purple rock / August 20, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*purple rock* at the ned of my painting day today

back from basalt, i returned to my studio this morning and began work on one of the earlier motion series paintings, which will become part of the POST MOTION series. this new series will not be numbered. rather, each painting will have it's own title, and this second one (the first was pink rocks) is titled purple rock.

i may leave it in this state as i white over another of the less successful motion series. the object is not to be stuck working on one painting, allowing me to leave it in a state where more is hinted at than fully elaborated upon.

a great visit, a new friend / August 18, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

today we visited the home of a very unusual couple. i had a long and gratifying conversation with john, and my wife had one with his wife out on the terrace. they have a beautiful collection, mostly limited edition prints purchased over the years at manhattan auction houses. the collection includes works by goya, rembrandt, miro, rivera, picasso, gaugun, and delaunay.

on the right is a view from their window, and included in the images of his collection, below, is a drawing i made based on this view, which is now in their collection.

basalt / August 17, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

this morning i discovered yet another ceramic piece recently made by my friend dan in his workshop. it displays the same level of skill, artistry and playfulness we've seen in all of his pieces, large & small.

this particular bowl has a beautiful transition from the interior to the exterior, in terms of both color and pattern. those little hatchings incised into the very bottom of the bowl, in my opinion, take it even further beyond what you might expect looking at it from the side or above. they give it an unpredictability as well as a connection to a more aboriginal sensibility, where marks are often made purely for the delight of it, and unintentionally reveal the artisis personal signature. his dot design on the outside of the bowl is also evokative of aboriginal sensibilities. dan's creations are refreshingly unpredictable, while giving the impression of a ceramacist who has been at it for many years,along with the fresh perspective of someone who has only been at it for a relatively short time, and has a reservoir of tricks up his sleeve reflecting an awareness of the history of art,

LAST NIGHT mikela spoke at a fundraiser for candidate diane mitch bush, running for congress representing Colorado CD3. the well attended event was held in a beautiful aspen home. diane spoke, answered questions and then gave the floor to kyle and mikela, who is in the position of field director, organizing volunteeres in the various counties. diane is hoping to unseat scott tipton, who is a disaster. he's got lots of money, especially because he accepts corporate donations, as opposed to diane who does not. he was given a high likelyhood of winning until recently, when it was announced that the election results were "a toss up."

drawing made yesterday at our boulder meeting / August 16, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

yesterday morning & afternoon we had meetings related to our educational product. they were very productive, and moved us ever closer to our 2019 launch date. as usual, i couldn't miss the opportunity to draw one of the participants, our dear friend & team-mate, J.

BELOW: a shot of some of our friend dan's recent ceramic pieces, which i love.

slight modifications to motion 16 and 3 new plein air gouaches yesterday 2:12 PM: / August 13, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:12 PM: i made a few slight modifications to motion 16 yesterday morning and am considering it a completed painting.

the site i chose yesterday to paint plain air

yesterday afternoon, after a pretty long spell without going out to the creek to paint plein air, i sallied forth & went to paint at north crestone creek. it was great to be back, and form now until weather no longer permits; usually sometime in late october or early november, i'll be going out on a regular basis.

BELOW: the 3 gouaches with details on the right

pink rocks motion / August 12, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

after doing a bit of work on pink rocks motion, (far right on the wall) i began preparations for going to the creek to paint plein air in about a half hour. i haven't been out to the creek in a while, and today for the first time i felt the urge. here i am taping arches paper to 4 pieces of foam core. i'll have them with me, although i never do 4. most often 2, sometimes 3. they usually get better the more i do. simpler, less descriptive, more energetic.

sunday is not the best day to go; there are too many people at the camp sites, many with dogs. i try to stay hidden, but occasionally people or dogs or both bug me.

DETAIL of pink rocks motion showing the area of the layer i whited over that i left un-whited

9:56 AM: i'm leaving motion 16 be for now. it's so different than the rest of the series I don't quite know what to make of it or what to do with it. so i shifted gears and continued work on pink rocks motion, which is an older motion series painting i whited over last week, leaving a small area of the underlying layer showing through. it's at a very delicate stage, and part of me, as usual, is struggling with weather or not to leave it as is or continue working.it has a whimsy i fear might get lost if i keep going.

back at work on..... / August 11, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

i don't usually work this late, but something kept drawing me in to make changes to this painting.just as i had cleaned my brushes, i was back at it again, this time making dramatic shifts in the color scheme. the composition has changed significantly as well. action is happening now inside my makeshift frame, which has gone from white to black. the mysterious, faded landscape event taking place within the now black frame has taken on flesh & bones, and the play of light and shadow on the tree trunk & the rock below it make a bold statement. there are a reduced number of rocks surrounding and now embedded in the frame. the painting now has carrying power, and reads quite well from where i sit at my computer desk; about 25 feet away. it now sings! and we'll see in the morning if that's it or not.

