the snowstorm and deep freeze / 2020 creek oil 7, stage 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2020 creek oil 7 at 3:30pm

3:36PM: a few lightening scrapes before leaving fo the house. the white color of the canvas is a bit off because i was forced to photograph it in artificial light.

2020 creek oil 7 at 2:15 pm

2:37 PM: i’ve stopped working,as it has become much too dark with the approaching storm. precipitation should start momentarily as rain, turning to snow as the temperature rapidly drops. currently it’s 53°F, dropping about 3° an hour, predicted to reach a record 23°F late tonight into tomorrow morning. so i haven’t done too much more to 2020 creek oil 7, other than the darker indigo blue you see on the mid-right.we’ll see if it’s light enough to paint tomorrow. as most of you know, i prefer the natural light coming from my large north facing studio windows.

by the way, this particular canvas is the artfix extra fine portrait linen, which has virtually no tooth and perfect absorbency. so putting brush to canvas is really magical and very much determines the direction a painting takes. i’ve never painted on a surface quite like it. only the french could have produced it. it’s really designed to be used on smaller surfaces like this.

1:09 PM: about an hour ago, i started work on 2020 creek oil 7. before squeezing my colors onto the palette, i thumbed through one of my matisse books. i was struck by a painting i knew. but it was as if i was seeing it for the first time: violinist at the window, painted 102 years ago in 1918. what struck me this time was his certainty in the way he divdes up the surface, his limited palette, the way he painted the violinists head, as an empty white oval and his limited palette.

BELOW left: 2020 creek oil 7 and on the right, violinist at the window, by matisse

12:06 PM: srtaing in a few hours, we’re expectring sn unusually early snowstorm, with record breaking, for this date low temperatures of about 20-24° tonight through tomorrow night. 8-10” of snow are predicted for crestone/baca.

so, before meditating & getting to work, i made a quick run into town to get a few essentials: eggs for tonights omlettes, soy milk for our coffee and ice cream, for pure pleasure!

11/17/19 trail walk 1

DETAIL of the 11/17/19 trail walk 1 photo

i just printed out a new creek image from one of our trail walks about 10 months ago, and may start work on one of the 16x20” canvases i stretched yesterday. notice that there are no logs or branches? i wanted pure rocks and water for this one. the rich oranges excite me, as do the blick-ish dots on the rock on the lower left.

i will, as usual, post the progress of this new 2020 creek oil 7 as it progresses.

the completed 2020 creek oil 6, with mikela's favorite passage /END OF DAY WATERCOLOR 118 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 118 10 x 13”

6:27 PM: so i stretched 2 canvases and cut the canvas for 4 more, leaving 8 more to stretch. (odd math but it makes sense). at the very end of the day, i couldn’t stand leaving for the house without making at least a few strokes, so i made this 10 x 13” watercolor 118. and as i was walking out the door, i added some grey crayon and green oil pastel, which means it’s no longer a watercolor and can be classified as mixed media. i had to flip it 180° for it to make sense to me, and when i did, all kinds of little duck-like characters began showing up, as well as what appears to be a freaked out horse.

DETAIL of 2020 creek oil 6

2:06 PM: how did it get to be this late? we walked this morning & i was late getting to the studio. yesterday just before leaving, i made a couple of last minute modifications to the painting. mikela looked at it and suggested leaving it for a few days and bringing it to the house, which we all know is the acid test as to whether a new painting holds up or not. here’s her favorite passage, and the completed painting as it looks today.

and now i’m going to begin stretching those ten 16 x 20” canvases so that i can continue this new series of oils. more later in the day.

2020 creek oil 6 as it looked this morning, following minor additions yesterday late aftenoon

continuing 2020 creek oil 6 /  by Philip Tarlow

2020 creek oil 6 at 4pm, after adding the mauves you see

DETAIL at 4pm

4:10 PM: we have to be somewhere for dinner at 5, so this is absolutely the last modification….for today! all the mauves are new.

3:25 PM: i said an hour ago that i was going to start stretching 10 canvases, but the more i looked at 2020 creek oil 6, i couldn’t resist doing a bit more work on it. so here’s how it looks now. what changes do you notice from the 2pm image below? do you think this is an improvement? why?

