life at dan's /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL

ABOVE: one of my gaze series paintings in dan’s collection. i brought it outside & photographed it in natural ight. this might be the best reproduction yet, better than what i got when i shot it in my studio.

when dan & i are together, we do projects focused around his house. we painted a tall hollow pole destined to support the overhead outdoor heater over his porch. it stands next to 3 aspen trees, so we made it look like an aspen trunk. .

we also painted the metal rims on a wine barrel. on our last visit we painted the first one, and this is the second. we used old tubes of oil paint he had lying around & made decisions as we progressed as to color selection.

engaging with dan in these projects is a delight. the fall temperatures & clear colorado skies provided an ideal environment for us to play with colors. he and i have different ways of applying color which work really well together. we get ideas from one another, and generally riff, as i love to do when i’m in my studio. but having a friend to play with is a whole different ball game, and a welcome change from my solitary experience in the studio.

the day started out with a video we decided to make, based on jokes we had been telling about the voice directions provided by his brand new red tesla model 3. you can choose from a male or female voice, and there are a variety of voice styles, from soft to harsh. what’s missing, we decided, are voice directions given, for example, in yiddish or, say, modern greek. so we mounted my video camera in the car’s back seat, pointed it at the dash/steering wheel. watch the result on youtube:

a Dan & Philip production adding Yiddish & Greek to the lanuages provided by Tesla

we fantasized getting gazillions of hits from hysterical tesla owners.

this was followed by a fabulous wild caught salmon dinner outdoors in the setting sun, with conversation, laughter, beer & wine.

drawings made yesterday at h&h in edwards /  by Philip Tarlow

2 women at their computers in h&h

8:15 AM: yesterday we spent a lot of time in the H&H restaurant in edwards. mikela had meetings with volunteers for the diane mitch bush campaign, and i took advantage of the situation, which was an ideal environment for drawing people sitting about working & mostly schmoozing to make some drawings. except for the drawing of the leg/foot, they are in the same vein as the one i made the previous day, focusing on interactions between figures rather than a single face. in part, this is the result of the environment, whcih is social, rather than the isolated figures in doctors waiting rooms, who are reading the paper, looking at their phones or whatever. it’s interesting though, that even in a social environment, all the individuals are in some way tethered to their diital devices. the guy with the interesting socks, by the way, was working the whole time on his mac. before he got up to leave, i was preparing to start another drawing of him, this time focusing on his face & upper body.

as i was engaged in making these drawings, mikela was having some very productive meetings with volunteers for the diane mitch bush campaign. she walked them through the process of canvassing (door knocking) and phone calling, which has proven to be a less and less effective mothod of contacting voters. a few days ago she & i were in 2 different locations, each of us with a partner, knocking on doors in selected neighborhoods in basalt. there are always a few people you encounter who make your day. and yes, you do actually get to make a difference. but after a few hours my painful mortons neuroma condition kicked in in my right foot and i had to stop. i haven’t had it bother me in many months, but walking for a few hours on the hard pavement did it. nonetheless, it was a successful afternoon of canvassing. we’ll be doing more in the coming weeks, as the election draws closer.

carbondale drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

12:28 PM: yesterday in carbondale, colorado i made a drawing of a couple having coffee & a bite to eat.

it stands apart from most of the other drawings in my latest drawing book, which i take with me everywhere. the others are almost all individual figures, focusing on the face, unually in profile, and maybe part of a shoulder.

this drawing tells more of a story and thus is closer to the drawings & paintings i was making during my 15 years in greece. you can see some of these on the dropdown greece menu.

the interaction between the two creates something of a mystery. is he ignoring her? is she bored reading the paper and thus gazing beyond the pages and into the distance?

the caterpillar /  by Philip Tarlow

yesterday at dan’s in basalt i spotted this gorgeous caterpillar crawling up the side of one of dan’s new ceramic pieces.

it was in such synchrony with the spirit of the piece that it was hard to believe. it also allowed me to appreciate the beauty of dan’s designs. it keeps blowing me away that this retired doctor, who took up ceramics only 6 years ago, has evolved into a masterful ceramics artist.

pink branch /  by Philip Tarlow

pink branch 38 x 38” as it looked at 3:15pm today

3:28 PM: the day was broken up with phone calls. once the dust settled, i did more work on pink branch, which is one of the 3 i worked on yesterday. it has a presence. maybe even an identity. our morning creek walk was helpful in refreshing my impressions of the rocks & water, and especially as pertains to this painting, reminding me of the sudden burst of siena which often emerges from the grey-blue-green.

