at work on one of my gaze paintings earlier this year
today was spent revising and sending out a proposal for an exhibition of gaze paintings accompanied by a talk on vermeer by myself and my friend gary, author of the just published vermeer in detail and world renowned expert on rembrandt and the 17th c. dutch genre painters.
tomorrow i' start the gouache study for the next oil interior: #3.
1:50 PM: dan at the wheel 9 3/4 x 7 inches, gouache on archival paper. and now, on to gouache interior 8.
12 noon: received a very beautiful shot of my friend dan at work in his just completed pottery studio. decided to paint a small gouache based on the photo he sent. almost done with the drawing....
3 PM: i made quite a few changes; all, i believe for the better. so i'm stopping here for the day & will return oil interior 2 to the house, where we can evaluate. above you see yesterdays state on the left; todays on the right. can you determine where i intervened?
BELOW: some details showing todays changes
11:40 AM: can't say much yet since i'm working. i think taking out the white in the lower left, which i was kind of attached to, is working....i'll know more in a few hours
oil interior 2 at the end of my painting day today
2:30 PM: i made quite a few modifications today, and i need 24 hours to let the dust settle & have a look in the morning. below is a comparative view of the painting first thing this morning ^ at the end of the day today.
12:40 PM: still painting....making some important changes.....i think!?
a few details...
10:39 AM: first thing that struck me when i entered my studio and cast my all important first glance: the dark grey semi circular archway bits on the upper left & right grab way too much attention, right off the bat. next, i examined the sketchy bits on the lower left and liked them a lot. the rest of the composition seems a bit confusing. the blacks indicating the fireplace on the left, for example make a clear, unambiguous statement, whereas the blacks on the right, around the chair, are not sure what they want to be.
yesterdays palette
it also occurred to me, and i've been thinking for a while about this, that i need to have at least 6 to 8 stretched canvasses stretched and ready, so that when i make a discovery in one i'm working on, i can immediately notate it on a blank canvas, which ideally will allow me to capitalize on my discoveries more quickly and in the heat of the moment. so i just need to set aside the time to stretch those canvasses; yet another reason why i need an assistant.
2PM: oil interior 2 at 2 pm. this is where i'm stopping for the day. we took our trail walk this morning at 5, and i've been up since 4. this painting is now starting to sing. maybe not full throated yet, but close. taking liberties with the colors in the actual interior, which is a renovated firehouse in chelsea, nyc, allowed me the freedom to improvise. during a period of a few hours, i hit the sweet spot, where the gut directs your hand, not your mind. it was actually just after i spoke with my grandson philip, to wish him happy birthday, that my spirit soared. he's in france with his mom & his sister manio, and i could tell from his voice that he was having lots of fun. some local kids had come over & they were having a little party. so when i got off the phone, i just felt uplifted. and that's when i gave myself permission to fly.
oil interior 2, 32x32" at 1 pm
12:15 PM: bright colors unexpectedly enter the picture. still working; more soon....
10:37 am: i'll be getting back to work on oil interior 1 in a bit. here it is on my studio wall a few minutes ago.
i'll post pics as the work progresses
3:16 PM: following a one day trip to edwards, where we had an excellent meeting about our future plans with the school there, i'm back in my studio. i did a full days work today. the painting won't sing until i'm close to completion, probably sunday or monday. it still has a kind of fragmented feel. some major shapes need to emerge, the space needs to become more coherent and recognize it's identity. there are some areas of more interest, such as the one in this cropped image, where solutions have emerged giving the eye a direction. slowly, that should start happening with the entire composition.
