more carbondale exhibition prep, getting down to the wire /  by Philip Tarlow

6:44 PM: this is the final watercolor i framed this afternoon. now they’re all ready for my show!

3:57 PM: i was able to complete framing of teh watercolors a few minutes ago, and focused my attention on creating a 5th print-out, which will be attached to the gallery walls for the benefit of those attending the exhibition.

12:13 PM: we took our creek walk this morning, so i arrived at my studio a tad later than usual. we’re meeting brian, director at carbondale arts in buena vista on friday, with all the paintings that will be in the show in our suv, which we’ll transfer to his suv.

buena vista is about mid-way between carbondale and crestone/baca, which means less driving for each of us. here’s a few shots of my studio this morning, with the framed watercolors

(3 more to frame today)

and the motion and fayum paintings stacked against the studio wall. more this afternoon…

crestone peak painting/.76 inches of rain! /final selection for carbondale / creating new pages for gallery wall /  by Philip Tarlow

crestone peak with moonlight, 18 x 72” 2001 gouache on paper

puddles in driveway from the rain last night

these are the paintings that will be shown in my carbondale exhibition: https://www.carbondalearts.com/upcoming-exhibitions/motion-philip-tarlow

8:31 PM: yesterday evening from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am this morning, we experienced wind driven, heavy rain, resulting in a record-breaking .76”. this may not seem like a lot, especially if you live in florida, but for us, it’s huge! we continue to be in extreme draught conditions, with extremely high fire danger. we’re at only 4.31” for the year. we’re hoping todays prediction of 80% chances for more late afternoon thunderstorms will materialize here in crestone/baca.

/ 1959 provincetown painting / newly framed watercolors / exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

4:55 PM: here’s one of the pages i put together today for the carbondale arts gallery walls. i ‘ve done 3 so far, out of a likely total of 5 or so. my intention in doing this is to provide the visitors with something they can use to get a feel for my process and to make it much more ordinary and accessible rather than some kind of deep, esoteric mystery. which of course it is! but it’s also something anyone, especially those who work with their hands, can understand and appreciate. more tomorrow.

provincetown restaurant 1959 oil on linen 10 x 8 1/4”

10:44 AM: this is a painting i made in 1959, in provincetown, mass. it’s based on studies i made at a local restaurant at the time. that same summer, i met henry geldzahler. for more about this visit my story page https://www.philiptarlow.com/chatty-bio and scroll down to: meeting henry geldzahler & jack tworkov

newly framed watercolor 91 13x20”

watercolor 34 11x 15”

7:15 am: these are newly framed watercolors for the show, which i brought over to the house yesterday. i’m going to skip framing today to rest my shoulder, which i further strained with all the work i did yesterday. so right now i’m lying on a living room couch with an ice pack on it.

i think it’s really amazing how much the framing enhances these watercolors. it’s like i’m seeing them for the first time! they’ll be reasonably priced in the show….if i were a visitor i’d snap them up!

so in a few hours i’ll head over to the studio. today i’ll work on creating the list of paintings that will be hanging, along with prices, dimensions and titles, which was requested by the gallery director by this thursday. i’m also putting together 4 or 5 large print-outs which will be attached to the walls, the purpose of which is to walk visitors through my process in creating this body of work. i’ll post them once they’re ready.

as well, i’m thinking about my 15-20 minute talk. if i’m true to my tradition, i’ll put something together and at the last minute toss it and just riff. i may create a page on this site that people can go to with images illustrating some of the points i’ll be making in the talk.

watercolor 34, on the left was not intended to be included in the exhibition. i was about to frame a different one, but my eye kept being drawn to this one, over and over again. fnally, i surrendered and decided to frame it. it’s somewhat sexually provative, if that’s what you choose to see!

6:02 am sky / /  by Philip Tarlow

6:07 am: a dramatic early morning sky before setting out for our trail walk. thundedrstorms shouln’t start till after 1pm, so we should be ok on our walk. more when we return!

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.