stormy weather / continued exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

6:58 PM: and, 12 hours later, what’s up? i’m getting bored and tired of all this exhibition prep. but it’s got to be done. today was mostly devoted to putting white vinyl tape around the paint splattered edges of teh motion oils so they would look presentable on the gallery walls. no frames, so those edges are very visible.

i’ve been locating and saving images like this one on the left to a folder titled carbondale talk. this one is a crop of gouache marks i made when i was testing out a new brush given to me by our dear friend lea.

7:45 AM: had to get up at 3am to close windows due to heavy, blowing rain. forecast for next 4-5 days is 80% chances for thunderstorms. we’re in the monsoonal flow; lets hope it gives us much needed moisture…

trail walk / continuing exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

on the trail after our 1 hour ascent at 8am this morning

1:07 PM: this morning we took our one hour walk up the trail. it was still wet from yesterdays rains, and the fragrances were unbelievable. made you happy to be alive and in a body.

so absorbed was i in ruminating on my carbondale arts talk on the afternoon of august 8th: https://www.carbondalearts.com/upcoming-exhibitions/motion-philip-tarlow

that i was shocked and amazed when we arrived at our destination. the trail walk is a great time to get ideas, and i got plenty of them this morning.

on the way back down, i saw this branch with the most striking orange lichen! the color was set off by the wet deep brown wood of the branch. the phot doesn’t really do it justice, but, believe me, it more orange than an orange, more alive than a wiggling worm and just as inspiring. you never know what to expect on the trail. just keep your wits about you and have good boots, because, for about 1/4 of the journey up, and then down, there’s a sheer 500 ft. drop just inches from where we walk, with nothing between you and the rushing creek below but very large, very ancient, very sharp boulders.

platter made in florida, '80's / continuing work on watercolor 110 / more exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

6:56 PM: i did continue work on watercolor 110 but my carbondale exhibition is drawing closer and my mind was on the prep work i need to get done, so i made a mess of it, tossed the watercolor and went on to photograph 19 motion oils, 13 of which will hang in the show.

on the right is one of them, hanging in my studio next to the plein air oil painting it was inspired by. so my motion series are directly inspired by smaller works painted at the creek.

2:19 PM: going through some of the photographs i may use for my talk, i ran across this one of deKooning in his 4th avenue studio in manhattan, 1946.

7:59 AM: this morning we were supposed to take a trail walk but we skipped it, so i’ll get an earlier start today. my plan is to start my morning continuing work on the new watercolor 110, then move on to prep work for the exhibition, which is just 2 weeks away.

this is a ceramic platter in our entryway, which i painted in palm beach in the ‘80’s. i painted a whole series of them, which were made by a friend in w. palm beach. he would bring the freshly thrown platters over in his pickup truck, i would make paintings on them and then he’d come pick them up and fire them in his kiln. i must have made over 30, some of which are in our collection here in crestone/baca.

more when i get to my studio….

watercolor 110 / a corner of my studio /  by Philip Tarlow

the newly framed watercolor 35 10 x 15”

7:03 PM: this is one of the watercolors, which i framed today, destined for my exhibition in carbondale in 2 weeks.

stage 1 of watercolor 110 at 1pm

12:59 PM: today i started work on watercolor 110. it’s in the larger format: 13 x 20” and is inspired by on eon my earlier creek photos, in mid- fall, when the creek contained quite a bit of ice from below freezing night time temperatures. it’s a very good beginning; lets see where it heads in the next hour or so, when i switch gears and continue work on exhibition prep.

i was looking at stuff on my desk when i noticed this pad with 3 studies of matisse drawings i made a few years ago. sometimes stuff finds a space and stays there forever.

at work on watercolor 110 at 1:30

above the drawings is a painting in egg tempera of greek construction workers having their mid day snacks, painted in the mid 70’s. it’s one of a series of paintings of construction workers i made during that period. most are in private, museum and corporate collections in athens. in the little grey puddle of water in front of them you can see marks similar to the ones in my current creek paintings; an interesting manifestation of continuity in my mark making.

morning trail walk / carbondale selection process /  by Philip Tarlow

the creek as it looked just before sunrise this morning.

