re-work of a watercolor/collage / drive home from salida /  by Philip Tarlow

6:07 PM: i had my foot appointment (capsulitis was diagnosed as causing the severe pain when i walk), we did some food shopping, got our flu shots and drove home. as we came over poncha pass and entered the san luis valley, we witnessed this breathtakingly magnificent sunset.

11:48 AM: it was snowing as i entered the studio this morning. we’re driving to salida soon, so this will be brief. i didn’t have the time to start something new, so i did some work on a previous water/collage, done in the past few months. i allowed my shifting aesthetic, based upon what i’ve learned over the past few weeks, to simplify and accent this one, which i believe has become a lot more interesting. even beautiful!.

11/9/20 rework of a watercolor/collage 10x13”

a wild stormy night / new ano kato 8 /  by Philip Tarlow

new ano kato 8 19 3/4 x15 1/2” watercolor, crayon & collage on paper

3:23 PM: i was awoken at 1:30 this morning by the howling of the wind and the heavy hitting our south facing bedroom windows. as a kid, mikela actually slept through a hurricane that drove a large piece of wood through her bedroom window, so this storm did not wake her. it definitely sounded like full on gale force winds, and i went upstairs to make sure everything was ok up there, which it was.

so i wasn’t in the best of shape when i got to the studio. i worked on this new ano kato 8 all day, and right now i’m so tired i don’t really know what to make of it. so, as usual, i’ll bring it back to the house & gaze at it with mikela.

our sense of relief at the electoin results is somewhat tempered by our fear of what t might do during the next 76 days, until the new president & vp are sworn in. i’m too bleary eyed to write more, so i’ll sign off for now.

morning light / approaching storms / todays studio process /  by Philip Tarlow

new ano kato 7 20x13” watercolor on arches watercolor paper

1:44 PM: as the wind picks up and the storm clouds move in, i’m warm & cozy here in my studio. i painted new ano kato 7, based on a photo i shot a few days ago from our top floor looking down at mikela watering our favorite flowering plant. i have, thus far, resisted the urge to “fill in the blanks,” reminding myself that i’m making a painting, not filling in a coloring book. you laugh, but that’s how most of us are wired, based on early experiences in school. i had no desire to add any collage.

undated watercolor 140

without doubt, this mornings news confirming the biden/harris win contributed to the up energy i felt as i began painting. i’d like to think that sense of a new beginning is part of the fresh energy of this one. symbolically the watering of a flowering plant that has been in bloom longer than any we’ve ever had, is fitting.

as i was searching through a batch of watercolors and collages in a box on my studio floor, i cam across this watercolor. it’s undated, but i know it falls within the range of the 2020 watercolors series. because i didn’t sign or date it, think i considered it unworthy at the time. but now, i like it a lot!

skies are darkening and the wind is gusting to 40mph, so i think i’ll wrap up for the day & go back to my sweetheart.

8 am: view across the valley to the west

8:24 AM: the clouds you see to the west will be moving across the san luis valley and should reach crestone/baca by late afternoon. tonight through monday night periods of rain and snow are predicted, with temperatures falling to near or below average for this time of year. so the prolonged period of above normal temperatures in the mid 60’s will end, and we’ll transition to what fall should look and feel like.

as i was preparing mikela’s morning coffee, the sun fell on this gaze painting hanging on our west living room wall.

i should get to my studio by about 10 or 10:30, and will post about todays process a bit later. i’ll likely start a new painting.

morning light falls on one of my gaze series paintings. click on the GAZE link in the drop down menu above so view the entire series.

new ano kato 7 /  by Philip Tarlow

at 2PM: new ano kato 7 13x20” watercolor and collage on arches watercolor pape

2:00 PM: as we continue to hold our breath, i had a topsy turvey morning, starting a watercolor using the heavier arches aquarelle paper, cut to 13x20” which are the dimensions of most of the 2020 watercolor series.

click on the dropdown menu titled 2020 watercolors to view over 100 of them.

