the drawing for motion 16 / April 4, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

**STAGE 2** of *motion 16* 36x36" oil, colored pencil & oil pastel on linen

5:07 PM: .....and, in a last minute scramch, he dives back in, scrapes & scrumbles, draws with graphite & moves once again into motion territory, elbowing his opponents to the side in full body swinging of arms & flinging of paint....

**STAGE 1** of *motion 16* 36x36" oil, colored pencil & oil pastel on linen

as i predicted, this painting, thus far, differs form all the rest. rather than being inspired by one of my older plein air paintings, it is largely drawn from one of the photographs of the creek i shot one day while out painting. it lacks the larger, rock inspired forms of the rest of the series & is mor eof a riff on a particular place at a particular time. some palette knife scraping has taken place, to make the strokes that were too defined blur & widen their edges. i can't wait to see where it takes me tomorrow.

2:05 PM: this morning i stretched a new 36x36" canvas and commenced the drawing for motion 16. i used a new fixative to stabilize the drawing, which is non-toxic. this is a huge relief, because the stuff i used to use was terrible, and i could smell the toxic fumes even when i was wearing my professional mask.

i'm about to start painting, and am approaching this one a bit differently than the previous motion paintings. you'll see what i mean once i start posting images.

i also spent time revising my home page, as well as my new fluid landscape page. have a look:

fluid landscape

more work on my new fluid landscape page and a small but important tweak to "motion 14" / April 2, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:19 PM: i started my morning by making a relatively small but all important tweak to motion 14. here'a comparative view before & after the tweak. take a look at the far left area of the composition. in the before, there's a space. in the tweaked version on the right, a few faint marks allow the composition to look & feel more complete.

fluid landscape

then i continued work on my new fluid landscape page, which is filling out nicely. have a look:

back to work on motion 10 following a 1 day break / April 1, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:50 PM: yesterday we had a political meeting in alamosa frist thing in the morning, followed by some clean up & prep work for our dinner guests, one of whom brought us 2 amazing bottles of home made wine, the other 2 large bottles of my favorite beer from the recently opened soul craft brewery in salida.

i did quite a bit on motion 10 this morning. it was clearly not resolved. some cool things happened, but it needs to sit for 24 hours.

the inverted reddish V shape pn the left was the first to go; a rather awkward shape asking to leave. what i call "kneeling elephant, on the mid right, also left the picture. the blue on top was interrupted by an area of while with the red outline of a couple of rocks, borrowed form one of the more successful plein air oils painted in 2104.

BELOW: left-motion 10 as it looked before todays intervention. right- motion 10 moments ago-

ongoing work on motion 10 and fluid landscape page / March 30, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

crestone/baca skies photographed yesterday afternoon

2:14 PM: i lightened the left & upper right background areas. there's definitely more motion happening in the composition than before my intervention today. if you compare it with yesterdays version, which you can see below in my 12:22 post, although there's more going on, it hangs together way better. the bright whites that used to be in the lower portion have given way to a an ochre yellow/grey, allowing the white i strategically placed above the large brown rock on the right to become an accent & pop. i think the addition of siena to the right of that white also helps enrich & balance the composition. the pinkish brown shape just to the left of that new white rock shape was annoying me in yesterdays version; it kept drawing my eye to it. so i think that issue has been resolved.the addition of some orange/yellow splashes of creek water on the lower right add a lot as well, echoing similar colors in the central portion, just beneath that green rectangular shape, which is also new, and plays a critical role.

BELOW: left-yesterdays version, right-motion 10 as it looked moments ago

1:42 pm: this is where motion 10 is currently at. more work after i have a bite.

12:22 PM; i think i'm going to do some more work on motion 10 & 14 this afternoon; they both could use some work. BELOW: motion 10 (left) & motion 14 before today's interventions.

