1980 painting in egg tempera / dinner on the deck /  by Philip Tarlow

4:24 PM: just back yesterday evening from carbondale. first day in my studio. i felt a bit dizzy and generally out of it, but very happy to be back in my big, beautifully lit studio, where silence rules. a dear friend in nyc sent me this photo of an egg tempera painting of mine she purchased probably in 1981, when i was living and exhibiting in nyc, at fischbach gallery. this was painted in my central park west 10th floor studio/apartment overlooking central park west. i was still painitng in egg tempera, the ancient medium i learned to use during my 15 years living in greece. it’s painted on board, which is the best and safest surface for this medium, which can easily crack on a flexible surface like canvas.

this was a period when i was almost exclusively painting nyc architecture. i was especially inspired by the reflections in the huge panes of glass that are everywhere in the city. this particular one is in my friend w’s neighborhood. egg tempera is the perfect medium for painting these subtle reflections, and i have deep gratituse for the athens painters who helped me discover egg tempera: yorgos manousakis, niki karagatsi (my then mother-in-law) and yiannis tsarouchis. you couldn’t ask for better guides, teachers, mentors.

8:43 PM: this afternoon at 5 we sat down on our deck for dinner & drinks with friends. as it grew later, the skies turned red/purple/warm grey and we were blessed.

yesterdays carbondale opening / dan’s new home /  by Philip Tarlow

12:44 PM: yesterday at 5:30 pm i gave a short outdoor talk at Carbondale Arts.the director was surprised at the large turnout, and it was for me a great pleasure, especially after being sequestered for so many months in our house in crestone. many great questions were asked, and i met some wonderful people. as i had hoped, the exhibition and the talk gave me an opportunity to see what i’ve been up to in my studio and at the creek. we return to crestone monday and i’m filled with new ideas, so i can’t wait to return to my studio.

detail of dp creek III, 42 x 66” one of my painintgs in in dan’s collection

we’ve been staying with our friend dan, who just purchased an amazing new house right on the river. last night we ate outdoors and it was magic. below are more photos from the exhibition, as well as some shot of the house exterior & interior. dan collects my work, some of which you’ll see leaning against the walls, ready to be hung.

carbondale / my short talk tomorrow /  by Philip Tarlow

5:38 PM: on the not so positive side, when, i wonder, will i be able to see and paint the creek again. on the up side,

i’m bringing these 4 paintings with me to use during my talk. even though it’s going to be outdoors & people will be social distancing, the’ll be close enough to see these when i hold them up.

the purpose is to give my audience a window on the source of inspiration for the gave and motion series. the two landscapes are plein air oils, painted at the creek in 2014, and are great examples of how i’ve been able to simplify the rocks and water in advance of what happens in my studio, where i take that process even further. not intentionally; it’s just what happens. the two fayum studies on the left were painted in the british museum in the mid ‘70’s. the one on the far left was purchased  in 1980 by joseph h. hirschhorn, founder of the hirschhorn museum & sculpture garden in washington, d.c. when he passed, his wife olga gave it to my dad. and when my dad passed, it returned to me.

watercolor 111 / what is "painterly?" / paintings hung in the gallery today /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 111, 4.5 x 4.5 “

6:51 PM: today, with only 2 days until my talk and opening, i made a small, 4.5 x 4,5” watercolor for a dear friend. i placed it in a small white frame, in which it works well.. it’s a continuation the previous watercolors in this series, but with the characteristics of a miniature.

as well, i completed the final page of the 10 intended for the gallery walls. in the end, the director pointed out that putting the printouts on the wall would create clutter. i agree, so the pages will be on a document that will be available to everyone.

BELOW: the gallery rooms with the painitngs newly hung.

what is "painterly?" /  by Philip Tarlow

8:55 AM: i just added to yesterdays post, and am repeating what i said and illustrated about the term painterly, since it is really core to my process.

this drawing in colored pencil was made during one of our early morning trail walks, on july 10th. one could say it epitomizes my passion for drawing and painting our creek. when i look back at the many hundreds of drawings and paintings in colored pencil, gouache and oil i’ve made, they all have the quality usually referred to in the art world as painterly. this is a description of that quality i found online…

”A painting may be described as being painterly when the illusion of form is created by utilizing colors, strokes, textures and any other techniques unique to the art of painting, rather than a linear method involving skillful drawing.”

i would modify this definition by saying that “skillful drawing” is also part of the painterly. as a matter of fact, i can always tell in an abstract or non-objective painting whether the artist is a skilled draftsman. drawing is not limited to the description of objects, people or places. one way of looking at it is that great drawing usually informed by a deep knowledge of mark-making throughout the history of art, although the drawings children and indigenous people make are exceptions!

