continuing work on 12/19/20 creek oil & watercolor/collage 166 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:29 PM: i got back to work today after our salida adventure yesterday & as predicted was able to view watercolor/collage 166 and 12/19/20 creek oil with fresh eyes. i made changes to both. i think the watercolor is now resolved and will not undergo any further changes. the faint grey marks on mikela’s body were enough to make that space seem less like a blank and more like an integral part of the composition. as well, i extended some of the purple shadows, giving more balance to the composition with the least possible means.

BELOW: the before & after

the oil underwent dramatic changes, although at first glance it might not seem so. the blue calligraphic marks made with a fan brush were lightly painted over with a rose tint and new marks took their place. some of what was there yesterday remains, but what you see now (in the image on the right, below) fills more of the square space of the composition, allowing it to breathe more fully. a dance is now occurring, and a few small but critical red marks provide a subtle accent to the movement taking place. i ahd to wait for the right moment to pounce. the nature of this painting is such that it resists interference, whispering just leave well enough alone, philip. it actually helped that i received some new ink for my fountain pens today. i tried one of them out, which is named southern portal. the flourishes i made on a blank piece of paper emboldened me to make the marks you see in todays version. i had no intention of drawing something or creating a composition; i was just making the marks that come naturally when i move my arms and hand. that small event opened the door.

salida dentist, studio break, co-o-o-ld & windy /  by Philip Tarlow

motion 25 32x32” 2018, which i may unstretch tomorrow

4:33 PM: today we went to salida where i had a dental appointment to replace a temporary root canal filling with a permanent one. unfortunately, she discovered a hairline crack in the crown, which means i have to get a whole new crown! expensive.

today was one of our coldest days. this morning when we woke up it was 0°F and didn’t get above 18° F during the day, with a brisk wind making it feel even colder. a little good news did come out of our 60 mile drive to salida: i was able to replenish my stock of IPA’s. great colorado beers are available in salida, and i’ll be enjoying one with dinner in an hour.

i’ve had time to reflect on yesterdays watercolor/collage. it doesn’t need much, but i think i know where to go with it tomorrow morning. not yet sure where i may go with 12/19/20 creek oil. but it’s always good to take even a one day break & return to my studio with fresh eyes. one of my first acts in the morning may be to unstretch motion 25, which you see here, so that i can use the stretcher bars for a new painting. it’s not that i don’t h ave new stretcher bars to use for that purpose, but i’m trying to cut down on the number of paintings crowding my studio space.

BELOW: left & center: shot on our 12/21/20 stupa walk right: sunset at 4:52pm tonight from our west windows

continuing work on 12/19/20 creek oil & watercolor/collage 166 /  by Philip Tarlow

12/19/20 creek oil 32x32” at the end of my painting day today

1:19 PM: today i continued working on both 12/19/20 creek oil and watercolor/collage 166. while the oil is moving ahead in spurts, with brush-overs, scraping & calligraphic bursts, the watercolor is progressing slowly and with great care to maintain the open spaces which, in a watercolor, can never be recreated once they’re gone.

pink has replaced beige as the overall color in the oil, with calligraphic marks in blue being the dominant event in the composition, which has now moved away from any semblance of creek-ness. the memory remains however, with underlying creek references peeking through when you see the painting in person. the influence of 11th-16th c. chinese masters of the brush is evident here. my entire being resonates to the notion of painting as poetry & music. and our unique marks, refined down over time to gestures celebrating life, sound our particular note with the movement only living beings are capable of.

2:31PM: so here’s the current state of the watercolor, which is moving so slowly it’s going backwards. mikela has entered the picture with her watering can, and the purple shadows provide an architectural framework for the composition. the pink flowers, now that i’m looking at it, seem a bit isolated from the rest of the composition, so maybe i’ll try to rectify that right now before the light starts fading.