9:45 AM: this morning i did more work on my new fluid landscape page:

http://philiptarlow.com/fluid-landscape/

i'm about to meditate & head to the studio. i'll post more as i get into work on the motion series paintings.

rad-rework of motion 10 and thank you! / March 29, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:16 PM: i'd like to thank those of you who are continuing to read my daily blog posts now that i've deactivated my facebook membership. i know many of you have gone to this site as a result o fmy daily posts, where i would provide a link to my blog. i was delighted & amazed to find that my unique visitors haven't dropped off at all. so thanks guys!!

1:40 PM: i worked on motion 10 until a few minutes ago, and will leave it in this state until tomorrow morning.

there's a similarity between the last two rad-revisions i made, on motion 12 & 14, so i need to sit with this one & see tomorrow morning if it has it's own identity.

11:43 AM: motion 10 was last worked on february 17, 2018. it felt resolved, but it's one of those paintings in my motion series that just didn't hold up over time. that branch: too prominant. compositionally: not really. so i'm diving back in.

so what have i been up to / March 28, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

8:23 AM: the last few days i've been creating a new page on the site titled fluid landscapes. it all started during a conversation with the owner of a denver gallery who wanted to find "loose realist landscapes."

so 2 days ago i began a search through my works, both digital files (which are a mess) and actual work. in all modesty, i was impressed with the volume and quality of the work. so i began organizing the page, which is still in it's early stages. in keeping with my belief that my process as an artist should be as transparant s possible, the new page is visible to the public as a work in progress, and you can find it in the drop down menu.

it's early and i'm still in coffee making mode, so i'll continue the conversation once i get to the studio, and post some interesting things i discovered while going through older work.

rad-rework of motion 14 / March 25, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:31 PM: this is where i'm stopping work for the day.

the 11/7/14 plein air oil which was the inspiration for my rad-rework of motion 14, as well as for *motion 8*

motion 14 has inherited some of the discoveries i made in motion 15, while presenting a much more spare, sketchy quality reminiscent of the plein air oil it was inspired by, which you see reproduced BELOW.

i didn't get a good nights sleep & i'm exhausted, so i'll head back to the house and lie down.

BELOW: motion 14 before (left) and after my rad-rework

plein air with k. / March 24, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

5:37 PM: this morning i prepared for k's weekly visit to my studio & our creek adventure. it was a tight schedule; i had to drop mikela off in moffat at 7 am so she could meet other women going to caucus in pueblo. so we had to get up at 5. at 1:15 k & i set out for north crestone creek. we carried 2 tables, a stool, a chair and all the painting supplies up the trail & down to one of the creekside sites.

k is 12, and this was only his 2nd time painting plein air. what he created is, i believe remarkably accomplished. he does not agree!

a matisse quote, & some motion 15 tweaks / March 23, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

7:24 PM: good night crestone/baca!!

3:12 PM: rad-rework of motion 12, stage 2.it's obviously inspired by a completely different plein air, this one painted 9/16/14 in the heart of crestone/baca fall. now that i've released the branches, once considered a necessary ingredient, the rock forms revel in their newfound freedom.

this morning, i looked once again at matisse: rhythm & line, by jacqueline & maruice guillard. it's filled with delicious matisse quotes like the one in the photo i posted earlier. he holds a lantern in this dark cave, turns & waves me along. although i never heard his voice, it resonates in my brain. somewhat raspy. filled with emotion. quivering like the lines in his drawings. "viens philippe; viens!"

a very different sort of teacher than deKooning he is.

*motion 12* in early stage of rad-rework

1 PM: i made some modifications to motion 15, and also began a rad-rework of motion 12, which was annoying both of us after living with it for a month or so.

11:57 AM: here's a quote form matisse. about to evaluate motion 15 & make some possible tweaks. updates as they occur.

motion 15, stage 4 / March 22, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

snacking on baked potatoes with butter, raspberry sauce & himalayan pink salt while perusing matisse

1:19 PM: my vey first impression upon entering the studio this morning was that the painting was too dark & contrasty. i lightened it and in the process made quite a few other modifications. right now i'm having a mid-day snack & checking it out from a distance of about 20 feet. some of the changes work, others not. not yet sure about the addition of blue in the upper quadrant.