a fresh valentines beginning / February 14, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:02 PM: i may not be able to resume work on this tomorrow; we have guests in the morning for yemeni coffee. if you haven't tried it, it's unbelievable! when i do get back to it, much of the drawing will be covered over,

motion 10 at 1:08 PM: lookin' kinda wild & crazy, in keeping with the high winds blowing through the valley.

11:28 AM: at the end of the day yesterday, and while the paint was still fresh & wet, I wiped out everything i could, except for the initial marks i had made in acrylic.

and today i started fresh, unconsciously focusing on pinks & reds for valentines day. the under-drawing will continue for the remainder of this windy day. it's a relief to have white spaces again, with accents of color flying about. today, i celebrate life, and being in a lively, pulsing body.

more to follow as the day progresses.

drag n'scrape gestural painting; a renewed appreciation of oil paints / February 13, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

5:41 PM: it was too heavy & not in the spirit of the other motion paintings, so i wiped it out while it was still wet & will start over in the morning.

*motion 10* as it looked at 2:30 PM this afternoon

2 PM: as i was preparing to clean my brushes, a few things caught my eye that needed a little work. BELOW is the BEFORE (left) and AFTER. can you discern what i did, and if it improved the painting? hint: click on the 2 images to make them full screen, then click back & forth & compare the grey of the rocks on the left, center & bottom.

12:29 PM: today i was in a way better space than yesterday, when i was in a lot of pain from my jaw/molar issues. so i leapt into action, scraping, painting, drawing with oil pastels & scraping some more with my many toothed instruments that leave parallel marks akin to splashing water.

at work on *motion 10*. to the left is the 16x16" plein air oil i'm referring to when i paint.

my whole body is involved, so i better be feeling good. right now motion 10 is in a good place, with an energy inspired by all the great movement/action painters i've admired & studied, from hals to rembrandt, guston and of course the one and only dekooning. great art transcends time, so internally i don't really make a distinction. and, having spent many months using acrylics with my gaze series, i have a new appreciation for what can only really be done with oils, which stay moist long enough to work into them, creating effects that would be impossible with any other medium.

motion 10 / February 12, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

4:11 PM: i had begun work on the under-drawing for motion 10 before the weekend, which was taken up with our indivisible meetings in 4 locations around the valley. the meetings went better than expected, and the format devised by mikela and barb, where the cadidates sat at small tables surrounded by the attendees, who got to ask them pointed questions in a relaxed atmosphere, worked like magic.

i had some difficulty picking up where i left offf with motion 10, technical and otherwise. i'm still having pain in my jaw, even after the root canal & crown, which was done on friday. there's something going on with my lower molars, and i'm most likely going to have to make yet another 4 hour trip to boulder.

so i was not in my "right mind," and did something i've never done before, mixing up acrylics with oils in a way that screwed everything up. so right now, this is the state of the painting, which is far from resolved. i can only hope i'll be in a better space tomorrow, when i continue work on this one.

political meetings this weekend; back to work tomorrow am / February 11, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

at the end of the meeting last night in monte vista, the candidates stood in front of the room to make their closing statements

we have back to back meetings with candidates this weekend in 4 different towns here in the SLV.

today the meetings are in crestone this morning & saguache, about 45 minutes west of crestone this afternoon. mikela & "indivisible" friend barb designed these meetings so that attendees could sit with each of the candidates at a small table allowing a close and intimate connection, so that each of us can say we genuinely got to know the candidates and what they stand for.

it worked! both speakers and attendees agreed they way preferred this format to one where the candidate stands in front of the room & holds forth.

a new motion series painting? a gaze series painting at poreia theatre, athens / February 7, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

8:45 AM: depending on what i experience in my first glance at motion 9 this morning in the studio, i may declare it resolved and begin a new one, which will be motion 10. stay tuned.

one another front, my son dimitri, who is the owner/director/sometimes actor at poreia theatre in athens (https://poreiatheatre.com/english/) has framed & hung one of my gaze series paintings in his his theatre.

gaze

a series of paintings inspired by vermeer and fayum portraits

you can view this and other paintings in this series in the dropdown menu on the tool bar, or simply click on the GAZE link below.

continuing "motion 9" / February 6, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

12:43 PM: this morning i dove back in to motion 9. i'm doing more on this one than usual. so now i'm taking a break to reflect.

