more fine tuning of sparse reflections /  by Philip Tarlow

12:50 PM: this morning , although i had considered this painting finally resolved, i was moved to do more. yesterday as we hiked up to the stupa, i had an unusual experience. i felt i was in this painting, that it was all around me and at the same time i was in it. this reminded us both strongly of the aboriginal cave paintings we saw in the outback of australia. for them, these were not paintings of a place; they were the place.

so this one seems to stand apart from the others in the series. today i refined the waterfalls in the center of the image, as well as refining and tweaking the lines representing the mountains and the trees growing on the contours representing the peaks of each successive rise. i don’t think i’ll do any more today.

sparse reflections: stepping back, going forward /  by Philip Tarlow

2:34 PM: so i went back into sparse reflections and made additional changes following my 11:42 am post. i was able to bring it closer to the state it was in before yesterdays intervention. i’m not yet sure, but i may have actually improved it. i like the rock formation on the bottom better, especially due to the treatment of the water beneath both rocks, and i think how i handled the waterfall in the center is more compelling and more magical. it now has an otherworldliness i like a lot. lets see how i feel about it tomorrow morning.

11:42 AM: i realized yesterday after leaving the studio that it was a mistake to mess with sparse reflections. influenced by my recents experiments whiting over illusory city and il torrente, i was bothered by what seemed to me to be the business of sparse reflections. actually, it was perfection! so now today i’m trying to execute the virtually impossible task of getting this painting back to where it was. my highest thought is that i can actually make it better, but it ain’t there yet! the beiges need more yellow, need to be a bit brighter.

BELOW: the version i messed with on the left and on the right, where it’s at right now, following a few hours of work this morning.

revisions to sparse reflections /  by Philip Tarlow

3:50 PM: just before cleaning up to leave for the house, i made some further changes to sparse reflections. most immediately noticeable are: the blue surrounding the mountain, the addition of more buff white and the renewed black marks defining the rocks at the bottom.

BELOW: left is the earlier version and on the right, how it looked 10 minutes ago

at work on sparse reflections about 1pm

2:17 pm: the work i did recently on illusory city and il torrente made sparse reflections seem harsh. so i went over it with white oil pastel, then scraped, then went in with grey oil pastel around the contours of some of the mountains.

at first glance, it seems easier for my eye to take in this long, narrow composition without getting stuck on the details. the buff white i put in the sky portion of the painting covers the white with dashes of blue sky that was there previously. this helps unify the composition. you can compare the two by clicking back & forth on the two images below. i may do more to accentuate the rocks below. in the earlier version they help anchor the image, and have gotten a little lost now.

ILLUSORY CITY and il torrente REVISIONS/todays bedside drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

il torrente at the end of my painting day

3:59 PM: at the very end of the day i made revisions to il torrente along similar lines to what i did earlier in the day with illusory city.

now i have an almost irresistable urge to white over the entire sound of a flute series, which would be radical.lets see how i’m feeling in the morning. the entire sound of a flute series seems to me too obvious, but could contain the bones of more suggestive, less specific works.

illusory city, 42x48” at 1 pm today

1:31 PM: i had whited over illusory city with oil stick, which allowed portions of the painting as it was to peek through. i liked what happened, especially the bit in the upper right corner. so i painted over that with red & a bit of green, using objects in my studio as a guide to the shapes you see.

so is philip wacko, or what? hopping from one style of painting to another like a jack rabbit?

at work today at noon

the marks you see on the surface you see have some magic. i can’t wait to work on il torrente which, you may recall, is a sister to illusory city, both of which were inspired by 11th century chinese paintings.

BELOW: the evolution of illusory city:

left: the painting at 1 pm today, middle: at noon, and right: on december 25th.

12:22 PM: this morning while preparing to meditate, i made my second bedside drawing; this one in the bathroom magnifying mirror. the strip of the lower portion of a painting you see above the drawing below left is a 16x16” ano kato series painting hanging next to our bed.

bedside drawing series /  by Philip Tarlow

a 2014 plein air creek painting and a recent collage just hung (temporarily) in my studio bathroom.

11:44 am: i found a small drawing book purchased in paris at museé d’orsay last year. it was in one of my many bags.

it occurred to me this morning that i’m missing out on an opportunity. i could have this little drawing book next to our bed, and while i’m engaged in my morning or evening rituals of shoulder exercises & toiletries, i could be making drawings in this little guy, which will now be used exclusively for that purpose. they will likely be in pencil, using the zippered little leather container of pencils i take with us on our travels, when i make my h&h and bonfire coffee shop drawings.

here’s the first one:

the drawings will likely be inspired by stuff in the bedroom, of which there is no lack!

new drawings made thus far in edwards and carbondale /  by Philip Tarlow

1:33 pm: while waiting for mikela to complete her actionlab360 meetings with teachers, i’m making drawings at bonfire coffee in carbondale. yesterday i was doing the same at h&h in edwards. here are the drawings i’ve done thus far. still at work here at bonfire till mikela comes to pick me up in about an hour.

a new collage today and a review of the past few days /  by Philip Tarlow

2/10/20 collage, 11 1/4 x 8 3/4”/28x22 cm.

