stretching a 38x36 in. canvas for the largest plein air painting i've done /  by Philip Tarlow

1:54 PM: today, which by the way is my birthday, i stretched a 38x36" canvas, with the intention of making the largest plein air painting i've ever done. it's for a gallery in denver. they saw a 16x16" plein air, which is normally the size i use for plein air paintings in oil, and asked if i could make a larger version with these dimensions.

if i were to be standing out in a field or on some flat, easily accessible location, it wouldn't be such a challenge. but the creek-side locations i prefer are in rugged terrain, not easy to access or find a flat piece of ground for the easel. the coming days are forecast to be warm, in the '70's, with none of the very high winds we've been having over the past few weeks, and which are typical this time of year in our valley. stay tuned & i might just venture out tomorrow!

continuing work on potential commission /  by Philip Tarlow

7:30 PM: today i continued to search for and select paintings from many different periods & series for a potential commission for a number of site specific paintings destined for a large home in boulder. it's been an adventure, exploring forgotten realms of my work over the past few decades & trying them out on some of the walls, which i photgraphed on our recent trip. BELOW are some of those paintings. i haven't had time to identify each one & provide labels with dimensions, medium, etc.

evaluating possibilities for a commission /  by Philip Tarlow

4 PM: i spent today evaluating options for a potential series of commissioned paintings for a home we visited a few days ago. in doing so, i re-visited some of the work i've done since about 2014. BELOW are some of the paintings i'm considering for specific walls in this large home. The views from above paintings are part of a 2015 series titled ano kato, or topsy turvy in greek. the entire series can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

returning home with 2 new challenges /  by Philip Tarlow

                                      sunset on 5/10/18 from our friend's house in edwards

2:41 PM: we returned last night exhausted after an intensive 3 days of back to back meetings, all of which were successful beyond what we had envisioned. 

i have 2 new challenges; both exciting:

1) to begin creating maquettes for a series of paintings destined for a very beautiful large home in   boulder. i love creating site specific paintings, so this does not in any way feel like work, but it's a challenge to conceptualize exactly what images will work best for which spaces. I shot a series of photos of the spaciousinterior with my iphone, which i just now adjusted & organized into a folder. my next step will be to begin drawing from a number of photo collages i made a few decades ago, when there was no digital photography, and beginning to create maquettes in gouache on paper, which i'll bring the client on our next denver/boulder trip.

2) to make a new series of plein air paintings in oil on canvas in 2 sizes: 36x36" & 36x40." these are larger canvases than i've ever attempted to paint plein air. accessing the sites where i like to go involves walking through some heavy brush & rocks, so getting the canvasses and my materials, easel & stool down there successfully will be a bit tricky. as will finding the right spot where i'm not bothered by direct sun & have the right terrain for setting up my easel on relatively flat ground (good luck on that) with no branches or rocks in the way.

this is a 16x16" plein air canvas, painted on 10/7/14 which is the direction i'd like to go with this new series. it's the right balance of descriptive & abstracted realism; the colors are the earth tones i love, which i used for 15 years while living in greece, and the mark making is beautiful, with nothing unnecessary, in the tradition of the 10th century chinese landscape painters i so admire.

2 drawings by a 7th grader in edwards /  by Philip Tarlow

1:37pm: these 2 drawings were made by a 7th grade student in edwards, colorado. i feel he shows lots of talent and promise, so we talked about the possibility of me giving him some mentoring when we're back in the fall. we'll learn a lot from one another.

a small tweak to "motion 22" / evaluating the series thus far /  by Philip Tarlow

11:40 AM: i had brought motion 22 over to the house for a final evaluation before bringing it to the gallery in denver, when i spotted an area that needed a minor adjustment.

there was a red in the center right of the composition that was drawing my eye to the detriment of the rest of the composition.  it was not extreme, but since there's a good chance that this painting will be sold soon, i wanted to take this opportunity to fix it. BELOW are before (left) & after (right) pics. 

in reviewing the motion series thus far, i see some distinct characteristics. below are 18 of the 19 paintings in the series, two of which are on paper. visit the motion page: http://philiptarlow.com/motion/  to view them all full page. all are derived from my plein air creek paintings; mostly the ones in oil on linen. you can view some of them on my plein air page if you scroll down past the ones in gouache on paper.

the biggest shift has taken place only recently. motion 22, which i just completed, is an example. the under-drawing has become a painting in it's own right, with just a very light application of oil colors. the result is striking, moving from intensely energetic, gestural paintings sometimes reminiscent of the abstract expressionist movement of the '50's, to a much lighter, although no less painterly rendering of the creekscape as a myriad of patterns, which give the impression of motion very differently.

completing motion 22 /  by Philip Tarlow

                                           DETAIL

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" /  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. /  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 /  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.

DETAIL

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.