sangres with purple clouds continued / May 2, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*sangres with purple clouds*, 12x48" oil on linen as it looked moments ago

3:32 PM: i got a late start today because mikela & i had an actionlab meeting at the saguache high school this morning. saguache is a 45 minute drive across the valley. it's name derives from a ute word, meaning a blue-green place.

i honestly didn't know if i could get any work done. i'm used to making mikela's coffee, meditating & heading to my studio. the drive, the meeting threw me off balance. but i was able to get some decent work done on sangres with purple clouds. it's interesting to be working in this way in the midst of my very gestural, abstracted creek-scape motion series paintings.

my seasonal allergies continue to plague me, & my nose is dripping like a faucet. i can't use flonase or allergy pills because they could affect my glaucoma, so i just have to put up with them. the wind is driving the tree pollen count to very high levels, and is gusting to gale force today. but by friday they should subside.

stage 1 of Sangres with Purple Clouds, 12x48" oil on linen /continuing work on motion 21 / May 1, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:23 PM: this morning i began work on a rather different kind of painting than my motion series. it's the genre of painting i'm very well versed in and, in all modesty, am somewhat of a master at.: realist landscapes painted on a tinted ground, in this case a warmish grey ground.

once it's completed, i plan on bringing it to the gallery (as yet unnamed) in denver next week, by whom i will now be represented, as an example, along with a few of my motion series paintings, of the range of my work.

i can't yet say, but i might leave "unfinished" areas, in keeping with an aesthetic one can find in certain 19th c. plein air painters and which strongly appeals to me. the pregnant pause, as it were....

i'm kind of pooped out, so i'll continue in the morning. i'm working on this one, by the way, with the painting flat in front of me on my work table.

3:07 PM: before starting work on sangres with purple clouds, above, i continued work on motion 21. i whited out the central portion, which was far too busy & heavy, and was taking away form the beauty of the rest of this painting.

so now the painting feels a lot lighter, and all the successful passgaes are easier to appreciate, as you see in the detail, below. once the paint dries, i'll have another go at that central portion & see if i can resolve it.

morning walk / an adjustment to motion 2 / more work on motion 21 / April 30, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

the sky over crestone/baca at sunset: the high winds have not decreased as they usually do around sunset, and there'a chill in the air. we do see these con trails, but are blessed in that we very rarely hear planes overhead, so prevalent in much of the country.goodnight!

*motion 21* at 4 pm; end of my painting day.

4:10 PM: boy, i really knocked myself out today. after way overdoing it with motion 21, i think i pulled it out....too bleary eyes to know right now. so i'll clean my brushes and go back to the house. earlier, i was thinking of setting up for oil painting towards sunset on our deck, but right now i'm not so sure. if these wild spring winds die down, as they often do around sunset, maybe i'l scurry back to the studio & grab my easel & paints. we'll see.

3:18 PM: i may have over-worked motion 21. lets see what i do now! it looked pretty damned good on the left, before i started working on it a few hours ago!

11:20 AM: this morning at around 7 we took a delightful walk across from our house. the light was exquisite, and the landscape to the west gave me an idea for a horizontal painting, which i may stretch the canvas for today.

as well, i'm going to make some adjustments to motion 2. pics as they become available.

1:43 PM: below are the before & after images of the changes i made to motion 2 this morning. the composition was too centralized & needed to be extended out to the edges of the canvas on the right & left. thanks to mikela's most excellent feedback, this is now a far better painting. notice how the canvas actually seems wider in the image on the right! it's actually the same 36x38" canvas!

now i'm working on changes to motion 21, which needed more pop. i'll post pics whn i'm done working for the day. still got that good energy, & need to get back to it.

weather / motion 21 / April 29, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:41 PM: so i did some more work on motion 21, all the while casting glances at motion 20. i didn't touch motion 20, but did notice when the light was strong and falling on the painting, i did it a shortchanged it yesterday & adjusted it too dark.

so what oyu see on the right is a lot closer to the actual painting as it appears in person. if you scroll down a bit to my earlier post today, you will see a darker, less accurate image.

and here's the current state of motion 21.

