April 22, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

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

1:31PM: yesterday, as promised, i took motion 20 back to our house & hung it on the east wall, where it can be viewed clearly up to 60 feet away. it did NOT pass the test, which was obvious to both of us right away.

the problem was, i was trying to hard to do something that would be in harmony with the aesthetic of the gallery i'm in conversation with in denver, which i'm very interested in.

so today i brought it back to the studio & dove in with a fresh energy, and with the attitude that my job is to make an excellent painting & forget as much as possible why i happen to be making this one. there are time constraints as well, since our next trip to denver and to the gallery will take place in just a few weeks.

i worked, as usual, as long as my energy lasted, and i was in that space where the hand & body move where they need to & the mind follows. if you examine the comparative shots from yesterday, i think you'll agree the composition is stronger, more coherent, with a far better flow from the top to the bottom of the canvas, and just the right number of tonal & coloristic accents to make it pop.

author tony schwartz, co-author of trump's art of the deal, says we need to ask:

what am i not seeing? and

what else might be true?

we saw him in an interview yesterday & were taken by his unexpected acuity & wisdom.

i'm going to give these questions some thought & perhaps return later with a few answers.

BELOW: details of motion 20 as it looked moments ago

BELOW: the sangres yesterday as seen from our house

mentee day: collage / tweaks to motion 20 / April 21, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

BELOW: today was the day my mentee comes over to the studio. we focused on collage, which k. had never done before. his is on the right. i think it's stunning; what about you?

5:32 PM: the east wall of our house always tells the story, and in this case the story is that motion 20 needs more work. i have some ideas about what it needs, so tune in tomorrow morning for the next stage.

12:25 PM: after a brief studio visit by mikela, i made some minor but all important changes to motion 20. i say all important because, as you can discern form the comparative shots from yesterdays version, the entire composition snapped into focus by what i did. firstly, you will notice that the black & white upper portion of the painting now unites with the lower portion by the simple extension of the b&w tree trunk lines on the far right from the upper extending now into the lower, colored area. next, the white border i had created yesterday running down both sides of the painting has been interrupted in some spots, allowing the pastel colors to extend in those areas to the edge of the composition.

the net result, i believe is one of unity, so that motion 20 now passes the glance test: quite simply, does it hang together & read as one coherent whole when you cast a momentary glance at it? the next test is the east wall of our house, where it will be hung, albeit still wet in spots, this afternoon. we can get back as far as 60 feet, or the full length of the upper floor of our open plan house (designed by mikela). if it reads well & carries form thjat distance, & looks just as good the morning after, we're good. and the next and final tests are: how does it look in the gallery, where we'll bring it in a few weeks, and one hopes, how does it look on the wall of the client who will purchase the painting?

BELOW: motion 20 yesterday (left) and today.

a stupa visit with a dear friend / back to the easel / April 20, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:33 PM: i'm not fully recovered from my colonoscopy. our old friend kat arrived yesterday afternoon & we had an excellent time catching up & introducing her to some of the wonders of crestone/baca this morning in the snow. we drove up to the tashi gomang stupa, which was bathed in a magnificent light created in part by our spring snowstorm today.

i made some good progress on motion 20, which you see here as it looked moments ago.

the bit on top, where there is a drawing on an off white ground, happened at the very last moment, and releived some of the congestion taking place in the composition, as did the off white stripes running down both sides.

there is a playful, even cartoon-like element in this painting, in the good sense. the way the bottom 3/4, with it's earth tones & light pastel pinks & blues plays off the grey-black & white of the drawing in the upper segment seems somehow very now. not in the trendy sense; rather as a reflection of the current visual meme. informed, well drawn eye candy tending towards a painterly-romantic vision of the natural world.

a day off / April 19, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

11:09 AM: been on liquid diet for 24 hours & as of 6 am, NADA! it will all be over in 3 or 4 hours, when i can eat & drink again.

i'm in the studio gazing at motion 20, which i can't wait to get back to tomorrow.

this is me working on it yesterday...

more work on motion 20 today / April 18, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:30 PM: as often happens, i had to tweak the painting before going out the door. i pushed back the violet on the left & the rose on the mid-right.

that helped, and much more work is needed. i have to be in the right space, so i may have to wait a day after the colonoscopy. right now i'm drinking insane amounts of gatorade spiked with a laxative, as per my doc's personal creation, which he claims is far easier to handle than the traditional ingredients docs use.

it's challenging working on a larger scale after painting the entire series thus far on smaller, square or almost square canvasses.

2:24 PM: stopping a bit early today as the laxatives kick in & the gurgling begins. i'm actually amazed i was able to do much as i did. it's by no means close to resolution, but getting there.

i think that violet on the left has to go or at least be pushed back. the entire upper 1/3 hasn't decided what it needs to be...on the whole it hasn't yet sung it's song. maybe i need to get this colonoscopy behind me (pun?) before it can find its way.

