September 3, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

2:39 PM: gotta go get our veggies from tom at the kiosk, but i just started watercolor 118, and will leave it like this till tomorrow. such a pleasure to be able to view it on my newly painted white east wall! definitely a lighter touch here than in watercolor 117, but the image is still kind of scattered compared with the best of this series. i like how that lighter blue on the right works in the composition, and how, even though the big branch dissects the composition, it seems to work as an anchor.

since our return from carbondale last sunday,i’m clearly in a searching mode. don’t think i’ve yet found my groove, but i feel something beginning to emerge….it may be that i’m preparing fro whatever happens with this new 26 x 78” canvas i stretched yesterday. as you can see in the photo below of my newly whitened wall, it has a few creases i need to get out before getting to work on it.

1:19 PM: when i entered the studio my eyes were distracted by the many paint marks and nail holes. i’ve been meaning to get someone to help me spackle and paint it, but it just hasn’t happened. so, on impulse, i grabbed some old containers of gesso, which had somewhat hardened & were pretty much useless, added water to liquify it, chose one of my wide painting brushes & got to work. it’s not perfect, and it could use another coat, but it’s so much better than before, and will allow me to hang whatever i’m working on and view it without distraction. before and after images are BELOW.

beofre whiting over the wall, and even before my coffee & toast, i made some additions to yesterdays watercolor 117. it’s definitely not one of those earlier, very spare, japanese-looking ones. but, as mikela said after looking at it an hour ago, “somebody’s going to like it!” BELOW: the before and after. ya think it’s too congested? me too. but, as somebody i love a lot said, “somebody’s gonna like it!”

stretching a new canvas / watercolor 117 / forgetting our walking sticks / September 2, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

at work today on watercolor 117 — at work today on *watercolor 117*

watercolor 117 10 x 13” — *watercolor 117* 10 x 13”

4 of the candidates to substitute for the walking sticks we forgot to take this morning

3:42 PM: we walked up the trail this morning. when we started out, the temperature was 46F; colder than it’s been at that hour. when we arrived at the trailhead, we forgot to take our walking sticks with us, so i found some along the trail & we each chose one for the descent.

yesterday I had prepared 26 x 78” stretcher bars and cut a piece of double primed french linen to fit them. today i stretched the canvas, taking care not to stress my shoulder. i haven’t stretched a canvas since i injured my shoulder many months ago, which was work related. that long narrow shape is tough to pull off first time around, so there are some wrinkles, which i’ll take care of tomorrow.

i had a back and forth with my son dimitri in athens, who started rehearsals today for, we hope, his fall productions at his athens venue: poreia theatre. he showed me the very innovative masks they all wore, which are designed and made in greece. they are transparent, so you can see the other actors mouths move as they say their lines. he doesn’t know yet whether they’ll be allowed to open the theatre though. so it’s a tough situation, and he’s doing his best.

after making some delicious kodiak pancakes with fresh local fruit, i brought one over for mikela to eat, ahd one myself and launched, improbably, into watercolor 117.

chad, in carbondale, let me know that the video piece he’s been working on, of our talk last friday, will be ready for marc and i to look at this weekend and may be ready for public viewing sometime next week, so stay tuned.

snow on the peaks above 12,000 ft. last night / STARTING WATERCOLOR 116 / PREPARING FOR 2020 CREEK OIL 4 / gratitude, and buck-talk / September 1, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

6:02 PM: i’m feeling deep gratitude for being back in my studio after returning from carbondale; for HAVING such a great studio and the time to work in it all day and the physical health that allows me to do that. this morning i had a wonderful experience. i forgot something at the house and walked over to the house & back, 500 feet each way. it had rained last night, and the fragrances were fantastic. i took deep breaths as i locked eyes with the 3 bucks grazing about 20 feet away. they looked at me, mildly alarmed that i might present a danger to them. i talked to them, as i always do, reminding them that i’m a guy who would never harm them, and talking to them as i would to a human. they all had big racks. they turned their heads and looked at me, seeming to get my message. because none of them bolted, as they would have done a few years ago, before i started talking to them as if they totally understood my words. i guess they DO!

the completed watercolor 116 13 x 20” — the completed *watercolor 116* 13 x 20”

3:32 PM: i completed watercolor 116 just now. it contains elements of many of the previous watercolors in this series. at the same time, it’s moving in the direction of a looser, freer interpretation of the creek. one could argue that the entire composition is in motion, rather than just the water.

