watercolor 52 / May 12, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

my west facing studio door with my temporary fix

12:39 PM: so how come i didn’t do any painting yesterday? long story. briefly, we had two short but intense thunderstorms, with the wind blowing the rain and hail directly against my west facing, wide studio door. it was replaced following the flooding from a burst pipe a while ago, and the moulding surrounding the door hasn’t yet been installed. this left the framing surrounding the door exposed, with just some spotty caulking. so i had to find a way to cover that area where the moulding will go to prevent rain damage.the two strips of wood on either side of the door are old warped stretcher bars and the black bits above them are trash bags i cut up. it was tricky, but i got it done, leaving me in no mood to paint.

watercolor 52 13 x 20” — *watercolor 52* 13 x 20”

today i made a new one: watercolor 52. along the lines of 50 and 51, it’s spare, with a lot of negative spaces. the purplish color in what could be the sky is new. it lends another, previously unexplored note to the tune.

a comparative view / May 11, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

8:56 AM: it’s instructive to take a comparative look at my process of simplifying and abstracting. in 2018-19 i was working on a series of oils titled motion, which evolved into a post-motion series. BELOW LEFT is one of those later motion paintings: dp creek II, 42 x 66” oil, crayon & oil stick on linen, 2019, private collection, basalt, co. and next to it on the RIGHT is watercolor 50, painted yesterday.

in dp creek II, while the forms indicating water, rocks and branches are simplified and abstracted, they lean towards being descriptive. in watercolor 50, all three of those elments are many steps removed. they constitute a delicate balance of colors and forms in space and, paradoxically, more powerfully allow the quiet majesty of the creek to sing.

watercolors 50 and 51 / May 10, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

at work on watercolor 50 this morning — at work on *watercolor 50* this morning

5:37 PM: our wi-fi is finally back up. our provider had been receiving hundreds of calls form around the san luis valley from frusytrated customers. they had been doing repairs and upgrades this weekend and it got messed up.

watercolor 51 emerged. as often happens, at the end of my painting day, when i was preparing to return to the house so we could take our trail walk. the blue watery bit came at the very end, when i thought it was complete, even with that big white space. actually, this one was based upon a photo i shot a few months ago, when the creek was still full of ice. so that white space was a big patch of it.

we ended up not taking our walk; both of us are having intestinal upset. so i just made some quinoa with lemon & feta, & that’s our dinner. fortunately, i didn’t start feeling wierd until i had completed the second watercolor.

3:47pm: i’m composing this on my phone. our internet has been down all day so this is my only option. i’ll be brief: today was a breakthrough of sorts. you’ll see from these 2 images that my focus on simplification is ongoing.

a lighter touch / watercolors 48 and 49 / May 9, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 49 13 x 20” — *watercolor 49* 13 x 20”

3:47 PM: along the same lines, watercolor 49 contains a minimum of descriptive elements and harkens back to the aesthetic of 18th c. master calligrapher/painter taiga and his buddies. painting stillness is what it’s about, these water-worn, subtly colored rocks are martyrs to many forms of animal and plant life. we may well be the most perplexing to them. are we searching for food? thirsty for water? looking for a place to lay our heads? or are we just passing through?

watercolor 48 13 x 20” — *watercolor 48* 13 x 20”

12:33 PM: today it struck me that the magic of the creek and the rocks might be best expressed with a lighter touch. watercolor 48 is the first expression of this.

my fan brushes were used exclusively for this one, which allowed for greater freedom and less specificity, as well as providing a natural solution for the marks indicating reflections in water.

exhaustion dictates simple solutions / May 8, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 47, 5.75 x 15.5” — *watercolor 47,* 5.75 x 15.5”

1 PM: today i’m pretty out of it. ongoing allergy symptoms resulted in little or no sleep last night. the predictions are that the pollen count will drop starting monday. it was challenging to start a new watercolor. i did, and then cropped out the parts that didn’t work, resulting in this rather appealing little guy: 5.75 x 15.5” which jumps right off the wall when hung with the rest.

creek drawing, ink & colored pencil, 8.5 x 11”

VERMEER: the lacemaker 1669 9x8 inches oil on panel — VERMEER: *the lacemaker* 1669 9x8 inches oil on panel

then, on an impulse, i grabbed an 8.5 x 11” drawing book and bamboo drawing pen & ink, and made this one, to which i added bits in colored pencil. quick. 5 minutes. also stands out when it’s next to the other watercolors. so what does this tell you? yes, it’s in part a result of my exhaustion and resulting inability to focus for long, but it’s also an indication of just how comfortable and in my element i am when working on a small scale.

one of my earliest influences as a teen visiting the met in nyc, was vermeer. he certainly knew how to get a lot out of a small surface. i related strongly, not only to his revelation of everyday life in the netherlands, but more importantly to his use of space, as in this 9 x 8” painting.

boots / watercolor 46 / dark chocolate / May 7, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

*watercolor 46* with a few final touches added at the very end of the day

3:35 PM: and the obligatory final marks on watercolor 46

2:48 PM: aside from how tasty it is, dark chocolate is very beneficial to your health, containing antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. just google it & you’ll see for yourself. so i eat some every day. after much testing, this is the brand i find most delicious. it’s organic, 80% cacao & fair trade, which is extremely important if you care about the farmers who produce it.i get it online by the 12 bar case from equal exchange at a price point lower than what you find in most stores.

