wiping out the motion 13 over-painting & starting over / March 4, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:49 PM: here's the current state of motion 13. i'm in no rush to move ahead with it, enjoying every moment of the additions i'm making on top of this precious, soft under-drawing.

the studio today has a new, fresh energy following my time with my mentee (don't want to reveal his name for reasons of privacy). here's one of the drawings i made of him during our session. i don't have a photo of his, but they (there were 3) were quite beautiful, especially the final one.

12:39 PM: while the motion 13 over-painting was kind of interesting, it just wasn't doing it for me. so yesterday i wiped it out. since the paint was still wet, i was able to get practically the whole thing, leaving a thin, interesting filmy haze over the whole thing.

i'll post more pics as i work back over it, using a different plein air gouache as my inspiration. oh, and don't forget to let me tell you about my most excellent experience mentoring my new 12 year old friend yesterday. we each made 3 drawings of each other, and plan to get back together in 2 weeks, when we'll go out to the creek to paint plein air. i think he's very talented and am excited to be able to give him guidance. i think we're both learning from one another.

starting the over-painting in oil / March 2, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:32 PM: the perilous vibrancy of the trembling unknown: this is how i might describe what is happening with motion 13. if you click on the image and make it full screen, you will see the "content" in the way deKooning described it: "a glimpse of something, an encounter....like a flash."

12:38 PM: i began working over the under-drawing this morning, scraping just enough of the oil paint i'm using away so as to allow fugitive areas of the drawing to appear here and there. i just saw something i want to work more on, so i'll stop this post here & continue later.

stage 2: motion 13 under-drawing / March 1, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:19 PM: today i took the under-drawing for motion 13 further, using colored pencils and mostly crayon, with a little oil pastel as well. this drawing can barely restrain itself from dancing right off the canvas. it's a great example of how sometimes departing from naturalistic colors can actually enhanse the sensation of the actual landscape as it appeared that day last november. as with all the previous under-drawings, it's difficult to bring myself to paint over it, obscuring most of the passages partially or totally. i'm in no rush however, and we'll see how i feel in the morning.

motion 13 kicks off / February 28, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:16 PM: i feel motion 12 is resolved after yesterday's interventions, so i stretched another 36x36" canvas and began the under-drawing for motion 13.

it's based upon this photo i shot on 11/25/17 while walking up north crestone creek with mikela. the light was especially magical that afternoon; the rock in the center was virtually exploding with light. the under-drawing will continue tomorrow, when i'll very likely complete it & prepare to begin the over-paiinting the following. productive entity, i am.

stage 1 of the under-drawing for *motion 13* as it looked at the end of my work day

a dekooning quote influences the trajectory of motion 12 / February 27, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

BELOW: motion 12 this morning and, after an intervention, at noon today.

12:34 PM: this morning over coffee, i was again looking through the MOMA 2005 de Kooning retrospective catalogue, when i came across this 1949 quote, which is characteristic of de Kooning's thought process. this , plus a comment yesterday my mikela regarding her dislike for the purplish hue she detected in motion 12, resulted in some changes to the painting this morning.

here are 4 photos from that catalogue:

subtle, unexpected changes to motion 12 / February 26, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:19 PM: this morning mikela ambled over to check out motion 12. she liked it a lot, but had some issues with the violet tint, as opposed to my usual earth tones. but as she gazed, i saw a few things i wanted to change. most of all, how dark the marks indicating the outlines of rocks at the top of the composition were.

as well, she lightly suggested making a few studies in gouache from some of the 10th c. masters i so admire. doing that led me to make a few very subtle marks to the 2 branches on the lower portion of the composition, which you might find it hard to discern in the digital image, but in person they are evident.BELOW: yesterdays version on the left. and here's how it looked following my changes.

