back in the studio; revision of "rain" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:07 PM: after returning last night from our 2 week trip to nyc & washington, d.c., i returned to my studio. i feel out of it and very achy & tired. we drove form nyc to d.c. in an intense, constant rain storm that made it quite stressful. then we visited the vermeer show at the national gallery 2 days running. then a 7 hour flight, including a stop in kansas city, back to denver, followed yesterday by a 4 hour drive in blowing snow back to crestone. so i shouldn't be surprised by how i'm feeling.

as i was attempting to orient myself back to the reality of my studio space, i came across this painting, which is from my 2017 late summer series. i felt good about the painting, and made a few small additions. below left is the painting before todays intervention, and on the right, how it looks following the changes. they were, as you will observe, minor. but i do think they made a difference.

landscape series 6, painted over landscape series 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:41 PM: landscape series 3 did not pass the hang in in the house test. after a few weeks, i was just not compelling enough. so i brought it over to my studio this morning, rubbed it about with gamsol  & launched back in, using the 11/1/12 plein air oil as my guide.

as with landscape series 5, the underlying image provided a rich counterpoint to the new image, which i believe actually surpasses the 16x16" plein air oil.it has quite a powerful presence, and we'll see when we're back from visiting with dimitri & our 2 grandkids how it strikes me.

BELOW:  on the left is the 11/1/12 plein air oil

...and the few all-important final tweaks before 2018! /  by Philip Tarlow

12:41 PM: as often happens, after 24 hours of gazing on and off at landscape series 5 hanging on the east wall of our living room, a few areas caught my eye and held it too long, indicating that something needed to shift in service to the harmony and balance of the whole. made those subtle but important updates this morning and am ready to declare this painting officially resolved, only 12 hours before our transition into 2018. Happy New Year my friends!

BELOW is a comparative view of the painting as it looked before this mornings intervention, left, and after, right. can you discern what what done?

and BELOW are 2 details of the painting

landscape series 5 revisioned /  by Philip Tarlow

1:22 PM: landscape series 5 was becoming too pretty, plus the composition sucked, so i did a major wipe-down using gamsol, which is far healthier than turpentine. the image looked ghost-like when i was done. then i worked into it, using the 10/29/12 plein air oil you see below as a reference. it was a huge relief, going from that picky, detailed namby-pamby style of working to my familiar whole body sweeping gestural strokes. just when i thought i was finding my note, it switched to something more gut level, primal i could say, which is the feeling i get when i'm out by the creek. i don't know if i have the energy to resume painting plein air in oil this spring. but it's a tempting thought.

getting a handle on my handle....more work on landscape series 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

5:23 PM: after bringing this painting to the house & hanging it, it immediately became clear that there's a problem with the composition. tricky to deal with, but that will be my focus tomorrow. it may require a radical intervention, which i love.

2:13 PM: following my morning musings (below), as noted below, i did more work on the painting. it's progressing slowly, but in a good direction; see what you think. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                           YESTERDAY                                                                 TODAY

 

8:04 AM: in gazing around our house & surveying recent work, i've made several observations. on the lower right you see a plein air gouache painted on 9/27/17. the other 3; a detail of landscape series 4 on the upper left; we found a way on upper right and 1-26-17 collage on lower left, have all emerged from the discoveries i made while doing the plein air gouaches.

my feeling is that, in the landscape current series, i am edging closer to my "handle," by which i mean my unique way of translating what i see into paintings. can they match the immediacy of the plein air prototypes? likely not. but they can gain in richness and complexity resulting from the slow evolution of each piece over time.

landscape series 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:38 PM: i did a bit more work on the painting, lightening the upper left, which was too heavy relative to the subtle tones of the remainder of the painting.

 

 

 

 

 

12:31 PM: this morning when i entered the studio, i knew that moment had arrived for whole-body, bolder strokes. so that's what happened, mostly with the painting lying flat on my work table. That allows me more freedom and greater capacity to work the entire surface, sometimes with a very thin, diluted layer of oils, without the paint dripping or running. i frequently put it up on the wall to evaluate, possibly do a bit of work while it's hanging, then back to the table. in front of me on one of my 2 easels are a selection of plein air gouaches, which inspire and direct me, reminding me of solutions i came up with in the heat of the moment while sitting by the creek.

right now, it's in a sweet place and i think i'll let it be.

continuing landscape series 5, 38x36" slowly-slowly........ /  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" /  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 /  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! /  by Philip Tarlow

          2017 landscape series 4  38x36"

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.

                              DETAIL

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