing i learned from matisse, is to use whatever methods you can to let go of control. so in his case, he put his brushes on long poles, preventing his mastery of line from interfering with the emergence of an unplanned result which likely would exceed the one he could execute so deftly with a normal brush or pencil.

when the canvas is lying flat on the table, you can't look at it head on & walk back to evaluate every so often. you brush in an eyebrow in the approximate color you want, thinking you'll refine it later on the easel. you trick yourself into being fluid and spontaneous because, you figure, this is just a first sketch. so jacunezi polybligs plus a slightly inconvenient angle promotes a kind of freewheeling exuberance which is the core of creativity, and can produce great results when backed by a knowledge of what came before.

it's also important, i'm learning, to have at least 2 or more pieces going on simultaneously, so you don't get hung up on one solution & everything is more open to change.

that said, none of this means shit without the X factor.

 

 

 11:28 AM: this morning i felt the juice to re-work gaze 34, which i've been looking at for months here in my studio. it just ain't working. i had thought i was complete with my gaze series, but the muse has spoken, and as you all know, you don't mess with the muse!

so i'm about to begin work & will post updates, as usual, throughout todays process.

back from santa fe, at work on cactus 1/ looking back /  by Philip Tarlow

3:40 PM: while going through some old slides just now, i discovered this b&w photo of a small 1972 painting in gouache on paper. in december of 1966, the ferry boat heraklion sank off crete in force 9 winds, with 246 lost and only 47 rescued. i got this image from a newspaper article about 4 of the relatives of the drowned victims, and i was moved to make this small work on paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:09 PM we had a quick but wonderful trip to santa fe, where we attended sophi dillow dixon's beautiful installation at winterowd gallery on canyon rd. we stayed with our friends, sculptress lea black and her husband neil. they are both very wonderful and deeply interesting people, so we had vibrant conversations over dinner, and then breakfast yesterday at cafe fina.

back in my studio, i'm working on transferring the completed cactus1 drawing to a tinted ground on stretched 16x16" portrait linen.it's tedious work, so i take breaks to write this post and prepare for some plein air painting by the creek this coming week, when the temperatures will be warmer than normal for this time of year.

i'm feeling a restlessness.....wanting to dive into a new project but not yet sure what that will look like. our visits to several santa fe galleries gave me some ideas, but i've got to be patient and let them percolate.

a facebook friend sent me this interview with my son dimitri, which appeared today in the magazine: ependisi. if i have time, i'll translate some of it for you. he speaks about his experiences as director at his athens theatre, poreia. currently, he's just completed directing a play due to open at the national theatre of greece on march 23rd.

sophia dixon dillow at winterowd gallery /  by Philip Tarlow

sophia and a helper installing the show

we'll be attending the opening of our friend, sophia dixon dillow's installation at winterowd gallery in santa fe this evening. we've see her work in her studio,but this will be the first gallery show of hers we'll be attending. i'm also very much looking forward to meeting her father, Willard Dixon, who was a fellow artist when i was a member of fischbach gallery in nyc in the '80's. 

back to my studio /  by Philip Tarlow

axel in class on november 14, 2016

9:39 AM: we returned yesterday afternoon. my cold is at the tail end; mikela's is about day 3. i'll complete the cactus 1 drawing today, and transfer it to the stretched, primed linen surface this afternoon.

i'm going to search for the clips i shot of axel & start the process of editing them down and preparing them for the family. although i think it's too early for them to view this material. maybe on our next trip to edwards...we'll see what feels right. i've always been excited about documenting people & events, but this may be the most special. i'll give an update a bit later in the day.

axel's goodby /  by Philip Tarlow

6:52 am: axel lost his long battle with cancer last friday.

yesterday at 7 pm we attended axel's service at santa maria catholic church. we had never been to a hispanic service which obviously was conducted completely in spanish. the church was packed, mostly with family friends and relatives, who appeared so connected that they seemed to be one organism.

there was a group of singers and musicians, and lots of beautiful hymns in which the entire congretation participated. i could pick out some familiar words, like muerte, dios, christos and axel's name. this made it all the more moving and allowed me to be with my memories of this extraordinary boy named axel.

greif concelors are being provided by the school for any of the students who feel they need help processing the death of their friend and fellow student.

as i mentioned to several of his teachers, i have at home some excellent footage i shot of him back in november, talking about the project he was working on, which he would have presented at the school showcase in mid may. as soon as we return home, i plan on reviewing the footage so i can edit a short piece for the family.

a week before he passed, a fellow student was visiting him in the hospital. as they played video games, he observed that she was very sad. "don't worry," he said, comforting her, " i've done everything i wanted to do. i'm ready." that was axel.

 

roy tarlow /  by Philip Tarlow

with my dad in his nyc appartment.

 

 

 

on this day in 2005 my dad, roy tarlow passed. his love and energy is always with me. his deep explorations of spiritual truths is an inspiration. 

