watercolor 58-59 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 59 13 x 20”

2:03 PM: so watercolor 59 was inspired by the same view of the creek as the previous one, below. i knew before coming to the studio this morning that a much lighter touch was awaiting. both are, i’d say, inspired and influenced by looking at taiga this morning, perhaps more closely and with greater discernment than ever before. perhaps also, my poet friend in nyc sent a new poem, which takes her previous work to new levels, inspiring and encouraging me to follow suit!

1:04 PM: started a new one: watercolor 59, then went back & did a bit more on 58

watercolor 58

12:17 PM: just completed this watercolor. as predicted, a complete switch from yesterdays overworked one.

i don’t have much to say about it, except that i’ve been looking at taiga this morning…

11:26 am: at work right now on watercolor 57

WATERCOLOR 56 /  by Philip Tarlow

8:25 AM: yesterday was a strange day. in a nutshell, i had to wait, due to unavoidable logistics, until way to late to begin work on this one. it was ok but not stellar (lower left), and towards the end of the afternoon, when i was rushed to get back in time for our afternoon trail walk, i piled onto it mindlessly, and the result, which will not be shown to the public, is on the lower right.

trusting today i’ll get my groove back…

watercolor 55 / brownies /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 55

a tray of brownies with walnuts i made this morning

3:18 PM: busy morning baking brownies and making oatmeal with many healthy ingredients. and then, when the moment was right, or ripe, i launched into watercolor 55. riffing along the lines of the direction i’ve been moving recently, i had a hankering for grey. but it was only the kind of grey i could get by using gouache colors. since there’s no one looking over my shoulder to say “hey, you can’t use gouache colors in a watercolor!” i squeezed some black & white out on my palette. it was certainly an interesting, even rich addition to the palette i had been using in the previous 54 watercolors! i’ll evaluate later over at the house.

just learned, by the way, that my carbondale show, which had been postponed due to covid19, is now back on for august. i’m thinking i’ll show a selection of the watercolors plus 2-3 of the sound of a flute series. whether or not i’ll be able at that point to present an interactive talk is still a question.

a 2017 gorky study / hiking in the '80's / watercolor 54 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 54

1:23 PM: earlier (see 11:50 am post below) i commented on re-discovering a 2017 study i made of a gorky painting. looking at it opened the door to a new slant on the creation of watercolors 53 & 54. i have a dear friend in nyc who is a superb poet and published novelist. her poetic process over the years has been one of gradual refinement and distillation to the point where now, when she sends me one of her new and as yet unpublished poems, i literally swoon. i would like to think that we are traversing parallel paths.

looking at my gorky study earlier today reminded me of what exactly enchants me about his work, and reminded me of my own process of refinement and distillation over the years. it allowed me to inject a fresh element into my latest watercolor: watercolor 54. it’s closer in spirit to some of the discoveries i made while making the gorky study, below. what’s interesting about what gorky did, now that i look at it more critically, are his blacks. what would that painting be without them? i haven’t used pure black at all in this series of watercolors. there is no black at the creek. so what? 2:48PM: tried it & it doesn’t work! not my aesthetic.

9.5x13” gouache on paper 2017 study of gorky painting

hiking in northern california, about 1985

hiking in northern california, about 1985

11:50 AM: this is a 2017 study i made of an archile gorky painting. i learned a lot. the language he developed resonates with me, as do his compositional and coloristic solutions. his sense of whimsy belies his deeply disturbed mental and psychological state, which ended with his suicide.

gorky was very successful in transporting and reinterpreting his early years in armenia to his vibrant years in nyc and integrating it all into his friendships with dekooning and others in the ny school of painting. he created a stellar body of work.

on the left is a photo shot in 1985, when mikela and i were backpacking in the northern california mountains not long after we met. we made regular hiking and camping trips to that same area for a number of years, and always had a terrific time. we would take day hikes, swim in the lakes and cook delicious meals over the fire.

i’m about to get started on a new watercolor, and will update later in the afternoon.

watercolor 52 /  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”

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 /  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 /  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 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 49 13 x 20”

DETAIL

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”

DETAIL

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 /  by Philip Tarlow

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

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 /  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.

watercolor 46, stage 2

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.

watercolor 46 at 1:30pm

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…