collaging gaze 35 /  by Philip Tarlow

gaze 35, 32x32" as it looked at the end of my painting day.

2:25 PM: i'm ending my painting day a bit early. it's not great plein air weather, so we'll go for a walk up the trail before attending a meeting in crestone. the imagery, as you see, has shifted to vermeer's love letter; perhaps my favorite painting of his. the mystery in this painting of a maid looking over the shoulder of her mistress at a letter which many have surmised to be a love letter, is ever present. it also happens to be one of his most beautifully painted compositions. at this stage, previous layers of gaze 35 emerge, deepening the mystery and bringing it squarely into the 21st century. notes of archile gorky sound in the play of biomorphic shapes and realist elements. the subtle green of the vintage map of maine adds greatly, i believe, to the richness of the composition as it stands. how much and what kind of work i'll do on it tomorrow remains unknown. and that, my friends, is what gets me up in the morning!

gaze 35, 48x48" as it looked moments ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

noon: i'm going to shift the imagery today, before going out to the creek to paint. but first, i did some collaging, as you can see here. while i was working, i had a cool conversation with my grandson philip on viber. he's at his dad's theatre in athens, and he told me all about his latest football (soccer) adventures. we'll talk again tomorrow form his sister's birthday party.

so now i'll dive back in with acrylics, using a new image. i can't say at the moment what that will be....but i'll post pics as i work....

gaze 35 continued /  by Philip Tarlow

3:25 PM: the entire surface has been scrumbled. i envision this image will shift dramatically tomorrow. at the moment, it has plenty of mystery, but no soul. something has to shift.

 

 

 

 

1:05 PM: this morning i painted into the collaging & scrumbles i did yesterday, giving the face a lot more definition, which will eventually give way to more subtlety & mystery. the mystery's the thing. a tantalizingly placed bit of green maine map emerges on the lower right & above her hat. 

i'll have a bite to eat; eggs most likely and resume, although i put off eating as long as possible, since i get a bit sleepy afterwards & i'm not as sharp & clear as i need to be. i wonder if fighter pilots or surgeons experience this, and what they do in a similar situation.

back in my studio & at work on gaze 35 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:12 PM: i realized after a few hours of work that i haven't fully recovered from yesterdays long day, driving a total of 7 hours in challenging conditions, having my eye poked & prodded with crazy bright lights searching the depths of my retina, and so on. so i'm stopping here for the day & will resume tomorrow morning.

 

after the scrumble, i created the blue and grey dots you see, waited for them to dry and drew into it with a graphite stick. my friend dan's maps are playing an important role, as they have in previous gaze paintings. remote lakes in maine, the names such as upper sabao lake, bring up memories, albeit dan's memories, of glorious hikes into the pristine wilderness that was. oh, the frogs; oh the bitter birds with twitting beaks and fanning wings; oh, the red coated foxes deep in heat, eyeing the frogs and the birds with distant hunger. all this, all this enters the pictorial space with scrapes and flourishes, drips and lines drawn with a certainty bred of pencil studies of noses and eyes i made in 5th and 6th grade. 

 

 

1:58 PM:  back in the studio after yesterday's jam packed day, which started at 4am. we drove through a snowstorm to get to my eye appointment at the lions eye center at anschutz in denver.

the retinal specialist recommended going back to one of the drops i was using after my glaucoma/cataract surgery a few months ago. plus another kind of drops, both designed to very slightly raise the pressure in my right eye, to facilitate the reduction of a bubble of fluid behind my retina. it's complicated, but my surgeon should be able to determine at my next appointment whether it's working.

i'm back at work on gaze 35. did a lot of collaging this morning & am about to do a scrumble, then work into it with acrylics. i'll post more pics at the end of my painting day.