 

 

scroll musings:

these are some recent paintings, experiments really, on japanese paper. i had a profound moment with a student earlier this afternoon that made me go deeper with  my inspiration for these paintings and how they relate to my larger body of work. i had a chance to look back at some highlight moments in my life thus far as an artist when i posted and perused the digitized images you can see on this page:

in the moment with the student i speak of, i asked him about the topic of his project: gravity. it was clear to us both that he was not passionate enough about this topic to do a really good job at the may showcase. so i asked "what are you really passionate about? passionate enough to work on the project outside of school, to go really deep and to do it with enthusiasm?" he pondered for about 2 minutes, then looked me in the eye and said "speaking." i asked him to elaborate, and it became clear to us both that this was his new project. i turned him on to a few youtube videos of TED speakers i knew would inspire him to begin answering the question:"what makes a really good speaker?" this was one:

https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement#t-22632

and he was off and running. so, in looking at the work on my landmark works page, i asked myself a similar question. i can see that the human figure in an everyday activity or an enigmatic pose, often in an an architectural setting, definitely runs through my work. while there is certainly a strong love for the organic forms revealed by rocks, water and trees, and for the calligraphic marks they inspire, in the end those human figures are where i sing my song most clearly. so i'm running all this through my filters during this 3 day trip to edwards. our contacts with these amazing 10-11 year olds is giving new dimensions to my musings. i'm not pushing for a quick answer, if there is one; just musing. at seven, we'll attend a memorial service for one of these kids, a jewel who succumbed to cancer last week. a reminder that there is something much larger taking place as we walk, semi-conscious, through our span of days.

a new page /  by Philip Tarlow

the long distance call  egg tempera on board 16x16"  1978 private collection, athens, greece

this is one of eleven paintings from my archives, which were recently digitized. i just now posted them click on the link above to visit the page.

day 3 of my self portraits: a new, larger version /  by Philip Tarlow

1:25 PM: i'm stopping here for the day. i have a full blown cold, for the first time in at least 2 years, and my eyes are dripping like faucets. we're participating in a march this afternoon in alamosa, followed by a film, so i'm going to lie down before we leave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:28 AM: this morning i started work on a larger, more ambitious colored pencil self portrait. i may not finish it today, and am alternating between it and my cactus 1 drawing. here are the first 2 stages of the drawing:

day 2-self portrait sketch, and continuing the cactus 1 drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

11:08 AM: as i posted yesterday, my plan is to make a drawing/sketch of myself in colored pencil every day as soon as i enter my studio. yesterday was #1 and was crappy. today, #2, is slightly less crappy. which was the point. i've never been able to make a successful drawing of myself, and yet i can make very good ones of others. why, i asked myself. so i decided to start this process of drawing myself every day until something good comes out of it. i figure this has to be a process of getting to know myself on a deeper level, and to be able to get into the zone, as i do when i draw others; especially people i don't know.

so now i'm going back to my cactus 1 drawing. once it's done, i'll transfer it to the tinted ground i prepared on a 16 x 16" piece of stretched, very fine artfix portrait linen, and start work on that painting.

after a couple of years of not getting a cold or the flu, i got very achy last night and my throat began to hurt. i'm trying to nip it in the bud using green earth farms immuno-tonic, to which, correctly or not, i attribute the fact that neither of us has had a cold in forever.

starting the day with a self portrait sketch, then a new creek scroll, and finally, continued work on the drawing for cactus 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

7:26 PM: so, the glasses. Too early for a final verdict. as with all new prescription glasses, it takes a while to adjust.my first impression was: "oh shit, they really screwed these glasses up!" as the hours slipped by, my eyes began to adjust. right now, as i watch TV, i'm noticing the image is sharper than before. as well, when i close my right eye, then my left, the whites are definitely more greyed out. and when i close my left, i see a whiter white than i've seen for years! how will this affect my painting?

12:45 PM: within 2 hours, my new prescription glasses will arrive via UPS, from the zenni workshops in china. i can't wait to see how they affect my vision. i've kind of gotten used to seeing an imperfect when i look through my old glasses. they have my old prescription in the left lens and plain glass in the right. will the difference be as striking as i'm imagining? i'll let you know as soon as i open the package & try them on. by the way, if you haven't heard of zenni, they are amazing. i typed in my new prescription in 2/24 & requsted their sxpress service; a total bargain at $18.00. i ordered 2 pair, with progressive lenses: one normal and one pair of sunglasses, specifying the same frames i had ordered last time. the total cam to $214!

so after making my first in a series of daily self portrait sketches, which i admit is crappy, i created a new creek scroll painting. this one is a bit longer than the others: 57 x 17.75" below are the 5 stages of this new painting. if you click on any one, it will come up full screen.

11:35 AM: i'm going to attempt to make a quick self portrait sketch every morning as soon as i enter the studio, using the exquisite wood framed mirror i found in the late '70's in a deserted stone house in aidonia, andros, greece. this first one is pretty crappy, but that's the idea....to see how, if at all they improve over time.

so now i'm moving on to a new creek scroll on japanese paper, and then i'll continue work on the drawing for cactus 1, 16x16."

i'll post pics of the new creek scroll painting a bit later.