back from boulder/denver / watercolor-collage 133 and 134 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 134 7x14” at 3pm

3:14 PM: once i got settled and felt in a state to resume work on my watercolor/collages, i made 2 new ones. i changed the format i had been using in #130, 131,&132. i found a half used block of light weight watercolor paper in a 7x14” pad. that seemed convenient, so that’s what i’ll be using until i go through all the remaining sheets in the pad or i get tired of that & move on to something else.

i overruled my choice on #130, 131 and 132 to not allow any of the collaged pieces to overlap, but actually the only paper overlapping are a couple of pieces of tracing paper i used to push back a few of the passages that i deemed too strong. the other departure is that i used watercolor, crayon and graphite, especially noticeable in #134. i like the play between the marks on the collaged pieces and the marks i made.

if the first 129 watercolors in the 2020 watercolors series are an abstraction or simplification of my plein air gouaches and oils, these take it one step further. i’m getting ever closer to laying this out in a small book, which as yet is still in my head. interestingly, i learned just a few days ago that mondrian considered himself a naturalist painter. he began his career making studies of nature, and thought of his later work, with which most of us are familiar, just a next step in his process, but still based upon prototypes found in the natural world.

watercolor/collage 133 14 x 7”

the label from the comté we got yesterday

11:12 PM: yesterday was a 12 hour day; leaving for boulder at 8am, we returned about 8pm, exhausted. my two dentist appointments went well, and while i was at the dentist mikela was able to get most of our food shopping done at whole foods & trader joe’s. then we went together to costco to complete our shopping, trying to be a quick as possible and have the least exposure to any possible virus floating about. found one of my very favorite cheeses: comté, made in france and imported by costco. you can only find it at certain times of the year, and it’s one of the finest cheeses.

i’m going to try and switch gears, get out of my post boulder shock and get to work on something new. i’ll update as soon as that happens.

in the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about this cheese, how and where it’s made, read this. and as you will see, cheese making can be an art form; PROCESS is everything, as i keep pointing out in my blog posts.

The production and aging of Comté is founded on the ideas of partnership: between the earth and the farmer, the farmer and the cheesemaker and the cheesemaker and the affineur. All are invested in the end result: the highest quality Comté cheese.

Comté is made in a unique manner: milk is delivered from the farm to fruitières daily, where cheese is made. It is then passed on to affineurs who age the cheese a minimum of 4 months, up to several years. Each person along the supply chain is paid a premium for high quality cheese, a business model pioneered by Alix Jacquemin in 1860. In 1886 his daughter married Louis Rivoire. To this day, the name Rivoire represents highest quality Comté. Five generations later, the Rivoire family, along with 400 milk producers, 25 fruitières, and 3 head cellarmen, produces 110,000 Comté wheels for worldwide distribution every year.

At the core of Rivoire-Jacquemin’s business is an unparalleled expertise of quality selection and traceability. We know the exact origin of each cheese, the farmer, the maker and the micro-terroir. Breaking away from the traditional barrel ripening process, Alix Jacquemin invented the cave ripening. Today, our first rate maître affineur (cave master) supervises each and every wheel with constant care: salting, rubbing, flipping, and monitoring the aging process.

Time is key to our success. Rivoire Jacquemin prefers using the slower traditional method: requiring a traditional know-how, unlike our competition who favor large scale production and a standardized product with no personality.

Rivoire Jacquemin is the only affineur that rubs Comté with Guérande sea salt. In our 38 cellars, we only use spruce planks from Jura to shelve our wheels. State of the art thermostat technology allows our cellar managers to fine-tune temperature and humidity to optimize ripening. We grade each cheese to determine which are for sale aged 4 to 6 months and which are destined to be aged for up to 30 

watercolor/collage 132 gets cut into pieces /  by Philip Tarlow

WATERCOLOR/COLLAGE 132, 19 1/4x191/4” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4:08 PM: so if you read yesterdays blog, you’ll recall that i wasn’t yet sure about cutting up watercolor-collage 131 today. i did.

it had beautiful bits, but the composition was a little choppy. after cutting it up, i plac3s the pieces in a cardboard box, along with other pieces of cut-up paper, maps and paper palettes. i spent the day selecting and attaching many of those pieces to the square, white, acid-free cardboard surface.