12:45 PM: i got an early start today. went over the painting with a very light wash of oil color & am now working into it with colored pencils & crayons. it already has a very different feel than yesterdays version.

diving back in; more soon. i don't have to interrupt for food breaks today, as i'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow & just drinking liquids & laxatives, which thus far haven't kicked in so i'm not yet running to the bathroom....veggie bouillon is a very good solution for keeping hunger pangs at bay.

continuing work on motion 20, 54x35" on a crazy windy day / April 17, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

motion 20 at 3:15 PM

working in only colored pencil, crayon & oil pastel on a canvas this size is a new experience. the sweeping, broad marks done with the edge of a stick of oil pastel are a device i found for dealing with this in a way that begins to create some transitions that help avoid the sort of jammed composition of the ones i did on paper, especially motion 18.

the impression one has right now is of a relatively pale image. which doesn't read as well as i'd like from a distance. the solution may be to add some light washes of oil color as accents. too early to tell.

tomorrow i'll be on liquids & laxatives prior to my colonoscopy on thursday, so it's hard to know how much i'll be able to get done while running to the bathroom every so often. we'll see in the morning!

motion 20 at 1pm. it's progressing slowly, in part to preserve the white space.

9:49 AM: about to meditate & head over to my studio on an extreme high wind day, so far gusting to 45mph where we live in the baca. the blowing dut has almost comeletely obscured the sangres. a comparative view of yesterday morning & today is below:

starting work on motion 20 / a beautiful sunrise sky over crestone/baca / April 16, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of motion 20 at 3pm motion 20, 54x35" at 3 pm

2:38 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day. it's exciting to be working larger, and on a rectangular format. i have a good feeling about this one, which is really a result of a conversation i had last week at a gallery in denver.

and now, off to the post office. we have a 40% chance for snow/rain on friday, which we hope pans out this time. 50-60% above 10,000 ft. we're in an extreme drought, with high fire danger due to the combination of high spring winds gusting to 40mph, low humidity & very dry conditions.lets hope we catch a break on friday...

1:17 PM: at work on the drawing

12:15 re-stretching the canvas for motion 20. yesterdays stretching was flawed so i had to remove all the staples & start over.

if it goes well this time, i should be able to start the drawing soon....stay tuned. (i hate any wrinkles, however minor, so if i see any i can't use keys to resolve the issue due to the masonite braces you see in this photo, so i'm forced to do it over.)

8:28 AM: this mornings sky was too good to pass up, so i stepped briefly outside before getting dressed and took this shot.

DETAIL of *motion 19,* colored pencil & crayon on paper

in an hour or so, i'll walk over to the studio & finsih stretching the new 54x35" canvas so that i can start work on motion 20 , which will differ in some critical ways from it's siblings, with less oil paint & more colored pencil & crayon playing the dominant role, in harmony with motion 18 & 19, which were on paper.

i'll post updates as they become available.

starting motion 20 / April 15, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

**DETAIL** of motion 18, colored pencil & crayon on paper

this morning, following a few days away from my studio, i began stretching the canvas for motion 20. unlike the rest of the paintings in this series, it will be a 54x35" painting. it will also differ in that i won't take it as far, so that the under-drawing plays a greater role. after drawing motion 18 & 19 on paper, which are basically pure under-drawing with no oil painting covering them at all, i fell in love again with the light feel of these drawings, with lots of white space in a swirl of fine colored marks.

once i complete the stretching tomorrow morning, i'll begin the drawing, possibly referring to one or more of the rock photos i shot today on the trail.

these forms, and so many others we see as we walk, move & inspire me. from the time i was 5, at birchwoods in the berkshires, i have had a love affair with the rocks. in crestone & the baca, we have the rare "crestone conglomerate," from an article in our crestone eagle:"

those fascinating rocks that are colorful collections of all different rocks rolled up into one, and range in size from hand-held to big as a house. Many locals tell visiting friends and family that they are unique. They may not be one-of-a-kind in the world, but they are rare and the formation they come from is very rare.

looking about / April 12, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

8:54 AM: i'm going to have a meeting with the owner of a gallery i'm very interested in. so i've been going through some of the work in my studio, deciding which pieces to take with me as examples of my work. as you might imagine, this is giving me a whole new perspective on the arc of my career as an artist. i'm trying as far as possible to survey my output as if i'm seeing it for the first time.

be;ow are 3 randomly selected examples of work i've done over the past couple of years. the one on the far left is a detail of one of a series of collages, in the center is one of a series of creek scrolls i did last year on rice paper. on on the right, one of my gaze series, based upon details of vermeer paintings. more later...

another experiment on paper / a look at plein air oils translating into larger works / April 11, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*motion 19,* 30x22 1/2" at 3pm colored pencil & crayon on arches watercolor paper

i drew motion 19 on paper today. i wanted to make it more spare than yesterdays motion 18, which it is. it's an entirely different experience making these drawings on paper, and having them not be under-drawings on canvas which are destined to be painted over. one of the biggest differences is that my awareness, when it's an under-drawing, that it will largely disappear frees me up & actually promotes more spontaneity. so i want to make a few more of these, perhaps interspersed with the motion series paintings in oil on canvas, and get to that all important place of not caring.

8:32 AM: yesterdays completed motion 17 experiment on paper was a bit overdone, and today i'm going to start another one: motion 18, which will hopefully have a lighter touch. the paper takes the colored pencil & crayon very differently than the portrait linen, with its smooth, fine surface. so i have to adapt my marks to this different surface. bristol paper, with its very smooth surface, might be a better choice than the arches watercolor paper i used yesterday, which has a tooth.

i'm also reviewing my most successful plein air oils & looking at the larger oils that were inspired by them. BELOW you see one of those plein air oils, on the left, 16x16" & next to it, motion 8, 36x36." what are your observations?