more work on watercolor/collage 144 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 144 at 3pm

3:09 PM: well, as promised, i definitely made some changes. i have no idea what just happened, but here’s what it looks like now, and we’ll see tonight and in the morning what, if anything, is next. BELOW: the earlier state, this morning, and on the right, what it looks like right now.

watercolor/collage 144 as it looked after working on it this morning

1:52 PM: i wasn’t satisfied with yesterdays watercolor/collage 144, so i did more work on it. quite a bit, actually. it’s really a different painting with the same bones. it’s more engaging to look at; there’s so much more going on! but right now as i look at it, i feel somethjing more needs to happen, probably in the direction of simplification. it needs more white space. and as usualy, i have to be willing to sacrifice bits that i like in favor of the whole composition. i’ll post again towards the end of my working day.

watercolor/collage 143 / 144 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 144 at the end of my working day. as you can see from the earlier image below, a piece of yellow paper has been collaged.

3:02 PM: hold on a minute….not so fast! at the very end of the day, as often happens, i added something to watercolor/collage 144: a small collaged bit if paper that i painted yellow this morning, knowing i’d need it for something. from a distance of 15 feet, as i’m viewing it on the easel, what i did, insignificant as it may seem, has made a big difference. the piece is, at the same time, more integrated and it pops more. the log was a bit too monochromatic. since it’s now the strongest color in the composition, the eye more easily appreciates the sensitivity of the grey brush marks, and the reds and blues have something up there to play off.

watercolor 144 12x16”

2:41 PM: i got a second wind a while ago and made watercolor 144. technically, it’s not really a watercolor. it was painted with traditional chinese black ink & crayon. my intention was to make marks that i could cut up and use later. but for now i’m not going to cut into it. i like it’s raw power.the red crayon marks beneath the branch are beautiful plants we see in the creek, usually right beneath the shore. the dance with the current and stand out dramatically in the creek waters.

watercolor/collage 143 16x20” crayon, ink, watercolor & collage on board

12:28 PM: this morning i got an early start so i could have time to pick up some fresh organic ginger & tumeric from elephant cloud market in town. lately, it’s rare for me to get started before 10am. once i finished my breakfast, i started my day bu making marks in black & white. chinese ink on paper, using brush and wooden pen. i cut them up to use in my next watercolor/collage. of all the ones i’ve done lately, i think this displays the highest level of certainty and the clearest dense of direction. limited collaging is successfully merged with drawing in crayon. i’ll try my best not to mess with this one, and let it breathe.

a new day /  by Philip Tarlow

6:08 PM: just back from our trail walk. the creek at the trailhead looks different every time we walk the trail. today, our recent near record cold nightime temperatures created striking ice formations, peppered with the still visible orange fall leaves.

the creek at the head of the tashi gomang stupa trail as it looked today at 3:30 PM

watwercolor/collage 142 at the end of my working day

2:04 PM: we’ll be walking up to the stupa at 3, so i’m stopping early. now, if you look at how i started the day, with the watercolor you see below, you may be shocked at where i’m at now. i did say i was feeling it was almost time to cut that watercolor up, but i wasn’t really expecting that would happen so soon after i posted. the only two pieces of what i did earlier that are included are on the upper left and the lower right. i love how spare it is, with just enough marks and colors to create a rich visual/emotional experience. i stand on the shoulders of my predecessors, who have left a trail of breadcrumbs for me. for us. now is then. then is now. from the very first marks our species made, the very first colors we found ways of making.

12:35 PM: i’ve been working on this new watercolor 142 all morning.feel to me like it’s almost time to cut it into pieces and play with them. it’s based on some photos i shot a few years ago of a family hanging out on the grass in alamosa following a public event there

at work just now on watercolor 142

10:48 AM: i feel a sense of renewal today. lets see what i do.

in the mean time, here are a few images from a flash drive i was just reviewing.

top row: 2 new at the time paintings, 2015, my studio in 2015, with an ano kato painting i was working on, which is a view of MOMA

bottom row: ano kato painting hanging in our house and on the right, a 2004 watercolor of andros

continuation of yesterdays re-work / starting watercolor/collage 141/sunset today /  by Philip Tarlow

5:48 PM: sunset, an hour ago

4:45 PM: from our east facing living room window

watercolor/collage 141 at 3:30 PM.

3:37 PM: just now, watercolor 141 became watercolor/collage 141. i added a few collaged elements, which, if you compare it with the earlier state, BELOW, brings it into alignment with the current state of my aesthetic.

revised watercolor 13x10”

2:08 PM: i continued modifications to the watercolor, which has an unknown number in the series, it now has a kind of festive atmosphere, with what appears to be a frontal view of a horses head in the center. so maybe it’s his birthday? it’s playful and fun to look at, with it’s many patterns and a few realist hints of tree trunks, grasses, leaves and water. i place it temporarily on our bedroom wall and see what it’s like to wake up to. the new owner will doubtless create their own story of what’s going on here. it’s a painterly statement which takes my recent experiments a step further in my ongoing exploration of 2020 mark making. it rests on the work and accomplishments of my predecessors; the artists, living and not, i admire and study. sometimes i imagine what one of them, like 18th century master ike taiga, would say if they could see it. i suspect he’d get it.

i took periodic breaks and started a new one: watercolor 141, 13x20.” in this one, i’m riffing on a photo i shot of a log on a recent trail walk, integrating it with a different view of the creek.

as yet, there’s no collaging. but that may start happening tomorrow, depending on how i feel about what i’ve done when i look at it critically tonight.

and as all this unfolds, what i read in amazon beaming the previous night pervades my consciousness. the mayoruna tribe have an unexpected visitor: loren mcintyre, hwo unexpectedly joins them in their jounet back to the beginning. HIGHLY recommended! you can find it on amazon for under $10.00. we first learned of it about 15 years ago, and last week i felt drawn to re-read it.

stage 1 of watercolor 141, 13x20” watercolor on arches paper, fabricated in france

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