sixth month, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:49 PM: gotta get movin’ so we can take our trail walk before the predicted thunderstorms arrive at about 6pm. so i’ll write more about the work i did today later. here’s the painting as it looked moments ago. as you can tell if you look at the painting on yesterdays blog, i did quite a bit of work. when we get back late this afternoon, i’ll tell you, amongst other things, the role coffee played.

6:23 PM: GREAT trail walk in a thunderstorm with light to moderate rain & heavenly frangrances. we did hear a few louds cracks of thunder with a flash or two of lightning. the wet rocks bared their chests & glistened with their greys, tans, subtle oranges & subtle violets. oh, how fortinate to live amongst these rocks. the rock people.

so, back to sixth month. i’ve been looking at, making copies of taiga for years. i’ve never seen his paintings in person, and am sad i couldn’t be at his museum show in kyoto last year. this series allows me to insert myself, in a way, into his oevre in a way that would be otherwise impossible. i’m digging deep into my mark making & sensitivity to form & color to make this series of paintings. this is only the second, and already i’m exploding with enthusiasm and appreciation of who taiga was and is as a calligrapher & painter. the more i riff on his series of paintings of the 12 months of the year, the more i see parallels not only with our crestone/baca landscape, but with my particular visual language, as it has evolved over decades.

so i promised to talk about the role of coffee in my work this morning. i fancy myself a master brewer. i research types of raw beans, then i roast them within 48 hours of brewing & brew using one of my three ss moka pots, both beautifully constructed in italy. i don’t actually drink coffe, since it upsets my intestines. or it used to. today i decided to give it another try. so i made a very small amount in the smaller moka pot i keep in the studio. i added a little unsweetened soy milk & gave it a try. within 10 minues, the buzz kicked in. at first, i didn’t know what to do with that surge of energy. then i figured out that i needed to get busy painting. while it lasted….about 2-3 hours, it really did support me in getting some good work done. my intestines seemed fine, so i’m going to give it a shot again tomorrow.

starting sixth month, 78 x 26" on the newly stretched canvas /  by Philip Tarlow

3:05 PM: today, after futzing around, mainly because i was avoiding making the first marks on this newly stretched canvas, i dove in, at first using colored pencils, then crayons and then some very diluted oils. as usual, my fear of screwing up the boyant aliveness of those first shapes & colors was there, on and off, throughout.

i like what happened, but i have absolutely no idea how i’m going to continue tomorrow. i mean, there’s such a delicate balance here….

i was browsing my icloud photos & found this one of me in Provincetown, shot in about 1960.

it’s the first time i’m using this “all purpose” linen form artfix, as opposed to their way more expensive portrait linen. so i was able to get 10 yards of 85” wide primed linen, which may be enough for the entire series, since i’m using the full width each time, but only 32” (26+the extra 6” for stretching) of the 10 yards. that means, if i do nothing but 78x26” paintings, i can get 14 paintings out of this roll.

k. was here today & started a new sky painting. he chose one of my many sky photos & found one he liked, so i printed it out & he’s working from that.

so lets see hwere i go with this one tomorrow. i feel like maybe i should stretch another one, so i don’t have to have all my eggs in one basket & can go back & forth between the two. but i’m excited at how this one began.

stretching a new 78 x 26" canvas /  by Philip Tarlow

stretching the 78x26” canvas this morning

6:46 PM: today i stretched a new 78x26” linen canvas for the second painting in this series, inspired by the great 18th c. painter/calligrapher, taiga. taiga is a contemporary energy, period. a timeless energy. he was ahead of his time, totally immersed in his time, a true painters painter. he had a major exhibition last year at rge kyoto museum. i am envisioning a show in japan, perhapds kyoto, showing these new works that will bring taiga into the 21st century. as if he needed it!

stretching a 78x26” canvas is tricky. at those dimensions, there’s a tendency for the canvas to form creases, so i had to remove some of the staples & re-stretch portions of the canvas. in the end, it’s tight as a drum and presents a beautiful surface to work on tomorrow.