i won’t be in my studio tomorrow, so lets see how i feel about what i did tuesday morning. then i’ll make my decision as to whether it’s resolved, or needs more work.

watercolor/collage 132 is in the sprirt of 130 and 131. there is no overlapping, as there was in the last series of collages i made. the  whimsicality of the composition, which has so much breathing space, belies the precision of the underlying architecture. the curvilinear shapes in the pieces of maps, which indicate changes of altitude, echo the shapes of the cut out pieces of watrecolors, paper palettes, etc. plant and animal life can be projected onto these shapes, individually and in concert with one another.

morning light / a new day in my studio about to begin continuing watercolor/collage 131 / coffee: a new taste /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 132 as it looked a few minutes ago, when i stopped working for the day.

1:36 PM: after moving all that stuff around to clear space in the studio, then working more on watercolor/collage 132, i ran out of steam. i’m undecided as to whether or not to cut this one up so i can use the pieces in my next collage and i’m too fuzzy right now to make that kind of decision, so i think i’ll just leave it as is, take it back to the house & look at it tonight, and make my decision tomorrow morning when i’m fresh. it’s rather early to stop working, but you have to listen to your body. so mikela will come over soon & together we’ll do more work on reorganizing the studio.

at work moments ago on watercolor/collage 132

1 PM: after doing some re-organizing in the studio, in prep for a much bigger re-org that will take place over the next month or so, i dove in to watercolor/collage 132, which i started yesterday. once i’m done, i’ll decide whether or not this is a candidate for being cut up to use in a collage. that should happen in the next hour or so.

that’s matcha tea you see in the white cup; an essential part of my daily process, which follows on the heals of my coffee. todays cup was something of an experiment. i had been getting 1 pound at a time of rather expensive yemeni roasted beans from a company that specializes in these exquisite beans from the birthplace of coffee. they are hard to access and thus rather expensive. i had been mixing one teaspoon of them in with the ethiopian unroasted beans, which i get from sweetmarias.com and roast myself. i decided to give that a break and use the ethiopian beans exclusively, creating a different mix every morning. the kick we get from including even that small amount of the yemeni beans is being replaced, as mikela commented this morning, by a more subtle flavor, which we both like a lot.

9:07 AM: as i prepare to go to my studio and start work on a new watercolor/collage, i see the morning light flooding our house and give gratitude. the quality of clear, warm fall light here in crestone/baca is unique; the silence profound.

tuning in to this environment is an inseparable part of the paintings i make every day, which could not be done anywhere else. as well, we are surrounded daily by people of different traditions meditating round the clock, culturing the silence of this place, adding silence to the existing silence creating a cacophony of silence, entering your body and fine tuning it’s frequencies second by second. this new series of watercolor/collages reflect that rumbling, silent cacophony.

another look at watercolor/collage 131/ checking out my collage & watercolor areas / creek oil 2 re-adjusted /  by Philip Tarlow

7:34 PM: i’ve been looking at creek oil 2, which hangs in our living room since we placed it there a few weeks ago. i think it deserves a re-adjusted photograph that captures more of it’s subtlties. so i reshot it a few hours ago and just now re-adjusted the colors. here it is:

2020 creek oil 2, 26x78” oil on linen

2:18 PM: we’re back from our walk, during which i took a fall, for a change. this time it was my left knee and right palm that were injured. we have to get to the P.O. in town before it closes at 3:45. so it’s not going to be a painting day. i’m eager to continue along this new path however, and i should be able to get to my studio early tomorrow. i’m liking the process i’ve developed of starting a new creek inspired watercolor, then cutting it into curvilinear pieces and using those pieces in addition to the many other pieces and scraps of paper i have on my work table.

BELOW: on the left you see my collaging space, with a blank piece of white board where i’ll be creating a new one tomorrow morning. on the left of this photo are pieces of the watercolors i recently cut into curvilinear pieces. on the lower right you can make out a curled up piece of map. on the upper left, you can see a piece of painted watercolor paper showing the areas where i cut pieces of it out to use in a recent watercolor/collage.

and on the right, my watercolor space, directly opposite the collaging area, where you see me just a few moments ago, working on a new watercolor destined to be cut into pieces tomorrow. i’ll continue work on that tomorrow.

it’s important to me that you see this: the actual process of an actual artist at work, in the thick of it!

