what, more work on 2020 watercolor-collage 125? /  by Philip Tarlow

2020 watercolor/collage 125 today

DETAIL

2:35 PM: mikela took a bad fall on the way down from our trail walk yesterday & is pretty bruised & in pain, so i did some morning work on 2020 watercolor/collage 125 and came back to the house to keep her company. i was pretty sure yesterday that this one was resolved. but when i brought it back to the studio this morning & placed it on an easel, it called out for more. so i added even more layers of collage to an already collage-heavy little 10x13” piece.

i thought i’d surprise mikela and make some tapioca pudding to bring back to the house. but i mis-read the directions and dumped the whole packet of granules into the milk instead of 1/4 cup. a gooey mess ensued & the whole thing ended up being flushed down and almost clogging the toilet.

BELOW: left: yesterdays version of 2020 watercolor/collage 125 right: todays version

evolution of watercolor-collage 125 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:35 PM: about 30 minutes ago i whited over 2020 creek oil 2. something similar happened with 2020 creek oil 1 at about this stage.

2020 creek oil 2 just after having painted over it with diluted titanium white, just enough so that the underlying layer is faintly visible

watercolor/collage 125 at 1 pm today

1:12 PM: i did some more work on watercolor/collage 125 this morning; here’s the evolution over the past few days. i think this latest today i the most interesting and successful, but i have to sit with it more…in case you hadn’t noticed, i flipped it 180° today

now i’m going to put my attention on 2020 creek oil 2, which i worked on yesterday

2020 creek oil 2, stage 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 125 10 x 13”

3:56 PM: thjis is watercolor/collage 125, which happened today while taking short breaks from 2020 creek oil 2. i’ll see once i get it back to the house how it hold up. seems like it might be too strong, but i’m enjoying looking at it! the red stripe at the top left is a piece of a photo i was using last year for my ano kato series paintings, of a student walking down the school hallway, seen from an upper floor.

2:40 PM: i’ve added some strong cobalt blue shapes and green leaf shapes, given more definition to the log, provided the upper middle with more of a background look and whited over some of the underlying yellow. she’s starting to clear her throat in preparation for a song, but it hasn’t yet emerged. time for a break until tomorrows session. i imagine some level of simplification will take place, but right now i don’t anticipate a 180° flip, as i had predicted earlier.

2020 creek oil 2 as it looked at 2:15PM

1:21 PM: and here’s stage 3. grey forms have broken up that yellow, and reddish grey rock-like forms have appeared.

2020 creek oil 2 as it looked moments ago

12:23 PM: i just did some more work on 2020 creek oil 2. so this is stage 2, to be continued in a few moments. the yellow will be reduced and no longer dominate and my guess is that, after a bit more working into it, a 180º flip may occur.

2020 creek oil 2 as it looked moments ago

look what i saw as i walked from our house to the studio yesterday! / what will today in my studio bring? /small change to watercolor 124 / starting work on 2020 creek oil 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

stage 1, 2020 creek oil 2

6:40 PM: this is stage 1 of 2020 creek oil 2, which i worked on early this afternoon. it’s a preliminary sketch, realyy, and will undergo significant changes tomorrow. the deep red on the right is called persian rose, made by my favorite oil paint manufacturer: williamsburg originating from the williamsburg neighborhood of brooklyn, where i was born and spent the first 5 years of my life.

2:34 PM: well, here i am again in my beautiful, quiet, excellently lit studio! i’ve been looking at the newly stretched 26 x 78” canvas ever since i stretched it sometime last week, i think, (time is altered with covid, as you may have noticed). i made a change to watercolor/collage 124, which i started work on 9/22. in comparing the two, BELOW, you’ll notice a new blue in the central quadrant. it breaks up the grey, but more importantly, injects whizz into the composition, letting your eye know where it stands in this chaos we’re experiencing

there are lots of these on our property; i just never noticed them. they are very small and hug the earth.

8:38 AM: this is cactus-like, but not a cactus. perhaps my friend barb will know; i’ll send it to her. is that a scintillating red, or what? it will likely show up in a painting soon.

we’re awaiting a big change in the weather tomorrow night. our record breaking high temperatures will give way to possible snow showers sunday night, with a high temperature monday of only 57° F. todays high temperature, on the other hand, may be as high as 80° F, which would be a record high.

i might possibly start painting that 26 x 78” canvas i stretched a few week ago; we’ll see. my air compressor gave out after years of service, so until i can get a new one, i’ve gone back to the old tried and true technique of hammering tacks, which i actually kind of like. using the staple gun with the compressor isa bit too violent. whereas using a staple gun without the aid of a compressor is too hard on my hand and arm.

drawings from an old sketchbook i found yesterday /  by Philip Tarlow

2:34 PM: yesterday i ran across an old sketchbook with drawings form 2016-17-18. i chose a few to post here. i have many such sketchbooks filled with drawings, mostly from our travels. over the next few months, i’d like to begin documenting them, possibly for a publication.

TOP ROW: dan/ 2 starbucks drawings

MIDDLE ROW: colorado college drawing/sw airlines drawing/manio in nyc (my grand daughter)

BOTTOM ROW: 2 metropolitan museum drawings

more work on watercolor-collage 123 and 124 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor-collage 123, 13 x 20” moments ago, at the end of my painting day

3:48 PM: i think the work i did today on watercolor-collage 123 made a significant difference, and may have brought it to completion. the entire bottom segment of the composition has gone, and, in part as a result of this it now breathes. a couple of important touches or red have appeared, as well as a little yellow on a couple of the branches.  it’s not much, but enough to enliven the image and play handsomely off the blues and greens. in addition, and just as importantly, a scrap of note paper written by someone who’s handwriting i don’t recognize, provides an important space. this scrap was sitting in my pile of papers destined to be used in collages.

