white-over & scrumble take "tree resting" to the next phase in the process / December 2, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

contemplating *tree resting* this morning before getting to work.

2:07 PM: fro those of you who have been visiting this blog for a while, you will know what i mean by my created word: scrumble. it’s shorthand for my process of going over a painting with titanium/zinc white oil paint, then scraping with a palette knife, rubbing with a gamsol (a safer version of the old turpentine) soaked rag, etc. this may continue for days or weeks, until the painting in question sings. once she sings, it’s resolved. unless it isn’t. i just re-visited a painting completed in 2014, so there’s really no time limit.

BELOW:

3 stages of tree resting today, with the most recent on the right.

tree resting returns to its ice bound self / December 1, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:19 PM: if you look at the rock on the lower left, below, you will notice that the rock on the lower left has some black marks that are a bit too strong, stealing the show form the rest of the painting. so i toned them down a bit. that’s it for today my friends. lets go to town & get some soup ingredients!

after sitting with the noon version for an hour, i noticed that the unbroken white of the ice needed softening & breaking up. too stark. and the rock on the lower left seemed out of sync with the rest of the painting. so i did some work on those two areas, which allows the eye to roam the surface without getting stuck anywhere.

in the detail on the right, you can see how important the marks i made in the white of the ice are. they push it back in space, whereas before (see the earlier state below) it popped out of the picture surface & had no dimensionality.

mythological chinese lions, *kanō eitoku,* 1543-90, 6 panel folding screen, *imperial household* collection

12:18 PM: well, it did indeed seem far too busy as i glanced repeatedly at it while preparing my oatmeal. it didn’t, you could say, know whether it was coming or going. so i re-visited a creek photo i shot last winter, and upon which this painting is loosely based. it allowed me to re-conceive the composition by introducing the distinctive shapes created by the ice. so now, when i glance at it, it’s a strong composition/ almost too strong.in most of the earlier paintings in this post-motion series, rocks, water, branches, ice are suggested, and appear out of a painterly flurry of marks.on the contrary, in this painting as it stands now, i am reminded more of lucien freud than of my 10th C. chinese calligrapher/landscape painter mentors. maybe i’ll get back to preparing my oatmeal before taking any next steps. can you tell by the way that i was studying this 16th c. 6 panel screen as i was having my matcha tea this morning and before getting to work?

as soon as i entered my studio, my eye went straight to the center of the composition, where there was a dead spot. i worked on that moments ago, and here’s what the painting looks like now. it may still be too busy. so more work may be in store.

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left, and todays on the right.

using a plein air gouache to make "tree resting" more painterly / November 30, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2 PM: following a lousy nights sleep, i didn’t expect much when i came to the studio. which of course was the key. like when i had my first blind date at 16. didn’t expect much, and got blown away!

so after spending an hour or so introducing marks derived from the bark of a “dead” tree, which i call a resting tree, i grabbed one of the plein air gouaches i made this past fall and introduced elements i discovered while making that gouache. tree resting responded immediately, activating my painterly instincts, which are always close at hand.

we may get some flurries soon, so the skies have darkened, i’m tired & ready for a bath, and it’s a good moment to stop for the day, earlier than usual. so bring on the flurries, weather gods. i’m going to clean up & return to the house and a hot bath. oh and one more thing; when i glance at it , there’s something that brings to mind late van gogh.

BELOW: tree resting as it looked yesterday (left) and moments ago.

as usual. i spoke too soon! / November 29, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

1:52 PM: my friend sarah in alaska commented earlir “realling having to wrestle with this one.” i responded that they’re all pretty much like that. whenever my mind cuts in, which is a lot, i have to white & scrape out what i’ve just done, pretending not to be aware i’m just waiting for the majik to happen. when it does, you have to recognize it and STOP! what may seem to some to be haphazard marks are actually all part of a seamless whole. anything that’s not jumps out and shouts. this is true just as much in “realist” work. that’s why it’s helpful, no, necessary, to regine and inform our vision. in my mind, this happens most effectively by looking at a lot of great art from all periods. ideally, in person. but not all of us have the luxury of visiting the great museums of the world. when we do happen to have that opportunity, we need to spend time with great paintings. and then go back & look more. this is what my friend david hockney just did. he can afford to take a trip to vienna expressly for the purpose of visiting the breugel exhibition currently on there. i spoke with him a couple of days ago when he was in london & had just returned. he was ecstatic, and when on and on about what a great painter breugel is. and now, now doubt, that experience will show up in his new work. at 82, he has the spirit of a child.

1pm: continuing work on tree resting. i’ll go back to work as soon as i post this & have a chance to review what i’ve done so far. BELOW: comparative views of the painting at noon and an hour later

12:02 PM: yes, i said yesterday that tree resting had found it’s groove. well, sort of. upon bringing it back to the house & looking critically at it, there was just too much going on, with no focal point. so this morning i whited & scraped over about 3/4 of the painting, and am now working back into it. as has happened with almost all the paintings in this series, what shows through adds tremendously to the richness and mystery of the image. i’m still working & will update later this afternoon. the good news? the crestone mart has finally gotten in my favorite: aldens chocholate chip ice cream. they’re holding one for me & i’ll pick it up later this afternoon. following the root canal, i no longer have sensitivity to cold, so i can really enjoy it!

tree resting finds it's groove / November 28, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:45 PM: i removed some extraneous marks on the periphery but didn’t touch anything else

tree resting at noon today, following extensive work.