10:51 am: WEATHER:

todays forecast predictes a high of 69F, which is 8F above the norm. our spring winds will once again kick in, especially this afternoon, when they oculd gust to 45mph. and of course, with our cirrent sever drought conditions, there is a very high fire danger, & the national forest service has prohibited open fires in the entire county of saguache.

here's how the sky above the peaks looked this morning around 9am, with those beautiful, delicate wisps fanning out.

we'll have a 20-40% chance for precipitattion tuesday night through thursday, and the high tempreature for wednesday will drop to about 50F.

*motion 20* 54x35" oil, crayon & oil pastels on linen

PAINTING TODAY: i'm going to leave motion 20 in it's current state, after extensive work yesterday. this afternoon i'll bring it to the house to see if it passes the east wall hanging test. it differs from the rest of the series in it's mysteriousness, with shapes and colors reminiscent of the bolder, more direct look of it's brothers & sisters. it has an air of mystery, and rewards the persistant viewer with it's subtlties.just as i wrote this, the sun emerged from behind a cloud, and the entire painting morphed, revealing even more of it's secrets. if i were the collector who will one day own this painting, i would hang it in a spot opposite a comfortable couch, placed about 18-20 ft. away, so that details such is this could be savored.

i plan on continuing work on motion 21 as soon as i complete this post. it's almost there, but needs work in the central portion, which needs to be slightly more defined. i'll post updates as available. BELOW:

motion 21 as it appeared when i entered my studio this morning.

more tag team painting today / brief weather update / April 28, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*k's landscape*, stage 1, acrylic on canvas

5:15 PM: some critical changes to motion 20, while my mentee k. was creating his landscape just outside the studio door.

2:04 PM: stopping here for the day as i await my mentee, k, arriving 2:30.

1:23 PM: a mid-day snack as i continue work & wait for my mentee k. to arrive at 2:30.

it consists of: organic-arugula, red peppers, feta cheese, pumpkin seeds grown in the usa, not china, tomatoes & doused in olive oil with fresh lemon juice & seasonings.

12:29 PM: i liked yesterdays experiment,: working on motion 20 & 21 in tandem. so today i'm continuing this way of working. dividing my time between motion 21, 36x36" and motion 20, 54x35." as you might expect, discoveries in one translate loosely to the other and, based on past experience with the motion series, at some point in the near future, it may all be gone. painted over, scraped, scrumbled....

i'm learning to adapt my composition to the new rectangular shape of motion 20, and to build on my experiment in motion 4 of elaborating upon an under-drawing without painting over it completely.

CRESTONE/BACA WEATHER UPDATE:i've deactivated my facebook account after learning of their shenanigans, so here's a brief weather update for my friends who used to follow my weather comments:

BELOW: the threatening skies at 6pm

BELOW: our skies at 4pm

the western sky viewed from the studio at 1 pm

the eastern sky viewed from the studio at 1 pm

today started out as a clear sunny day. temperatures will reach a high of 68 F; about 7F above normal for this date. clouds will increase this afternoon, with a 40% chance for thunderstorms this afternoon 50-60% chance for rain tonight, & snow likely above 10,000 ft. (our house is at 8,000 ft.)

tag team painting / April 27, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:16 PM: so here's where i'm stopping for the day. i had a couple of important calls an hour ago, one of which was concerning the new gallery i'm moving to in denver. more about that another day. suffice it to say i have now officially moved from space gallery in denver to a different gallery, which i don't yet feel comfortable identifying until things are firmed up & an agreement is signed.

the additional work i did on motion 20 involves the application of oil paint. previously, it was basically a drawing on canvas. so now it has more depth and carries further when you look at it from 20 or 30 feet, as i'm now doing.

motion 21 was too busy. so as i was working on motion 20, i would break away & do something to this larger painting (54x35"). that system, something i've never done before, seems to have worked well and to the benefit of both paintings.

so tomorrow morning work will continue on both pieces. i like this new system!

