April 16, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

3:35 PM: i was fully intending to start watercolor 22 when i looked again at yesterdays 21 and i just didn’t feel complete. the white spaces, which i normally love, were bugging me. so i picked up where i left off, fully aware that i might well regret it. so far, i don’t. is there a lot going on compared with where i left it yesterday? most certainly! is that detracting in any way from the painting as a whole? i think not! not only that, but i may even do a bit more tomorrow!

BELOW: yesterdays version next to todays:

8:05 AM: here’s a detail of yesterdays watercolor 21 as it looked this morning in our house. in a few hours, i’ll be in my studio and begin work on watercolor 22. what will it look like? and will there be a 23,24,25, etc? or will i move on to a new series? watercolor; oil; gouache….what will the medium be?

it’s likely i’ll be venturing out to paint plein air in a few weeks, despite the face that snow is predicted for tonight. what will that new work look like, and how will it influence the work i’ll be doing in my studio? more later.

starting watercolor 21 / photos from yesterdays trail walk / / April 15, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

3:50 PM: i completed watercolor 21 about an hour ago. i like the way the space is broken up, and this one has definitely not been pushed too far.

a language has been emerging over the period of time i’ve been making these watercolors. it’s a result of our frequent walks and our almost daily observation of the creek and all the rocks and branches we encounter along the trail. when the time comes, likely within a few weeks, to go back out and paint plein air, i’m anxious to see what effect all this has had and how it shows up when i’m sitting out there on my 3 legged stool with my little portable table.

BELOW: on the left, at work on the watercolor; right: an early stage

8:06 AM: another magical walk yesterday; i shot some photos that may be useful for future paintings & surveyed the territory for potential future plein air painting locations. i think it will be safe to go out on some of those trips with my mentee k., if his dad is willing to drive him & pick him up. i’ll post stages of the new watercolor later today, once i get to work.

here are a few of yesterdays shots

starting watercolor 20 / watercolor 19 in the house: it works! / / April 14, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

3:20 PM: stages of watercolor 20 and how making brownies became part of the process:

*watercolor 20* at the end of my painting day

BELOW: the 6 stages of watercolor 20

i spent most of the day working on the new watercolor 20. but when i hit a patch where i couldn’t feel where to go next, i decided to make some brownies, which turned out to be the perfect transitional activity. it took my mind off the question of where to go next and allowed me to cast those all important glances at the new watercolor to get some clues about what if anything needed to happen next.

8:06 am: i’ll be going to my studio in a couple of hours and post when i start the new watercolor 20. in the mean time, here is watercolor 19 in our entryway with the morning sun. it’s much more interesting somehow seeing it in the house, which happens a lot. i now consider it resolved.

when i have my studio breakfast, i’ll be reading more about vuillard in the handsome large hard cover 2004 catalogue from his traveling retrospective. i’m feeling more and more kinship with his aesthetic and his approach to mark making, illustrated in the two paintings BELOW: (details on the right)

observations of watercolor 18 / starting watercolor 19 / last saturdays trail walk photo /11/11/17 lookback / April 13, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

4:26 PM: here’s a look back to november 11, 2017, when i was making this gouache on paper of a woman typing on a recent plane flight we had taken. plane flights now seem like ancient history!

3:23 PM: once again, it’s going to take 24 hours to properly evaluate what happened today with watercolor 19. it has some brilliant passages, if i do say so myself, but i’m not yet sure it hangs together as a composition.my goal was for this one to have a lighter touch, like some of the earlier ones. freshness and playfulness without sacrificing depth and complexity. my favorites so far in this series have pregnant areas of negative space with totally work in the composition, acting like an in-breath, allowing you the viewer to take that all important exhale, while at the same time filling in the “blanks” yourself.

BELOW: the stages thus far

12:33 PM: i wasn’t sure yesterday about watercolor 18, but after evaluating it over at the house, i decided i like it, and it’s now up with the rest on my studio east wall. our trail walk this past saturday was magical, as usual. i didn’t shoot any photos of the creek, rather turning my attention to details we might have missed had it not been for the covid 19 situation, which is giving us more relaxed time to observe everything.

as a result, i stopped and photographed this tree bark with the shadows it cast. it says a lot about the aesthetic currently in my consciousness. nature makes no mistakes, and offers an abundance of lessons if we can receive them.

in keeping with what has become a daily practice, i made a rapid self portrait sketch this morning, which i fine comical. but hey, i’m a comical guy!

watercolor 18 / April 12, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

*watercolor 18* at the end of my painting day

4:24 PM: this is the current state of watercolor 18.

i guess i didn’t listen to the message this one gave me at 2:01 PM! when will i ever learn? i prefer stage 2, below.

2:01 PM: it’s a very windy day, and we had a little snow this morning, so our afternoon trail walk is still up in the air. i started work on watercolor 18 this morning, and work continues as i post this. it’s at a delicate stage, is asking politely to remain simple.

BELOW are the first 2 stages of this one:

starting watercolor 17 today / / April 11, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:43 PM: this is where watercolor 17 was at the end of my work day; time for our trail walk! i’ll evuate this afternoon after i take it back to the house & look at it there.