12:32 PM: i made a new collage this morning, which may signal a shift to larger, simpler forms. or not.

yesterday afternoon we attended a political event, of which mikela was the main organizer. it was well attended, and several candidates for county commissioner in saguache county spoke, as well as a virtual appearance by us senate candidate andrew romanoff. i made brownies, which were immediately gobbled up, and there were other goodies, including delicious fresh carrots from the farm of one of the candidates. questions were asked and answered, and i think the goal was achieved: attendees left with greater knowledge of the issues, how each candidate thinks and feels about them and what actions they plan on taking if elected.

BELOW starting at the top left: detail of a collage i made a few days ago showing the contrast to what i did today; a late afternoon sky announcing a few days of predicted snowy weather, starting this afternoon; a framed collage from 2012 which shares some of the aesthetics of what i did today; a view looking west in our master bedroom with mostly greek related paintings, a 2014 collage on canvas and the edge of an ano kato series painting; and finally, a shot of the event yesterday afternoon, which was held in the gym of our local crestone charter school.

a new collage today and a painting by 14 year old m /  by Philip Tarlow

2:17 PM: my day began with 3 drawings of stacked cubes which mikela needed for one of our actionlab360 presentations.

2/7/20 collage, 20 1/2 x 8 1/2 “

i was about to clear my work table so i could stretch the canvas to bring to my mentee in carbondale for her hospital commission, when i glanced at all the collage materials on the table and decided to make a new one. when i looked at the others i have here in the studio, they all seemed somewhat congested, so i wanted to keep it simple. i think i was able to do that, but i need to bring it over to the house and live with it for a day or two to determine whether it’s resolved.

on our last trip to edwards we met with one of the women who proposed a theme for the social space at the next tedX VAIL. when there’s a break in the talks, she will have a booth, which the attendees can approach to learn what it is she’s offering, which will be an experience they can transmit to other attendees. i don’t want to spoil the experience, so i won’t say any more.

when she learned that i’m an artist, she enthusiastically told me that her 14 year oldson is an aspiring artist, and showed me some of his work on her phone. i offered to post it on my site. here are her comments, along with her son’s,comments on his painting:

What M said about this picture:"Things may seem one way and when you shine a different light on them they bloom differently."And he did this literally too, he used LED lights that change color and the picture looks different when he switches the colors.

“ Things may seem one way and when you shine a different light on them they bloom differently.”

new headers for "sound of a Flute" and "New Collages" pages /  by Philip Tarlow

today was a short day; i was resting my shoulder after overdoing it yesterday and decided not to do any more work on the 2 paintings i was working on revising yesterday.

i also made some calls and sent some emails regarding the sound of a flute exhibition i’m working on putting together in japan. the people i was reaching out to will likely be visiting those 2 pages on my site soon. so i decided to create new headers for those pages. i think they’re a big improvement; see for yourselves:

tomorrow i may start a new collage, which will be the same size as the others on the new collages page. i think it’s smart for me to take it easy on the big sweeping brush movements and intense palette knife scraping i’ve been doing over the past week.

work on illusory city and il torrente continues; yellow dominates /  by Philip Tarlow

todays palette

il torrente at the end of my painting day today

3:23 PM: I continued work on illusory city and il torrente today. having run out of titanium white; an unusual occurrence, I squeezed he very last bit from a couple of tubes and mixed it with indian yellow and brilliant yellow pale, which I then proceeded to layer over what I had done yesterday. I then worked into them, and the result is, I think, rather hauntingly beautiful.

illusory city at the end of my painting day

they each, in their own way, sing a tune of mountains, plant life and distant memories of adventures forgotten. my large palette knife has always been as important to me as my fan brushes. it allows broad dance-like sweeps into wet oil paint in a way no other tool could. this particular palette knife is very dear to me, and has been since I purchased it years ago on one of our trips to my gallery there. a relatively new addition to this mix ar emu oil sticks. i’ve been using them for a couple of years at least. there are fat one and skinny ones, and they all form a skin when not used for a few days, needs to be peeled off with a mat knife. I love that I can draw with oil paint in a way no brush can accomplish. all these tools make it possible for me to dream up new avenues.