oil interior 4 after viewing in the house / July 15, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

2 pm: the minute i hung oil interior 4 on our east living room wall, where we can get back & view the painting from about 50 feet, i was clear that it needed more work. for one thing, the composition was divided in two because of some of the broken up bits i introduced as a way of riffing on those qualities that are part of the original photo collage. the figure in the foreground also had a triangular spike of white running through it from top to bottom. this is a good example of something not working because it came from my head rather than my gut. it's a lot closer, but may not be there yet. it's good that i'll be away from the studio for 2 days, which will give me a fresh perspective when we return form denver.

BELOW: yesterday, left and today, right.

oil interior 4 completed / or not! / July 14, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

5:55 PM: i hung it on the east living room wall and it didn't pass the test ! so i'll be back at the easel tomorrow morning.

1:13 PM: about an hour ago i felt the painting was resolved, so i stopped. i'll take it over to the house this afternoon for the acid test & hang it on out east living room wall, where we can get back 40 feet & see how it carries.i think i've taken my experiment with breaking up the image based on the breaks occurring in the photo collage i'm working from. i've taken it a bit further in oil interior 4, but i think both 3 & 4 are exciting paintings.

more work on oil interior 4 / July 13, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

*oil interior 4*, 32x32" at the end of my painting day today

3 PM: i did more work today on oil interior4. it still hasn't sung, but it's certainly closer. i'm making discoveries, both coloristic and spatial, as i go, and feeling some of the delights involved in breaking up form.

right now we're in the midst of a raging thunderstorm, which is giving us some much needed precip and will go a long way towards erasing our deficit for the year. this is the period when we get the most rain in our arid environment, due to the seasonal monsoon, which brings moisture up form mexico.

oil interior 4 / July 12, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: stopping here for the day. oil interior 4 has progressed and is in a state of flux. the eye jumps about looking for a place to rest and there is not yet an overall coherence. there are however some beautiful passages. i'm being careful that my idea of breaking up the space based on the breaks created by the photo collage, where the photos don't quite match up or are mounted at an angle to create a continuity in the image, does not overwhelm the art.

it's an interesting idea, which i think works in the previous painting: oil interior 3. but in painting as in any other art form, it's easy to be taken over by an idea and forget essence. the trick for me is to always let the drawing or painting go where it needs to and allow that to draw on my knowledge, skills and passion to shepherd it along the way. there is no recipe, no formula. as far as i'm concerned, while formulas can create very interesting, even compelling results, it produces a lifeless result, devoid of chi.

noon: i'm resuming work on oil interior 4 following our early morning trail walk. the work is progressing intentionally slowly to give the painting time to absorb what i've done & choose it's next move. does that make you think i'm speaking crestonian? well, perhaps so. when you live here long enough, that's what you speak. i'll post more pics as work progresses...

work on OIL INTERIOR 3 continues / starting oil interior 4 / July 11, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

**DETAIL** of todays work on *oil interior 4*

i'm considering oil interior 3 resolved, although i won't know that for sure for a few days. so i began work on oil interior 4, which is based upon the same photo collage of the interior of a renovated firehouse on 23rd st. in manhattan.

i'll continue working on this one after our morning trail walk tomorrow. this time, the breaks in the image, following the naturally occurring breaks from photo to photo in the photo collage, are being introduced beforehand rather than being painted in white on top of the existing image.

at noon, i'm continuing work on il interior 3, digesting yesterdays break up of the space, refining the white shapes i introduced mimicking the shapes created by the juxtaposed photos in the collage i'm working from and cutting down the sheer white of those shapes to a cream, so they integrate better into the composition. i changed & reduced the shape of the white space above her head, and on the left of the carpet, which you can see better if you make the images full screen & toggle back & forth.

getting some ideas by looking at early cubist images of works by picasso & braque, who were at the time living in the same floating studio.

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left; todays right

breaking it up / July 10, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of oil interior 3 showing the breaks in the image

2:01 PM: we walked up the trail this morning, so i'm stopping early 'cause i hit my limit. about an hour into it, something felt off with oil interior 3. as i looked at the photo collage i'm using for this painting, i noticed the breaks in the image as a result of the collaging together of many individual photographs. i noticed that the resulting breaks in the entire image seemed completely natural to me. they didn't register as mistakes or flaws. on the contrary, they enlivened th image!

since this painting was beginning to feel like a re-hash of far more competent 19th prototypes, i decided to take a walk on the wild side and introduce breaks similar to those in the photo collage. so what you see when the photos don't match up in a white space, usually following the edge of the photograph and the jogging a bit one way or another, depending on the way they were mounted on the white surface.

there are some studies about how we see that suggest that this is actually closer to what the eye does when scanning a real life image; darting from one place to another very rapidly and composing the continuous, unbroken images we're used to seeing. more about this tomorrow; right now i'm wiped out & want to clean my brushes & get back to the house to lie down next to the love of my life!