8:13 AM: after looking at watercolor/collage 131 last night and this morning, both mikela and i are feeling differently about it. for the moment, it will remain as is and when we get back from our walk, i’ll start a new one. so all that i held forth on yesterday about how it’s an example of an unsuccessful composition now goes out the window!

this is a drawing from a 1998 sketch book i was looking through yesterday. more when we’re back from our walk.

STARTING WATERCOLOR-COLLAGE 131 /  by Philip Tarlow

6:06 PM: today followed a similar pattern of work as yesterday. i made a small creek inspired watercolor, then cut it into small curviliniar pieces and put them together with pieces of other previous watercolors, maps and other pieces of (mostly painted) cut up pieces of paper and paper palletes. i prepared a 19 1/2” square piece of board and set to work.

the problem i ran into was that i was, on some level, trying to re-create what i did yesterday. we all know that doesn’t work. so the result doesn’t yet reflect the certaintly and freshness of watercolor/collage 130. id o like it however, and it doesn’t need a lot to get there. but if you compare the two, BELOW,

it’s a goodway of contemplating the question:” what makes a composition work?”

BELOW: yesterdays watercolor 130 on the left, and todays watercolor 131 on the right. in todays composition, the discreet pieces of paper glued to the surface appear to be flying haphazardly through space. nothing terrible about that, but it’s not singing harmoniously, which was my intention. your eye goes to one piece, then on to the next, etc. whereas in watercolor 130, your eye experiences one harmonious flow, then begins to discern the punctuation points, where suddenly a drum beat kicks in, or the horns take over from the strings. i love comparing visual art with music.

so can i correct this while maintaining the spare aesthetic i’m currently cultivating?

trail walk / the demon queller toad / continuing watercolor 130 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 130 as it looked moments ago

10-13-20 watercolor 130.jpg

3:58 PM: i cut watercolor 130 into small pieces and am reassembling it as a collage, including pieces of maps & other pieces of paper containing images. this time, my intent is to not have any of the collaged pieces overlap each other, so that whatever i glue down to the surface will remain undisturbed. this is making me much more conscious of every move, while maintaining the randomness of the image being created by the collective pieces. i’m leaving it as you see it, and will resume tomorrow morning.

5:17 PM: after bringing it back to the house and looking at it with mikela, i decided that this one is resolved. unless i wake up with a different perspective, i’m going to leave it as is and start something new. i just now put it on my home page.

here’s watercolor 130 as it looked yesterday, before i cut it up. it’s easy to identify the pieces i used today. i’ll be using more pieces in a future watercolor collage.

1:50 PM: this is something i came across while having my morning coffee.

one of the photos i shot this morning on our trail walk

1:41 PM this morning we walked up the trail for an hour, encountering many beautiful views of the creek. i’m going to print a few out after i finish working on watercolor 130.

stay tuned for updates on watercolor 130

looking back to may,2019: watercolor 11 stage 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

at work moments ago on watercolor 130

DETAIL of watercolor 130

2:44 PM: in a few minutes we’re going to try & take an afternoon walk up the trail. i say try because we usually go in the cool of the morning. right now we’re in a transitional phase, and the current temperature of 65°F is right on the edge of what’s a comfortable walking temperature. we’ll see. this allows us to have our morning work time without interruption.

i started a new watercolor, working very slowly and leaving lots of white space. thus far, there’s no collaging; we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

watercolor 130, 10 x 13” as it looked moments ago

2020 watercolor 11 stage 1, 5/17/19 13x20”

8:17 AM: i was just browsing through photos in my 2020 watercolors folders and came upon this image. it was shot on may 17, 2019 when i was working on one of the earlier watercolors in the series: watercolor 11.

i was struck by it’s sparse elegant beauty, making me long for times past. and this was only 17 months ago! another, very personal indication of how our experience of time has shifted since the start of the covid pandemic.

