back from our travels /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 27 36x38", as it looked at 2 pm

DETAIL: motion 27 at 2pm today

2:17 PM: trying not to pay too much attention to this, but it's 10:19 pm in paris, so my eyelids are heavy & i can feel sleep coming on. at any rate, i did make some progress on motion 27 today, although i wasn't at the top of my game. the new direction this series has taken since i completed motion 25 on may 22 has been a long time in the making. the new motion paintings incorporate all that i learned in making the previous ones, but as well all that i learned and am still learning from my plein air gouaches & oils. looking at vuillard in the musée quai d'orsay, i confirmed my belief in the slow but steady unfolding of my process as a painter. it's never a straight line, but if you look for them, signs appear along one's trajectory indicating deeper and deeper levels of self discovery; clearer and clearer indications that one's pictorial language is developing. in general, galleries and critics are not helpful in this evolution, mostly preferring that an artist's work remain predictable. predictability=death as far as i'm concerned.

day 1: motion 23, 36x38"

12:06 PM:back from france & switzerland last night, and our bodies are still on french time. before leaving on the 13th, i started motion 23, with the knowledge that i'd have something to work on as soon as we returned. i don't know if i'm up for it, but i'll give it a try & see what happens.

how would you characterize the revisions to motion 22? /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 22 on 5/5/18 (left) and yesterday

yesterday,as i was starting the under-drawing for motion 27,  my eye was drawn again & again to motion 22. it felt unresolved. my eye wandered aimlessly about the surface, encountering some compelling pssages. but the whole composition seemed dispersed, with no real focal point. once i dived back in, i was hooked. one thing led to another & i began feeling the energy of a new painting, albeit one grounded in the essential elements of the may 5th version. i applied what i had learned in the interim, and something new emerged which, for the moment, seems like a far mroe compelling painting.

continuing motion 27 / deep questions /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 22 revision at 2:30 pm

i did considerable work today on my revision of motion 22. first i went over the entire painting with a thin wash of diluted white oil color. then i scraped the surface vigorously, then i worked into it with oil pastel, oil paint & crayon. i'll have to wait until after our trip to evluate the results, but i do feel it's an improvement form the earlier version from a month ago.

at work on motion 22 revisions, 1pm

1pm: i decided to leave the new motion 27 & continue revisions to motion 22,  which is essentially being reinvented. here i'm using white oil paint  to break up the space with watery marks.

8:09 AM: yesterday afternoon my mentee, k., came over arounf 2:30 to continue our adventure. the plan was for him to continue, perhaps complete the long narrow landscape in acrylic he's been working on over the past month. yesterday morning, before he came over, i had a brief visit from our friends, my boulder dentist & his wife. they've been visiting crestone/baca this weekend, had dinner at our house saturday night, and were preparing to drive back up to boulder.

as soon as they entered my studio, his wife teresa exclaimed excitedly that she wants to buy k's landscape painting, which she had seen the previous afternoon on their studio visit. i was thrilled, and i knew k would be, but i hesitated to tell him until he had completed the painting, afraid that this new information, which i knew he'd find hard to believe, might affect his work on the painting negatively.

k's landscape. 12x40" acrylic on canvas, (signature blocked to preserve his privacy)

after about an hour, k. came back into the studio,  obviously frustrated. he's been sitting just outside the studio door & it was so windy that the paint was instantly drying on his palette, blowing stuff around & in general making his life difficult. he thought he had screwed the painting up completely, but it didn't look that way to me. it looks like a really good landscape painting to me.

so now we have to negotiate price. we'll bring it to denver on wednesday where teresa can pick it up. i think the reality will only hit kaelen when he sees a photo of it hanging on her wall.

i'm about to launch into more work on the new motion 27, and continue revisions to motion 22. pics will be posted as they become available.

starting motion 27 / revising motion 22 /  by Philip Tarlow

5:45 PM: here are the changes i made to motion 22; the previous version on the left, after todays changes, on the right.

motion 27 at 5pm

stopping for the day. the current state of motion 27 can be seen above. it's still very early stage.

2:01 PM: this morning after our friends left i stretched the canvas for motion 27 & began the under-drawing. as i was working, motion 22 caught my eye & seemed unresolved, so i went back & forth between the two. motion 22 can be seen on the wall behind my head. to view this painting before todays intervention, click on the link below & scroll down to the 10th row of paintings. it's the one on the left.:

. i'll update as the afternoon progresses.

is motion 26 a completed painting?? /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 26 at the end of the day yesterday.

7:43 AM: i'll know for certain when i get to my studio, but when i look at this photo, it appears to be a resolved painting. it incorporates many of the discoveries of the earlier motion series paintings, and adds some new ones that build upon them.

this may open the door to a whole new group of motion works, which will also be infused, no doubt, by the museums we visit in paris late next week. i'll document that experience as it unfolds here on my daily blog posts.

more as soon as i get to the studio.

continuing work on motion 26 /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 26 at 3:30 PM, following the introduction of oil paints

motion 21, completed may 4,2018

3:30 PM: following a late luch of pancakes with blueberries & walnuts, i squeezed some oil colors onto my palette & began, gingerlyto work into the colored pencil & crayon under-drawing.

DETAIL of motion 26 at 3:30 pm

at the moment, when comparing it to, say motion 21, which you see on the right, it has a more ethereal, impressionistic air about it, suggesting more than it describes.

 

 

 

 

i do like the way this linen takes the paint, possibly even more so than the far more expensive artfix portrait linen. plus, it's more resilient and less prone to creasing than the super fine portrait linen.it responds differently to scraping because it has more tooth than the paper-like portrait linen. i'm cool with that.

motion 26 at 1:50 pm

1:50 PM: i am moving slowly on this one, approaching the point where i might introduce oil paint, possibly later this afternoon. i'd like to maintain the delicate balance as i introduce elements that will make it pop more from a distance. the eternal internal debate about when to leave it alone continues unabated!