BELOW: are 3 examples of the painterly in my recent work, and one detail of a painting by 17th c. dutch painter, franz hals.on the upper left is a detail of one of my gaze paintings. next to it on the right is a detail of a plein air painting of the creek. bottom left: a detail of a painting from my sound of a flute series and bottom right:detail of a hand by franz hals. they illustrate, far better than words could, what is meant by painterly.

7/10/20 trail walk drawing and the “painterly” / exhibition prep:adding to my carbondale dropdown menu / yesterdays unexpected sparse reflections modification / more afternoon storms /  by Philip Tarlow

this drawing in colored pencil was made during one of our early morning trail walks, on july 10th. one could say it epitomizes my passion for drawing and painting our creek. when i look back at the many hundreds of drawings and paintings in colored pencil, gouache and oil. all have the elements usually referred to in the art world as painterly. this is a description of that quality i found online…

”A painting may be described as being painterly when the illusion of form is created by utilizing colors, strokes, textures and any other techniques unique to the art of painting, rather than a linear method involving skillful drawing.”

BELOW: are 3 examples of the painterly in my recent work. on the upper left is a detail of one of my gaze paintings. next to it on the right is a detail of a plein air painting of the creek. bottom left: a detail of a painting form my sound of a flute series and bottom left: i am at work on one of my 2020 watercolors series. they illustrate, far better than words could, what is meant by painterly.

more afternoon thunderstorms roll in, with a corner of my studio on the right

i added images to my new carbondale dropdown menu, for visitors to my exhibition to get a better idea of my world and the process involved in the creation of these paintings. click on carbondale on the upper menu bar or copy and paste the link below.

https://philip-tarlow.squarespace.com/config/pages/505103ebe4b0b2bc7caf0fb8

1:50 PM yesterday towards the end of the day i made an unexpected modification to sparse reflections, one of my sound of a flute series of paintings. because i haven’t painted in oil for months due to my shoulder injury, it was a shock to squeeze oil paint from a tube and begin using it, as well as the oil sticks i had been using on the paintings in this series.

RIGHT: a detail of sparse reflections. the blue-green color on either side of the waterfall is new. i was waiting till this morning to determine whether or not this totally unexpected re-work was successful, especially since the light was poor with the onset of yesterday afternoons thunderstorms. so i was very pleasantly surprised to see that, not only were my additions successful, they actually made this a far better painting, setting off the blue of the sky and the greens of the trees and the pinks, and allowing the eye to roam more purposefully about the painting. as well, the slight darkening of the greys surrounding the figures makes them more of an important and meaningful element in the composition.

unexpected modification to sparse reflections / self portrait on hockney’s deck / aspen trunks on our morning trail walk / a friend on our deck at dinner yesterday /  by Philip Tarlow

3:50 PM: about an hour ago i hung sparse reflections, one of my sound of a flute series paintings on my newly bare east studio wall. i got the impulse to do some work on it, which was the last thing i expected, especially since my shoulder has yet to heal.

what’s new are the blue-green oil pastel marks running down the central waterfall, and some darker grey surrounding the 3 seated figures. that certainly livened it up but i’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to determine whether or not these changes to a painting that hasn’t been touched since last march are a good thing or not.the blue-green is definitely an interesting counterpoint to the blue of the sky in the upper portion, as well as activating the pinks on either side of the waterfall.

painting in oil and on this scale is certainly a new sensation. BELOW is a comparative view of the painting before and after the modification.

self portrait photographing david’s pool at his hollywood hills home, 1980, egg tempera on board, collection of david hockney

2:06 PM: yesterday we had friends to dinner on our deck, between thunderstorms. i like the juxtaposition of our friend with some of my plain air oils hanging on the wall of our living room and the mountain peaks reflected in the glass.

this morning we took another trail walk and went about an hour up the trail. i paid special attention to some of the aspen trunks with their beautiful markings.

the one on the lower right is actually from yesterdays walk, it has an interesting relationship to the japanese calligraphy i’ve been looking at over the past decade.

yesterdays deck dinner / thunderstorms this afternoon / off they go! /  by Philip Tarlow

yesterday evening mikela and i had dinner on our deck shortly after the afternoon thunderstorms ended

rain from a thunderstorm beating against my north studio windows at about 2:45 pm

3:09 PM: thunderstorms started about an hour ago and will continue on and off until about 9pm. it’s looking like there may be a window for our scheduled jour fixe deck dinner at 5 for about an hour and a half before more storms kick in.

the temperature has dropped from a high of 80F to 58.3, which is the current temperature. so if we do go ahead with our scheduled deck dinner, we may have to wear jackets. on the other hand, if the sun is out, it will warm up and there will likely be a rainbow.

