out, damned trees! /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 1 at 2pm, following the replacement of the trees on the right. see the comaprative images BELOW

2 PM:when i entered my studio this morning, i knew i had to get rid of thos two trees on the right. i had thought they were serving as a support of all that’s going on in this active surface. but they were just stealing the show. so i painted over them and instead added what comes off as a continuation of the activity taking place to the left. now the dramatic focus is the area of white water and blue/white/green patterning. the addition of that small patch of white on the far right echoes the larger area of white to the left, as do the wiggly blue marks around and above it.

2021 creek oil 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:31 PM: i wasn’t crazy about this one, which started out as 2020 sound of a flute. it was dark and uninspired, so while waiting for 2021 creek oil 2, which i worked on a few days ago, to dry, i painted over this one to see where it wanted to go. the result is still kind of dark, but definitely more interesting. it’s in alignment with my desire to reduce the creek inspired forms and colors down to semi-abstract symbols that give just enough information to set the stage, and leave enough understated to provoke dreaming.

PS: we stopped at the studio on our way to the trail and we both felt a lot more strongly about this painting than i did at the end of my painting day this afternoon. it’s much stronger than i thought, and we’ll confirm that once i t dries and i hang it in the house.

we’re taking our stupa trail walk soon, so i’m stopping for the day and continue work on this one and 2021 creek oil 2 tomorrow morning.

2021 creek oil 3 32x32” at 2pm

sunset this afternoon from our living room window

a few tweaks to 2021 creek oil 1 and continued work on 2021 creek oil 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 1, 26x78” at 1:30 PM

1:43 PM: as i indicated in my 10:54 am post, i worked on both 2021 creek oils today. lets start with 2021 creek oil 1. my work was focused on the 2 tree trunks on the far right. they were too fuzzy. now they have more definition and a clearer space between them allowing the viewer to get that they are 2 separate trees, and a branch jutting out on the upper left. this allows the rest of the painting, which i feel very good about, to breathe. the airy, creek inspired patterning and subtle pinks can flutter and sing, with the two tree trunks acting as supports.the other tweak was to the v-shaped area of dark blue in the upper center. i added some white marks, somewhat reducing the intensity of that blue, which had been bugging me.

DETAIL of Frans Hals painting of Dorothea Berck

that fugitive quality termed painterly reigns, always. it can be achieved with other mediums, but i think oil is king in this respect. acrylics dry too quickly to blend colors or be able to go back in a few hours or even days later and scrape about. the flemish created oils in the 15th century, in part to go beyond the strict technical limitations of egg tempera, which had been the main painting medium all the way back to ancient times. they reveled in their newfound freedom, which was taken to a whole new level by 17th cetury dutch artists, who created some of the finest masterpieces of painting in oil, including of course, rembrandt and the amazing franz hals, who could swiftly paint a gloved hand with a few flicks of his brush.

2021 creek oil 2 26x66” as it looked after painting over it with a wash of brilliant yellow mixed with titanium buff.

ABOVE is 2021 creek oil 2 after scraping and painting over it, then scraping some more. the shapes on the left and right were created by moving my wide scraping tool in a sweeping, gestural way, intentionally creating biomorphic shapes that could not be planned in advance. tomorrow i’ll work into it and begin creating the layering characteristic of my recent paintings in oil, allowing portions of the under-painting to appear here and there.