on the other hand, WTF, i wonder, am i going to do tomorrow morning? ah, but isn’t that the not knowing i say i’m so in love with? yeah, but….walking up the trail a few hours ago, observing mind boggling beauty on all sides, in my head i sang songs i remembered from birchwoods, the magnificent camp i attended from the age of 5 to 16. read about it on my story page:

i thought of my dad as i sang, in my head, swing low sweet chariot. hear paul robeson sing it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSb273c9tm4

so why, i wondered this morning, why am i doing this? is it really going to move anyone? will it change their lives? will it feed their souls? i don’t mean to sound meldramatic, but, at the age i’ve reached, you start wondering about these things.

revisiting funky rocks, starting lichen 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:30 PM: funky rocks was on our wall in the house since i last worked on it, march 21. something shifted after the opening of the exhibition last thursday, and yesterday i brought it back over to the studio for more work. what i did is along the same lines as what happened yesterday with quantum rocks. which is that ir livened up, with more arears of contrast and a center of focus, which was not there previously. the compositions of the two paintings were more diffuse. so BELOW are the before (left) and after images.

DETAIL of lichen, 20x20” at the end of my painting day

lichen 1 is an experiment on a 20x20” canvas i had stretched a while back. it’s inspired by photos i shot on our last trail walk, when i was struck by the beauty of the lichen growing on most of the rocks lining the trail. i doubt if it will remain as is, and tomorrow will almost certainly bring changes, mostly in the direction of simplification and an overall lightening. but i can see the possibility for a series of small works along these lines. there is a delicacy to the actual lichen on the rocks which is, as yet missing form this rather heavy handed first stab. i’m inspired enough by the magic of the subject to persist, however.

more work on quantum rocks today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:09 PM: lightening up: fortunately for this painting, thunderstorms continued this afternoon long enough to eliminate the possiblity for walking up the trail and my mentee, k., cancelled his studio visit. this cleared my afternoon for more work on quantum rocks. the two rocks i worked on this morning were too intense & needed lots of lightening, accomplished with judicious scraping, followed by carefully but spontaneously painting into the scraped areas. as a result, the painting as you see it below, has far more sensitivity & allure. yes, i use the word allure because when i look at the revised version now, from a distance of about 25 feet, it attracts me like a lover: it exudes sensuality. it SINGS!

DETAIL of quantum rocks after todays work

2:41 PM: today i re-engaged with quantum rocks. yesterday I gave one of the rocks more specificity, harkening back to the oil paintings i made in about 2001. i thought it might be interesting to mix my current abstracted approach with a more realist one, and see what happens. yesterdays fist attempt was a bit underdeveloped, i thought. so here’s what i did today, refining the rock i painted yesterday and adding one more, while at the same time focusing on how & why williamsburg oils seem superior to me. we met someone representing that company at my opening on thursday.

yesterdays version on BELOW left.

back in the studio, at work on minoo & quaantum rocks /  by Philip Tarlow

1:59 PM: the opening of environment remixed at space gallery in denver was exciting. i was so absorbed in conversation with all the great people i met that i completely forgot to take photos, which is totally unlike me. but we’ll be back in denver and i can take photos then. there was an excellent turnout, and visitors were genuinely interested in having me guide them through the work and giving them insights they may not otherwise have had. this led me to have a conversation with mike, the gallery director/owner about creating an event we’re calling a forum, on about the 19th of this month. i’m going to talk with one of other 3 the artists in the show, ben about joining me via zoom (he lives in albany) for about an hour. i’ll be physically present in the gallery & he’ll join in on zoom. so we can give our individual & mutual perspectives on the work we’re showing; how it came about, and answer any questions the attendees might have about the work.

as always, returning to the studio after even only 48 hours away is a challenge. getting back in my groove doesn’t happen all at once. so i don’t know about the work i did today. i had considered minoo completed when we left thursday morning, but when i entered the studio this morning, perhaps influenced by some of the feedback i received thursday night at the opening, i made some changes & additions. BELOW are the before (left) & after:

i also did some work on quaantum rocks, which i hadn’t touched since april 6th. along the same lines as in minoo, i added some punchier rocks, which focus the composition.

minoo/tarlow /  by Philip Tarlow

12:58 PM: it was clear the moment i entered my studio that

1)the lower portion of minoo was too busy and

2) the evolution of my vision over the past few months needed to play more of a role, and integrate with taiga’s vision.

i don’t feel we’re there yet, but we’re closer. BELOW are 4 stages of minoo, the one on the lower right being the most recent in the evolution of this first painting in my new series.