DETAIL

BELOW you are looking at my east facing studio wall, with 9 of the recent pieces, including yesterdays new ano kato 6, top row second from left. the rest are part of my 2020 watercolor/collage series. what differentiates the new ano kato series is that i am attempting to integrate my creek inspired watercolors with the ano kat series, characterized by the fact that they are all views from above looking down, with the natural resulting foreshortening.

i started out the morning making a watercolor inspired by photos i shot on our october 2 trail walk. i wasn’t sure where it would go, but after an hour or so, i felt the need to collage a couple of figures viewed from above. they are the same figures i used in yesterdays piece, drawn from photos i shot sometime last year of teenage students eating & drinking at a friend’s house in alamosa. a section of a map and cutout pieces of creek inspired watercolors have been collaged on. the student on the left is pouring water into a glass from a bottle. the girl on the right, wearing a striking flowery dress, is reaching out for a glass. branches next to the creek form the architecture of the composition.

in gazing at this one from 20 feet away right now in my studio, that touch of green collaged to the left of the girl’s dress is a clincher. it’s a great example of why i use collage. it wouldn’t have occurred to me; but as i was working, i spotted that cut out piece of a creek watercolor and knew immediately where it needed to go.

we’ll see what tomorrow brings, and how i feel about what i did today in the morning, at which point we should know who won the election.

new ano kato 5 abandoned / made new ano kat 6 today. /  by Philip Tarlow

3:05 PM: sometimes you just have to let go of something. yesterdays new ano kato 5 was too buy, going in 8 different directions, so after spending a few minutes on it this morning, i declared it dead. it happens.

so i started a new one, which i’ll probably leave as is. it takes my envisioned integration of creek inspired marks with ano kato inspired marks a step further. i have to sometimes trick myself into simplicity, and this is one of those times. if you could have seen me working on this one, you might have said i was daft. i won’t say any more;

see what you think.

new ano kato 6 12x16” watercolor & collage on paper

remembering my 2006 solo show at skoufa gallery / continuing work on new ano kato 5 / sunset skies /  by Philip Tarlow

5:43 PM: today was the first day in a while that we had some clouds. as a result, we had more interesting skies at sunset. here are a few i shot moments ago.

as you know if you read my blog posts regularly, i love reflections, especially the dimensionality created by the superimposition of a reflection seen in our east facing window of the sunset as seen in our west facing windows, which is what you are seeing in these two photos.

i haven’t thus far made paintings inspired by these photos; that may be coming in the future.

new ano kato 5 12x16” watercolor, gouache, crayon & collage on hot pressed portofino watercolor paper

DETAIL of new ano kato 5

2:40 PM: i’ve reached my limit for today, plus i want to go back to the house early since mikela isn’t feeling well, and of course we want to watch early returns from the election. i spent all day working over the drawing i made yestarday for new ano kato 5. the initial drawing, now largely obscured by collaging and marks in gouache, crayon and conté, was inspired by photos i shot a while back, as i said yesterday, of a group of school kids in alamosa (50 miles south of crestone) preparing to go out on the river in little canoes. they were standing in the tall grasses bordering the river, dressed in colorful protective gear. when it began moving too far in the direction of description, i collaged over that passage. but the figures are still discernible. perhaps the most intact figure is that of the teenager with his back to us, in the center of the composition, with the backpack & red bandana. the seeds of what i’m doing can actually be seen in the 2006 painting in the front window of skoufa gallery, below.

in front of skoufa gallery at my solo exhibition, 2006

8:14 AM: these are photos from my 2006 solo exhibition at skoufa gallery, adjacent to kolonaki square, athens. with me here is the late andonis polemis, a hugely beloved figure in chora, on the island of andros, greece. we’re standing in front of a painting in oil on linen of andonis at his hand operated printing press, where he published the one and only newspaper on the island. his shop, next door, sold athenian newspapers as well, along with a variety of other small items. he loved riding his bike around town, as well as on the narrow roads outside town, where he often came perilously close to having an accident. once he fell off his bike and hurt his leg, and asked me at dinner that night to tell his wife erató that it happened when he fell off a ladder in the shop.