BELOW: watercolor/collage 166 at 2pm (left) and 3pm

BELOW: shot on our stupa walk yesterday afternoon

surrendering to abstraction / STARTING WATERCOLOR/COLLAGE 166 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:36 PM: i like working on two things in tandem. if possible, two very different things. so as 12/19/20 creek oil became progressively more abstract, my new watercolor/collage 166 became more and more realist. it’s a good example of how there’s really no difference. flowers and leaves? yes. marks on a surface? yes again!

the juice is in the marks, the colors, the forms. the story is a developing one, of how the surface dictates the movement of the brush. how the voluptuousness the the reds, for example, gives way to the energy of the greens. and how the white of the surface interacts with them. sexually, one could say.

watercolor/collage 166 stage 1

12/19/20 creek oil 32x32”, at noon today

12:34 PM: today started out with me starting a small watercolor based on photos i shot of mikela watering our ever growing flowering pink plant. i couldn’t resist the temptation to do more work on 12/19/20 creek oil, so i lay it flat on my saw horses and did some work. i painted over the marks i made over the past few days with titanium buff; a color i love. then i blotted it so it wouldn’t run when i hung it on my east wall, got up on my step ladder (also titanium buff colored) and began making marks while referring to a photo of the creek i printed out. it’s one of many, but i chose this one for it’s inherently abstract feel. and i surrendered to my love of mark making almost but, and this is important, not completely divorced from a subject. the subject, as matisse has said many times, are the marks on the surface.a few square meters of frozen creek provide the forms and colors that guide my brush, and give the viewer a dream space. the visible process underlying the image is a journey in time.

BELOW: the evolution of 12/19/20 creek oil over the past week

stretching a new one so i can go back & forth / stage 2, 3 & 4 of yesterdays 12/19/20 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

3:11 PM: BELOW are stages 1,2 & 4 as i prepare to return to the house on a rather unexpectedly gloomy cloudy day. i wasn’t expecting that grey to enter the picture, and i’m not yet sure how i feel about it. i’ll see in the morning. for now, this is it. i’m continuing to feel energized by this switch from months of watercolor/collage on paper to oil on linen. but i still haven’t gotten used to having to clean my brushes & wear gloves most of the time.

at work on 12/19/20 creek oil, stage 3

1:58 PM: a new grey rock has appeared on the mid-right, as well as those red creek plants i so love

1:13 PM: i was about to unstretch an older painting & stretch a new one so i could go back & forth between the two & not get stuck on one. but i couldn’t resist diving back into this one i started yesterday, which now looks like this.

BELOW: a comparative view of stage 1 (left) and 2.

some scraping has taken place, and the whites in the center are new.

i’m going to keep working as long as i’m into it., then maybe i’ll stretch a new one for tomorrow?

ano kato 29 32x32”

11:54 AM: when i entered the studio & cast my first look at this one i started yesterday, i could see it needed work. but instead of having all my eggs in one basket, i’m unstretching ano kato 29, which you see here so i can use the stretcher bars for a new one. this painting i’m about to unstretch is based upon photos i shot at MOMA 5 or 6 years ago. personally, i love that green helicopter suspended above the museum goers. this painting is available, so if you’re interested, let me know. the rest of my ano kato series can be found here:

https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid

painting in oil after a long break /  by Philip Tarlow

2:40 PM: i’m about ready to stop for the day so we can take our stupa walk. i’m glad i decided to warm back up to painting in oil with this smaller 32x32” canvas, before moving on to the long, narrow 26x78” one. what you see here is stage 1, which will likely change significantly tomorrow morning. i’d like to see the blues toned down. i may work on it lying flat on my sawhorses tomorrow, which allows me more freedom of movement and less plotting and planning. more kinesthetic, less head.

i might, looking at it now, paint over the whole thing; an option i didn’t have while i was making all those 165 watercolors!

at work this morning on a new oil painting

12:41 PM: i can’t really tell you how long it’s been since i painted in oil on linen. a very long time. in covid time, years. centuries.

so i started with the 32x32” one i stretched last week, leaving the 26x78” i stretched yesterday till after i warm up. my new ability to drip, scrape and sweep my arm is intoxicating. it reminds me of why i switched to watercolors way back then: my shoulder injury. no sign of that today, although i do need to be careful. careful and oil painting don’t, however, go well together.

i’ll post updated pics later this afternoon.

a different kind of day / pantings as poems /  by Philip Tarlow

4:55 PM: today i finally did it: i stretched the 26x78” canvas i’d been thinking about for weeks. it’s the same dimensions as my sound of a flute series, which of course were all verticals. but this is destined to be a horizontal, like the two fairly recent oils we have hanging in our living rooms.

BELOW: one of my favorite quotes in how to look at chinese paintings:

radical changes to 163 / changes to my 2020 watercolors page LOOKING BACK TO JULY /  by Philip Tarlow

6:04 PM: while cleaning up my powerbook desktop i cam across this watercolor/collage made in july. i was in the thick of the series, still revelling in the new marks i was experimenting with at the time, just 5 months ago. it reminded me just how much of a role that freshness plays in my work. it almost felt that i was using watercolors for the first time, even though i’ve been using them for many decades.