TEDx youth@Vail / an eye scare /  by Philip Tarlow

yesterday afternoon into the evening was the TEDx Youth@Vail event, which took place at battle mountain high school auditorium in edwards, colorado. our friend kat produced it with her team. almost all the speakers were high school students, whose presentations were compelling, moving and very informative. kat has produced many TEDX events, but this was the first youth event.

i shot quite a bit of video. i interviewed all the speakers, as well as shooting footage of the event which i plan on turning into a 5-10 minute piece kat can use for publicity and to inspire future students to submit their requests to participate. here are the 3 hosts of yesterday's event, two of whom we worked closely with when they were still middle school students in edwards.

i'll be back in my studio once we're back on wednesday, where i plan on continuing work on the revised gaze 35, as well as going out to the creek to make more plein air paintings like the recent one you see on the lower left. one thing i was reminded of by one of the talks is the importance of making the most of each moment. sounds like a platitude perhaps, but from the perspective of a high school student who was paralyzed from the chest down after a skiing accident last year, it was far from that. that, plus my recent adventures with cataract/glaucoma surgery, have been a wake up call.

two days ago my vision seemed to get a bit worse, after improving steadily for 2 months. we went to a local doc, who did an exam and gave us the alarming news that i might be on the verge of a retinal detachment. he suggested drivng to denver asap to the emergency room at anschutz and being seen by a retinal specialist.

we drove through a snowstorm, checked in to the er, and waited. and waited. finally the on call ophthalmologist showed up, once again dilated my pupils and concluded that all was good, and that the swelling behind my retina, which we knew about, had actually gone down considerably. she did strongly recommend seeing a retinal specialist on tuesday, just to be sure. so once again, we'll leave edwards on tuesday & drive through a new snow storm, and make sure all is well. scary stuff for an artist!

continuing work on gaze 35 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: gaze 35 as it looked moments ago. this painting is now inspired by vermeer's the girl with the red hat, a painting. it is benefiting, i believe, from all the work i've done on the gaze series paintings. it is enlivened by traces of the many layers of images that lie beneath this one, and by my increasing mastery of the painterly elements i so cherish. i have, to a greater degree than ever before, let go of any attachment to the image per se, and am increasingly engaged on a purely gestural and painterly level. work continues...

12:25 PM: preparing my palette for todays painting

DETAIL of gaze 35, 32x32"

 

 

 

 

9:03 AM: in a little over an hour i'll go over to the studio, where i plan on continuing work on gaze 35. this is a painting which was born in december of last year and developed over a month. i was not satisfied that it was resolved, so i began re-working it yesterday. on the right is a detail of the very rough state i left it in at the end of my painting day yesterday. to view the vermeer inspired gaze series, click on the link below.

returning to gaze 35 /  by Philip Tarlow

5:19 PM: we had a meeting with some friends at 3:45, so i left gaze 35 in this raw state. raw but kind of interesting. it will change quite a bit tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

2:12 PM: so now that gaze 34 is resolved, i'm returning to gaze 35, which looked like this on nov. 10 and then december 24, 2016. i have another vermeer face in mind, but first i'm going to scrumble this one. i'll update with more pics a bit later....

unexpected: plein air today / gaze 34 completed /  by Philip Tarlow

3:46 PM: after the plein air, i returned to the studio, where i invited mikela over to give me feedback on gaze 34. she loves the painting, but felt the green calligraphic marks on the face itself were taking her attention away from the sensitivity of her expression. i concurred,and proceeded to remove almost all traces of them, except for the area beneath the face, where i feel they add to the strength and complexity of the composition.

while i was at it, i made a few tweaks to her mouth and nose which i think make it a better painting. for the first time since this re-work began on march 14, i'm taking it over to the house, which is always the acid test to determine whether a painting is resolved or not.

3:37 PM: i made 2 new plein air paintings in gouache on paper at around 11 this morning, as the skies were beginning to darken and the next storm began moving in to osuth central colorado. i found a new spot very close to where i left the car, since i was somewhat pressed for time and didn't feel like lugging my stuff too far. it turned out to be a very wonderful spot, and i may go back once the weather clears.

11:15 AM: as soon as i entered the studio i saw exactly what needed to be done to gaze 34, and i got it done in about 15 minutes. i have to go into town to get some supplies for tonights dinner with friends, which puts me very close to north crestone creek. so i'm going unexpectedly to the creek before i do my shopping & we'll see how that unfolds. it's an opportunity to get in some plein air before the next snow/rain storm hits tonight through wednesday.

i'll post pics from todays plein air from the site, if i have a signal.

a bit more on gaze 34 / yesterday's gouache framed /  by Philip Tarlow

3:08 PM: that's it for today. the changes i made were restrained, and i think add to the subtlety and richness of the painting as a whole. her feathered head dress is more defined, balancing the rest of the composition. the calligraphic marks i made yesterday on the lower portion of her face are now more integrated into the image, while still serving the purpose of reminding the viewer that this is not a portrait; it's a painting. which i think was vermeer's attitude. it's not so much the fact that he made great faces, great genre scenes of every day life, rather it's that his first concern was always to stay true to the painterly, abstract elements of a given painting, while channeling the mysterious, eternal human truths his paintings convey. although the 9,000 people who showed up at the opening of vermeer and the masters of genre painting at the louvre recently had very different ideas as to why they were so strongly motivated, know it or not, i believe that was the  x factor that attracted them in such large numbers.