8:39 AM: last night we had intermittent rain and thunderstorms, and we awoke to our first snow on the sangre de christo peaks, above 12,000 ft. it will warm up through the rest of the week, with temperatures climbing into the low 80’s over the weekend, but then we’ll settle into normal, for the season, temperatures in the mid-70’s, dropping to the 40’s at night.

if you click on the image and make it larger, you’ll see the snow more clearly.

at work on watercolor 116 — at work on *watercolor 116*

1:35 pm: about 20 minutes ago, after making some delicious oatmeal, i started watercolor 116, which is 13 x 20” having brought back the remaining watercolors from my carbondale show, i’m referring to one of the more successful ones & getting ideas.

you may have noticed that in this photo i took of myself, you can see the printout of a creek photo i shot, which i’m referring to as i paint. if you follow my blog, you will know that this is a first; i used to remove these photos from the easel before taking the shot. i deliberately left it there in the interest of transparancy. one of my goals is to be as transparent as possible regarding my process.

examining the 26 x 66” stretcher bars for the proposed 2020 creek oil 4 — examining the 26 x 66” stretcher bars for the proposed *2020 creek oil 4*

at the same time, i’ve been contemplating and preparing for 2020 creek oil 4. i haven’t yet stretched the linen, but here you see me with the not-yet-assembled stretcher bars for the 26 x 66” painting. i may stretch the canvas this afternoon or tomorrow.

tarlow paintings in dp collection, carbondale / August 31, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

4:58 PM: just back from carbondale, where marc and i presented our talk friday afternoon. we stayed at the home of our dear friends d & b. (using ititials for the sake of privacy) d has the finest collection of my recent work anywhere, and it’s really beautifully hung in the new house overlooking the river.

you will see that some of the paintings are surrounded and enhansed by d’s ceramic art. you can see one of his pieces, with his painterly blue strokes, on the bottom row, right. he has great talent as a ceramacist, especially when you consider he came to ceramics at the tail end of his long and successful career in the medical profession,as an infectious diseases specialist. his pieces are instantly recognizable.

on our next trip, in a few weeks, i’ll bring my nikon d7200 with telephoto lens and post much better photos of the collection.

a video of our 8/28 talk will be available as soon as editing is complete.

Carbondale / August 29, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

4:37 PM: we arrived yesterday at the launchpad, where my talk with marc bruell was scheduled for 5:30. i was nervous and not sure what to expect; marc and i had spoken in general terms about how we would navigate going back & forth, with him playing and sining and me talking. it was raining up until about an hour before our talk, which likely kept some people from coming, but it was a good crowd, the skies cleared and we launched into our talk, or more accurately our performance piece.

watercolor 115 / studio photos / August 27, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 115 10 x 13” — *watercolor 115* 10 x 13”

6:58 PM: it was a short day in my studio, as we’re preparing for our trip to carbondale tomorrow. i made a new watercolor: watercolor 115, and shot some images of my studio to post on my carbondale page.

marc and i spoke a few times today and got on the same page about the rhythm and content of our talk tomorrow at 5:30. i printed out several copies of the pages below so i can pass them around and share my process with the audience.

