watercolors 65 and 66 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 65 10 x 13”

2:09 PM: two new ones today: watercolor 65 and 66. here’s an appropriate quote from artist shara hughs:

watercolor 66 10 x 13”"

“texture, pattern and perspective is something i like to use to describe a space in ways that maybe don’t always make sense.”

increasingly, the landscape, or, to be exact, the creek-scape, is evolving into exactly that: texture and pattern, generally with a perspective from above looking down. the rocks, with their endless patterns of lichen and mossy growth; the creek water which, at this time of year spills down with increasing force as the remaining winter snows on the peaks melt; last fall’s remaining leaves, and the branches being tossed and dragged with the current.

with matisse and taiga as my two main guides, i increasingly allow the painterly marks to dictate where they want to travel next, and use the creek events to serve as architectural motifs. play is key in this process, along with a known and purposefully forgotten panorama of signposts in the history of art.

watercolor 64/ birchwoods zoom /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 64 10x13”

1:26 PM: today i started out with a smaller watercolor: 10 x 13”. there are a few others this size in the series, and i was just in the mood for something smaller today, although i do have a larger, 13 x 20” one ready to go.

in this one i explore the rock patterns more deliberately, and have found a combination of blues and greens, together with that delicios orange, that i like a lot. i have another few hours to work before we take our afternoon trail hike, so let’s see if i start work on the larger surface…

5:54 PM: so i ended up staying with watercolor 64. i was too aware of our imminent zoom call with 9 ex birchwoods campers. read about birchwoods on my story page: https://www.philiptarlow.com/chatty-bio

we had a truly great call. it was more in present time than you might imagine for a group of guys & girls recalling people & events from 70 plus years ago. and that’s because our 2 month annual experience at birchwoods, in huntington, massachusetts in the berkshire hills, is a timeless experience, transcending the minutae of ordinary experiences. am i glorifying, exaggerating? ask my buddies. i think not. what we all experienced is as fresh and vibrant as if it happened yesterday. birchwoods founder/director otto rosaahn was part of the ethical culture movement, and that was a big part of it. here’s a brief look at what that was/is

:”….“Now the daring thought that we had, in the beginning of the Ethical Movement, was to unite in one group, in one bond, those who had this religious feeling and those who simply cared for the moral betterment…. In the broader sense religion means zealousness and devotion to something supreme, in the special sense it means cosmic outreaching.”

i like to imagine otto and sonya rosaahn alive and witnessing all this. i like to imagine them present on our zoom, filling in the blanks when we were foggy on the name of a particular event, a particular councelor. their spirit permaeated every aspect of our birchwoods experience, starting with otto’s talk to the freshly off -he-train/bus campers in the wooden town hall building, july 1st. i have deep gratitude for those who organized the call. it was way overdue, but perfectly timed!

the staff at birchwoods, with otto and sonya in the center, on the bottom row.

comparative view of drawings from 1974/2020 / watercolor 63 continues... /  by Philip Tarlow

2:33 PM: watercolor 63 was completed a few minutes ago. it’s one of those that has a lot going on, although there’s still plenty of white space for it to breathe. i find the yellows and oranges towards the top the most interesting and perhaps compelling area of the watercolor, with the greens on the upper left serving as a good counterpoint to all the blues.

12:14 PM: yesterday i posted some drawings and paintings made in greece during the ‘60’s-’70’s and sent to me by my son dimitri in athens. i checked out some recent drawings, mostly made during our regular trips to edwards and carbondale, colorado. BV (before the virus) we used to go monthly for a week or so, to work with teachers & students in local schools, introducing our project based educational product. during those trips i would hang out at local coffee shops and make drawings of customers sitting & working on their laptops or engaging in conversation. BELOW LEFT is an example of one of those drawings made at bonfire coffee in carbondale, colorado and, on the RIGHT, a drawing made of a fellow artist in athens, 1978.

what do you notice? right off the bat, the 2020 drawing employs colored pencils. but more importantly, there is a looseness, a painterly stroke, a release from the need to describe in the 2020 drawing. i think they are both strong drawings, but the recent one gives you, the viewer, more space to dream, and is more in alignment with the chinese/japanese 11th-18th c. tradition of calligraphic marks i so admire. click on each one to get a better sense of what i’m talking about.

currently i’m making additions to the watercolor i started working on yesterday; watercolor 63, and will post updates a bit later in the afternoon. the wind, by the way, is currently gusting to 40mph, not unusual for spring in crestone.

watercolor 63, new boots, and let’s not forget..... /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 63 stage 4

2:11 PM: didn’t get a great sleep last night, so i”m a bit tired. i started watercolor 63 and uncharacteristically stopped mid-way. i’ll resume tomorrow.

i documented the stages of this one more carefully than i did previous ones, and i’ve posted the first 3 stages BELOW. this one reverts to earlier versions, where details of water and rock patterns interact. i’m hoping i’ll feel fresher in the morning and be able to complete watercolor 63.

a few hours ago i received a fedex package containing the 4th in a series of new boots i’ve ordered over the past few weeks. i had to return the first 3; my feet are flat & wide and it’s hard enough finding hiking boots when i’m in the store, let alone online. this is the first pair that feel right, but i won’t know fo another few days if they’re keepers. we hike up trails that are moderately difficult; rocky and steep. so good hiking boots are important.

8:08 am: a few days ago my son dimitri sent these images of drawings, watercolors and gouaches which are still in the appartment of my ex in athens. they’ve been there for 20 years, and she has kindly kept them safe and catalogued until i can pick them up on our next trip to athens. if you click on each one, there’s description.

and now, let’s get to work!

watercolor 62 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 62

1:55 PM: i launched into watercolor 62, but it was flawed. since this is heavy arches watercolor paper, i flipped it over and began work on the other side. that went better, and progressed to the well known by this time how little is enough?

of course this is an unanswerable question. one of the things that draws me to 11th c chinese and 18th c. japanese painting and calligraphy is the regularity with wich the answered that question unerringly, with freedom, occasional whimsy and mark making still unmatched in the history of art.

watercolors 60 and 61 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:31 PM: feeling quite a bit better today. intestinal tsurus is gone, although i am still being very careful what i eat. i’m excited that i received an email from my birchwoods buddies, some of whom i haven’t seen or spoken to since i was a young teenager. looks like we may set up a zoom. for more about birchwoods, which forever changed my life scroll down a bit on my stories page here: https://www.philiptarlow.com/chatty-bio

watercolor 60 13x20”

so i made 2 new watercolors today. the first, watercolor 60, seems to me like a one act play in. it has 3 characters, all of whom give the others space, but one of whom is undeniably central to the plot. the red & blue marks in the water were originally in the photo i shot in 2018, and were reflections of tibetan flags flying above the creek at the base of the tashi gomang stupa trail. i slightly tinted the white paper and, with those reflections, it says water.

watercolor 61 13x20”

then i started work on watercolor 61. it differs from the rest of the series compositionally, with it’s 3 provocative upward thrusting branches dominating the composition, and wriggly light green marks which indicate turbulent water but stop seriously short of spelling it out. somehow, i find it tremendously satisfying to gaze at. once again the number 3 comes up; this time as 3 sentinels guarding the landscape.

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.