one final addition to 2021 watercolor 8 yesterday afternoon / starting 2021 watercolor 9 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:46 PM: after working on my keynote document with recent watercolor/collages, which will be sent to select galleries as an intro to my work, i began the drawing for 2021 watercolor 9. i’ll be able to start work on this one earlier tomorrow, since i’ll have fewer logistics to deal with.

and perhaps tomorrow i’ll post the pages in my new document that i’ve completed for you to review.

11:39 AM: at the tail end of the day yesterday, as often happens, i made a brief, small, albeit significant addition to 2021 watercolor 8: the yellow swirls at the bottom.

why so important? well, for one thing, they balance out the yellow bits on the top left, as well as the yellow road markers on the piece of london street map on the upper right. mikela has declared this one to be one of her favorites, so it will likely remain in our collection and not be sold.

i’ve been thinking how cool it would be to make a version in oil, which would probably be 32x40”. that would be an interesting challenge, since some of the most critical parts of this piece are collaged pieces of old paper oil palettes, as well as a london street map. a great challenge! i might just do it, and likely learn a lot along the way.

i have a zoom in a few minutes with my mentee, k., which mikela will join at the start. then i’ll either start something new or add to the keynote document i’ve been working on, with recent watercolor/collages, which will be sent to select galleries as an intro to my work.

more after our zoom.

2021 watercolor/collage 8 12 1/2 x 15 1/2”

continuing 2021 watercolor 8 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 watercolor 8, 12 1/2 x 15 1/2”

2:46 PM: today it’s chilly: 23F at the moment, but we’re going to take our stupa walk shortly.

i was going very slowly and delicately yesterday on the new 2021 watercolor 8, but today i launched into full on collage mode. so there’s a lot going on.

first off, you’ll see that i cropped a bit i didn’t think was working on the right. very little remains of what i did yesterday, which was inspired by recent photos of the ice bound creek. i used a few of my many saved paper oil palettes, which you will notice in the red and yellow bits on the middle right and left, as well as the tree and log bits on the top and bottom, as well as the purple shadow on the very bottom.

there is definitely a sense of the movement of flowing water amidst a characteristic playfulness i’ve had all my life.

starting 2021 watercolor 8 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:46 PM: i had a bunch of logistics to handle this morning, including running into town to do some food shopping and go to the p.o.

i wasn’t sure i wanted to continue with the miniature watercolors i started making last week. so far there are 2, and i felt the urge to make a larger one. i’m going slow with 2021 watercolor 8 and keeping a photographic record of each stage. these are the first 3 stages, to be continued tomorrow morning. and while i was working on this new watercolor, i made tapioka pudding and put in some organic strawberries i have in my studio freezer. mikela is making my favorite dish: pasta, which will be accompanied by my favorite colorado ipa beer.

2021 watercolor 7 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:41 PM: at the very end of a snowy day filled with zooms, calls & things other than painting, i made one more miniature, which is this 2 1/4 x 12 1/2” 2021 watercolor/collage 7. far more spare than the one i made yesterday, this one also contains bits of a london map and lots of white space for the viewer to fill in. i’m imagining how cool a little grouping of these miniatures might look in the right location, with the right framing and lighting. we’ve become so accustomed to peeking into the various interiors of people being interviewed on tv….there’s even a rating system for them. groupings of small paintings, photographs and prints seem to be a thing.

2021 watercolor/collage 7

as i was preparing to make this watercolor, i looked up and one of my north windows had developed this pattern of frost, which was not present on any of the 2 adjacent windows.

2021 WATERCOLOR/COLLAGE 6 /  by Philip Tarlow

looking west from the tashi gomang stupa this afternoon at 4:16pm.

6:04 PM: just back from our walk up to the stupa. on the way back, we ran into a snow squall. the skies were stunning. there was about 6 inches of fresh snow on the trail, but fortunately a truck with big snow tires had driven up there, providing a narrow path in the fresh snow for us to ascend.