12:22 PM: today i'm working on two paintings in tandem: motion 20 & 21. it's a long story & i have to get back to work, so i'll explain later. for now, here's a shot of the studio interior moments ago. the 2 paintings i'm working on are the one on the easel & the one on the left, on the wall.

motion 20 process / finito / April 26, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:54 PM: i did a bit more on motion 20, and am stopping for the day, as there aer a few things i need to take care of this afternoon.

12:52 PM: today, with yesterdays white-over dried, i flipped the painting upside down & am going into it with wax pastel crayons & oil sticks. it has the air of a bonnard interior; soft colors, lots of patterning & a level of intimacy one might not expect in a landscape painting.

i'm continuing work, and will post updated pics a bit later in the afternoon.

in his guardian article yesterday, renowned 86 year old social scientist mayer hillman basically says that we're doomed. nothing we can do now or in the future can save us from the impending end of all life on earth.

the rocks, to which i am increasingly drawn in my work, will remain silent martyrs, as they have done for millions of years. or maybe not so silent.

returning to motion 20: a whiteover / April 25, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:44 PM: i'm leaving the under-drawing for motion 21 as is for the time being & returning to motion 20, which will undergo a rad-rework. after looking at it in the house for a few days, it just wasn't working for either of us.

i started out by going over the surface with a thin layer of white oil paint, which was then scraped off, leaving a semi-transparent film over the entire painting. tomorrow i'll paint into it.

remembering angelos delivorrias / starting motion 21 / April 24, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:37 PM: the skies have grown dark & it's snowing on the peaks. hoping we'll get some precip., whether rain or snow. this winter is officially the least amount of snow on record we've ever received, and we're in severe drought.

i'm stopping early so that i can begin photographing & returning ceramic pieces made by a friend in houston. i've painted on some, but most have remained unpainted.

11:09 AM: i learned this morning from my son dimitri that my dear old friend angelos delivorrias, former director of the benaki museum, passionate lover of ancient & byzantine greek art, passed away today. here you see us at my 2006 solo exhibition at skoufa gallery in athens.

a sweet, sweet being he was. extremely generous. deeply knowledgeable about the history & philosophy of greek art.... when he spoke about a piece of ancient sculpture, i can remember him running his long, artistic fingers over the piece as though he were stroking a lover. as beautifully as he articulated his description of the piece, you always felt there were simply no words to express what he was feeling & knowing in that moment. his passion was expressed in his eyes, his lips. i always felt his hellenic soul, reflected in his characteristically full mediterranean lips. the enthusiasm angelos expressed harkens back to the greek origins of the word: en-theos, or literally, possessed by a god.

a very strong presence, i can still see & hear him as if he were in front of me right now. you will be missed, my friend, but never forgotten.

12:46 PM:

i started work on the under-drawing for motion 21. i needed to give it a rest with motion 20, so i'll come back to it in a few days, while i progress work on motion 21.

7:33 am: i brought motion 20 to the house yesterday & hung it on the east wall. better, but not perfect. i'm going to leave it hanging for at least a few days while i start motion 21, then i might make a few tweaks.

motion 20 wanted more work / April 23, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

ABOVE: motion 20 yesterday (left) and moments ago

12:34 PM: when i entered the studio this morning, the message form motion 20 was loud & clear: you need to spend more time with me. look at matisse, and he'll show you the way.

so i opened one of my matisse books as i drank my matcha tea and with toast. sure enough, the discoveries matisse made during the 1905-6 period & the breakthroughs he made emboldened me to use color differently than i had been in this painting. what has resulted is a far more compelling painting, i believe.

you'll notice, in comparing todays version with yesyterdays, above, that i added i added green on the upper right, as well as the naples yellow rock in the upper center & more richness to the reflections in the water below the rock in the center. as well, the blue on the lower left needed to be broken up, some white splashes of creek water have appeared, as well as the little white bubbles. the tree trunk on the upper left now has some patterning.

there is some bold mark making, to which i added some accents.