breakfast with vuillard / making the drawing for watercolor 147 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 147 at 3pm

3:14 PM: i began adding color to the drawing i made this morning. ABOVE is the current state of watercolor 147. the geometric elements from the MOMA photo interact with the biomorphic icy creek shapes and the 3 figures, creating a dance of positive & negative spaces. let’s see what happens tomorrow…

drawing for watercolor 147

10:52 AM: i’ll be taking a break at 11:30 & going back to the house for a zoom with our friends in germany, who will be returning to their crestone home here in the baca in a couple of months. so i got to the studio a tad earlier than usual and, after a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon & boursin on a toasted bagel, i began the drawing for watercolor 147, about which i’ve been thinking since last night. we both agreed that watercolor 146 was successfully resolved yesterday afternoon.

breakfast with vuillard

this drawing is based upon a photo by noah kalina: a view from above of figures in MOMA; my photo of figures viewed from above at my space gallery exhibition in denver and one of my recent photos of icy creek on the trail head leading up to tashi gomang stupa.

my vision has been evolving; it now involves layering views of figures from above and views of the creek.

tweaks to watercolor/collage 146 / something new? / our boulder trip yesterday /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 146 at the end of my painting day

DETAIL: watercolor/collage 146 following todays tweaks

3:06 PM: so i did, as i said earlier, make some changes to watercolor 146, but they were a bit more extensive than i had thought, and include a small area of collage, making this watercolor/collage 146. i can’t yet tell whether it’s now too crowded or whether what i did is an improvement. BELOW are the before & after; what do you think?

6:33am skies over the sangre de christo mountains, as we drove the 200 miles to boulder

last nights dinner

breakfast this morning in my studio

11:53 AM: yesterday we left for boulder at 6 am and returned at 4:30PM. a long day, which included a root canal & some costco food shopping. the skies were magnificent as we left crestone, and even more so upon our return. mikela got smoked salmon, bagels & boursin, amongst many other goodies. so this morning, my studio breakfast was delicious. last night, following our return, we had some of mikela’s famous veggie & lentil soup with a side of smoked salmon & boursin on crackers, accompanied by one of my favorite ipa’s.

i’m about to make a few tweaks to yesterdays watercolor. stay tuned and i’ll post when i’m done. then i may start a new one.

continuing watercolor 146 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 146 at 3:30pm

2:24 PM: aware of the importance of all the white space in this watercolor, i proceeded to work on it, doing a very little bit at a time. now i’ve stopped for the day, and will re-evaluate once we’re back from boulder, where i’ll have my root canal tomorrow.

BELOW: the before & after

i’m trying various maneuvers to heal my foot until i see the doc in denver in a month. the one i saw in salida may have given an accurate diagnosis, but his suggestions on how to deal with it were amateurish at best. the guy i made an appointment with in denver is rated as the best in his field. so until i can get in to see him, i’m trying ice, massage, taping big toe & one next to it together to allow the ligaments to relax & everything to align…..all stuff we found online in our search for solutions to capsulitis. i should have the new pair of boots recommended for this condition in about a week…

this morning i was reading my big vuillard book, and found this painting, BELOW, for which he used photos he shot from the first floor looking down. i learned that he used photography a lot for his work, and simply rearranged the composition and positioning to his liking, much as i’ve been doing.

STARTING WORK ON WATERCOLOR 146 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:34 PM: we’re walking to the stupa this afternoon, so i’m stopping a bit early. but i just ran out of steam anyway! i was able to schedule my root canal for wednesday, and my hope is that my energy will be a lot better following that procedure. i had thought i could avoid it, and last time i visited the periodontist he kind of left it up to me. it was better for a while, but now i’m taking tylenol every 4 hours & the pain is extreme.

enough about my teeth! i started watercolor 146 a while ago. it’s still at an early stage, and i’m riffing on the discoveries i made yesterday with watercolor 145. this one is based on a photo i shot in the then brand new acropolis museum in athens, as well as the photo i used yesterday of the high school girls sitting on the floor in the hallway, working on their laptops. a bit of creek water has entered the picture, and we’ll see how it evolves tomorrow.

watercolor 146, stage 1

gingerly continuing work on watercolor 145 /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 145 as it looked at the end of my painting day

2:37 PM: this morning i confronted one of those familiar situations: do more work on a very spare and elegantly simple composition, or just leave it alone?

my initial intention yesterday was to integrate creek views with this view from above of students sitting in a school hallway and working on their laptops. today however, i felt differently. i wanted to integrate a different view from above, of visitors to my exhibition at space gallery in denver. once i painted the larger figure wearing flip flops, i surrounded him with creek water, creating a surreal image of a guy seemingly walking on water. the second, smaller figure is holding a gallery info sheet, which he looks at as he walks across the gallery floor. thus, an unlikely meeting of 2 female junior high school students and 2 guys attending a gallery opening was created, juggling space/time in the process.

BELOW: the watercolor as i left it yesterday, and as it looks currently

yesterdays walk to the stupa / evaluating watercolor/collage 144 / starting watercolor 145 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:42 PM: but how could i leave my studio without a little collaging, right? so i made some changes to watercolor/collage 141. it needs more, but i’m leaving it like this for now. BELOW are the before & after images. the tree trunk was way too heavy & dark and in general the image needed breaking up. but it ain’t there yet. i’m not attached to a result on this one.

3:12 PM: i’m stopping for the day. taking it slow and easy. this is stage 2. as yet, aside from a few light grey ripples in the water, you can’t yet tell that there’s creek-scape happening simultaneously with the school hallway image. there 2 girls don’t suspect that they’re on the rocks! the blues, greens and pinks dance well together though and less said is always preferable. lets see where this goes tomorrow. i may start another one tomorrow, and move back and forth between the two.

stage 1, watercolor 145 13x10”

2:15 PM: i started work on watercolor 145 this morning. it’s very early stage right now, and looks like this.

i’m combining 2 images: students sitting in a hallway working on their computers, as seen from above, and photos of the creek i shot yesterday on our walk up to the stupa. it will become clearer as i progress; i’m not yet sure where it’s going!

11/13/20 creek photographed on the way up to the stupa, about 4pm

a rare shot of me wearing a tie at a santa fe wedding

7:42 AM: yesterday afternoon around 3:45 we took our walk up to the tashi gomang stupa. it was warm for this time of year. the recent single digit nightime temperatures helped create ice sculptures, bathed in the runoff from the warmer day yesterday. the resulting distribution of whites and darks will find their way into new paintings i’ll be working on, possibly even later this morning.

in reviewing watercolor/collage 144 here at the house last night & this morning, i’m feeling good about it. the solutions i found, collaging those curved pieces of vellum, works as a novel way of indicating rushing, cascading creek water.

BELOW is a detail

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