2:36 PM: this morning we took our trail walk and i was able, after a couple of weeks of resting my strained groin, to go up the trail with mikela for a little over an hour, stopping only once to rest. we started out at about 8,400 ft. and ended up about 1000 feet higher. delightful weather. temperature of 48F when we started out. and 65 when we came back down to the car.

i felt somewhat disoriented when i got to my studio. it was rather late; almost noon, and i have so much to do in preparation for the carbondale show that i didn’t know where to begin. i wanted to make a new watercolor before diving into the carbondale prep, but i just didn’t have it in me. these are some of the oils i’m going to include. they need to be re-photographed and sent off to brian at carbondale arts so that he can include them in the online info about the upcoming show. i’m hoping tomorrow will be a more productive day.

pharm daye /  by Philip Tarlow

tom showing us the richness of his farm

6:43 PM: today we went to the farm of our friends tom and lillian, about 25 minutes north of our house, on a magnificent, large plot of land. he invited us to come pick some fresh raspberries, which we did. we finallyt got a first hand experience of the farm we’ve heard so much about, and it surpassed our expectatiopns. the words neat and orderly don’t generally come to mind when talking about farms. well, guess what?

beside picking raspberries, we had a great conversatiopn with tom, who just won the primary election for saguache county commissioner, about ways of engaging school kids in hands on learning about agriculture here in the valley.all the while, our daily afternoon thunderstorms were approaching, skies darkening, thunder clapping were approaching.

back from denver / watercolor 109 continued /  by Philip Tarlow

1:57 PM: i was half thinking i’d prepare a few small linen canvas surfaces in preparation for some plein air, possibly on monday, since tomorrow is trail walk day. but then i felt the urge to continue work on the very lightly painted watercolor 109. so i did. it’s not lightly painted any more!

too heavy handed? let me sit with it for a while, then bring it to the house to see what mikela thinks.

BELOW left: thursdays version, right: todays

BELOW: i made a couple of quick sketches in colored pencil in the doctors waiting room. both of them left before i could complete the drawing, so in in the one on the left, i substituted the head, in profile, of a different figure.

this is currently my favorite ipa, brewed in lafayette, colorado by liquid mechanics brewing

8:28 AM: we did a 12 hour trip to denver yesterday, leaving 6:45 am and returning 6:45 pm, 3 1/2 hours of driving each way. the temperature when we started our drive was 52 F. as we left denver yesterday at 3pm, the temperature was up to 103 F! and when we got home at 6:45, a very comfortable 72F.

we dropped off our loaner car & picked up our repaired one, with a brand new windshield; picked up 3 motion oils and 3 large motion pencil on paper pieces from space gallery for my carbondale show next month; went food & beer shopping (found my favorite ipa) and saw my specialist about shoulder & groin issues. he diagnosed my shoulder as impingement syndrome of the right shoulder. ice & physical therapy.

a very long day! i’ll be back in my studio in an hour or so, and see what happens today and if i start a new watercolor. based upon what my doc said about my shoulder & groin, i may be able to start making some small oils as well as resuming our morning trail walks!

re: hopacity one reviewer gave it 4.03 out of 5 and said: ”Nice fruity aroma that is not too sweet and holds an earthy quality at the same time. Semi-cloudy golden am er with large off-white head. Drinks smoothly with full hop flavor of fruit and a little grass. Has touches of sweetness but avoids going to sweet fruit flavor. Soft bittering from from to back that does not grow in intensity very much. A nice drinking ale. Complex enough to offer thoughts, but not too intense. Pleasing. A couple of these would be nice.”