10:54 AM: the moment of entering the studio is always my best time to evaluatewhat i did the previous day. although i didn’t work on 2021 creek oil 1 yesterday, i saw an area on the right that needed work, so i’ll start out with that and then move on to the new 2021 creek oil 2. BELOW you see them both on my east wall.

by the way, in case you were wondering about the watch mikela got me for new years, it’s been in the usps system since it was shipped, december 28! will it ever get here? i’ll post a pic if & when it does.

starting 2021 creek oil 2, 26x66" /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 2, 26x66” as it looked moments ago

2:31 PM: we’re going on our stupa trail walk in a little while, so i’m stopping here for the day. as you will see if you compare with the image BELOW, shot 2 hours ago, mroe blue has entered the composition, some greens on the bottom, and more definition on the branch to the right.

i’m enjoying how my watercolor discoveries of the past few months are translating to oil. i have to watch it with this one and not allow it to become too loaded with patterns and marks coming more from my head than my gut. that, as you know if you follow my blog posts, is a constant danger. the big difference now that i’m working in oil again, is that i can scrape and paint over what i’ve done, creating suggestive, mystery laden layers, as i did with 2021 creek oil 1.

2021 creek oil 2, 26x66” as it looked moments ago

watercolor 168, which i referred to today while painting 2021 creek oil 2

12:49 PM: about an hour ago i smoothed out a few wrinkles in the linen canvas i stretched yesterday by removing staples & re-stretching the areas where there wer wrinkles. satisfied i had a taut, smooth surface to paint on, i started work on 2021 creek oil 2.

this is the first time i’m using a watercolor as well as my creek photos as a reference. as a direct result, the colors i’m employing reflect the brighter, more pure colors of recent watercolors. for some reason, i’m also experiencing a higher level of certainty in my marks and strokes.

the blue that changes everything / a little work on 12/19/20 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 1 26x78” at 11:30am today following the addition of strong blues

11:48 AM: it was a relief to get to my studio this morning and leave the d.c. drama behind for a few hours.

when i cast my all important first glance, what i saw seemed blah. no focus for the eye. so navigation signs. and a homogeneous overall tone that would be more appropriate for a rug than a painting.

i squeezed two blues onto a fresh palette and got busy, referring to a different creek photo than the one i’ve been using so far. the titanium/zinc white i applied with my palette knife yesterday prooved to be a great jumping off point. and the pinks that entered the picture on january 4th, when it was a horizontal composition and were then softened on january 6, when it became vertical, were perfect foils for the strong blues i painted in today. allowing spaces for the leaves in the background provided an opportunity for patterning. patterns that have meaning are so much more powerful than patterns made purely for the sake of patterns. and the grey mottled rock i had worked on january 7th proved to be one more valuable contribution to the assortment of patterns i introduced today, along with the grouping of loosely painted rocks, some faint, others more clearly apparent in the center of the composition.

12/19/20 creek oil after working into it with oil pastels

2:39 PM: as i prepared to stretch a new 26x66” linen canvas, my eye caught 12/19/20 creek oil. it seemed dull and monotone and didn’t carry well at a distance, so i made a few additions using oil pastels, and now i’m continuing the process of stretching the new canvas.

unexpected covid vaccination / stupa walk /  by Philip Tarlow

6:16 PM: we took our walk up the stupa trail at 3:30. BELOW are a few pics.

3:02 PM: i received a call this morning that we’ve been scheduled for our Covis vaccine shots in center, a 50 minute drive from crestone. we drove to center and have now received our first vaccinations.

so i wasn’t able to go to my studio, which is very rare, and i’ll resume work on 2021 creek oil 1 tomorrow morning. until then, i leave you with this image. can i translate mengfu’s energy into my new painitng successfully? the challenge is in the word translate. BELOW is the painting in it’s current state. it’s new horizontal composition is still being established.

2021 creek oil 1 as it looked at the end of my painting day yesterday. (26x78”)

2021 creek oil 1 as it looked at the end of my painting day yesterday. (26x78”)

continued work on 2021 creek oil 1, now once again horizontal composition /  by Philip Tarlow

2:46 PM: i accidentally erased what i just wrote, so i’m starting over. it’s now easier to see this as a horizontal composition, based upon my numerous creek photos. rocks, branches and pools of water have appeared, painted over the 2 underlying compositions, one of them vertical. so for example the blue cuvy marks on the left were originally mountain peaks in the previous vertical composition. in this version, they could easily indicate water. this layering, as you know if you’re a regular visitor to my blog, is something i love using to allow the eye to give layers of meaning to what it perceives and remove the composition one or two steps away from the photo-like image we can so easily understand. we skipped our walk yesterday due to the events in d.c., so we’re about to leave on our stupa trail walk. partly sunny skies, with a comfortable temperature of 34° farenheit at the moment.

