2021 creek oil 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:29 PM: this one has been brewing, fermenting in my body for weeks, if not months. last month i strtetched a 26x78” linen canvas. these are the dimensions of the paintings in my sound of a flute series. here’s the link to copy & paste in your browser, or you can just click on the dropdown menu, above.

detail of 2021 creek oil 1, stage 1, 26x78”

https://www.philiptarlow.com/sound-of-a-flute

in making the 170 watercolor/collages, which i started about a year ago, along the way i discovered compositional, color and patterning solutions that kept nudging me that they wanted to become larger. but i wasn’t ready until today to take that step. i say step and not leap because this is a slowly unfolding process of re-discovering the revelations of matisse and the nabis of decorative painting. that’s a long conversation for another time, perhaps the book i keep threatening to write.

in any event, what you see here is stage 1. it’s being painted over a preliminary drawing i was making for a vertical composition, inspired by the work of the great 18th c. japanese master of the brush, taiga.

it took a lot of energy for me to start this one today, and since we’re planning to walk up to the stupa in about an hour, i’m going to leave it here.

watercolor 170 / a comparative glance at 3 paintings from 1969 to the present /  by Philip Tarlow

watercolor 170 11x14.5” on arches watercolor paper

3PM: i made a new watercolor: 170. it has a few interesting passages & i’m pooped, so i’ll leave it for now, take it to the house & see what we think. the bit on the middle right has an unexpected figurative element, and now that i’m glancing at it on the easel, from about 20 feet, i keep seeing a cartoon-like head. and at first look, the negative snaky white space in the center is key to the entire composition, as is the octopus-like pink form above it.

1:1:21 watercolor 169.jpg

11:30 AM: i was tempted, as usual, to do more work on yesterday’s watercolor 169. I might, for example, have added some water inspired patterning into the upper & lower solid areas of blue. I think not, however. we were reviewing it this morning over at the house, and that was mikela’s suggestion as well. but i’m not going to make any modifications to this one, other than adding a date & signature. it’s going to remain as it was when it emerged. let’s see if this direction, with large uninterrupted areas of color, continues today.

more a bit later, once i start 170. in the mean time, take a look BELOW at these paintings from (left to right) 1969, 2017 and yesterday. what do you observe? use the comments tab below to let me know what you see, questions you might have, etc.

by the way, that 1969 gouache painting on the left was made on the very last day of operation of the magical outdoor market just across the street from the port of piraeus, greece. the next day it was gone, to be replaced by….you guessed it: a monstrosity!

the east studio wall this afternoon, with the 4 most recent watercolors

watercolor 169 emerges today /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: this is the first watercolor of 2021. it takes the direction i’ve been pursuing a step further towards abstraction. the dominant element is color. while the shapes are dictated by the forms of the rocks and how they border and determine the parameters of the creek water, the whole is more of a symphony of patterns, a harmony of the dominant blues, greens and greys, with accents of yellow and orange. are we gazing out the window of a plane at the landscape below, or are we close in to the creek, just a few feet away? the instruments in this orchestra all contribute to the sounds we hear.

watercolor 169 11x14.5” on arches watercolor paper

watercolor 168: my last painting of 2020 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:40 PM: we’ll be walking up to the stupa in about an hour, so i’m stopping for the day, having made watercolor 168, my last painting of 2020.

it’s along the lines of 167, which i made yesterday, and has clear influences from this book, which is my reading material every morning over coffee. bonnard, vuillard, denis & roussel were french painters who explored the concept of painting as decoration.

this concept translates well into my creek-scapes, and has given my approach to them a new boldness.

watercolor 168 11x14.5” on arches watercolor paper

WATERCOLOR 167 /more work on 2020 sound of a flute 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:22 PM: after doing some work on the oil you see below, i made a new watercolor: 167. i’m not calling it watercolor/collage 167 simply because i don’t anticipate there will be any collaging in this one. inspired by a series of recent photos i’ve shot of the creek, i chose one which is more “abstract” in the sense that you are looking straight down at a tightly cropped patch of icy creek water and rocks. period.