*motion 16* or *i dreamed i saw a rock last night at 2:03 PM*

*pink rocks motion* being worked on at 2:03PM

above: here's where i stopped work on this painting today & launched back into one i'm painting over, which is called pink rocks motion.

as you can see, it's only partially painted over with white, leaving the painting underneath to show through & creating a juxtaposition of oil paint & oil pastel & crayon.i was just given the green light to send some of these new ones, whichever ones they choose, to gremillion in houston. as you may know, they've been representing my work in houston for over 20 years. so periodically i send images of new work & they choose a selection, which i then sip to them & they begin showing to clients.

*i dreamed i saw a rock last night*, 36x36" as it looked moments ago, anout 12:15PM

*i dreamed i saw a rock last night*, 36x36" as it looked moments ago

11:51 AM: so is this motion 16, or is it i dreamed i saw a rock last night? does it really matter? what matters are the marks. a seemingly endless flow of self-revealing marks.

i can't say where this is going, and my mind occasionally shouts: hey, tarlow, where are you going? i had an inspiration yesterday to make a picture, not a painting. it's common for people unfamiliar with the field to use the two interchangeably. by picture i mean, you should pardon the expression, decorative. and now i could add: in the good sense. but i won't. i mean decorative! perhaps i could qualify this by bringing in certain works of bonnard/vuillard, which i discovered in a book titled beyond the easel, which is about works the two of them & their circle did designed for screens, etc. we saw examples in the musee d'orsay in paris recently. i fell in love with them, and found it a huge relief not to be looking at paintings. i've actually been thinking about collaborating with a friend here in crestone/baca who works in wood on a number of screens. i'm going to call him right now & revive the topic!

sure looks like a time faded pompeian fresco! / August 10, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:31 PM: looks pompeian but i ain't sayin' should be the title of this one. too cutsie? my motion series started in february,of this year. all along the idea of numbering them motion 1, 2,3 etc. wasn't terribly attractive to me. but once i started, i was too lazy to go back & change them all. truth is, it can still be a series or suite of paintings without going the number route.

so the more layers of paint i applied and then scraped away, what remained reminded me a lot of worn & faded pompeian frescos, which i love a lot. i don't know if i'd be as attracted to them if they had just been freshly painted. same with byzantine frescos. what is gone leaves ones imagination to fill in the blanks. this one in particular is very appealing in that way, especially the closer you get to it. on the right, a small example of what i mean.

of course over time, if i were to do a number of paintings in this way, it could easily become a mindless gimmick. which is exactly the problem with much of contemporary art. and, based upon my past history, the whole thing could transform tomorrow and this conversation would be moot. BELOW: the 4 stages of motion 16 from yesterday through today.

1:16 PM: ABOVE: 3 stages of motion 16 today. more a bit later; i'm going to keep working...

rework of motion 16 & Motion 23 / August 9, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

6:43 PM: i said i'd resume my post re: motion 23 & 16 revisions later this afternoon. that time has arrived!.

in the evolution of the motion series, i'm noticing a shift in my mark making. so for example, have a look at images BELOW. the marks are less descriptive, more calligraphic abreviations or signs; a word matisse liked to use. that has been my vision all along, but it's not something one can make happen. so on the one hand, while i do believe there is no progress, as such, in painting, every artists work , in the best case scenario, undergoes an evolution. guided by our mentors & heros, we follow the threads. or create them as we go! right now, deKooning is playing that role for me.

more tomorrow.

3:08 PM: it seems this is the period for revisions. i'm seeing differenly, and that's all i'll say right now. gotta run to the kiosk for more fabulous corn & other fruits & veggies. so for now i'm posting the images with no comment, and perhaps i'll have time later this evening, which will include before & after pics of both paintings and some musings on deKooning.

what happened while our internet was down / August 8, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:47 PM: yesterday morning we awoke to no internet. it took them 36 hours to repair the system wide problem, which happened as they were attempting to upgrade the entire system.

so yesterday i worked on both motion 16 & 17, with the biggest changes by far happening with 16.BELOW are the stages, starting on the left with the painting as it looked before i got to work yesterday morning.

gone are the delicate passages of drawing, which have dissolved into the ground to become a continuum of loose, curving brushwork, both snaking and angular. the canvas is now filled to the edges as a painterly whole, with only the most rudimentary indications that we are looking at a creek-scape.

the changes to motion 17 are few, and consist of the siena marks you see BELOW.