back in my studio / starting 2021 creek oil 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:22 PM: this morning i did some organizing work in the studio, then i started 2021 creek oil 5, which is being painted over the 2017 32 x 36” crestone sky painting you see BELOW, which i consider unsuccessful and therefore a candidate for an over-painting.

DETAIL of stage 1: 2021 creek oil 5

i made the ground for the over painting with a thin mix of grays with a touch of red.

so far, in this first stage, i’m drawing from the same photo i’ve used in the last 2 paintings: a student seated on the school lobby floor. the drawing was made using a grey oil pastel stick, working right into the still wet oil paint. so perhaps the best two words to describe the surface right now are: wet and juicy.

this one, if it turns out well, is a commission i’m giving myself, as opposed to the previous painting commissioned by mikela. and it’s destined for the west wall of our living room, where 2021 creek oil 4 currently hangs. this one would hang on the same wall, but to the right of the windows. i’ll post a pic of the space later, so you know what i’m talking about.

7:53 AM: yesterday morning i drove to salida & got my permanent crown, relacing the temp. then i went to the att store and traded my iphone X for the 12 max pro. much bigger screen, much sharper image and, most important for me, way better cameras (3). here’s one of my first test shots this morning: 2021 creek oil 4 hanging in our living room with early morning light.

1980's ceramic plate /  by Philip Tarlow

8:25 am: today i’m driving to salida to have my permanent crown installed at the dentist. so i won’t be in my studio, and i’ll post about my studio process tomorrow.

this is a ceramic plate i painted in the late ‘80’s, inspired by ancient egyptian art. it’s one of many i painted during that period, when we lived in palm beach & i collaborate dwith alocal ceramics artist.

2021 creek oil 1 sings today! /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 1 78x26” at 2pm

1:44 PM: a new pair of legs has entered the picture plane. they belong to a student who is holding a mysterious magic white wand.

lots has happened since yesterday. i like how i broke through the predictability of the pink border with the student’s legs, on the left. i also like what happened with the cabinets behind the girl on top. that ochre really does it for me. the red box above the student on the bottom was needed to break up the space between her and the rest of the composition.

long narrow compositions can be tricky, but i have always loved this shape. just as i have always loved figures viewed from above.

the reds bounce from her bracelet to his socks to the water bottle on the shelf.

she’s definitely singing! i’ll know on saturday morning whether she’s pitch perfect. tomorrow is the installation of my permanent crown, replacing the temporary i’ve had for a couple of months. so i won’t be in the studio tomorrow.

i did go back to the studio with mikela just now, and we both almost fainted with pleasure looking at her!

at work this morning

continuing work on 2021 creek oil 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 1 at 2:30 pm

at work this afternoon on the second figure

2:41 PM: i did quite a bit more work on this painting today, with a few breaks for lunch and to speak with my grandson and my son in athens, greece, in separate calls. a second figure has been introduced; also one of the students sitting on the floor of the school lobby working on her laptop.

this second figure, placed all the way at the bottom of this long, narrow composition, adds a whole new dimension. in reality, they were sitting adjacent to one another. here, they are at opposite ends of the composition, with a scrumble of painted-over creek-scape separating them.

the red dots i added in the pink border may be a bit to obvious, so i may take them out or somehow modify them tomorrow.

the ochre cabinets above the figure at the top will be modified as well, so that the depth and the shadows become clearer.

the collaged elements i added this morning are on the lap of the upper figure and under the lower leg of the figure at the bottom. both are pieces of a map.

11:42 AM: i felt like introducing a few collaged elements into the composition. it’s a challenging thing to do when the oil painting surface is not fresh. but i’m attempting to do it anyway. BELOW is a comparative vew of the painting yesterday and at the end of my painting day today. i’ll continue working and post what i’ve done at the next stage, when i might take a lunch break & have some leftover pizza, which by the way is usually better the next day.

a warmer, sunny day / 2021 creek oil 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3/2/21 2021 creek oil 1 at 2pm

2:21 PM: i continued painting on 3/2/21 2021 creek oil 1, which has reached what i’d call a viable stage, where it could remain as is and it’s left to the viewer to fill in the lower 3/4 of the composition. but he/she should be grateful that i allowed him/her this freedom to invent.

this painting is extremely difficult to nail digitally. there are simply too many subtleties of color, too difficult to capture the underpainting peeking through, the presence it has.

in person, there is more of an awareness of the creek-scape it started out as. the digitized image comes close, but within that small gap lies the heart of the story i’m telling. if somehow you get to view it in person, i know you’ll get what i’m driving at here.

the image i posted at noon is, you will immediately notice, quite different than the one i just posted.

the reason for that is that it was shot in a different position in my studio, with a different light falling on it.

2021 creek oil 1 78x26” as it looked moments ago

12:47 PM: i made the composition a vertical, and went into 2021 creek oil 1, mostly with oil stick, except for the red, which are brushed in. the figure is inspired by the photo of students sitting on the school lobby floor working on their laptops i used for 2021 creek oil 4, which you can find if you scroll down to my 2/27/21 post. i’ll get back to it while my energy is still fresh and post an update in a little while.

at work this morning on 2021 creek oil 1 78x26”

11:54 AM: i was going to stretch a new 66x16” canvas this morning. but as i glanced at 2021 creek oil 1, which i painted over a few days ago, i felt like going back over it with a pink color. when i got to this point, it looked interesting to do just this much and leave the rest. so there are now 3 layers: the first marks i made, which i added to using more and thicker applications of color than i normally would. that got turned to the wall for a few weeks till it dried. then i went over it a few days ago using a thin wash of titanium buff, which allowed the underpainting to peek through. then what i did just now, which i think i’ll leave for a few days till it dries and see where i go next.