BELOW: a few studio shots i’m about to post on my carbondale page.

continuing 2020 creek oil 1 re-work / August 25, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

12:32 PM: gotta leave for my dermatologist appointment in salida in 20 minutres. but i was able to take the changes i made yesterday to 2020 creek oil 1 a bit further, introducing a deep red beneath the log on the right & some pebble shapes above the log on the left. i’ll do more tomorrow after our morning trail walk.

this mornings trail walk / painting over 2020 creek oil 1 / August 24, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

3:26 PM: as the first peals of thunder resound over the mountains and into the valley, i’m completing my painting for the day. when i first glanced at 2020 creek oil 1 this morning, it struck me as too busy and devoid of a center, it had compelling elements though. the only one i’ve kept, for now, is the cobalt teal bluish scrumble on the upper right portion of the composition, and the orange/black marks on the lower right. i went over the rest of the canvas with a thin-ish white mixed with a little yellow.my reference photo is the one i posted esrlier today, below, with those unbelievable crimson weeds emerging from the moss covered rocks. so we have orange on the bottom; crimson, then green, with the cobalt teal bluish above and a pale yellow background. the marks on the outlined log on the left were made with a sennelier violet oil stick. i read last night about the 19th c. discovery of violet, and how van gogh used a combination of violet and yellow so brilliantly in some of his paintings of flowers. he learned, by reading a just published book on color, how excellent is the combination of those two colors. tomorrow afternoon i have a dermatologist appointment in salida, an hour and a quarter to our north, so we’ll see if i have any time tomorrow morning to continue this revision. while it’s a relief to lose all that busyness, i do love how it peeks through the thin layer of oil paint. your eye moves over the surface, from one element, one color to another, with the underlying previous painting investing it all with richness and mystery. shit, i should be a writer!

just back from our trail walk. these are a few of the photos i shot. future paintings?

revisiting 2020 creek oil 1/ WATERCOLOR 114 / August 23, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 114, 10 x 13” — *watercolor 114,* 10 x 13”

3:20 PM: i made a new watercolor after the work i did earlier today on 2020 creek oil 1. it’s simpler than most in this series, but not quite a spare as yesterdays watercolor 113. new possibilities are emerging now that i’m using a smoother paper, with less grain than the paper arches paper i had been using for all the previous ones. more sensitive, pricise strokes are now a possibility. on the other hand, i can’t lay down a full brush and have the colors spread and migrate unpredictably, as i could with the heavier paper.

1:13 PM: after yesterdays watercolor 113, which was born of 2020 creek oil 1, i felt motivated to return to the mother, as it were, and, after flipping it 180 degrees yesterday and gazing at it every so often this morning, i did some more work on it, taking out the second tree trunk, which had formed a V with the other one. plus i added an area of striking williamsburg cobalt teal bluiish on the right, which sings like a vibrating soprano.

BELOW: before todays changes

8-17-20 creek oil 2-30pm 180 degrees.jpg

starting fresh / upsyde-downe /watercolor 113 / August 22, 2020 by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 113 10 x 13” — *watercolor 113* 10 x 13”

4:29 PM: late in the day, as mikela gave me the latest on the rose garden, i made this watercolor: watercolor 113. the 112 watercolors paved the way for creek oil 1 last week, and that in turn gave birth to this latest watercolor. if you go to my 2020 watercolors page (look for it in the dropdown menu above right) you see the evolution. less and less descriptive detail, more and more nature inspired shapes and colors.

it’s almost 2pm. we took our trail walk this morning, so i arrived late in my studio. i took one look at yesterdays oil and removed it from my east wall. i’m kind of torn between starting a new watercolor and starting a new oil. give me a few minutes & i’ll decide, and post whatever i do. in the mean time, this is an oil study done some years ago for a commission at gremillion & co. fine art. i client wanted a small painting for a wooden jewelry box. i had a metropolitan museum bulletin about minoan art, and used the images to create this painting and, eventually the small painting for the wooden box.

it now hangs in our guest bedroom. mikela loves it, so it’s not going anywhere soon.

so after futzing around for a few hours, i decided to go the watercolor route. before starting to paint, i turned 8-17-20 creek oil upside down. i like it better, and it’s giving me some ideas about where i might go next with it.