12:14 PM: i was feeling hopeless about ny central supply yesterday afternoon. i came and looked at it following my dental appointment in salida. it could be the fact that i was in pain that influenced me. but i left the studio dejected and hopeless about finding my way with this painting.

fast forward to this morning. when i entered my studio & glanced at the painting, i felt certainy about the direction i needed to take. granted, tomorrow i might very well feel differently, but right now i feel this painting has found it’s groove. BELOW are 3 stages of the painting over the past week, with the oldest pn the left.

over the past few days, i’ve been pouring over the text & images in takeuchi’s taiga’s true views. BELOW is what i posted a few days ago from that book. the reason i’m posting it here is that, if you take a look at the 2 earlier versions of ny central supply, you may notice that there was, as it says in the quote:

in other words, my mind was focused more on making sure rocks looked like rocks than on the process of painting and remaining true to the world within. it may sound like a rather suble, esoteric distinction, but for me, where i’m at in my evolution as an artist, it strikes a chord.

a bit more work on ny central supply / November 26, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

5:45 PM: mikela & i made up to take our wak at 4pm. at 3:30, after cleaning my brushes, i just couldn’t stay away. i went back into it, smearing my just washed hands with oil paint & making a big mess. i did a lot of knee jerk stupid stuf, which i ended up, as 4 o’clock came and went, scaping & rubbing out the whole thing, literally pouring the gamsol (much less toxic turpentine substitute) over the painting & rubbing away the foolishness with old discarded clothing. interestingly and perhaps predictably, it’s more compelling and more integrated as a painting than it was before i cut loose.

tomorrow morning i have to drive to salida to have a crown created and the temporary filling replaced with a permanant one, following my root canal a few weeks ago. a second crown in the neighboring tooth will be created and installed as well: a 2 hour apointment. when i’m back, i’m hoping it will be early enough to get in a couple of hours.

i did a bit more to ny central supply. and i’m not yet sure it was a good thing. i’ll let you know tomorrow. todays version is on the right, BELOW. i thought i was lightening it up & decongesting it somewhat. but it looks darker & more congested!

ny central supply becomes a horizontal composition / November 25, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

2:13 PM: i resumed work on ny central supply, turning it 90 degrees and making it a horizontal. it has a strong presence now, with rock inspired shapes alternating with white shapes drawn from my memory of the ice that forms around this time of year and remains till spring. every time we walk up the creek, it has changed form. this may be the first time i’ve shared my source photographs on my blog. don’t know why, since my goal is complete transparency. it’s a reaction….kind of a delayed teenage rebellious reaction to the secrecy that often surrounds an artist’s process. of course, in many cases that’s out the window now.

this painting, assuming i don’t alter it tomorrow, is a likely candidate for my may, 2019 space gallery show, with 2 other artists. always interesting to see how your work holds up…or not when hung with the work of your contemporaries.

2014 collage re-worked and more work on ny central supply / November 24, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*rachet:* 32x32” mixed media & collage on canvas, 2014 and today

*ny central supply*, 38x32” mixed media on linen

3:36 PM: this morning i was at a loss as to where to go next. ny central supply was in such a delicate state and i was so hesitant about doing anything to it, that i just jumped in &, as i am wont to do, wiped out all that i had done and instead worked feverishly into it, after which i wiped that out too.so now it looks like what you see here on the right; a totally different look and feel, while remaining true to the meta-motion aesthetic it’s becoming part of, as well as the 10th century chinese masters i’m inspired by. we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

more tweaks to ny central supply and a 180 flip to the original / November 21, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

12:37 PM: upon entering the studio this morning, i wasn’t moved to continue work on tree resting, the painting i started yesterday. more accurately, i didn’t dare. maybe after thanksgiving.

instead, i did more work on ny central supply, flipping it back to its original direction. i broke up the blue rock on top & added more blue marks to the right & left of it, added some smaller rocks on the lower left, 2 branches on the lower right & some white in the space surrounding the central image.

these meta-motion landscapes are, indeed abstracted. so rather than getting stuck on a beautiful rock or an especially successful depiction of flowing water, the eye the totality in an instant. at the same time, subtler aspects emerge over time. there are many suggestive passages constructed with a flurry of gestures. each could itself be a small painting, such as the detail you see here on the right.

and because they are a step removed from the reality of what we see when looking at the creek itself, they are open to reference and metaphor. are those female breasts; is that a dogs head or a snake? are we looking from above? is that a bear’s foot, or snout? the lessons i have learned, and continue to learn form the 10th century chinese calligrapher/painters i so often reference, and whom i often refer to as my buddies, have matured and become 21st century presences.

*ny central supply* 38x38” following this mornings tweak & 180 flip.

tweaking& flipping ny central supply / starting tree resting / November 20, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*ny central supply* 38x38” after having been flipped upside down & tweaked

at work this morning on the new *tree resting*, 32x38”

as anticipated, when i entered the studio this morning i sensed that ny central supply need tweaking. but i wanted to wait, so i started a new one, titled tree resting which is stretched linen 32 x 38” as i got into the drawing, i cast glances at ny central supply. as i prepared to clean up for the day, i grabbed a fan brush and added while marks suggesting water flowing on what was the bottom quadrant of the painting, and is now the top. moments ago i felt the urge to flip the canvas 180 degrees. thus far, i think it was a good move. we’ll see.