little sister / oil interior 1 continued /  by Philip Tarlow

oil interior 1  32x32"  oil on portrait linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day. it's been a little disjointed, because at about 1pm it dawned on me that i was standing directly under my 2 skylights, and at this time of year, that means getting direct sunlight, with only a thin piece of draped material protecting me. that is exactly what my dermatologist warned against in the days following my PDT (photo dynamic therapy) for my face. i noticed the burning, redness & swelling increasing as the day wore on, so i had to stop & move my easel to the east side of my studio, away form the skylights, in a spot where it's impossible to get back more than 10 feet to look at the painting.

following a burst of color this morning, when i impulsively made oil interior 1's little sister, 16x16", i continued work, eliminating some of the previously sketched in white spaces & bringing the composition more into focus.

BELOW: 3 stages of oil interior 1 over the past 3 days

little sister's influence immediately was felt

12:17 PM: as i continued work on oil interior 1 this morning, i was prompted to take a stretched 16x16" blank canvas. within about 20 minutes i had painted oil interior 1's little sister. she has brighter colors and is far sketchier. her influence, bossy girl that she is, was immediately felt by her big sister, whose lower left regions began to look a lot like little sister. strange stuff happens in families. little sister says: you're too predictable! i hate predictable!

looking back: gaze 27-32x32" / continuing oil interior 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:06 PM: i'm stopping here for the day. my face is very red & swollen form the blue light treatment, and it's hard to keep my focus today. the painting has evolved and is, i feel, in a good place. my direction and vision are to maintain the lightness of touch and painterliness that sets it apart from the version i did 20 years ago. see yesterday's blog post for that image and to read my comments on that. i'm hoping to get a good nights sleep & be in better form tomorrow.

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left; todays on the right.

10:49 AM: i'm about to prepare my colors for continued work on oil interior 1. pics when available.

after my morning meditation i lie down in the living room and am face to face with gaze 27. having had repeated opportunities to review this painting in what could bbe called ideal conditions, i have a deeper appreciation for it's assets, which in all modesty, i think are many.

DAY 1, oil interior 1, 32x32"/81.3x81.3 cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

3:39 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day. if you compare with the image from the gremillion invitation below, you'll see what i meant in my 1:48 pm comments. the brush strokes in the painting thus far are much looser and the composition more abstract; in the sense that the whole picture plane is seen as a play of shapes and colors. they are given specificity and meaning by the context: a living room with 3 figures interacting. but the painting is no longer about this subject matter. rather, it's in a kind of dance. working straight onto the white primed portrait linen is making a huge difference. it's as if all those years of painting in oil on a tinted ground were foreplay, and now i'm having real sex.

1:48 PM: ABOVE is the current state of oil interior 1. i made a series of interiors in 1996, which were shown at the time in a solo show at gremillion & co. in houston. so why am i revisiting this subject, and interiors in general? first of all, i'm in the mood to paint interiors. and i'm curious to see what if anything has changed during those 20 years. i'm in the midst of working, so i'll say more later, but to begin with, the earlier versions were painted on a tinted ground, which is a hold over from byzantine art, as introduced to me during my 15 years in greece, by my mentor & dear friend, yannis tsarouchis.i stuck to that method of working in oil until recently, when i began making plein air paintings in oil on 16x16" canvasses. those were all painted on a white ground, which i found freeing. even daring! having the white canvas show through rather than the tan-ish ground i used ups the luminosity, as well as giving me the feeling of immediacy i experience with watercolor or gouache. 

but i want to do a second round my fresh morning energy lasts, and i'll say more about this later.

11 am: i just completed the drawing for oil interior 1, which will be in oil on linen, 32x32" it's a larger version of gouache interior 1. below are 3 stages of the drawing. i'm about to squeeze my paints onto the palette, and will post pics as available.

the day after /  by Philip Tarlow

7:42 PM: this afternoon i made a small collage and watercolor in preparation for making about 300 small drawings, watercolors & collages for mikela to include in our educational product, with a september deadline.