2:34 PM: progressing quite a bit further than yesterdays light watercolor touches, this is one of those bolder, but not overly crowded statements …i’ll probably let it be, but it’s too late in the afternoon to start work on 47, which will be, as yesterday, inspired by the same photo i used for this one, but in a larger format.

1:38 PM: i started work on watercolor 46. as i did yesterday, i tried tricking myself into doing something simpler and out-of-mind. it’s kinda working, between trips to my little kitchen to check on my oatmeal, which has become a big production and includes: blueberries, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, maple syrup, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds (NOT grown in china) dried cherries & figs and fresh tangerines. this works as good as anything else to keep my mind from getting to engaged in this watercolor, as well as being delicious & nutritious! back to my watercolor…i just noticed by the way that i may be unconsciously replicating those 4 pair of boots in this watercolor!

12:47 PM: i spent the morning dealing with severe allergies, which i’ll have to put up with till the allergy season ends, whenever that is, finding a mothers day bouquet for our friend dan’s son to give his mom, dan’s ex, who lives in crestone, and BOOTS! in between all that, i was choosing a trail photo to use for todays watercolor(s).

on the upper right are my old keen boots, which are great for my wide, flat feet with mortons neuroma in one. but they gave out after 5 years or so. since we can’t go to rei, where i usually shop for hiking boots, i ordered 3 pair online & will keep whichever pair work best. so far, the scarpa brand (on top with the blue trim) seem to be winning as i walk around the studio. the others are made in china, whereas these are made in italy (that gets my attention right away) and get the highest ratings.

i’ll decide by monday & return the ones that don’t work. we hike trails that are moderately rough and dangerous, with lots of big rocks. i’ve already taken one bad fall last year & can’t afford another, so the quality of my boots is critical. mikela is using a pair i used to wear until my feet inexplicably grew a size larger. so that’s enough about that! now i’m going to get to work & see what happens. i’ll post what i’m doing soon…

watercolor 44 / 45 / May 6, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:33 PM: i went ahead and painted watercolor 45. it’s essentially the same composition, drawn from the same photo i shot on our april 29 trail walk up cottonwood creek. it includes a bit more information than the smaller one i made earlier, while maintaining the same spirit of spareness . they both differ from the previous 44 watercolors in that spareness and consequent absence of detail. from a distance; right now i’m gazing at them from about 18 feet, or 6 meters, they carry more than the previous, more detailed ones, with the exception of a few more recent ones. and those exceptions are due to the fact that i was slowly finding my way, rediscovering what i once knew from years of painting in watercolor, mostly plein air, where you can’t afford the time to get caught up in details.

1:36 PM: i’m at work on watercolor 45. while taking a toast with feta break i made this little study of a matisse drawing in colored pencil on tan paper, BELOW LEFT

12:35 PM: so i deactivated my fb account because i got tired of the likes, etc. but now every morning i go to my squarespace analytics page to check how many visitors i had the previous day. same thing really, except for the fact that i’m far more interested in how many people visit my site and read this blog. i’m sure there’s a way to increase viewership, but i can’t spend the time figuring that out. being seen is a big deal for most of us, especially in times like these. but i’m honestly very interested in having people, especially people who know and love the arts, see what i’m up to, and whenvever possible, let me know their thoughts. after all, how many artists do you know who are this transparent and open about their process of creating art, as well as sometimes showing you what they made for breakfast? so if you’re a regular visitor to my blog, let a few friends know. direct them to my site. who knows, it could catch on! and by the way, thanks for taking the time to have a look every day. i deeply appreciate it.

that said, after handling a few logistics this morning, i launched into the drawing for watercolor 44. under that 13 x 20” piece of watercolor paper i had placed a smaller one, 10 x 13”

study of a *matisse* drawing i made during a snack break

i like to trick myself into doing something that circumvents my scheming mind, so once i was finished with the drawing, i shifted to the smaller paper and launched straight into making a watercolor without doing a drawing in pencil. this is the result, which is more in alignment with what you might call pure watercolor. no picky details. no while gouache color to highlight the bubbles & waves in the water. just pure spontaneous watercolor. refreshing, no?

now i’ll move on to the larger format & see what happens. i’ll post as soon as it’s available.

watercolor 43 / May 5, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

*watercolor 43* completed at the very end of the day

6:24 PM: but before i go…thid often happens; just as i’m ready to leave the studio & i have everything packed up, i look over at whatever i’ve been working on and my gut says no, you’re not done…you’ve got to do more on the foreground and more on the flowing water. so i did, and that really brought it home. here’s how it looked following those final marks. if you compare the foreground with the image i posted at 2:33, BELOW, you’ll see what i’m talking about.