RIGHT: detail of motion 26 at 1:50 PM. this detail i selected could actually work as a finished composition, wouldn't you say?

 

 

11:33 AM:

first thing this morning we learned of the death of anthony bourdain at 61. we are still in shock, as we know are those who knew him personally, including barak, and his family. like many of you, he was my hero.

starting a bit late today; i had to run up & reserve a campsite for friends arriving tonight before they were all gone; i got the last one!

in reviewing the work i did yesterday, i got a sense of where it might want to go. so lets get to work & i'll post as the day progresses.

 

starting work on motion 26 /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day, so i can have time to rest before todays round of calls to prospective colorado district 3 primary campaign voters. we support diane mitch bush, about whom you can learn more on her site: dianeforcolorado.com.

she's dynamite.

i took this under-drawing further in the past hour. in the next day or two, i'll decide whether or not to introduce areas of oil paint.

the area of blue water you see in the image BELOW is the very last thing i did before stopping for the day. i think it's a good example of the power of calligraphic marks, and how they can allow one to say more with less.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:22 PM: i'm back! know how i can tell? i sang & i danced here in my studio, while listening to my shuffle songs. that's how. you don't sing & dance if you feel crappy & have the damn flu.

so i started a new drawing for motion 26. now don't get confused. there was a different motion 26, 27 & 28 a few weeks ago, which were 3 20x20" paintings that were experiments intended for a denver gallery. it's a long story, but they are no longer motion paintings. 

so i let my pencils & crayons dance their dance across the new linen canvas i just received yesterday. it's a slightly different dance than what happens on the super fine portrait linen, which takes the pencil & crayon almost like drawing on a piece of bristol paper. slides right across. no little bumps to contend with. just slides right along like spaghetti on a string. this one is more textured. different but not worse or better. i got a nice big 85" roll, so there are many paintings that will come out of it. this is number 1. 

so back to work, as i listen to neil young live at massey hall, 1971. if you've never heard it, you can find all the songs with excellent video on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zFp-NYfysI&index=8&list=PL6EA057F2A714493A

10:48 AM: after making mikela a delicious cup of fresh roasted & ground ethiopian coffee, having an important conversation with the driver of the trash truck and having a morning snack, i'm ready to embark on the next painting in my motion series. pics & commentary a bit later in the day.

as i was preparing to start the new painting, i ran across this image of a 2014 (?) collage. from the looks of it, it's a fairly good sized one, but i can only guess the width...maybe 60"?? rather handsome, don't you think?

continuing the motion series /  by Philip Tarlow

1:56 PM: i'm not fully recovered form the flu, so i'm taking a little break back at the house. i received a new roll of linen from savoir faire today, and as i unpacked it, i realized i don't feel complete with my motion series.

the past few weeks have been devoted to futile attempts to at creating "loose abstracted landscapes" for the denver gallery i was interested in. i made two unsuccessful attempts, but when i brought the new work to the gallery, they didn't fit their pictures. as i've said in previous blogs, i've never in my career done something like this, and now i know why! i'm trying not to hold it as a waste of my time, but it sure feels that way!

it feels like a huge relief to get back to my motion series. so i'm stretching two new canvases, both 36x38"  & anticipating starting work on the first one tomorrow. 

the painting on the upper right, motion 25, was the last one i did, and differs form the rest in that it has no under-drawing. i think the new ones will. i feel that it's an important ingredient. on the right is one with an under-drawing: motion 7: richer, more layered, complex.

plus, and this one is important for me, there's an element of the fortuitous accident. as i paint & scrape over the under-drawing, magic happens. i live for that magic, so why leave it out? in the interest of a "cleaner" look? the painting that have an under-drawing invite more viewer participation, each viewer creating his or her own story.

BELOW: a detail from motion 7.

flu, day 6, progress! a grey palette /  by Philip Tarlow

2:22 PM: so here's where it's at right now. i did start departing from the grays, and this is becoming a denser painting than motion 26 & 27, in part as a result of feedback from my son dimitri. he has a very good eye, which i trust. 

as far as the spatial orientation of the viewer, which the gallery was interested in, it's more distinct than in the other two.

my extraction site my have a bit of an infection, and i'm in too much pain to go on much longer. i took a picture of it & texted it to my dentist, so we'll see what he says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12:33 PM: today is the first day i feel like i can paint. well, maybe a little. i'm starting out with a palette of 7 greys, white & black. let's see where it takes me. i'm continuing work on motion 28, 20x20"

flu, day 5/ rejuvinated cacti /  by Philip Tarlow

7:20 AM: today marks the 5th day of this really bad flu. and i had the flu shot!  i can't even think about going to the studio to paint, so i'm just going to rest today.

ABOVE: left & center: the precip fell as snow above 12,500 ft. right: we haven't seen this much water in our driveway in a very long time.

yesterday the predictions for thunderstorms were realized. we ended up receiving .70" of precip, starting at 11 am & continuing, with a few interruptoins, until 8pm. while we are still in a drought, it was a huge relief to receive that much precip. as i mentioned on FB, as i was walking over to my studio yesterday to get some raw ginger & tumeric i had there, i spotted the little desert cacti along the way. they had been looking very unhappy; dry & shriveled. this is the month when they blossom, and it looking grim. but after the rain, the perked right up, and for the first time i saw their little pink blossoms emerging. i've painted them in the past, & i'll try to take a shot & post it later today if i'm up to it.