3:05 PM: you might say this is a miniature. i’ll say more about it later, as we’re about to take our stupa trail walk. i was cutting and mounting larger 15x20 paper for new watercolors and when i saw this scrap of 2 1/4 x 12 1/2” piece of watercolor paper, it seemed to me like it was begging to become a little painting. it was becoming too dense, so i introduced a few collaged elements, including a piece of a london map.

revising 2021 creek oil 1 and 2 / yesterdays stupa trail walk /  by Philip Tarlow

2:18 PM: i started out the day doing more work on 2021 creek oil 2, which i had worked on yesterday. when mikela let me know what curriculum she’d be working on today, which had to do with the future, i immediately kicked off my morning by scrawling words about the future in red paint, which of course have since been painted and scraped away.

BELOW: 3 stages of 2021 creek oil 2. on the right is the current state.

when i felt i could do no more and had to wait till it dried a bit to continue, i moved on to 2021 creek oil 1. the only thing left from the previous state are the faint outlines of rocks and trees. i find the current state interesting, less fragmented, even compelling. the right side works pretty well; the left needs work. i’ll return to both paintings tomorrow and see where they take me.

BELOW: 2021 creek oil 1 before and after todays intervention

the creek as it looked at the start of our stupa trail walk yesterday

returning to 2021 creek oil 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

6:03 PM: back from our walk, i wanted to report one final change to 2021 creek oil 2. as frequently happens, i made a significant change to 2021 creek oil 2 just moments before leaving the studio for our trail walk. here’s the latest version, which will be revised tomorrow morning. for one thing, i will get rid of that unnessary V shaped passage in the upper central area.

1:55 PM: a windy day, which started out very grey & dark. but the sun came out and the temperature is relatively high, so i think we’ll take our stupa trail walk at about 3:15.

today i was in an oil mood, so i decided to continue work on 2021 creek oil 2, which i haven’t worked on since january 14th. at that point in the process, it looked like this. interesting, but not yet resolved. i’ll post a pic of the current state in a little bit; i’m going to do some more work on it before cleaning up and leaving to meet mikela and go for our walk.

2:37 PM: i did some more work on it. i was feeling that the passage on the left with the leaves was too pretty and predictable. and the middle section was almost there, but needed more activity, more marks, more bridging elements connecting right and left.

this is a good step in that direction, but i don’t think it’s there yet. it still needs work. a fandangle or a quark might do it, but i don’t yet know what those are.maybe sunday will reveal the answer.

2021 creek oil 2 26x66” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

continued work on 2021 watercolor 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 watercolor 5 11x15”

12:14 PM: i’m continuing work on the new watercolor i started yesterday: 2021 watercolor 5. i worked on much of the surface, using a medium grey and, on the middle left, 2 greens. in addition, i painted over the dark blues in the creek water, which i felt were way too strong. i’m going to sit with this for a while, and follow up on some outreach to australia,

i feel a fresh energy today, and i’m thinking i may strike out in a new direction, which may involve figures in the landscape. once i complete this one, i’m going to play around with some ideas i have.

BELOW is a comparative view of the first stage of 2021 watercolor 5 and todays version

continued work on 2021 watercolor 3 starting 2021 watercolor 5 / francis bacon /  by Philip Tarlow

5:51 PM: this is francis bacon in his studio in 1974.

2021 watercolor 5 11x15”

2:46 PM: i started work on 2021 watercolor 5. my favorite passage is the rock in the center with the red shadow. i also think the violet shadows are cool. and the dark blue marks signaling wavy water are a somewhat new departure from the concentric marks in previous watercolors, and more akin to huang tingjian’s (1045-1105) assertion that calligraphy should be a spontaneous and self-expressive “picture of the mind…”

1:40 PM: 2021 watercolor 3 needed more work on the right segment of the composition. always tricky to go back into a watercolor and maintain the sprit of the first stage.

BELOW: stage 1 is on the left.

i have about an hour to work before we head up the trail, so i may start a new one right now.

doctor day / monastiraki oil 40x50" /  by Philip Tarlow

monastiraki 40x50” oil on linen

6:08 PM: today was doctor day. the dentist took out my cracked crown, took an impression for a new one and put in a temporary. the dermatologist biopsied something on my arm. i went by myself so mikela could watch and record the inauguration. a historic day. and a relief to all.

so no painting today.

instead, i’ll share this 2010 oil, titled monastiraki, which is 40x50” and was included in my solo show in athens.

the subject is the historic monastiraki square in athens. it was painted in my crestone studio and based on drawings and photos made over the years i lived in greece. this is not colorado light. it’s the unique light of attica.