1:14 PM: work continues on gaze 34, which looks like this right now. highlights have been put in and some of the calligraphy has been softened. here' a comparison with the way it looked yesterday afternoon, on the left:

10:45 AM: here is yesterday's plein air #1 in a temporary frame. looks a lot better. a frame, said tsarouchis in one of his pithy quips, is the pimp of a painting. 

on first glance, gaze 34 is not quite there yet. close. so i'll resume work, being careful not to upst it's delicate balance. i'll post pics as the work progresses.

mid day plein air / significant progress on gaze 34 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:23 PM: you might have thought: "tarlow's tuckered out; no way he can work on gaze 34 after his mid day creek adventure. no way!" think again. sometimes you get on a roll. it has little to do with how well you slept or how tired you might be after making 2 plein air paintings at the creek.

so i dove in, first doing a scrumble, then working into it very lightly. i was moved to make a series of calligraphic marks in matte green which echo the writing on one of my favorite fayum paintings. the artist wrote, in ancient greek script, some details about the sitter. they are strung across her beautiful neck like beads, and work perfectly as part of the composition. like that, i dipped my fan brush in a darkish green acrylic i had mixed and began making calligraphic marks, riffing off my fayum painter buddy. this is how i envision a successful gaze series painting. we'll see how i feel about it in the morning. gotta get going; mikela & i are going to walk up to tashi gomang stupa and go right by the spot where i was painting just a few hours ago.

2:12 PM: when i arrivedin the studio i felt a strong hit that i should go to the creek and make plein air gouaches. rather than go up to north crestone creek, i went to a site i haven't frequented in about 9 years: willow creek at the trailhead to tashi gomang stupa. i made dozens of plein air gouaches at that location in 2008-9. i discovered it's changed for the better! a large and beautiful tree has fallen across the creek, creating a new and exciting composition as seen from the spot i usually choose to sit. it's not an ideal spot as far as convenience however. no flat ground for my chair & little table, so everything could tumble into the creek if i'm not careful. as well, i have to sit in the sun, which is a drag. the work i did today is quite different from what i did 9 years ago. it's too early to say exactly what that difference is, but when i have time i'll post a few side by side so you can judge for yourselves.

now i'm going to do a bit of work on gaze 34, although i'm feeling a bit tired from my latest creek adventure. pics when available.

kyriakos with broom / continuing work on gaze 34 /  by Philip Tarlow

gaze 34, 38x38" as it looked at the end of my painting day

3:32 PM: as i said a few hours ago, :a map could appear at any moment." indeed it has. a vintage map of monongahela, west virginia; one of many maps generously gifted to me by my friend dan. i think these map cutouts have enriched the composition, which was a bit too predictable, and weighted to the left. i also did quite a bit of work to her face. this is the end of my painting day and ,once i wash my brushes mikela and i will walk up the trail. still a bit too chilly and windy to paint plein air, after last nights snow storm. although my european 19th c. predecessors wouldn't have thought so. bold fellows, they were.

1:26 PM: i contiinue work on gaze 34 today. for the moment, i am still drawing from the model in vermeer's the art of painting. her almost beatific, one might say, expression combined with his masterly use of oil paint makes this painting stand out. thus far, none of the underlying collage elements are visible, having been painted over. but a map could appear at any moment! and now, back to work while i still have my morning energy.

 

 

8:54 AM: this is a painting in oil on linen, ca. 1975, of my favorite model at the time; kyriakos. he was a street cleaner in plaka, where my studio was located, facing the roman tower of the winds monument. he was considered retarded, but i didn't think of him that way. he came and posed for drawings and paintings, all the while looking out my studio window to make sure his supervisor wasn't nearby. 

as i write this, the wind is roaring, gusting to 40mph, after a snowy night with 3-4 inches of new snow. when i head over to the studio, i'll do my usual first glance and continue work on the ever evolving gaze 34. pics will be posted as work progresses.