here we see the natural abstraction occurring in all of nature. the way i use this as a channel for mark making is perhaps more of an opportunity to explore the movements my hand, arm and body make when holding a brush, as well as the colors i gravitate towards.

we could be looking at a portion of the vast galaxy just as well as a few meters of the creek. as is true with all of the paintings i post, in real life it’s far more vibrant and alive than what you perceive on your screen.

watercolor 167 11x14.5”

1:23 PM: i was about to start a new watercolor when my eye caught yesterdays 2020 found of a flute 2. i felt the urge to work into it, which i did. BELOW is a comparative view of yesterday’s (left) and today’s

now maybe i’ll start work on a new watercolor/collage.

renewing my sound of a flute series /  by Philip Tarlow

12/29/20 sound of a flute 78x26”

12/29/20 sound of a flute 2 20x16”

2:32 PM: today i entered my studio in deep despair, and i don’t know why. i had forgotten to take my phone, so i drove back to the house to get it, shared with mikela who gave me a quick pep talk, and returned. i was determined to get some work done. the 78x26” canvas i stretched last month has been leaning against the wall all this time, so i grabbed it & decided that, rather than make a horizontal creek inspired painting, which was my original intention, i would make a vertical. kind of a continuation of my sound of a flute series, informed however by the 165 some odd watercolor/collages i’ve done since then. rather than go over the canvas with a ground color, like the beige i used on most of the sound of a flute series, i started working straight onto the white-primed linen. as i worked, i came across a 20x16” creek-scape i had painted over, and went back & forth between the two, using mostly oil pastel crayons. we’re walking to the stupa in 20 minutes, so i’m going to complete this post & see what happens in the morning.

more work on 12/19/20 creek oil as the snow falls / revisiting taiga /  by Philip Tarlow

3:19 PM: the ground on this painting, which has been painted over at least a dozen times, was simply too dark. i liked the deep pink, but everything was tending to sink into it, creating a dark vibe that wasn’t me. so naturally i went over the whole thing with a thin coat of titanium/zinc white and then started painting & drawing into it while it was still wet. the result thus far, which you see in this final photo of the day, has a warmish grey tone, with the underlayers peeking through as usual, creating a somewhat mysterious image, which i’ll paint and draw into tomorrow morning. the seated figures are inspired by taiga’s paintings of scholar/poet/painter/musicians sitting under the trees near a waterfall, sharing their stories. i feel a strong connection to these guys and their way of life, endangered as it was by the uncertainties of ever changing regimes, which made it necessary for them to flee at a moments notice, in fear for their lives.this human presence in a painting means a lot to me, and very likely to those who will see them. there’s a story here. right now, just telling the story of our magical creeks is not enough for me. i need to dream the story of these 18th c. buddies of mine, and how they reveled in one another’s poetry, music and painting.

a word about layers. i don’t set out with the intention of creating layers upon layers of oil paintings, one on top of another. but sometimes, not always (that would be a gimmick) it happens. it happens as i search for solutions. scraping, drawing or painting over what i scraped, and so on. i love when magic happens. there’s no mistaking it. all underlying marks and colors, whether visible or not, contribute to that potential magic.

so, until tomorrow my friends.

12/19/20 creek oil at 2pm

2:17 PM: snow showers continue, with increasing winds. it should get heavier after dark.

here’s the current state of 12/19/20 creek oil.

in an obvious return to my sound of a flute series (see drop down menu item above) this is a version reflecting all that came after that series, which was executed in 2019. i’m still finding my rhythm with this one, which thus far is relying more heavily on marks made with oil crayons than the brush.

i’m going to carry on working for another hour or so, and will post when i’m ready to wrap for the day.

12/19/20 creek oil at 1pm today

12:45 PM: as predicted, snow is falling & should continue into the night. we’re hoping for at least 3”, which will be good for our yearly precip totals.

i’m working into 12/19/20 creek oil right now, so i can’t say too much till later this afternoon.

starting out fresh....well, not exactly... /  by Philip Tarlow

2:34PM: you may recall i’d been mentoring a hs student named k. for over a year, until covid happened. he has continued to paint and just sent me a photo of this, his latest painting. i’m very impressed! what do you think?

