sparse reflections: stage 2 of a re-work / March 9, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

1:36 PM: i took yesterdays revisions of sparse reflections a bit further today, staying true to the new palette that emerged while working on 10th month last week; more whites & pinks and a much lighter overall feel. taiga’s landscape scrolls and their chinese prototypes are somehow commingling with our landscape here in the baca grande along with, perhaps, fleeting memories of the andros . landscapes i painted for over a decade.

my current internal sense of a global landscape in distress pushes me towards an idealized dreamscape. so that these 3 figures sitting on the earth somewhere in the wilds of the japanese mountains conjures a feeling akin to what they may have felt on fleeing the harsh reality of an always changing oppressive and unpredictable government.

sparse reflections: stage 1 of a re-work today / March 8, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

3:52 PM: i began a re-work of sparse reflections yesterday and continued today. so far, ot’s lighter and has fewer things going on than the earlier version. below left: previous version; right: today.

10th month goes pink / March 7, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

noon: no time to say more right now, except that 10th month has gone pink.

12:36 PM: i’m writing this from the democratic caucus, which is being held today at the crestone charter school.

earlier today, i was in the studio printing out some forms mikela needed for the caucus. i glanced at the work i did yesterday on 10th month and PINK popped into my head and eyes. i had no intention of doing any work today, since we had to leave for the school at 12:15. i grabbed a large pink oil stick, and half an hour later, i had completed the new pink areas of color, as well as some blue and white, also accomplished with oil stick, in the sky. that pale yellow was too dominant and seemed boring whan i saw it first thing this morning.

*virginia landscape,* archile gorky ca. 1944

i’ve been wondering if maybe this sound of a flute series isn’t over and i should move on to other things. but no, i know in my gut there’s more to come, and much of that may have to do with my use of color in the 15 previous paintings. they are mostly painted on a tani-ish ground, in keeping with the overall look and feel of taiga’s scrolls. but, although he is my inspiration for the entire series, archile gorky keeps appearing to me.

i love his use of color. in virginia landscape, below, he manages to combine his favorite colors in such a way that the painting can breathe in spite of all that’s going on. the way he leaves the white canvas to show through in critical areas helps a lot in this respect.

gorky has developed a language of forms and colors which, combined with his distinctive marks evoke plant and animal life. the painting is infused with his armenian spirit. like taiga, his work is not bound in time. he adheres to miro’s definition of original; meaning that he returns to and renews aboriginal prototypes.

10th month: big wipe then re-work this morning / March 6, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL: *10th month* with the red reflections

2:36 PM: since i shot the 12:08 photo i did more work on 10th month, in particular the waterfalls in the center of the image as well as adding a few red ripples in the water beneath the lower rock. the origin of those red reflections is a photo i shot sometime last year at the creek site which is at the foot of the trail leading up to tashi gomang stupa.there are some many colored tibetan flags hanging over the creek, which cast some red reflections (in the image on the right)

below on the left is the earlier version and on the right, the painting as it looks at the end of my painting day, just before our hike up to the stupa.

12:08 PM: i was able to get an early start this morning. when i looked at 10th month, i was horrified at how harsh it seemed & got to work immediately with solvent & rags to wipe out yesterdays foolishness and begin working into it. still a ways to go, but at least it’s calmed down. below left: yesterday & right: today

10th month, stage 2 / March 5, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL of *10th month* at the end of my painting day

2:25 PM: we were in denver yesterday for my eye appointment, which went exceedingly well. it was a 12 hour day; we left the house at 7:15 am & returned at 7:15 pm. there were a few icy, windy spots in fairplay, as usual, but overall it was an easy drive, plus we got to stock up on food supplies.

i returned to the studio this morning with fresh eyes, and did some more work on 10th month,I which thus far is lighter & brighter than the rest in the series.

the lower portion with the rocks i added today is more painterly than previous versions.

sound of a flute series # 16: 10th month / March 3, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

12:41 PM: after stetching a new 78x26” linen canvas yesterday & removing a few pesky wrinkles this morning (by removing the staples & re-stretching that area of the canvas) i launched into 10th month, named after one of the series of scrolls reflecting all the months that taiga painted around 1750.

before launching in and as i was having my breakfast, i was reading a book i have on the work of miro. it definitely influenced my mood as i started working, especially the way he interpreted the word originality as meaning “going back to the origins.” so he consciously “ejected perfection & aestheticism in favor of the spectacular, brutal strength of a voluntary primitivism.” (a quote from the text of Louis Permanyer in his book miro; ninety years)

eil torrente in spurts / k’s self portrait progresses / February 29, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

6:44 PM: k, my 14 year old mentee, came to the studio this afternoon and continued work on his self protrait. i watched as he spent time mixing his colors with a touching amount of care and attention to detail. the result shows it.

*il torrente* at the end of my painting day today

1:53 PM: both yesterday & today I had time considerations that made it necessary for me to work in short bursts, which i found very interesting. it is what it is, and that’s it for today!

so if you remember where it was at yestarday, you’ll notice that today i did some work on the lower portion of the painting, making it clearer that we’re looking at an ice bound creek.the blue of the water was also added, further modifying the starkness of the image as it looked yesterday. BELOW are the comparative images of yesterdays & todays versions, with two details of todays version on row 2.

Il Torrente simplified / k's self portrait / February 28, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

4:21 PM: before leaving for santa fe, k came to the studio to continue his self portrait in oil on linen. i ocntinue to be amazed by his ever-ripening talent, and this portrait is now exception. sensitive; beautifully painted & conceived, it shows all the signs of a budding natural talent, a really fine painter in process. he gets it. he knows in his bones what painterly means. many artists i know who are much older than his 14 years still don’t get it. not to mention art historians.

this morning we had to leave about 11:30 for salida to pick up our car, which was driven by an acura employee, and exchange it with the loaner we’ve been driving for the past week. so i had no more than 15-20 minutes to make some changes to il torrente. below are images of the before (left) and after. an improvement, wouldn’t you say?

a scrapeover tones it down a notch / February 24, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

1:09 PM: this morning il torrente popped just a little too much, so i scraped over it 3-4 times with a palette knif & a ocnstruction tool with little teeth. i think that did it.

first of all, it subtly took some of the yellows, reds & blues and distributed them over and into the white. as well, it lowered the temperature and intensity of those colors so that the eye is now able to read the entire composition more smoothly. the blacks are a bit more towards grey. the effect is more akin to glancing at the frozen creek when we walk up to the stupa; it sings but in a mellow tone.

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left, and todays on the right. click back & forth 3-4 times to begin discerning the differences in various quadrents of the painting. notice, for example, the difference in the balcks of the rock on the lower right.

il torrente continued / February 23, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:03 PM: i did a bit more to il torrente just now, softening the yellows, adding some oranges & pinks and dark reflections beneath a few of the rocks, all of which you can see if you compare the image on the right with the one below.

BELOW details of il torrente at 2 pm

1:28 PM: i had intended to continue preparation of my email to the gallery in tokyo, but out of the corner of my eye i spotted il torrente leaning against the wall and felt inspired to do more work on it. i used the white surface with faint markings in italian pompeii red as a ground for creek & rocks. the white now suggests ice and a bit of blue above, sky. i had a terrific time making the watery marks in red, blue & yellow., which may need toning down now that i look at them.