later this morning i’ll continue work on new ano kato 5, for which i began the drawing yesterday. i’ll probably return to the house a bit earlier than usual to watch the election returns with mikela. i predict a biden landslide.

so where do we go from here? / new ano kato 4 framed / starting drawing for new ano kato 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

new ano kato 4 in a temporary frame

starting the drawing for new ano kato 5

1:54 PM: i put new ano kato 4 in a temporary frame, which allows me to evaluate it far better. and now i can consider it resolved and am moving on to the drawing for new ano kato 5. this one is based on photos i shot a few years back, in the BC era (before Covid). some alamosa high school kids were preparing for an outing on the river. their getup was colorful, and seeing them against the backdrop of the river and the tall grasses inspired me to make a new painting. i won’t get past the drawing today though, as it’s our walking day & because of the earlier sunset, we need to leave in about half an hour if we want to get back while it’s still light. it’s still unusually warm for this date: 58.4°F with no wind, so the snow & ice that was on the trail will be almost completely gone, and we can dress lightly. we’ll go a bit further up today, and try to be exceedingly careful on the downhill; i can’t afford another fall!

7:44 PM: today we’re taking or every-other-day trail walk earlier, at 2:30 because the sun is setting at 5 now. so i need to get an early start in my studio. i’m excited by this latest directoin: basically combining my ano kato work with my creek inspired watercolor/collage series. i consider the two most recent paintings in this vein as successes. i do have more ano kato photos to use, but i’d prefer if there were more. i have to do a deeper search, because i know there are others. it’s just that there are over 34,000 iphone photos stored in the cloud and i don’t want to spend too much time searching.

in addition, i want to spend time each week researching ways of selling my paintings online. galleries aren’t doing much these days, but there’s a thriving market for paintings online. and with my CV, having my work in so many private, corporate & museum collections, my work should be attractive to potential buyers. there’s a sales portal right here on squarespece; i should start there & learn how to use it!

found this photo of me holding my grandson philip in andros when he was a baby while searching through my icloud photos. philip will turn 15 in july.

new ano kato 3 slightly revised and new ano kato 4 begun /  by Philip Tarlow

3 PM: but it’s really 4 pm; SO confusing!

new ano kato 3 following todays modification

the grey rectangular bit on the upper right of new ano kat 3 was bothering me, so i broke it up with 2 pieces of map, which solved the problem.

new ano kato 4 at 3pm

i started new ano kato 4, which is based on photos i shot the same day as yesterdays painting. this one also combines watercolor and collage, with the collaged elements including bits of maps and earlier cut up watercolor collages. the collaged piece on the lower right, where the girl’s hair should be, is interesting. looking at it, i think i may do another half hour or so on this new one.

oh, by the way, for any of you who grind your teeth at night, with resulting damage to the enamel and general stress on your jaw, you’ve got to get a night guard! it’s estimated that 10-20% of people suffer from what is termed bruxism, or night time grinding of your teeth. i was able to find a far more affordable night guard at js dental. they send you a mold, you bite into it, wait for it to harden & send it back. then they mail you your night guard. dentists charge $350 up to $850, whereas this costs just over $100. i had a very expensive one made by a dentist a few years ago, but after several crowns it no longer fit. this one is just as good, maybe better, and not only do i notice a marked improvement in the quality of my sleep, but the molar i was going to have a root canal on is far less painful and i may be able to avoid the root canal altogether.

new ano kato 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:38 PM: this new ano kato 3 watercolor-gouache/collage is based upon photos i shot at a friends house in alamosa. a bunch of kids were gathered eating & drinking food she’d prepared for them. i liked how the whole scene looked from above, so i stood on a chair and shot a few photos with my iphone. this morning as i examined the printout i made, my eye came across a cutout strip of an old oil palette intended for collaging. my gut said “use this.” so i did, as well as a cut out piece of a van gogh reproduction that’s been lying on my collaging table for quite a while, and a small piece of map. there was a pup on the scene, observing from a distance. got to wrap up now and get ready for our afternoon walk.

more later.

new ano kato 3 watercolor, gouache and collage on watercolor paper 12x16”