meiji becomes minoo /  by Philip Tarlow

minoo, 78x26” oil & oil stick on linen

2:43 PM: the title of this painting has changed, from meiji to minoo, a waterfall in japan.

it is now a vertical 78x26” composition, inspired by one of taiga’s scrolls. the white bit in the middle-left portion of the painting is the waterfall. as yet, it’s a sketchy approximation of what it may become. i’m going to try to get an early start tomorrow so that i can get as much done as possible on this one, for which i have a tremendous appetite, since we’ll be away thursday-friday.

the area i think i’ll work on tomorrow morning is the lower 1/3; it’s a bit congested, especially over on the left, don’t you think? aside from that, i like what happened today. the underpainting provides the perfect foil for the landscape-esque marks i made today.

and i like these 78x26” dimensions, which mirror those of taigas’s larger scrolls. i’m ordering more stretcher bars with these dimensions, and just today i received a 10 meter by 84 inch roll of artfix primed linen; enough for me to create an entire new series, which i’m envisioning showing in japan.

setting the stage for the meiji of tomorrow /  by Philip Tarlow

meiji, 26x78” as it looked about an hour ago.

detail of meiji, revealing some japanese letters made yesterday

2:30 PM: today i went over what i’ve been doing for the past few days with a coat of oil paint i especially mixed for the purpose. it’s a kind of warm yellow/tannish color made up of 4 or 5 different colors. then i proceeded to scrape into it, until i reached the right balance of revealed underlying shapes and an overall unifying tone.

tomorrow, depending on how much the surface has dried, i may begin working into it. i have something in mind, but it’s not something specific. not yet. i’ll know better in the morning. last night my sleep was abruptly and frighteningly interrupted when my iphone, which was playing white noise, rang at full volume. it was one of those annoying robo calls, but i shouldn’t have heard it since i had do not disturb turned on. so i just got that resolved with a very helpful apple support person, but i’m pretty wiped. when i bolted up in bed, i thought i was having a heart attack!

resuming work on meiji, 26x78"/composing my artist statement for the exhibition /  by Philip Tarlow

meiji at the end of my painting day

1:04 PM: having completed the selection of pieces for the space gallery show, opening on thursday, i entered my studio with fresh energy & resumed work on a new painting, titled meiji, which i had begun one day a few weeks ago, when i needed a change of pace.

i’m envisioning this being part of an exhibition in tokyo.

before coming to the studio, i composed the text for my artist statement, for the space gallery show. here’s the current draft, see what you think:

I wanted to do something different with this show. Typically artists display a series of paintings in a single show that have a similar look and feel.

I didn’t do this. Instead, I included paintings done over more than a year, as well as multiple ways of interpreting the same subject. Every painting in this show is based on my experiences at local creek near our home in the Sangre de Christo mountains.

My journey always begins with smaller plein air paintings done on site at this creek. Plein air painting is always an adventure. I’ve often knocked my brushes and paints into the creek; wind gusts have caused several paintings to take flight. And for some reason dogs always want to see what I’m working on.

Our personal signature is contained in every mark we make, whether we’re artists creating paintings or laymen signing a document. For fine art painters, those marks can be informed by our awareness and knowledge of the entire History of Art, from prehistoric cave paintings through the 10th Century Chinese calligraphers & landscape painters; through Matisse; through deKooning, through Twombly right up to the present moment.

I constantly refresh my awareness of key players in that history & reflect on how & why they impact me today.

Paintings are marks on a surface, and always have been. In some cases, they are seen as landscapes or portraits. The fact remains, they are marks on a surface. As Matisse famously said, “ I am not creating landscapes, I am making paintings!”

I believe drawing is the bones of painting. I draw constantly, wherever, whenever. I make discoveries when I draw, and they inevitably spill over into my paintings.

You may notice in this series that similar forms repeat within the context of slightly different stylistic solutions.

When I enter my studio every morning, I have no idea what’s going to happen. That not knowing is at the very heart of creativity.

The paintings you see in this exhibition contain many layers of previous paintings. If I wasn’t happy with what I did the previous day, I painted over it, sometimes allowing the previous layer to peek through. Other times, I like what I did, but have a vague sense I could take it further. So I keep going and add another layer of not knowing.

For me, a painting has reached resolution when it sings.