completing motion 22 / May 6, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:12 PM: when i entered the studio this morning, & my had first glance at motion 22, i felt it needed some accents; some focal points so that it would be less diffuse. that said, it's one of the features i love about this painting. wherever your eye settles. something is taking place , some patterning is describing a rock or a branch, and they are all married to one another in a symbiotic dance. it's a multicolored translation of the creek experience; wherever you look there are patterns and patterns within patterns, along with the ever present sounds of water rushing over rocks, eventually finding it's way to the valley.

BELOW: motion 22 as i left it yesterday afternoon, left, and as it looked moments ago, right. if you click on one, the click on the right arrow, it will take you back & forth so that you can compare the two and see what a difference todays work has made in the overall coherence.

continuing work on "motion 22" 38x36" / May 5, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:30 PM: i continued working into the motion 22 drawing i began yesterday. in the previous versions of the motion series, this would have been the under-drawing, which has now evolved into a painting on it's own. it has a very different, much lighter feel than it's predecessors. you get the feleing you're looking at a post-impressionist interior, rather than a creek-scape.

i have used oil paint, but only in selected areas and there is no impasto; it's all very thin, diluted color, most of which has then been scraped with a palette knife, creating new, suggestive shapes.

the danger with this kind of work is always over-doing it. i'll work for another hour or so then continue in the morning.

tweaks to motion 21 and 20. / May 4, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:08 PM: this afternoon i started the drawing for motion 22, which i'll continue in the morning.

11:08: a fast worker, i am. just adjusted motion 20. a little goes a long way. compare BELOW the before, left, and after, right. hint: look for an echo of the sickle shaped ochre/siena shape on the mid-right on the upper left, 30% of the way down. and a green accent on the rectangular shaped rock on the lower left. those two tweaks make it SING! la-la-la-la-ow-w-w-e-e-e-e!

ok, time to stretch a new canvas for motion 22!

10:33 AM: i did some work on motion 21 & am moving on to motion 20, which needs only a minor adjustment, and then will stretch a new canvas for motion 22. i may be able to do something i have in mind which, if it's dry in time, i'll bring to the gallery in denver next week.

BELOW: motion 21 before tweaks, on left, and moments ago, on right,

7:03 AM: following 2 stormy days, the peaks are looking much better than they have in a while. while we at 8,000 ft. didn't get much, above 12,000 ft. there was decent snowfall, which likely made a small dent in our drought conditions. last night just before sunset we witnessed the beautiful rainbow you see above.

today i'm bringing motion 20, which has been hanging on our east living room wall, back to the studio for some tweaks. at the same time, i'll be doing more work on motion 21, which i worked on extensively yesterday.

BELOW: left: motion 21, right motion 20

working on "sangres with purple clouds" on a snowy day in may / skies / May 3, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

7 pm: SKIES at 7 pm

the skies over the sangres at 6:30 PM as seen from our deck

3:40 PM: after working on sangres with purple clouds this morning (see 1pm post, below) i re-engaged with motion 21, which i've been working on since april 24th. i wanted it to be different form the rest of the series, in that it retains more of the under-drawing. although i have worked over that drawing with oil, i haven't disappeared it, so that all of it can be seen as you view the painting, rather seeing it peek through in select areas.

as a result, if you view the series here: http://philiptarlow.com/motion/ you'll immediately notice that motion 21 is more dispersed compositionally, and has less of a centralized, gesturally bold focal point. rather, it has a 3 focal points, the most obvious being the large rock in the upper central portion, with secondary focal points on the lower right & left. the sensation it triggers is still one of motion, but it's more like the kind of motion you might experience if you wer hovering a few feet above the creek, with it's rushing spring runoff and broken branches flying about.

*sangres with purple clouds* hanging on the north wall in the house

*sangres with purple clouds* at 1pm the painting is in oil on linen and measures 12x48"

1pm: i think i'll leave this one for a day & see how i feel. right now, i think it's resolved. so i'm moving on to try & resolve motion 21, which i've been working on for a while now.

noon: a system is moving through the valley yesterday & today bring some snow, albeit light, & colder temperatures. i am continuing work on sangres with purple clouds, moving closer to resolution. this is a delicately balanced composition, & every flick of my fan brushes, which is what i'm mostly using on this one, contributes to the illusion of the mountain, with it's piñon pines, rugged rocks & traces of recent snowfall. as i have mentioned before, i'm drawing some of my inspiration form the 19th c. plein air painters, largely italian & french, who left many of their small plein air sketches in an "unfinished" state because they knew they couldn't count on the same weather & lighting conditions the next day if they returned the following day.

this remarkable study is by french painter gilles-françois-joseph, 1798-1842, the cascade at tivoli, painted about 1824-9. it measures 56.2x39.6cm (22x15 3/4") and was painted in oil on paper laid on canvas. notice how, in my estimation, the unpainted areas on the lower portion actually enrich the composition, helping to make my point: that many of these plein air painters loved leaving these unpainted areas. they were aware that these were finished, complete paintings which, during that time period, were considered unfinished sketches.

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.