back at work on tree resting today / December 6, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3pm: tree resting at 3pm. it’s approaching the point where it has it’s identity but not yet singing.more tomorrow.

12:35 PM: i’m leaving yesterdays creek meandering alone till i determine whether to leave it as is or nor, and have launched back in to the recently scrumbled tree resting. work continues; updates as they occur…

meandering creek, day 1 / December 5, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

*meandering creek*, 36x32” as it looked at 3pm.

2:52 PM: i decided to leave tree resting alone for a while and start a new one, titled meandering creek. it’s 36x32” on portrait linen. thus far, i’ve used diluted oil paint, mostly for the grey gestural marks; colored pencils & crayons. it’s loosely based on photos i shot of the creek this past fall. the areas of exposed white canvas are typical for the paintings in this series that are early stage. i know i say this every time i’m at this stage, but i’d like to keep it light and not do the layering that many of the others in the series have.

on the left is a detail of tree resting as it looked after whiting over it late yesterday afternoon. perhaps you can see why i love what i have termed scrumbling.

work continues on resting tree today / December 4, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:33 PM: end of day scrumble. why? it was just what had to happen.

1pm: this morning i got a late start, and studied tree resting as i drank my matcha tea. it seemed a bit too grey, and i was wanting something to POP. so i went back into it, strategically using titanium/zinc white to indicate area of ice, but mainly for compositional reasons. i did a few things to the female nude figure, but not too much, so that she looks to be part of the abstracted landscape she occupies. there’s enough information for the viewer to have no doubt that these marks are all inspired by the creek, with it’s rushing water, turned to ice, flowing over rocks. but the painterly marks also could evoke the intimate flavors of a bonnard or vuillard, both of whom are never far from my awareness, along with the 10th C. chinese maters i’m currently studying. strange bedfellows? not really. what seems to be emerging in this stage of my life & work as an artist is the integration of my 7 month old self, seen here with my mother, and my 2018 self.

a figure enters the picture / December 3, 2018 by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: here’s where tree resting is at right now.once again, extraneous, unnecessary marks have been painted over. The ice floe retains the dominant space in the composition, with the mysterious femail figure seeming to approach it. two branches have been reintroduced. cleanup time.

**DETAIL** showing the female figure i introduced.

2 PM: this one is more of an odyssey than any of the others. it doesn’t really bother my; I love odysseys! i introduced a female figure standing on the rocks, which i photographed at fish creek in early fall. you can see her mid left, her head facing the left edge of the canvas. she’s naked, which of course she wasn’t in the photo. i’m going to continue working for another hour or so & see where it goes next.

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!