3:49 PM: i just did a preliminary reorganization to my 2020 watercolor/collage page. click on the 2020 watercolors dropdown menu, above to view it. or click on this link: https://www.philiptarlow.com/new-page-4

2:09 PM: i made some radical changes to watercolor/collage 163, which may change again tomorrow. today i learned of a motion series painting that sold in denver. following that news, i decided it would be a good idea to update my 2020 watercolors page, which i’ve been busy with until now. 163 before i made todays changes….it may have to be trashed. 3:28 PM: so i did indeed trash it. sometimes you just have to surrender to the fact that a particular piece can’tr be salvaged & stop struggling with it.

BELOW are the before (left) & after pics of watercolor/collage 163

of two minds... /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor/collage 164 at 2:30 PM this afternoon.

2:29 PM: here’s where the new watercolor/collage 164 is at right now. i’m preparing to go back to the house so we can leave on our walk in about 1/2 hour. current temperature: 22.8F.

you may be able to discern a few new blues, which are in the package with the watercolors i received yesterday.’while this one, in it’s current state, resembles previous watercolors, something new seems to be emerging. it’s an odd combination of a greater sensitivity along with a greater boldness. i’d say this derives from my constant and ongoing study of the chinese masters, who, at their best, untite these qualities in a manner unique in the history of art. more tomorrow, and i may post about or adventures on the trail this afternoon once we’re back.

1:34 PM: in a few hours we’ll be taking our stupa walk, so i only have another hour of work i can do today. it’s our first walk since the snowfall this past weekend, so we’ll have to see how the trail looks. if, as we suspect, a few cars have driven up, we can walk in their tracks and avoid the deeper areas of snow so it doesn’t get into our boots. of course we’ll have our cleats on, since temperatures haven’t risen above freezing at all this week, and there will be ice beneath the snow.

this morning i was of two minds about which direction to take. i’ve been leaning towards oil on canvas for several weeks, but today was not the day. i tilted towards watercolor, especially since i wanted to try out some new colors that ups delivered yesterday. windsor newton added in a folding metal watercolor box with the order, which was an unexpected treat. you can see it over to my left in this photo.

as has been my practice over the past months, i perused how to read chinese paintings while having my morning coffee. my awe and wonder at these 8th-17th c. chinese masters of the brush only increases over time.

so i’m going to keep going with this new watercolor/collage 164 until it’s time for our walk, around 3 pm. i’ll post pics before leaving or, if there’s no time, when we return around sunset.

shifting gears /  by Philip Tarlow

12:51 PM: today i decided to act on the feeling i’ve been having for weeks, and prepare some canvases for painting in oil. rather than use new stretcher bars, i decided to un-stretch some older paintings, roll and label them & store them in my loft area. if there is interest in any of them, i can always re-stretch or, if they need to be shipped, it’s easier to ship them rolled & let the new owner re-stretch and frame them. this is one form 2017, i think. not sure because it doesn’t have a date. but when i run across others in this vein, at least some will have dates & i can label them more exactly. i do have them somewhere in my files, but don’t want to spend time on that right now. so this is the one i un-stretched just now. it’s 32x32” and the subject matter is the living room of our friends gary & loekie, in the netherlands.

and now i’m going to get back to stretching a new linen canvas on these 32x32” stretcher bars. then i may apply a tinted beige ground; haven’t yet decided. more later in the afternoon.

David & Zia's Interior, 2017 32x32%22.jpg

while cutting the linen canvas, it made sense to find another painting the same size as the one above, to make optimal use of the canvas.

i came across this one. it’s another interior, also 32x32” painted in 2017, this one what once was the home of two friends here in crestone, who are no longer together and no longer live here. it was filled with beautiful patterns and colors, with a dominance of pinks. before un-stretching it, i may contact our old friend to see if he’s interested in purchasing.

so after un-stretching the 32x32” painting of the netherlands interior, above, i cut a piece of linen canvas to the correct size and proceeded to stretch it. you will notice that the back of this primed linen has a tan color letting you know it’s linen, not cotton, which would be white. there’s a big difference. linen is a much finer, stronger, resilient surface to paint on, but a roll is far more expensive than cotton. my experience is that it’s well worth it, both for the wonderful way the brush moves over the surface and it’s ability to remain taut and not buckle under pressure.