BELOW on the left you see yesterdays state. the composition was almost split in two by the passage at the bottom.

as well, i did more work on the smaller, 10x13” watercolor-collage 124, which is by no means resolved, but has progressed since i started it 2 days ago.

tomorrow morning we’ll take our trail walk, so i’ll get a later start.

starting the day earlier / 2012 paris metro drawing / 9-23-20 watercolor-collage next stage of yesterdays watercolor 123 /  by Philip Tarlow

stage 2 of watercolor 123, which i started work on yesterday

4:16 PM: i just completed work on stage 2 of the watercolor i began work on yesterday: watercolor 123.

watercolor/collage 124 13 x 20 “

DETAIL: watercolor/collage 124

1:59 PM: i had a crazy night, with ominous dreams mostly connected to our current political/health environment.

i’m moving ahead with this new process of collaging over past problematic watercolors, sometimes working into them with watercolor and gouache. i have a big box full of a variety of papers: maps gifted to me by my dear friend dan; old paper palettes; old pieces of note paper with, in this case, writing i don’t recognize; pieces of cut-up old watercolors…

the collages i made 8 months ago, in january, 2020, were somewhat more muted in tone. as well as more predictable compositionally. you can compare the two BELOW. on the left: 1/11/20 collage, and on the right: watercolor/collage 124, just completed moments ago.

SITE-2012 Paris Metro drawing.jpg

8:50 AM: i’ll be in my studio in about an hour, and should be able to start my day a lot earlier than yesterday. in the mean time, here’s a drawing i made on the paris metro in 2012. who knows when we’ll be able to get back to paris again. i miss making these travel drawings, including the series i made at coffee shops in edwards and carbondale, colorado.

TRAIL WALK / starting watercolor/collage 123 /  by Philip Tarlow

4:37 PM: it’s hard to get up steam after we take our morning trail walk and i arrive in my studio so late. that said, i did start, albeit tentatively, watercolor 123, and cut up and began re-arranging the pieces of an earlier watercolor i wasn’t happy with. that’s what you see BELOW, and tomorrow morning i’ll take these further with fresh morning energy.

3:02 PM: we took our trail walk this morning, and these are some of the photos i shot, some of which i will be referencing for new paintings. as we walked, the thought occurred to me, which i’ve had in the past, that i should review my blog posts and make a selection for a small book. i have to ask squarespace whether it’s possible to extract all the posts in one fell swoop, so i don’t have to scroll through them all.

i’m about to launch into watercolor 123 and will post pics as soon as they become available.

revisioning watercolor 44 / EVENING SKIES /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 44 as it looked moments ago

4:25 PM: i go to my studio earlier than ever, but wandered about like a lost shoe for hours till i could get up steam. of course i learned that mikela had a similar experience, which made me feel better.

i’m currently choosing from my 2020 watercolor series and re-visioning ones that i feel could use it. watercolor 44 was a candidate, and here’s where it’s at right now.

BELOW is the before and after. you might ask what was wrong with it? i liked it better the way it was!

my answer: too predictable, with no saving grace. i mean, this is one of many with the same composition, based on one of my creek photos. but it just doesn’t sing. i know i keep saying that about various paintings; either it sings or it doesn’t. but look a the new one; just when your mind thinks you’re going to get more water, oops, you get a piece of rock! just when you think you’re looking at a tree trunk, ooops, you get a map of the netherlands! leaves emerge from clouds, painting turns to drawing and foreground and background tumble about like a couple making passionate love. it breathes! it sings! are you convinced yet?

and that spot of yellow….what can you say about that? it anchors the whole f—king painting!

7:29 PM: this evening as we had our dinner on the deck, the skies indicated coming changes, with possible afternoon rain over the next few days.

THIS EVENINGS SKIES

a 1972 athens gouache / continued work on watercolor 121 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 121 at 4:15pm today

3 PM: watercolor 121 has gone through a number of stages today, mostly involving the use of collaged elements. once i turned it upside down, it began making more sense compositionally. when it started getting too busy, i introduced more white space. when it started out yesterday, there was abundant white space, but it was lacking in staccato rhythm. too predictable. it may be that the introduction of that orange-yellow shape in the center allowed it to begin singing. getting rid of those concentric blue circles, which were ripples in the water, seemed like a sacrifice, but they ended up being a distraction. likewise the log was too loggy and needed to be broken up so that it could join the band. harkening back to the collages i made last year, a sliver of a map of the netherlands also joined the party.

BELOW: 3 of the stages watercolor 121 went through today

12:31 PM: i continued work on watercolor 121. i decided after looking at it last night and this morning that it would greatly benefit from a few collaged elements. as i was working, i flipped it upside down, and liked it far better that way. this has happened numerous times before/ it shifts my set perception of what the painting is in my mind and moves it towards what it could be. clearly, this holds true for ourselves as well; our persona. an abstracted creek painitng has morphed into a mysterious event.

BELOW: watercolor 121 yesterday (left) and just moments ago

watercolor 120 9/18/20

7:49 AM: this 1972 gouache on paper hangs in our house. it’s the view out my tsudio window in athens, in the direction of the tower of the winds, but looking down at the street. there i could see kyrios yannis, who’s self created job it was to park cars in the neighborhood. next to him is his cat. he was a gentle soul.

what i noticed when i shot a photo of this little painting yesterday, is that my current sense of space in painting, for example in watercolor 120, painted a few days ago, is present even back then.