continuing landscape series 5, 38x36" slowly-slowly........ / December 27, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

2 PM: this is the end of my day in the studio. early today so i can go to the post office & we can walk up to the stupa before our dinner guest arrives. as i said, i'm going very slowly. as of yet there is now explosive moment of flying chi, but it will come. maybe tomorrow.

11:56 AM: this morning i've been continuing work on landscape series 5, taking it very slow while listening to my gut, or my guidance, or whatever you choose to call it. at a ceretain point, it said, "use a little oil paint to define the rocks, like you did in some of your recent plein air gouaches." at another point, it suggested i use some oil pastel instead of colored pencils.

drawing for landscape series 5, 38x36" / December 26, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: today i started the drawing, in colored pencil, for landscape series 5. it's based upon a photo from one of my plein air sites by the creek, shot 9/15/15. it's a delicious subject, filled with my favorite elements: rushing creek water, branches helter skelter and the last of the green leaves, rich from a summer of warmth and about to turn. you can smell the creek in this photo.

landscape series 4 may be complete....we'll see tomorrow / December 25, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3:19 PM: today i am a fountain pen, was the joke we told about that day, my bar mitzvoh, when i became a man, at age 13. well, today landscape series 4 became a painting. it may need a few more minor tweaks, but i feel like what i did today really brought it to resolution as a painting.

BELOW: details

i said i wouldn't use oil paint in "2017 landscape series 4," but today i did! / December 24, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3:37 PM: yesterday, i brought the painting back to the house for evaluation. it was beautiful, in a delicate sort of way, but it seemed too delicate. it was beautiful at a distance of 6-10 feet, but it was too faint to carry beyond that distance. so i had kind of made up my mind before leaving the house for the studio this morning, to squeeze tubes of oil onto my palette and dive in.

although it still needs some work, i think i did the right thing. i'll keep large areas of white...breathing space i like to call it. bit as you can see from the comparative views below.

YESTERDAY TODAY

landscape series 4 progresses...slowly-slowly / December 23, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: i had a sudden wave of tiredness, so i'm stopping for the day. it looks like i'm going to stick with oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil & graphite; something i've never done before on this scale, and on portrait linen. i'll continue tomorrow, but it feels close to completion. BELOW are some details.

ABOVE: yesterdays version on the left, todays on the right

12:50 PM: this morning i continued work on landscape series 4, continuing to limit myself to colored pencils, crayon, graphite & oil pastel, but not employing oil paints. and it may remain that way. it has a delicate presence that i'd like to maintain, and using oil paints might upset the balance.

i'm going to continue working and see where it takes me, so i'll post more pics and commentary at the end of my working day, in 2-3 hours.

landscape series 4: taking the drawing further / December 22, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

2:50 PM: i was a bit tired & in pain from yesterdays drive through the snow & ice and the work the dentist did on my molar. the good news is that she was able to avoid a root canal, although she had to work right next to the nerve. so i came into the studio after 11 and was a bit slow getting to work, i was surprised to see myself taking the drawing even further without fixing the crayon, colored pencil & graphite and starting to work in oil.

we're going to walk up to the stupa in moments, so i'm stopping & will continue tomorrow

landscape series 4; the drawing / December 20, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

*landscape series 4*, 38x36" as it looked at 3 pm

2:41 PM: today i began the drawing for landscape series 4 on the newly stretched 38x36" portrait linen. there's lots of ice in the photo i'm working from, which was shot on one of our recent walks up to tashi gomang stupa. the drawing is almost complete, but not quite, and will have a chance to gestate while i have my root canal tomorrow.

i plan on taking it very slow with this one, the drawing is so delicate and tender, it requires lots of space to breathe. before starting to paint, i'll spray it with fixative so that the colored pencil, crayon and graphite marks don't smear. my use of 5 or 6 different colors in of course intentional and based entirely upon my gut, much like my life. we associate different colors with different moods, but also with content. cucumbers are GREEN; red peppers RED. rocks are usually some variation of GREY. a blue or red or green ROCK conjures a fantastical world. as a matter of fact, the world IS fantastical! remove the cloak of expected, learned reality and you begin to give space to the fantastical. up to a certain age, depending on the culture, children see only this fantastical reality. so we can all REMEMBER it! it's at the tip of our memory.

a bit more work this morning, and now "landscape series 3" is hanging in the house for evaluation/"sexual innuendo" / December 19, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

1:24 PM: from time to time when i'm between paintings, i pull out this 16x16" experiment in oil on linen and do some work on it. or rather, i play on it. it started out over a year ago as a failed landscape (i think) and then became my playground, where anything goes and nothing is sacred. actually, now that i think about it, that's the way all painting should be! you care the most when you don't give a shit!

sexual innuendo is the title it never had. but today i decided it has enough of a vulva-esque passage to deserve it. i love that it's a stand-alone. it reminds one of some of the pieces in the collage series, however it's really catagory-less, poor baby! maybe i'm just preparing for the root canal i'm due to have on thursday. now there's a sexual innuendo!

YESTERDAY AFTERNOON NOON TODAY

noon: i did a bit more work on landscape series 3 this morning, then brought it over to the house for evaluation in morning, afternoon & artificial lighting tonight. it doesn't have that sketchy freshness of the previous two, but it is a beautiful & compelling image. i lightened the tall grasses in the foreground, gave some dimensionality to the large horizontal tree trunk and added small but critical blue accents at the very top left.

starting work on landscape series 3 / December 18, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

5:36 PM: an unusual late afternoon intervention has taken place. we stopped by the studio following our walk up to the stupa and, although the sun had set, i turned on the lights & made a few changes. here's how she looks now.

the painting carries further (it can be read at a distance of 50 feet), and has a less descriptive, more energetic, gestural feel, transmitting to the viewer more of a sense of the presence of the creek. compared with the earlier version, it goes further in the direction of creating a language. without a language, said matisse, an artist has no foundation for creating good/great art.

2:16 PM: this morning, after a 1 day break. i followed up on the drawing i made on saturday for landscape series 3. i felt it was getting too busy, with not enough breathing space, so i went back in a few minutes ago and took out the work i had done on the top 1/3.

you can see the progression below, starting earlier this morning on the left, then the stage where i t got to busy in the center and finally, the current state, on the right. i'll pick up where i left off tomorrow.

brunch guests today; no painting / December 17, 2017 by Philip Tarlow

10:52 AM: in 10 minutes our brunch guests will arrive & we'll have a fun sunday connecting & exchanging stories. i'll pick up tomorrow where i left off yesterday with the drawing for landscape series 3.

frequently a short pause actually works in my favor, giving me space to dive back in with fresh energy. until then, i leave you with this shot of a rare piebald deer i photographed yesterday outside our house. in all our 23+ years in crestone/baca, we've never spotted one!