back home /  by Philip Tarlow

so today i worke don 3 paintings, which you see on my studio wall.2 of the 3 are BELOW. the on eon the left is 42 x 38” and is at the early stages of drawing. on the right, 38 x 36” is a many layered painting which, i think is finding it’s identity. it was a little wierd getting back to work so quickly after a week away. the closer it got to 4 pm, when my mentee was to arrive, the more i got into my groove. it seems, as i told k., that his presence is an inspiration.as you might gather from the image below of what he did today, he’s very good.

7:21 PM: today my mentee, k., arrived at 4pm. i prepared a large piece of paper for him to work on, and provided a book about the mergence of Cubism, with images of the work of picasso & braque.he chose to use the image of a cello, which cannot yet be seen in this photograph of the drawing/painting at the end of the day..

8:32 AM: we arrived back in crestone last night, and i’ll be heading m=to my studio in an hour or two. during our drive from carbondale over the pass to durango, i shot a series of skies, a few of which may be candidates for the sky series of paintings i’ve been contemplating. this is one of them. i’ll continue to blog about todays studio process later in the day.

contemplating next steps while traveling /  by Philip Tarlow

rocks and water, 2000, 48x48” oil on linen

while we’re on the road for diane mitch bush’s campaign and introducing our educational products into select schools, i’m contemplating the evolution of my paintings.

just look where i was at only 2 years ago, in the misdt of creating my gaze series, many of which were inspired by vermeer. visit my gaze page, link below, to view the entire series.

going further back in time, 18 years ago, in 2000, i was making a series of rocks and water paintings like the one you see ABOVE. as with the current motion and meta-motion series, they were inspired by plein air paintings in gouache on paper, made at one of our local creeks.

i’m considering, while continuing work on the meta-motion paintings, starting a new series inspired by the thousands of skies i’ve photographed over the years. i always knew, as i took the shots, that some of them would become paintings, it just never felt like the right time. so once the midterm elections are over november 4 & i’m back in my studio full time, i’ll launch into it.

starting a new painting: 50 x 48" and whiting over 3 previous meta-motion paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

purple rock

2:54 PM: today upon entering my studio, all the paintings but one that i’ve been working on seemed far too busy & loud. so i whited over 3, being careful to allow just enough of the previous layers to show though and giving me the surface i desired. i don’t know how much my current blurred vision has to do with it, but what seemed perfectly Ok one day seems like it’s screaming it’s head off the next. this morning before my meditation we both looked at purple rock, which you see here on the right, and it seemed just the right balance. so right now at least, that’s my vision for works to be hung in my may, 2019 space gallery show in denver.

the 3 i whited over, one just partially, are BELOW: left to right: nude figure with rocks, purple rocks II, and roiling.

i’ll wait for them to dry, then go back in, but not too much!

more work on roiling /  by Philip Tarlow

4:40 PM: and one more thing. i took out some of the red, which was overwhelming the composition. i'll see how it looks in the morning.

4:15 PM: BELOW: and a few more changes, including the introduction of red marks into the roiling composition. 

3:17 PM: roiling looked too busy, so i decided to work into it. it's still too busy, so maybe i'll continue work tomorrow. BELOW: yesterday (left) and today (right)

the introduction of pink has warmed up the entire composition, but she's still not sure yet who she is, sending us somewhat mixed messages. 

back in my studio /  by Philip Tarlow

quantum rocks at 3pm

3:20 PM: as you can see, i whited over the version you see below; it was far to busy & likely a result of being away form the studio for 2 days. ABOVE:  is how the painting looked moments ago, as i prepare to clean my brushes & go help mikela make some calls to volunteers for the diane mitch bush campaign.

quantum rocks , 38x38" at 2pm

2:17 PM:we returned last night from denver & this morning i continued work on quantum rocks. i discovered on my regular visit with my eye surgeon that i need a new prescription , which explains the blurry vision i've been experiencing. fortunately, the eye that was operated on for glaucoma/cataract is soing great. but a cataract is progressing in the other eye, this the change in my vision. 

BELOW: quantum rocks before & after todays session. it will change again when i resume work tomorrow morning.