more work on shinkei /  by Philip Tarlow

a history of shinkei since November 11th. start in the upper left then 2nd row left

at work on on shinkei this morning

12:37 PM: as I prepared my breakfast, I cast glances at shinkei. difficult to know what’s going on in artist’s heads when they’re working on a painting. there are days, like today, when even I don’t profess to know. sometimes, as i’ve said repeatedly, you know with certainty that it’s the painting that’s dictating your moves.bruce hanley said recently in art forum: “…art is a consolation for, not the redemption of, the PTSD of existing.” something to ponder.

every painting has it’s own logic. you know instantly, or I do at least, if that logic is clean, clear….complex in the most simple, natural way; somehow inevitable.

shinkei continues /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of shinkei at 1:20pm

shinkei as it looked at the end of my painting day today

12:54 PM: some trees and a red structure with figures were added to the composition, as well as some strokes of light blue around the mountain peaks & the wavy suggestions of mountain streams flowing through the composition. the green of the trees is a different one than i’ve used in the previous sound of a flute series paintings; lighter, with a bit more blue. there’s a richness, without that overcrowded sensation that existed a few days ago. I may stop here for the day, as we have be a a political event Mikela helped organize for candidate andrew romanoff. he’s got a very good platform and a very big heart. I like andrew.

looking back: September 5, 2010 & more work on shinkei /  by Philip Tarlow

walking the dogs; view from the acropolis. oil on linen, 2010

shinkei at 2 pm

11:53 am: this a painting I did in 2010 and was included in my 2010 solo show at skoufa gallery, Athens

2pm: I re-worked the middle section of shinkei, which had become too busy. tomorrow I need to integrate the middle with the upper & lower areas of the composition, which I hope I can do without disturbing the remaining area of white canvas. this may call for a waterfall!

shinkei goes full on musical /  by Philip Tarlow

2:14 PM: today i’d say i’m 76% recovered from the fluzone high dose flu shot, especially formulated for those over 65. it definitely has a kick.

shinkei as it looked at the end of my painting day today.

so after putzing around for a few hours….actually I was taking care of some business, I began working again on that delicate shinkei painting, which I hadn’t dared to touch over the past few days. it’s emerging from it’s delicate shell & reminding one more of it’s sisters, thus far numbering 13, plus one that’s been painted over & is awaiting re-stretching, as it was on a warped stretcher bar.

todays palette mid day

mountains, waterfalls, trees & rocks are what they’re all about. they are all inspired by taiga & his 18th century scrolls. the title of the series: sound of a flute, or more fully, sound of a flute over water, (that was too long to use as the official title) says it all. it’s music, which taiga & his cohorts listened to live as they painted. it’s the color of music. and the marks are those a flute might make if it could jump out of the musicians mouth, dip itself in some colors & move across the surface.

shinkei continued /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of shinkei at 2 pm today

shinkei is delicate. I couldn’t have worked on it yesterday when, fresh from our super strong flu shots, I was reeling & my arm hurt.

it can’t be worked on unless i’m in the right flow. today I did do some work on it, switching off with other things that needed to be taken of. here’s how it looks at the end of my painting day.

reviewing "ano kato" series paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

today i mostly prepared for our tirp tomorrow. since i’ll be donating one of the ano kato series paintings to a museum, i went through the entire series and picked out the 22 paintings based on views from above in a number of museums in athens, greece, nyc & denver.

i didn’t remember there being so many paintings in this series that were inspired by photos i shot in museums over a period of a few years. perhaps moma is the most conducive, in that you get spectacular views looking down formmany different spots. the acropolis museum was special because it’s buily on ancient ruins, which are visible through the glass floor. the denver museum was special in that they’ve created an area especially designed for kids to draw & paint.

shinkei /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of shinkei at 3pm

3:04 PM: shinkei, or true view in japanese, is in it’s 3rd day of work. thus far, it retains the white ground & exhibibts a very light touch. that’s the mood i’m in. we’ll see if it carries into tomorrow and then, following our travels, into Sunday, when i’m back in my studio.

more work on a new "sound of a flute" series painting /  by Philip Tarlow

this morning i continued work on the as yet untitled 15th painting in my sound of a flute” series painting. i’m taking it slow. i had only a short period of time before my mentee k. came at 1pm.

this will very likely be the last painting in the series. i’m working on leads for showing them in japan, ideally in kyoto. taiga, the 18th c. japanese artist who is the inspiration for this seies, had a major retrospective at the kyoto museum last year. so this will be an exhibition of a contemporary american artist inspired by this japanese legend.

sparse reflections painted over /  by Philip Tarlow

sound of a flute series paintings on the east wall of my studio recently

sparse reflections painted over & flipped 180 degrees

1:43 PM: sparse reflections had become overloaded reflections, so I painted over it. yes, there were passages I was sorry to see go, but as a whole the composition was a little bit of everything and a lot of nothing. so it be gone!

now it looks more like sparse reflections. this one, like some of the others, had been stretched on what I later determined to be warped stretcher bars. so before I continue work on it and once it dries, I plan on re-stretching it on stretcher bars that are straight. that will likely be in 3-4 days. in the mean time, i’ve begun work on a new on, as yet untitled.

the image on the right was shot after painting over sparse reflections, and the canvas has been rotated so that what was previously the bottom of the composition is now on top.