2020 creek oil 6 at 2pm oil on double primed linen, 16 x 20”

DETAIL of 2020 creek oil 6 at 2 pm

2:16 PM: i wasn’t satisfied with the results of the work i did yesterday on 2020 creek oil 6, so i continued working on it, taking breaks to assemble 10 16 x 20” stretcher bars. i had a couple of boxes of lightweight stretcher bars this size. when the paintings are so small, you really don’t need the heavier weight ones. and i have a fair amount of french double primed artfix portrait linen, which actually works best on a small scale.

i know from experience that once i stretch these 10 canvases, i’ll be able to go from one to the other like a drummer switching from a large drum to a smaller one and on to bones, bodhrán, bendir, cháracas, cymbals….literally playing on these canvases as you would on musical instruments.

so i may stretch some or all of them now, and see tomorrow whether i do more work on this one.

continuing 2020 creek oil 6 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:59 PM: we walked up the trail this morning. magnificent, as always. on the way down i tripped on some loose rocks and fell face forward, bracing myself with my palms. could have been a lot worse; just some bruising and light sprain to my wrists. just spoke with my grandson philip in athens, who asked “so how many times have you fallen recently?” he laughed when i responded i’ve lost count. another record breaking hot daqy today, with temperatures predicted yo be in the high 80’s. should be low 70’s this time of year. on tuesday we’ll get snow, with temperatures that night falling to 23F! go figure.

mikela warned me not to paint, and allow my wrists to heal. but i couldn’t restrain myself. i’d been thinking during our walk of some changes i wanted to make to 2020 creek oil 6, which i started yesterday on a 16 x 20” primed linen canvas. BELOW are yesterdays and todays versions. i’ve been looking at an art forum review of a MOMA show of the late joan mitchell, so there may be hints of a kind of hommage in todays work.

this painting is not resolved, so i’ll be doing more work on it tomorrow, as well as beginning to stretch a number of 16 x 20” canvasses which i’ll be using to continue this series.

morning sky / /  by Philip Tarlow

6:49 AM: view towards sisnaajini (Mt. Blanca) 6:30 and 6:45am. i’ll be back in my studio after our trail walk, about 11 am.

missing the sfumato=2020 creek oil 6 / local fruit and yoghurt /  by Philip Tarlow

2020 creek oil 6 16 x 20”

detail of 2020 creek oil 6

3:29 PM: this morning i was ready to get those damned wrinkles out of the newly stretched 26 x 78” canvas. no luck. it’s a very fine portrait linen, which is extremely difficult to stretch so that it’s completely smooth. just a few wrinkles screw it up. i tried removing 6-7 staples & re-stretching, wetting the back so that it would shrink them out….finally i said to myself, “fuck this shit,!” so i found an already stretched 26 x 20” canvas with the same super fine portrait linen i so love, set up a little makeshift table with saw horses & a piece of ply, and got to work! here’s the definition of sumato:

Sfumato (Italian: [sfuˈmaːto], English: /sfuːˈmɑːtoʊ/) is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane.

i was missing this in making the 117 watercolors in my 2020 watercolors series. as well, i was missing the possibiltyof blending the colors & painting into fresh wet paint. i have accumulated lots of beautiful oil colors, which take years to harden & become useless, and many many brushes designed for oil painting. plus, working on this small a scale doesn’t present a problem for my still healing shoulder.

as a late lunch, i made myself a bowl of walnuts and local fruit with goat yoghurt.

tomorrow morning we’’ll be taking our trail walk. if we feel up for it, we’ll go about 1/2 hour further than normal, to a little bridge which, once you cross it, is the gateway to the rest of the trail leading up to the lake, which is about another 3 hour hike. we’ve been wanting to hike up to that lake for a couple of years and i’m hoping this will be the year we do it!

watercolor 118 / impromptu white-over / further work on yesterdays watercolor 117 /  by Philip Tarlow

SITE-9-3-20 watercolor 118.jpg

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 /  by Philip Tarlow

at work today on watercolor 117

at work today on watercolor 117

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.

stretching the 26 x 78” canvas today

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 /  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”

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

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

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 /  by Philip Tarlow

dp home in carbondale

view from the deck towards the river

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.