2:11 PM: well, i painted over what i had done this morning, for about the 12th time, tuckered myself out (plus we’re about to take our stupa walk) so here’s how it looks now, and will remain this way till tomorrow morning.

ZHAO MENGFU (1254-1322) DESCRIBED HIS CREATIVE PROCESS NOT AS “PAINTING“ but as “WRITING”

12/19/20 creek oil at 10 am

pink creek 32x32” oil and collage on linen 2017

10:41 AM: after painting over 12/19/20 creek oil yesterday afternoon, i did the usual scrape & wipe to disclose the beautiful colors & marks beneath. here’s how it looks this morning, as i prepare to work back into it. at the same time, i’m unstretching an older motion series painting so that i can stretch a new one & be able to go back & forth, which as most of you know is my preferred way of avoiding getting stuck and invested in one particular painting and the solutions that go along with it. so here’s how it looks; almost good enough to eat!

BELOW: pink creek 32x32” is the 2017 motion series painting i’m un-stretching. if you are interested in purchasing at a very reasonable price, email or text me.

continued work on 12/19/20 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

4:52 PM: the 1:25pm version wasn’t good enough for me, so i painted over it, scraped over that and we’ll see what tomorrow brings! i spent a fair amount of time cleaning & grinding fresh tumeric so i could freeze it and be able to access it easily for my ginger/tumeric drink. tomorrow i’ll do the same with my fresh ginger, & i’ll be all set for at least a month.

1:25 PM: so i did go back into it. the drips it made when i turned it up to photograph it were bugging me. so after going back into it, i photographed it flat on the floor while standing on my step ladder. it was difficult to use the tripod and the speed had to be very slow due to relatively low lighting, but i think i got a decent photo. but i’m not so sure what i did is as good as it was before the intervention, so i may have to leave it till tomorrow & see what if anything i want to do next. i’m working on it flat on 2 saw horses so that my mark making is more gestural than if it were on the easel. i think the latest re-work was too much from my head, trying to re-create what had happened earlier, before the drips occurred. this is important information for those of you who really want to understand my studio process. this illustrates just how delicate it can be.

12:50 PM: i wasn’t happy with yesterdays version, so i went over it and then went back in with grey brown and white. it was very liquid, so when i went to stand it up & photograph it, everything ran. it’s kinda cool looking, but it no longer looks like this photo, and i may have to start over to preserve the calligraphic immediacy of line.

i’ll post more later this afternoon.

more work on 12/29/20 creek oil and watercolor/collage 166 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:42 PM: final marks for the day before going on our stupa walk at 3. BELOW: current state of 12/19/20 creek oil and watercolor/collage 166. the oil now has more pink, which enlivens the entire image, and a very fortuitous sweep of my palette knife creating that loop on the left, stabilizing and adding a certain character to the composition as a whole. the watercolor/collage needs work, but is slowly finding it’s voice. it’s become a variation on the image of mikela watering our flowering plant, seen from above, and has collaged elements that create more musical notes; a kind of falsetto. i know you think i’m wacko, but tha’s how i see it! until tomorrow, hope you enjoyed your xmas. i got a fantastic gift from mikela: a watch that will arrive oabout january 6 or 7th. i’ll share a photo tomorrow or this evening when we return from our walk.

12/19/20 creek oil at 1pm

1:34 PM: more work on 12/19/20 creek oil, with the new element, taken from my photo from above of mikela watering our flowering plant.

watercolor/collage 166 at 1:30 pm

and continued work on watercolor/collage 166, which also has elements from the same photo.

DETAIL of 12/19/20 creek oil 32x32”

11:36 AM: i arrived in my studio on xmas day with renewed energy and immediately jumped back into 12/19/20 creek oil. i’m going to leave it for now and move on to watercolors, all the while casting evaluating glances.

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left and todays on the right. the underlying pink and freshly applied orange/siena marks form rock inspired shapes and the blue mimicks creek water, with faint white dots indicating bubbles in the water.