final tweaks to gouache interior 3 completed /drawing for gouache interior 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

4:20 PM: i just now started the drawing for gouache interior 4, which is also 14x14" and draws once again form gary & loekie's maarssen, netherlands home photo collages i shot in the '90's.

gouache interior 3   14x14"  35.5x35.5 cm.  

 

 

 

 

2:03 PM: i just now completed my final tweaks to gouache interior 3. selective lights & darks make the image pop more as well as improving the compositional balance. as with all my paintings in either gouache, egg tempera or watercolor mediums, everything rests upon subtle variances of tone & compositional angles that allow the eye to move over the picture surface freely, stopping perhaps to savor an especially successful brush stroke or passage. a daring departure for me, in these paintings, may be the occasional crimson red or azure blue. this modulation of mostly earth tones can be traced directly back to my days with the great tsarouchis and, by extension, his teacher kondoglou, who translated the byzantine idiom into contemporary terms. as i come full circle in my curiously wandering trajectory as an artist, i feel able to savor the simple beauty of this interior in the netherlands and, in the end, see it through my own eyes; my own consciousness.

BELOW: 3 stages in the development of gouache interior 3

continuing work on gouache interior 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:41 PM: stopping here for the day. this painting now sings, always a good thing. but it may still need a few tweaks tomorrow when i'm fresh. i did lots of work on the figure (our friend karen), the stairs and the cabinet in the center with it's beautiful objects, all chosen by loekie, with her sensitive eye for detail, color, pattern & all the stuff painters love. boy did they do the right thing when they purchased this house in the '60's and renovated it. it's my favorite interior amongst the manmy i've photographed & painted, and bonnard/vuillard would have agreed were they still with us.

2:10 PM: i'm continuing work on gouache interior 3, which looks like this at 2:10pm. i'll be painting for about another hour today, & will post pics of the latest version before leaving my studio.

starting to paint gouache interior 3 / another in my series of 1984-5 hockney interior photo collages /  by Philip Tarlow

2PM: stopping here for the day, as the skies darken and the thunderstorms begin.

12:44 PM: gouache interior 3  14x14" about half hour ago. still painting....

 

 

 

 

 

9:55 AM: i'm about to squeeze my colors & begin painting gouache interior 3, which i made the drawing for yesterday.

this is another of my 1984-5 photo collages of hockney's L.A. home & studio

finishing the drawing for gouache interior 3 / david hockney / new page devoted to gouache interior series /  by Philip Tarlow

4:35 PM: i just set up a new page on this site titled gouache interiors. it can be accessed in the dropdown menu at the top of every page. new paintings will be added as they are completed. or you can click on the link below.

3:18 PM: the drawing is complete, so i'll start painting tomorrow morning. tomorrow is not a trail walk day, so i should be able to start early. the subject is a different room in same interior i used in gouache interior 2, with one of the two figures found in gouache interior 1: our friend karen.

1 pm: starting late due to a.m. trail walk. working on the drawing for gouache interior 3.

in going through my files of photo collages, i came across a group i shot in my friend david hockney's studio in about 1984-5. here's one of them....david can be seen on the far right.

i'll post more when i have time.

completing 2017 gouache interior 2 / collage from 2014 /  by Philip Tarlow

12:07 PM: being sure not to do too much to the delicate balance of white space and color in the second 2017 gouache interior series, i feel i've reached resolution. the way i'm working on these gouache paintings is actually closer to watercolor than gouache. i'm not utilizing the opacity of the medium; rather making thin, transparent applications, creating an overall tapestry of form & color that mirrors the richness of the elements gary & loekie have artfully combined in their interior, reflecting their love for 17th c. dutch genre painting.

14x8.5"/35.5x21cm. collage on paper i just found while searching through my photo collages, dated 5/20/14

2017 gouache interior 2, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: we got back late from our walk, so i didn't get as much work done as i would have liked. i think one more good day tomorrow should do it. below is a comparative view of yesterday's version and today's.

drawing for gouache interior 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

2017 gouache interior 2  14x14"  gouache on arches paper

3:26 PM: this is where i'm stopping for the day. this is a more complex composition than yesterday's. the elements that will make the difference in the livliness of the image have not yet been painted, such as the rich material of the fabrics on the sofa to the right; the rug on the lower left and the grain of the wood floor. i have painted this room before, in about 2000, but from a different angle. even though 17 years have passed, all the elements in this room are very familiar to me. and somewhere in my awareness, i can see the river vecht out the windows to the right, not visible in this composition. and i can see the very special netherlandish light, bathing everything it touches in a warm glow that, i believe has a lot to do with all the water surrounding, enveloping that small country, as well as the particular cloud formations i've never seen anywhere else. we're hoping to visit this fall, to see our friends gary & loekie and to visit the newly renovated rijksmuseum.

drawing for 2017 gouache interior 2, 14x14"

 

 

 

 

12:47 PM: the completed drawing; about to squeeze my colors.

 

 

 

 

12:13 PM: i've begun the drawing for 2017 gouache interior 2, which i should complete today & be ready to start painting tomorrow.

completed 2017 gouache interior 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:05 PM:  i completed this first gouache study, titled 2017 gouache interior 1 which is 14x10 in./35.5x25.5cm. & am ready to move on to the next one in this new series. gouache is a medium i love, which i worked in for many years during the period i lived & painted in greece. in looking at this one, i can see my evolution in the looser, sketchier technique. in part i believe this comes from having greater certainty in my mark making, in part from my familiarity with interiors, having painted hundreds. no matter the medium, you still have to be in the groove. 

stage 1, study in gouache on paper /  by Philip Tarlow

3:48 PM: today i started a study in gouache on archival paper for a larger oil on linen, which i'll start as soon as this study is complete. it's 14x10"/35.5x25.5cm. and is based on a 1994 photo collage of the living room at my friends gary & loekie's home on the river vecht in the netherlands. the two seated figures are friends who joined us on that trip. i should be able to complete the study tomorrow, as well as stretching the 36x38"/91.5x96.5cm. canvas. it's a refreshing change from my gaze series, and i'm anxious to see what it feels like working in oil after more than a year of making paintings in acrylic & collage.