BELOW: comparison of stages 1 & 2
mikela and i in 2006 at my show at skoufa gallery in athens
2:46 PM: as i said yesterday, using this high quality cotton canvas for this genre of painting was a gamble. i originally purchased it to use for my gaze series acrylic & collage paintings, reserving the far more expensive portrait linen for more delicate work, along the lines of the oil interiors. how would it be to work on this cotton surface? i started applying color before even finishing the drawing, so anxious was i to find out!
with the very first brush strokes, i realized that, not only is this canvas just as good as the portrait linen; it's better! because it's less absorbent and whiter, the colors are easier to work with and pop more. easier to work with because sfumato, or blending of colors and tones is far easier when the colors sit on the surface and are nor immediately absorbed into the canvas. and last but not least, it's about 1/3 the price of the portrait linen & i have almost an entire 84" wide roll. have provided a detail of oil interior 1, to show what i mean.
now some might read this, and some of my other posts, as say "tarlow, what are you doing giving away all your secrets?" to them i say: knowledge, in whatever form, is to share.
tomorrow we have meetings in edwards, a 3 hour drive. we plan on going & returning in one day. a long day, but at the end we get to sleep in our own bed! so no studio tomorrow.
4 PM: i just stretched a canvas for the oil version of this painting, and was able to start the drawing, which i'll continue tomorrow.
i'm not using the artfix portrait linen i used for oil interior 1. i think it works better for smaller canvasses. on larger stretcher bars, it tends to wrinkle easily because it's so fine & delicate. i love the surface, but i don't think it's the right surface for these larger oils. we'll see once i complete the drawing & start painting how this surface compares; it's a heavier high quality weave cotton canvas, which i've used thus far for my gaze series, when i was working in acrylic & collage. cotton canvas is considered to be lesser in quality than linen. the real question is: how does it take the paint? if it has the level of sensitivity i need, that's fine. the other option, which i've never actually tried, is polyester, which, unlike cotton & linen is not affected by moisture, making it a favorite of conservators. believe it or not, polyester canvas made by the same company, artfix, is more expensive per yard than either of the 2 i've mentioned.
2:07 PM: this is the completed gouache interior 7. now i'm ready to stretch the canvas and begin the oil version. pics when available. BELOW: a few details of the completed gouache.
DETAIL of gouache interior 7, 14x14"
12:47 PM: gouache interior 7 is taking longer than expected; it's filled with intricate details & patterning and this is one of the reasons i'm going to attempt a larger version as soon as this is complete. i think the oil painting will actually allow me to simplify and extract important shapes and details in a way not possible on this 14" scale.
3:30 PM: thunder is rumbling from storms on the peaks to the east of my studio, and the skies have darkened, so i'm stopping here for the day.
the wood floor seems rather dark in comparison with the rest of the composition, but that will balance out tomorrow, once some other darks are added on the left beneath & to the right of the lamp. completion of the rug on the very lower portion, beneath the couch with the throw, will also balance out the tones.
1:44 PM: making good progress towards completion of gouache interior 7. later this afternoon, i'll stretch a 32x32" canvas in preparation of doing this one on a larger scale. indeed, it's a composition that could easily work on a 60x60" scale.
WHY INTERIORS?
i've made paintings of interiors for decades. from hat makers shops in piraeus to living rooms in paris, the netherlands and new york. what they have in common is intimacy, patterns, warm colors and of course my spirit. my preference is to have at least one figure. my role models are bonnard, vuillard, karagatsi and tsarouchis.
in my world, each new interior represents a personal breakthrough. a new, ideally more elegant & economical way of working, with the interiors as a scaffolding. the result should move you and satisfy your aesthetic self.
3:18 PM: stopping here for the day. love this stage. the figure on the sofa is mikela. this one i could see on a larger scale in oil. i'll do more tomorrow. scroll down to see the beautiful bull snake that showed up a few hours ago at my studio door.
2:11 PM: below is the completed drawing for gouache interior 7. it's based upon a photo collage i made in the early '90's of a converted firehouse we were invited to by our friend joan, in chelsea, NYC. a great space!
i'll start painting in moments; pics as available...
1:32 PM: i've just about completed the drawing for gouache interior 7, 14x14" so i may squeeze my colors & begin painting.
updated pics to follow...