this stage of the painting reveals an innocence and sense of discovery. i had just launched into this series, as a direct result of the tendonitis in my right shoulder, precipitated by the repeated stress of movements associated with the creation of large oil paintings. and i was still re-discovering the possibilities of painting in watercolor. i had made hundreds of mostly landscape watercolors during my 15 years in greece, and this re-engagement was allowing me to experiment with new ways of using the medium.

watercolor-collage 129 tweaked this morning / horses appear outside house /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 129 after re-sizing & tweaking

12:52 PM: last night i couldn’t look at watercolor/collage 129 too long before deciding to divide it into two pieces. after tweaking this one, i’m very glad i made that move.

while there are very beautiful passages, there was way too much going on in the larger horizontal version and it was becoming a struggle trying to make it work as a composition. too many layers of collage, too many directions for the confused eye to make sense of. the addition of the small but significant red half moon shape with the white dots on the upper right sealed the deal for me, creating a nice counterpoint for the eye on the upper right.

8:10 AM: about 6am this morning it was just starting to get light when i looked out the bedroom window and saw an animal i couldn’t recognize at first. we’ve never seen horses on our property, much less right outsied the bedroom window, so it took a moment for me to realize that i was looking at not one, but two fine looking horses grazing outside our house!

they remained for about 1/2 hour and then they were gone, as if they had never existed. fortunately, i captured them with my phone. we’ll ask around and try to find out if anyone is missing two horses in our neighborhood. there are stables a few miles away…..

watercolor-collage 129 transformed / creek oils then and now /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 129 at 4pm after a change to the lower left, breaking up that brown shape

watercolor/collage 129 at 2pm

watercolor/collage 129 at 2pm

1:58 PM: an interesting day. while going back and forth to my i-mac and with the sound on full, i totally re-worked 2020 watercolor/collage 129. i was watching a 2+ hour long live performance of my son dimitri’s theatrical production of his grandfather karagatsi’s novel, yungerman. he decided, since all theaters are closed at least until the end of the year, to create this live performance, which was watched in real time online by over 1,800 people around the world.'

so back and forth, back and forth, evaluating the play whilst evaluating the progress of the painting. only one small corner remains of yeasterdays version, as you can see in the photos BELOW: left: yesterdays version; only the leaves on the lower right and the passage on the upper right remain pretty much as they were. remain

these two paintings hang on the north wall of hour living room. the one on the left was painted in 2001; the one on the right, a few weeks ago. in 2001 we were taking walks up the creek just as we do now. i would come back to my studio with photos i had shot and drawings and gouache paintings i had made, and translate them into these larger oils on linen. many of those larger oils were painted on a tinted ground, as was this one. that simply means that i went over the white canvas with a tan-ish color, which i left thoroughly dry before starting to paint. this is a technique i learned during my 15 years in greece, and it derives from the byzantine icon painting techniques. the painting on the right was done just a few weeks ago, and benefits from many of the lessons i learned while making all those watercolors.

starting a new watercolor to be collaged over / /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 129 13x20” at the end of my painting day today

2:23 PM: we’re having guests for a deck dinner in a few hours, so i’m wrapping up for the day to go back & help set the table, etc. as i predicted, i took watercolor/collage 129 to a very different place than where it was in stage 1, BELOW. pieces of maps have appeared, pieces of earlier unsuccessful watercolors. the green bit at the top right is a remnant of some paintings 2 kids made here in my studio a few years ago. just below that are the last remnants of the cube drawings i mentioned yesterday, that mikela had asked me to make for the actionlab 360 educational produce we’ve been developing.

it seems, when i break up an image, it gives permission for my individualized marks to appear more readily and with greater purity. and, as i’ve often said, the distillation of rockness and creekness sings a very different song than a more photographic image. and the further i travel down this path, the more i deeply know myself. just as your features change and ripen over the years, your mark making does as well.

watercolor/collage 129 stage 1

12:48 PM: i started this new watercolor/collage 129, which for the moment is just a watercolor. collaging will commence shortly.

it has some beautiful elements, but in my current state of mind and spirit, it’s asking to become something beyond a branch, water and some rocks.