BELOW: the views of our san luis valley at 7:07am, heading out of crestone/baca for denver.

trail walk / watercolor 109 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 109 10 x 13”

flowering plant seen on our morning walk

12:44 PM: after my doctors evaluation yesterday, it seems safe to walk up the trail again, since my groin pain appears to be a mild strain and shouldn’t be affected by our trail walks. that’s a relief, since it’s our only form of exercise and it’s shocking how quickly you get out of shape! so it was a bit of a push, and i stopped at half an hour, but it felt great to be walking up the trail again.

i started watercolor 109 once i got back to my studio. i tried something different, using my fan brush to create a kind of under-painting and then working on top of that with very diluted watercolors.

the characteristic i love in this one is the freshness and immediacy. nothing has been overworked, and it emerged in just 2 passes. by that i mean that when i work on one of these watercolors, i can only go for a very short period, and then i need to take a break; either because i need to do something else while casting furtive glances to see how what i did reads, or to allow the area i just worked on to dry so that i can paint over it without blotting and bleeding happening.

so the under-painting, done with my fan brush, introduces an element of randomness i strive for. my personality type, according to some systems, is AR, or abstract random. here’s an interesting article about AR: https://child1st.com/blogs/resources/113568135-the-abstract-random-learning-style

continuing work on work on watercolor 108 / Ένα το Χελιδόνι - Μίκης Θεοδωράκης /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 108 13 x 20”

12:40 PM: watercolor 108 was bare bones yesterday. so i worked more on it today. i wasn’t crazy about that central rock, and i was thinking i might need to scrap it and start over. what snapped it into focus was that deep red on the left. i had just been reading about the history of the color red last night before falling asleep. it’s an amazing story told by victoria finlay in her book, but lets save that for another time.

in this instance the addition of deep red on the left of the composition, rather than distracting the eye because it’s stronger by far than any of the other colors in this watercolor, it gives us a focus to bounce off of, and actually allows the rest of the softer colors to announce themselves.

i was afraid it might be getting too busy, and as soon the those reds showed up, that fear dissolved.

this morning i was abruptly awoken by a strong dream. once i awoke, i couldn’t fall back asleep, and this song by greek composer mikis theodorakis began playing in my head and wouldn’t stop. the translation of the poem by odysseus elytis, as with all translations of poetry doesn’t even come close to doing it justice you can hear it performed on this youtube video, with the extraordinary voice of bithikotsis. i was at the very first public performance with my ex, and to think of it sends shivers down my spine.

Single Swallow

A single swallow, and the cost of Spring is dear

For the sun to return, much work is needed

It takes thousands dying at the wheels

it takes the living, also, giving their blood.

God, my Master builder, you built me inside the mountains

God, my Master builder, you enclosed me in the sea!

The body of May was taken away by Magicians

They have buried it inside a tomb of the open sea

They have sealed it up in a deep well

Its scent filled the darkness and all the abyss.

God, my Master builder, you too among the lilacs

God, my Master builder, you felt the scent of Resurrection

morning trail drawings / STARTING WATERCOLOR 108 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 108 13 x 20” stage 1

2:59 PM: as some stron thunderstorms move across the valley towards crestone/baca, the skies have darkened and i halted work on the new watercolor 108, which you see here. it’s 13x20” and inspired by some photos i shot this morning as i was making the drawing you see posted below.

i received a ups delivery of some tape i had ordered, which is designed to cover the edges of the oil paintings i’ll be showing in carbondale. some painters are very careful not to let paint drip over the edges and onto that 1.5” strip of canvas attached to the stretcher bars with staples. i’m not one of them. hiding the drips of paint is close to framing them, and allows them to be viewed without those distracting and messy drips of paint. i think i’ll wrap it up for today & go back over to the house.

11:30 AM: we take our trail walks m-wed-fri. lately i’ve been accompanying mikela to the trail head, meditating in the car and then going to make a drawing or two. this is due to my groin issue, which will be diagnosed by my doctor tomorrow. it’s been a cool experience. my car meditations are turning out to be twice as long as the ones i usually do in the bedroom, and much deeper. this morning, for example, i had the distinct sense of floating about somewhere beyond our planet, even beyond our solar system.

that makes my experience just after my car meditation quite different. i slip easily into that zone state that often happens in my studio, but it’s different. can’t explain how or why.

so far there are 4 of these drawings, which you see BELOW. they are all colored pencil on 90g equisse blanc 6x9 1/2” sennelier paper, purchased years ago in paris and ever since, sitting in my drawing book cabinet. todays drawing is bottom right. if you fancy one or two, let me know; they are very reasonably priced.

i’d like to make a new watercolor today, before continuing my carbondale exhibition prep work. will post photos when available.