11:39 AM: i had the Blue Light treatment on my face yesterday, so my face is red, swollen & painful. just found this 1988 drawing of mikela in an old sketchbook. as i was adjusting it, i accidently inverted it, and i think it looks kind of cool!

trail walk this morning, no studio today /  by Philip Tarlow

10:52 AM: we took our trail walk this morning, and here are a few pics. delightful and fulfilling as always. mosquitoes not swarming yet....it helped that it was 39F when we started out at 6:15am.

i won't be working in the studio today. i've got an appointment with my dermatologist to get the blue light treatment, and will have to be completely out of the sun for 3-4 days. 

a few more tweaks to gouach interior 5, and it's complete /  by Philip Tarlow

1:54 PM: after looking at it in the house over the past 24 hours, i felt that it needed a few more critical tweaks before i could sign it & declare it a resolved painting. the main one oyu may notice is the horizonal triangular shadow on the lower right. it allows the eye to comprehend the space more easily. previously, as you will see if you compare yesterday's version with today's, there was some spatial; confusion and the entire image seemed like it could just slip off the bottom of the page. i also darkened a few areas, such as the hair of the main central standing figure of the barber. the white space above the draped material at the top has a few defining shadows that give it volume, and there are a few more.

gouache interior 5 completed? /  by Philip Tarlow

                         gouache interior 5  14x14"  gouache on archival watercolor paper.  

2:25 PM: even though we took our morning trail walk, we returned early enough for me to get to work around 10. so i got a lot done, and may have completed gouache interior 5. although the photo collage i worked from was shot 30 years ago in rajistan, i can recall all the elements very clearly. the barber & his crew were thrilled at being the subjects of my photos. his seemingly makeshift shop was actually very well equipped, and contained many of the elements i love in an interior: numerous mirrors, beautiful patterned colors, figures who, in spite of the fact that they're very aware of being the subjects of photographs, are all relaxed and natural in their bodies. in that respect, they reminded me of the passengers i drew and painted on the ferry to and from andros. without the 2 figures on the right, who were able to sneak in because of my collaging, the image would lose immeasurably. 

drawing for gouache interior 5 / looking back /  by Philip Tarlow

4 PM: i started painting, but just barely. tomorrow morning we plan on walking early, around 5:30 to avoid the mosquitoes, which are just now starting to show up & will be around for about 6 weeks. so i should be able to get to work by 10 am & have a full day.i love this early stage, where the surface begins coming to life.

2:23 PM: the drawing for gouache interior 5 is complete, so i'm going to prepare my colors & start painting. pics as they become available.

12:11 PM: i'm at work on the drawing for the next gouache interior 5. this one is inspired by a photo collage i shot in rajistan, india in the '90's. it's a colorful half indoor half outdoor barber shop.

rajistan is known for it's bright colors, as you will see when i began painting this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

looking back: this is a plein air oil on linen, 16x16" painted on august 8, 2011.

it's a great example of how realism can evolve to abstraction. quite handsome in person.

gouache interior 4 completed /  by Philip Tarlow

3:08 PM: i don't have any more of these frames, so i switched out gouache interior 3 for the new one. that way i can bring it to the house and make a final evaluation as to whether or not it's resolved. quite a shift from my gaze series! as you may recall, those paintings went back & forth form house to studio many times and underwent radical alterations before being declared resolved. and even the, later, sometimes months later, they would once again transform, sometimes rendering them unrecognizable. 

1:14 PM: after a few final tweaks, i just now completed gouache interior 4. mikela rightly pointed out that it was leaning a bit to far towards the beiges, so i introduced a few subtle but critical blues that made all the difference. so now, she sings! as time goes on, my marks become more economical, so that what might seem to the onlooker to be very minor adjustments can critically shift the energy of the whole.

drawing for gouache interior 4 completed /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: i did a lot today, and knocked myself out! i'll resume tomorrow morning, and may even complete this one. 

this interior, as i said earlier, excites me tremendously, and i can't wait to get back to work tomorrow. i'm savoring the prospect of making this one, as well as the other 3 in the series, larger paintings in oil. the next gouache may move on to other interiors i've made photo collages of.... a few i'm considering were shot in paris apartments and restaurants in the loire valley.

12:36: a few minutes ago i completed the 14x14" drawing for gouache interior 4 & am now ready to squeeze my colors & begin painting.

there are many elements in this one that turn me on, not the least of which is the richness of the painting over the fireplace. as i studied my photo collage, shot in the mid '90's, i experienced a deeper and deeper appreciation for our friend loekie, who considered every detail in this room as if she were anticipating that it might become the subject of a painting. every fabric; every placement of tables, chairs, teapot, shells is exquisitely thought out (or, more accurately, felt) before making her arrangement. i'm certain this room looks different today than it did then, and am equally certain it is just as exquisite!