*watercolor 43* end of my painting day today

2:33 PM: following a bad allergy night and morning, thanks to a spoonful of manuka 20+ honey, flonase and lillian’s allergy re-leaf formula, i was able to get to work on watercolor 43. over the past few days, i’ve been working on a smaller 10x11” format, but today i switched back to the dimensions of most of the watercolors in this series: 13 x 20”

having learned from experience, i didn’t rush it. started out with very light, watery marks and progressed to some darker ones. grey and blue

dominate, with some accents of orange and green. 43 is based upon a photo i shot on our april 29 trail walk. it was a brilliant, clear day with that sharp, clear light we get here in the valley.

we’re going out again in an hour, on a windy afternoon with cooler temperatures than the abnormally hot days we’ve been having. hot, by the way means high 70’s, or about 12-15 degrees farenheit above normanl for this time of year.

making 2 new watercolors / May 4, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

6:15 PM: just back from our weekly jour fixe date on our friend’s deck. windy as hell, but we love their company! we told stories, got to know and love each other more deeply and had some of the tastiest oragnge cake you could imagine,

when i brought the 2 watercolors back to the house, mikela actually liked watercolor 42, the one i had considered a failure, so i’m posting it for you to see and evaluate. it’s certainly unlike any of the previous ones in this series, as it has a figure, which is me. it’s starting to grow on me, so i’ll see how i feel about it in the morning.

2:52 PM: i made 2 experiments today, one of which didn’t work. this one, watercolor 41, is kind of OK, but not what i was after. so i’m going to continue along this avenue of breaking up a single image of teh creek and incorporating other views, creating one unified composition. i think yesterdays watercolor 40, BELOW, was more successful in this new direction i’m attempting. if you take a look at my 2020 watercolors page (hit the dropdown menu to get there) you will notice a progression, albeit spasmotic, from a more to less literal interpretation of the creek photos i’m referring to when i make the watercolors. generally, the more recent ones are further towards the top of the page.

“ details harm the purity of the lines and harm the emotional intensity; we reject them.”

matisse

making the drawings for todays watercolors, one of which was tossed

12:21 PM: today will be a rather short one, as we have our jour fixe rendezvous, for snacks, a bit of wine & good conversation on our friends deck. i’m making 2 drawings for watercolors that will be painted in tandem. more as work progresses, a bit later…..

new placement of watercolors / starting watercolor 40 / May 3, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

4:06 PM: i tuckered myself out moving all those watercolors around and then starting a new one so late in the day. once i got it back to the house, we both agreed that watercolor 40 is complete.

it’s a blessing that i painted it at the end of the day, at a point where i didn’t have time to get into the weeds and start overworking it.

so what you see here on the right is it. one thing that’s different is something i learned from matisse: in a painting of his i was studying as i drank my coffee, i noticed he had used different images in 2 quadrants of his painting, which he divided off in two box like areas, upper right & lower left. yet he had manged to make the entire composition read as one unified painting. it dawned on me that, to facilitate my process of departing from a literal interpretation of one of my trail photos, what if i used two or three or more creek photos, picked elements that i find exciting and insert them around the picture plane, making the overall composition my priority rather than trying to stay somewhat true to the photo. so just with the 10 or so photos from recent trail walks, there are a multitude of compositional and coloristic possibilities. it’s really like a new world opening up, and it was right in front of me the whole time!

watercolors on my east wall as it now looks

2:40 PM: today was unusual. i removed all the watercolors on my east studio wall, took them off the foam core backing and tacked them directly to the wall. at first, they were too crowded, so i took some and placed them on the previously empty south wall, which is a bit harder to get to, as it’s blocked by a hard to move table. the next step will be to paint that east wall with a fresh coat of white, which will hide all the paint stains & make it far easier to look at the watercolors.

the immediate result is that each of them is far easier to see and appreciate, and it’s easier for me to evaluate what i’ve done thus far. there’s been a steady progression, with some bumps in the road and some that just don’t make it. that’s to be expected. what excites me is that i feel i’ve reached a point where it’s possible to build on the important discoveries while defining where it is i tend to take a wrong turn.

as a direct result, watercolor 40, which i started rather late in the day, has a distinctly different feel.