back in my studio working on roiling & purple rocks II /  by Philip Tarlow

we got home yesterday afternoon & this morning i was back in my studio doing more work on roiling (above left) & purple rocks II (right), which i’m taking over to the house for evaluation.

sometimes i wonder if my obsession with the creek and my need to use what i have garnered from my many plein air adventures is really going anywhere. these paintings, in what i am calling my post motion series. are edging towards an abstraction influenced as much by baselitz as by 10th century chinese masters of calligraphy.

i took a little break before this last campaign trip and made a small gouache on paper (see last tuesday’s post) in which i revisit my 15 year greek period. while i loved making this little painting of a well known athenian café housed in a neoclassical building opposite the acropolis, it did feel like a journey into the past. increasingly, i feel my “subject” is mark making. period.

diane mitch bush event last night in carbondale/snow this morning /  by Philip Tarlow

today we woke up to about a foot of snow here in snowmass. we’re staying with friends on our ongoing travels around southern colorado in support of the campaign of diane mitch bush. there was very good turnout at her event in carbondale last night, where mikela introduced her and then, after her talk, gave a pep talk to prospective volunteers in the audience.

athinaion cafe completed /  by Philip Tarlow

athinaion café 38.5x11 cm. gouache on archival paper

today i was able to complete athinaion café, a painting in gouache on paper which will be sent to athens, greece & become part of in an exhibition about the “athens school” of painters who were active during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. i was the only non-greek member of this group, who were interested in making paintings of everyday life in athens.it was not a formal group, but some of us did exhibit our work together, especially in ora gallery.

nikos vatopoulos, who has organized this show, emailed me & asked if i could make a painting in that genre, which would also incorporate an example of one of the remaining neoclassical buildings in central athens. nikos has written about my work & reviewed some of my shows in greece.

the smaller paintings in gouache that i did at the time were all done on site. so for this one, i would have been sitting opposite the café with a portable easel, ideally in a shady spot.

obviously, that was not possible in this case, so i found a photo i had shot on a trip to athens in 2011, printed it out on a 17x11” piece of paper and worked from that. although many years have passed since i made paintings like the one you see here, it’s easy for me to get back into the vibe. sometimes i can even smell the air & hear the conversatipons happening at this landmark café just across from the acropolis, in a neighborhood called thision.

had i been on site, the colors would likely have been softer. those tans, earth reds & ochres have remained my favorite palette. almost all of athens & piraeus was, until the 50’s, dominated by neoclassical architecture, which had been introduced by the germans in the 19th century, in their passion for recreating the purity & beauty of ancient greece. they even introduced a form of greek closer to ancient prototypes, called katharevousa, which, for a time, all school children were required to learn. it never caught on, and was used mainly in legal documents and, for a time in newspaper articles.

neoclassical architecture, on the other hand, soon filled cities, towns & islands, so suited is it to the landscape. many of these buildings are still standing in places like syros, capitol of the cycladic island grouping. but in athens & piraeus, a combination of greed and ignorance of the importance of these landmark buildings won out, resulting in the demolition of many of them and, as result, the degradation of the visual beauty that was athens.

starting Athinaion Cafe /  by Philip Tarlow

today i began work on a small (15x4.5”) gouache painting] for an exhibition titled athens endochora, opening december 4 in a new venue in the mets neighborhood of athens. the intention is to exhibit paintings by well known greek artists ( and one american) focusing on what is left of neoclassical athens. when i first arrived in 1963, there were still a large number of beautiful neoclassical structures in athens. slowly, they were thoughtlessly demolished, with ugly, characterless cement appartment buildings taking their place. with my then mother-in-law, painter niki karagatsi, wife of the famed author d. karagatsis, we regularly went to neighborhoods in athens & piraeus and made paintings, many of which included these buildings. i was asked by nikos vatopoulos, a well known athenian writer to participate in this show, preferably with a painting made within the last 2 years. so i’m woking on this painting of the athinaion café in the thision neighborhood near the acropolis. i’ll send it off as soon as it’s complete.

continued work on katarachtes, 50x48" /  by Philip Tarlow

katarachtes 50x48” as it looked at 2 pm today

last month i began a larger post-motion painting titled katarachtes (waterfalls in modern greek).

work has been interrupted and will continue to be sporadic until the midterm elections next month, nov.4, as we are traveling around the southern part of colorado supporting volunteers for the campaign of diane mitch bush for congress.

there is a certain advantage, as i’ve said in the past, in taking breaks from paintings i’m working on. obviously, after being away from them for a week or so, i get a fresh perspective. and sometimes i also become bolder as to where i’m moved to take the painting next. or, more precisely, where it wants to take me next.

another trip is imminent, and i’ll resume work once we’re back.

looking back: august 23, 2017 /  by Philip Tarlow

my east facing studio wall photographed on august 23, 2017.

seems like a decade ago. but that’s the way it works. time bends, swerves. a little over a year ago, i was experimenting on 36x36” canvases, searching for a way to translate the collages on paper i had been making up to that point. these 3 are representative of that period. they no longer exist as you see them here, having been painted over numerous times. there are collaged areas you can make out, such as the map on the lower right portion of the painting on the right. if i saw them today in a gallery or museum, i would definitely stop & spend time with each of them. makes me even more curious what i’ll do once this election is over next month, and i’m back in my studio full time.

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:

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.