12:37 PM: i’ve started work on watercolor 17. here’s photos of the 1st 2 stages; it’s a vertical this time; switching from horizontal format to vertical re-arranges my brain in a very productive way. specifics of what we observed on our walk yesterday jump into focus more easily, and abstracting/simplifying the landscape seems natural.

imagine using a lever to move/lift a heavy object which suddenly and without notice upends itself, twists front to back and sheds half its weight. how do you feel?

i’ve got the title for the book i keep threatening to write: hubub in the kitchen. the sub-title is still brewing.

more later…

8:23 AM: i’ll be starting a new watercolor, watercolor 17 latertoday. more pics when i get to my studio (which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is just 500 feet from our house)

yesterday we took our trail walk. some of the photos i’ve shot on those walks over the past week have provided the material for the watercolors i’m making. it all started when i had to suspend work on larger oils due to tendonitis in my right shoulder. that has proven to be a blessing in disguise, since the series of watercolors i’m now engaged in making emerged directly from that injury, which prompted me to work on smaller pieces, much less stressful to my shoulder.

BELOW: photos from yesterdays walk:

4/10/20 self portrait sketch / watercolor 16/ stormy skies / April 10, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:43 PM: this morning i made another in the series of self portrait sketches i’ve been sending to philip & manio in athens.'

then i continued the series of creek inspired watercolors: number 16. i was able to restrain myself from doing too much, so this is certainly the one least focused on subject and most on pattern and space. the rocks and water, bathed in afternoon sunlight, contain a rich variety of patterns, both in the creek water and on the lichen studded rocks. the need to describe is deeply rooted; a result of a big misunderstanding as to the nature of art and painting. lately, vuillard is helping me to dispense with this illusion and simply enjoy the endless opportunities for making marks and exploring color divorced from description. in that way, i come closer and closer to the essence of my signature; my identity as a calligrapher. not unlike taiga, vuillard is revealing to me what happens when we really let go of that old, stubborn belief that painting is akin to photography, and involves a slavish need to describe.

BELOW: 4 stages of watercolor 16.

BELOW: yesterday and today, our skies of grown menacing as a system moves in that is forecast to give us possible rain, snow and high winds over the next 4-5 day, especially sunday and monday.

this mornings self portrait / yesterdays watercolor 14 in entryway / April 9, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

5:56 PM: watercolor 15 has passed the test. when i brought it to the house a few hours ago, we both observed that it held up to our scrutiny, carries very well, and is a great addition to the series. i hadn’t had a chance to adjust most of the trail walk photos i shot yesterday, which i just did. there’s a wealth of material i can’t wait to get my brush moving on. there was such a beautiful ight yesterday afternoon.

3:28 PM: i completed watercolor 15 moments ago.i’m not yet sure if i overworked it. i had more time than usual, since we decided not to take our walk this afternoon. as usual, i’ll know better once i see it i the house later this afternoon.

that green in the middle is where i think i may have spent too much time. but i like what happened in the section on the left a lot. it reads well form a distance, but i do see a hole where that rock is, in the mid-lower left just above the log. so i may so a slight intervention there. what i like about this one when i compare it with the other 9 on the wall, is the richness; it seems like less of a sketch and more of a full on painting. BELOW are the 3 stages of development it went through today:

11:25 AM: the studio just now, as i prepare to start watercolor 15 in about 30 min. i kind of liked it when i shot the photo below of me working on it earlier in the day.

8:19 AM: this morning first thing i made a new self portrait, this one in ink, which i sent to manio & philip in athens. yesterday afternoon i brought watercolor 14 over to the house for evaluation. it passed with flying colors. here she is in our entryway. she’ll return to the studio in a few hours, where she’ll join her brothers & sisters on my east wall. the racket you see in the foreground is called the executioner, and is a very effective way of dealing with flies & mosquitoes. press the little button, swipe at one of them, and zap, it’s over!

it’s very likely that later this morning i’ll start watercolor 15, probably based on photos i shot on our trail walk yesterday afternoon.

i’ll post that process as it evolves. so you’ll witness the artistic activity of a painter born in brooklyn, transformed in greece and ripened in crestone.

who knows, maybe i’ll take the first steps in writing the book i’ve been dreaming.

watercolor 14 / a gorgeous rock / April 8, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

7:27 PM: on our trail walk this afternoon i shot 67 photos, many of which contain possible images for future watercolors and/or oils. this phot is not a candidate, but i just had to post it this evening because it’s such an extraordinary rock. tomorrow i’ll post more. i’ve disabled my fb account for a number of reasons that i won’t go into now. the point is, i’m now able to devote my full attention to this blog, which i care a lot more about, especially since i’ve decided to start a book, using some of the material in this blog, dating back years.

2:23 PM: yesterdays creek walk was especially spectacular….can you say that? i shot some photos, one of which i based todays watercolor on. allowed me to have a deeper appreciation and understanding of matisse. and i feel like this is just the beginning of something new, which was initiated by the tendonitis in my shoulder.

BELOW are the 3 stages of watercolor 14, with a shot of me painting an early stage

TODAYS WATERCOLOR SELF PORTRAIT / STARTING WATERCOLOR 13 / April 7, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:54 PM: watercolor 13 was completed about half an hour ago, after going through the stages you see BELOW. left to right-stages 1-2-3

i have some ambivalence as to whether or not it was wise to fill in the tree trunk in stage 3; what do you think?

12:14 PM: i made another watercolor self portrait using the brush gifted me by lea. and i’m starting work on watercolor 13, declaring yesterday’s watercolor 12 resolved.

i’ll check in later in the afternoon, once i’ve taken watercolor 13 further.