ABOVE is what it looked like yesterday early evening when mikela and i had dinner on our deck.

paintings outside my studio, ready to load and drive to carbondale yesterday morning

7:59 PM: yesterday morning we loaded all the paintings and watercolors into our suv and drove an hour and a half to buena vista where we were met by brian, director of carbondale arts. he had driven his suv over from carbondale to meet us half way. so we transferred everything, gave him my 9 prinouts for the gallery walls and a plan for where each of the paintings could be hung, and each drove back. it felt really good to get that done, and now there are only a few logistics remaining before we drive up on friday for the opening and my talk.

BELOW: 2 of the 9 printouts i made for the gallery walls and the tentative plan for hanging the work

another one of the 9 printouts destined for the gallery walls /  by Philip Tarlow

6:48 PM:

tomorrow morning we’re loading the paintings in our suv & driving them an hour and a half to buena vista. brian, director of carbondale arts, will also be driving 1 1/2 hours from carbondale to meet us half way, in buena vista. we’ll transfer the work, and he’ll drive it back to the gallery.

i ended up creating 9 13x19” printouts as a visual support for visitors who want to know more about me and my process. yesterday i posted one of those pages; here’s another one. it introduces visitors to 19th C. plein air painters i’ve studied. they valued the impressions of the moment more than a finished look. they were all on the same page with this, and we’re fortunate to have visited an exhibiton dedicated to them and their work in nyc in 2001. i’ve been tuned in to this aesthetic for years. winess this 2006 landscape, where the entire forground, which should be a sandy beach and the aegean shore, has been left unfinished. i’ve told this story before, so if you’ve read it, bear with me. this painting was part of a solo exhibition at skoufa gallery, just off kolonaki square in athens. as i was working on it, when i reached this point, my gut said STOP! so i did. and i wondered, how would it be received? it was the very first painitng to sell, the night of the opening. so they got it. there was no issue. if anything, it seemed refreshing to the attendees.

yesterdays trail walk / painters i admire:for gallery walls /  by Philip Tarlow

my painters i admire page for the gallery walls

1:30 PM: for the past few hours, i’ve been putting together this page, which will be printed out on 17x14” paper and placed on one of the gallery walls, as a way of supporting visitors in getting a fuller picture of what i’m about.

obviously, they are only a few of the painters i admire, but it’s a pretty good representation.

7:49 AM: yesterday mornings trail walk was somewhat of a revelation. by that i mean that we both separately recognized that we look forward to and anticipate these early morning walks not only as an enlivening and refreshing experience, but as a 2 hour block of time during which each of us get new ideas for projects we’re working on, discover solutions while at the same time experiencing what can only be called a cosmic awareness. sounds hoaky i know, but it’s true.

on a more practical note, i tried out these new lowa boots to break them in and see how they felt on the rugged rocks. i got them for everyday wear in fall and winter, and got the new salomon boots i’ve been using for trail walks exactly for that purpose. so i’d give these an 8.5 and the salomon a 9.5. they are, after all, the most consistantly highest rated hiking boots around.

BELOW: when we reached the end of our walk, at 9,400 ft., we stopped & rested, sitting on a rock. i pointed my phone at whatever was close by, and these 3 shots somewhat capture the magic of that landscape, which is everywhere.

the view from our deck at sunset

late this afternoon will be the first time since covid began that we’re having guests for dinner. they’ll enter the house wearing masks, climb the stairs to the upper floor and go out onto our deck, where they’ll no longer need the masks & we’ll keep more than the suggested distance from one another. should be pretty safe.

the deck faces the 14,300 ft. sangre de christo mtns. where the setting sun will case it’s red/orange rays, and in the foreground the pristine stretch of piñons and junipers in the foreground. we rediscovered, with the weekly jour fixe dinners we’ve established on the deck of our german friends, the joy of actual live personal connection, and are craving a bit more…