BELOW: LEFT-the painting as it looked yesterday and RIGHT- as it looked moments ago.

drawing for oil interior 4/ starting to paint o.i.3 & 4 / July 9, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3:15 PM: if you read my 2:39 post below, you'll see that i wanted to correct a problem for ending my painting day. i just did, but there's more to do, which i'll address tomorrow morning after our trail walk. read the post below for my analysis, and see if you agree. there's a tab on the bottom where you can make comments, which could be very helpful if you're up for it.

2:39 PM: here's how oil interior 3 looks at the end of my painting day. in the end, i didn't work on oil interior 4 in tandem, as i had planned. but that could happen tomorrow, now that oil interior 3 has legs.the results of my experiment: painting with the canvas lying flat on a cardboard bod about 6 inches o\above the cement floor of my studio are,at least to me very apparent. there's a greater freedom in the brush strokes; not so much control. exactly what happened with the drawings when my graphite was attached to a long pole. this doesn't necessarily mean i'll be painting this way in the future. for now, i like it. it's creating a look that is new for me. one where, arguably, it's more natural to keep in mind the entire surface as large areas of color are blocked in and the space is divided up.

right now, i'd say the weakness in the composition is that the right and left halves look exactly like that: they appear to be 2 halves of different paintings. as a matter of face, i think before cleaning my brushes i'll try & do something about that! thanks, those of you following this blog!

1 PM:making progress on oil interior 3

11 am: just started painting O.I.3, and will move to O.I.4 when i'm a bit further along. good morning energy & not too hot yet.

9:58 AM: just completed the drawing for oil interior 4, which as predicted is looser & more economical than yesterday's drawing for O.I. 3. i'm going to proceed to preparing my palette & begin painting shortly, up dates as available. BELOW yesterday's drawing for O.I.3 (left) & todays.

cutting & stretching canvas for oil interior 3 / July 8, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3:13 PM: i made the drawing for canvas 1 (of 2) for oil interior 3 & 4. i'm doing two as an experiment, to see if working on two in tandem allows more freedom and the ability to immediately transfer the discoveries & solutions i make in one to the second canvas. i attached my graphite crayon to a long pole to make the drawing; something i learned from matisse, who did it to let go of control and facility. so far i like it. it allows me to not get caught up in the details and literally get some distance.

12:18 PM: i'm in the process of cutting & stretching canvas for the 32x32" oil interior 3. i should be able to strat the drawing shortly, & will post pics as they become available.

completion of gouache interior 8 / July 7, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

*gouache interior 8* 14x14" gouache on archival watercolor paper

1:53 PM: i completed gouache interior 8 just now, and am moving ahead with preparations of a larger version in oil on linen. as always, i'm glad i did a small version first, in gouache on paper, as it gave me valuable information on how this composition could be improved. gouache continues to be one of my favorite mediums. after all these decades of using it, i feel a certainty in my mark making that allows for greater freedom and improvisation. i feel i've also gained a lot from doing my gaze series in acrylic & collage, which gavce me the greatest feeling in my career of riffing on a theme; not being attached to a particular look or passage and just plain being playful. my greatest teacher in this series of interiors is most certainly vuillard. the way he integrated pattern into his compositions; the intimacy of his work

11:25 am: picking up where i left off yesterday afternoon, i'm continuing work on gouache interior 8, in preparation for a larger oil version; possibly 2 versions. trying to get as much as possible done before it heats up to the high eighties predicted for today, and my gouache colors begin to solidify on the palette. there's still a ways to go before it jells as a composition; possibly the next time i post, in an hour or so.

looking back / starting new gouache interior in about an hour / July 6, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3PM: i'm stopping for the day. here's where gouache interior 8 was at when i stopped. I can only work on a gouache like this in bursts. with all it's beautiful patterns and very subtle color & tonal transitions, i get burnt out after, say, a 30 minute burst. so i take frequent brakes, until i feel like i'm cooked.

i think this is going to work especially well as a larger oil.

1:30 PM: drawing completed; at work on the gouache painting.

8:57 AM: this gouache on paper was painted in 2005. the subject is pythara, a waterfall on the island of andros, greece. the lone figure in a landscape has always been part of my work.

in about an hour, i'll commence work on the drawing for gouache interior 8, 14x14" i may be able to start painting this afternoon, if the drawing has been completed. i'll post pics as they become available.