1:16 PM: continuing work today on the constantly morphing 2021 creek oil 1, which has once again become a horizontal 26x78” composition. you can’t tell yet, but in a few hours you should see the bones of a creek inspired composition.

2021 creek oil 1 26x78” as it looked moments ago as a horizontal composition

continued work on 2021 creek oil 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:49 PM: just before leaving the studio, i did a paint & scrape-over. it looked to me that the painintg had become too busy. we’ll see where i take it in the morning.

1:28 PM: i’m stopping for the day. BELOW are comparative views of yesterday’s version, left and today’s.

2021 creek oil 1 on easel with watercolor/gouache adjacent

11:09 AM: i have just under 3 hours to do more work on 2021 creek oil 1 befoe heading back to the house to participate in a zoom with tsudents participating in the test rollout of our actionlab360 learning platform.

to the left of the painting on my easel, you see a watercolor/collage turned on it’s side, sitting on an adjacent easel. it caught my eye just now because it has some very cool elements, and i thought “why not incorporate some of those solutions into this painting? but i have to watch out it’s not just coming from my head.

ok, i’m going to get started & i’ll update you in a few hours.

looks like a paint-over is in store today /  by Philip Tarlow

SUNSET this afternoon

SUNSET this afternoon

2:04 PM: 2021 creek oil 1 is a verical once again. i painted and scraped over it, and here’s how it looked when i left my studio early today.

as it was originally, it’s inspired by by japanese 18th c. master of the brush, taiga.

the lightly overpainted work i did over the past few days peeks through and gives new meaning to the more prominant marks i made this morning.

so what’s new? the mountain peaks outlined in blue; the beginnings of a grouping of trees in the center of the composition and, finally, the seated figures at the bottom. they are poets, painters and musicians who collaborated artistcially and drank lots of wine together.

10:31 AM: when i entered my studio 15 minutes ago, and looked at 2021 creek oil 1, it made no sense whatsoever. it was all up in my head. so, once i’m done with breakfast, i’m going to paint & scrape over it & see where it goes from there. maybe getting to work will take my mind off georgia for a while.

if you look at an earlier, 2020 creek oil, BELOW left, and compare, you’ll see what i mean.the earlier one has a compositional coherence lacking in 2021 creek oil 1.

so i’m going to get to work and will post once i’ve made changes.

continuing 2021 creek oil 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:27 PM: i’m stopping here for the day & will continue in the morning. two females figures have entered the composition, as well as the arm of a boy holding a bottle and some green marks on the top right. this composition will integrate more tomorrow, when i have more uninterrupted time. however, i’d say there’s already a mystery to it that i like, and was intending. combining disparate elements to create a new reality is where my head is at right now. that new reality is emerging, but not yet fully formed.

at work this morning on 2021 creek oil 1

12:40 PM: we have 2 friends coming over at 3, so i’m going to stop for the dayin about 1 1/2 hours. i’ve been working more on 2021 creek oil 1 this morning, taking a break to chat with my grandson in athens and unsuccessfully trying to get an appointment for a covid vaccination.

2021 creek oil 1 as it looked moments ago

2021 creek oil 1 , 26x78”, yesterday afternoon

8:47 AM: i should be back in my studio at about 10 am this morning, when i’ll continue work on 2021 creek oil 1. as always, i’m excited by the feeling of not knowing where it’s going to go, which direction it will take, which is largely a function of allowing the painting to determine it’s course.

BELOW are a couple of photos shot on our way back from yesterday’s stupa trail walk.