BELOW: 2 studies i made this morning, in ink on paper. on the left, a study of a landscape painting by 10th c. chinese artist gong xian and on the right, a quick study looking out my north studio window.

motion 12 moves ahead.... / February 25, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

motion 12 before and after the adjustment to the brown triangle on the left

3pm: the dark brown in the triangle on the left was bothering me, so i did some work on it just now & brought it into alignment with the rest of the composition. i've been perusing the catalogue from a major deKooning retrospective we saw at MOMA in 2012.

something he once said:" the desire to make a style is an apology for one's anxiety.... better to make a picture that trembles with anxiety than one that is static because stylistically pure."

ABOVE: the motion 12 under-drawing at noon, and the same painting at 1:30pm.

the 8/8/11 plein air painting, 16x16" which i'm referring to as i paint today

1:41 PM: yes, motion 12 was enticingly attractive yesterday & this morning. but we can't get stuck on the under-drawing, can we? so i moved ahead, covering the drawing with a thin coat of warm off-white and drawing/painting into it with oils. and sure enouch, that under-drawing peeks through enough, oh just enough to provide the mystical magical moving ghost image i was hoping for., surpassing the original 8/8/11 plein air oil i was loosely referring toand revealing a variety of biomorphic suggestive forms produced by a simple but informed twist of the wrist.

i chose the 16x16 8/8/11 plain air painting you see on the left as my inspiration for motion 12 today.

a different path / February 24, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3 pm: here's the next phase, which i just worked on. the bit on the left seemed too strong, so i wiped it & then went into it with crayons, creating a softer feel. this allows the central tree trunk, which has some beautiful passages, to shine. but it also works better compositionally. i may be done for the day. this new direction was a surprise, which i kind of knew before even setting out for the studio this morning. it's allowing 2 of my strengths to emerge side by side: draftsmanship & the use of oil color on this portrait linen i love so.

1:36 PM: after spending just 1 day on the under-drawing, rather than the usual 3 or 4, i sprayed the drawing with fixative and began painting in oil. rather than going over the entire drawing & masking it partially, working form an entirely different image based on plein air creek oils, as i've done on the previous motion paintings, i used the same image and started painting into the drawing.

in other words, i have eliminated, for now, the ambiguity produced by laying one image over an entirely different one. the abstract qualities of this image: aspen stumps some of which have been cut up for firewood (see the photo in yesterdays blog post) lends itself to this different approach. thus far, the graphic elements contained in the mostly grey drawing on the canvas, are juxtaposed with the vibrant siennas & tans of the tree trunks.

where will this experiment go from here? perhaps later this afternoon i'll take it further. on the other hand, i might let it sit until tomorrow & see how i feel about it then.

looking at a van gogh drawing, starting a new under-drawing / February 23, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: i started the under-drawing for motion 12. this time i'm using crayon exclusively. no colored pencil thus far. so it has a bolder look and stands alone as a work unto itself. here are two stages: 1 pm & 3 pm. to be continued tomorrow.

11:47 AM: if i could get to work by 10:30, I'd get a lot more done! lets give that a try tomorrow, shall we?

i opened a book of van gogh drawings from an exhibition we visited at the met in 2005. here's an example of one, rocks and trees, drawn in province, july 6-12, 1888. pay careful attention to the variety, livliness and absolute necessity of each of his marks. this is genius.

i'm about to embark upon a new under-drawing, this one based upon a photo i shot october 15, 2017.

BELOW is a detail of motion 11 and van gogh's drawing side by side. van gogh's drawings have had a profound effect on my mark making. seeing an entire exhibition of his drawings at the met in 2005 knocked me for a loop, and i'm still reeling. the sheer volume; the mastery boggles the mind.

motion 11 resolved? / February 22, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:23 PM: so i did some work on motion 11, especially the upper left. but as you can see, the branch on the right has gained some color as well. i really worked on almost all areas of this painting, adding some rock shapes on the left which echo the ones on the right. i'll give it 24 hours & see how it looks in the morning.

BELOW: left: yesterdays version, right: todays.

7:49 AM: when she had a look at it for the first time yesterday afternoon, mikela had some doubts about that alizarin crimson under the rock in the center of the composition. i'll confirm this once i'm back in the studio, at around 10 or 10:30am, but i do think it's an essential element. you see a detail of it here on the right.