BELOW: yesterdays version, left; todays: right

it's a definite improvement, but i'm not sure it's there yet.

a fresh look at motion 9 / February 5, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:44 PM: i'm stopping for the way, a bit bleary eyed. as usual, the morning glance will tell all. right now, i'm going to clean my brushes & drive to town for soy milk & eggs.

motion 9, 38x32", at 3:30 pm

1:08 PM: during my revision of yesterdays work on motion 9, i turned it sideways, making the canvas 32" high by 38" wide.

this painting simply did not want to be vertical! in working into it, i'm sensing the essence of what i experienced sitting by the creek on that day in 2013. at the same time, i'm playing with the forms of the rocks, which want to jostle and play with each other like a painters jigsaw puzzle, demanding a bit of green here, a warm tan there, a deep umber accent...

work continues for at least another hour or so.

11:57 am: i decided to switch the plein air oil i was working from to this one, painted on 11.11/13 which i find more interesting compositionally. i'm working on this revision right now, and will be for the rest of today. i'll post new images as they become available.

8:38 AM: when i enter my studio at about 10 am, i will take my critical first glance and determine what needs to happen with the new motion 9. it's always unexpected, always a new challenge which can never be met in a predictable way.

here's a long view, from our kitchen, of motion 8 hanging on our east living room wall this morning.

motion 9: starting the over-painting / February 4, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

9/16/14 plein air oil serving as the inspiration for motion 9

today was the day i looked at the under-drawing and felt complete, and ready to flip it on it's head and begin the over-painting, inspired by another of my plein air oils, this one painted on 9/16/14. it's a square, 16x16" canvas, and the one i'm now working on is 38x32," so i had to make some compositional adjustments. but it's alway a kick to spend so much time on the detailed under-drawing and then paint right over it. it's a process that evolved organically out of years of experimentation, and i know it's temporary. but i'm enjoying the hell out of it!

day 3: drawing for "motion 9" / February 3, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:32 PM at some point, especially if you live in our little town, you have seen an aspen trunk up close, and that image lives somewhere in your memory bank. that aha moment causes you to actually see the canvas differently: "a tree! yes, i know trees! i love trees!"

once it is turned on it's head and painted over with a different image, also derived from nature, it may function as a counter melody does in music; enhancing, supplementing, enriching the dominant, overlying image. ideally, the canvas would vibrate with harmony, mystery and a familiar note. it would sing!!!

continuing the "motion 9" under-drawing. the series will now be known as "motion." / February 2, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:00 PM: a late affernoon reflection in our entryway.

3:39 PM: here's where the under-drawing for motion 9 stands at the close of my work day. the fact that i'm using a very tight shot of an aspen trunk as my source for this drawing keeps opening up new possibilities and i feel like i'm bathed in patterns & color.

tomorrow i'll continue work on this under-drawing, and begin to contemplate which plein air oil i'll be using for the over-painting in oil.

12:52: here's where the under-drawing was at noon today. i'll continue working on it until about 3.

this under-drawing is, as i mentioned in yesterday's post, different from the others in that it's based on a cropped version of a photo of an aspen bark i shot months ago on one of our walks up north crestone creek trail. if you didn't know that, you might be able to guess, but it leans more in the direction of pure abstraction than the previous under-drawings, which were also based upon photos shot during our walks, but are of an overall view of rocks and creek water.

8:17 AM: today i'll be continuing work on the drawing for the next painting in my motion series. the title of the series was made up in the spur of the moment, and now seems boring, cumbersome and not really representative of what i'm up to. so i'm thinking today of something that will be more on target. the direction i'm taking and the process involved has developed over the past few months, and is now ripe enough to inspire a good two worder.

last night as we prepared to leave for a local political meeting, i shot this of mikela putting on her boots in our tv room. it reminds me in it's everyday intimacy & composition of a bonnard painting we saw on our recent d.c. trip, in the national gallery. not altogether impossible it may one day bethe inspiration for a painting.

i'll post pics and comments as the day progresses.