ABOVE are two earlier stages of 2021 creek oil 1

7:43 AM: at 7:35 the sun peaked over the sangres. today is predicted to be milder, with temperatures reaching 45F for the first time in quite a while.i should get to my studio a bit earlier than usual, and lets see what i’ll do.

new well pump today / looking at ‘70’s & ‘80’s paintings of athens & nyc architecture /  by Philip Tarlow

2 PM: i didn’t sleep too well last night. today at noon our friend david arrived with his assistant to remove the old pump from our well housing and install the new one we got in salida this past friday. it’s a complicated procedure, since the old one is a bit smaller, and the new one had different size fittings. the bladder broke on the old one, which as a result is filled with water instead of air. so he’s working on pumping out the water before lifting it out of the deep well housing and beginning to install the new one. as long as all this takes, we’ll be without running water, so we’ve filled some jars to have drinking water until he’s done. this rather deep well services both our house and my studio. when we had the water tested, they said it was some of the purest water they’d seen. it’s a deep vein, coming down from the peaks of the sangre de christo mountains above our house. there are no farms or grazing on the land between our well and those peaks. the taste is really amazing, and it feels wonderful when you take a shower or bath.

when i got to my studio i was aware of the time, waiting for him to arrive, and i was not in a state to paint or even stretch a new canvas, which i had planned on doing. looks like it will be another skinny one, this time 66x16”. but i’ll have to wait till tomorrow to cut the canvas & stretch it.

view from the roman agora, athens 1976 oil on linen 32x46”

view from the roman agora, athens 1976 oil on linen 32x46”

neoclassical building, kifissia. watercolor 14x6.5” private collection, athens

this is an opportunity to take a look back at work i did in the early ‘80’s, when i was a member of fischbach gallery, then located on 59th st. in manhattan.in 1980, i had just returned from my 15 years in greece, where neoclassical architecture was a major theme in my work. at the time. the watercolor on you see here are just two examples from this period.

the view from the roman agora is one of a series of paintings i made looking out my studio window in the plaka neighborhood of athens. in the lower right corner are columns from buildings in the ancient roman agora (market) whic was laid out just beneath my studio windows. directly behind me was the acropolis. in good weather, my windows were open and once i actually witnessed a greek fellow walking up towards the acropolis with an american tourist, to whom he was trying to sell this “admittedly run down but very well located property.”

DETAIL of a 1981 nyc architectural painting

in nyc, i was living in an apartment on the upper floor of a building overlooking central park west. my passion for architecture translated into a series of paintings. i rode around manhattan on my bike, hasselblad around my neck, and shot photos of arcitecture bathed in that characteristic new york light, which even matissse commented on. i don’t have any of this work in my collection; all these paintings are in private, corporate and museum collections, mostly in new york.

st. patricks cathedral 1981, 40 x 60” oil on linen private collection, new york city

a character from the ruler of kastropyrgos, a little collage, painting over 2020 creek oil 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

2020 creek oil 2 26x78” after this mornings work

PLEASE POST ANY COMMENTS YOU HAVE BY CLICKING ON THE COMMENTS LINK, BELOW. YOUR FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOME AND HELPFUL!

2:41 PM: i did a variety of things today. i started out by taking a new look at 2020 creek oil 2, which was a very heavy horizontal composition with way too much going on. i went over it with a thin wash of titanium buff, made it into a vertical, and will work back into it once it dries.

then i made one more watercolor inspied by the photos dimitri sent me of the characters in his recent live stream production of the ruler of kastropyrgos, with the national theatre of greece .

and in the breaks, i made this little one: 2021 watercolor/collage 17. the central image ia from a little drawing i made last week of an ink bottle, which i then cut into 2 pieces.

2021 watercolor/collage 17

resuming work on 2021 creek oil 4 / metropolitan museum 2 60x 60” /  by Philip Tarlow

at work on 2021 creek oil 4

PLEASE POST ANY COMMENTS YOU HAVE BY CLICKING ON THE COMMENTS LINK, BELOW. YOUR FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOME AND HELPFUL!

12:50 PM: it was a very long day yesterday, and we’re both tired today, but working nonetheless. heroes, we are! we went up & back to denver, 4 hours each way, & i think we won’t be doing that again any time soon. next trip, since we’re both vaccinated, we’ll stay at a hotel overnight & return the following day. that said, we did accomplish everything we set out to do, so we’re happy about that!

a day away from a work in progress is, actually, a gift. i returned to the very skinny 78x16” 2021 creek oil 4 with fresh eyes.

what i like about what i’ve done so far today on this painting is my addition of an ochre cabinet behind the two girls. the geometry of these cabinets, along with the touch of red in the water bottle sitting on the shelf and the red bracelet on the girl with her back to us, adds a new dimension, enriching that dream space quality i strive for in my latest work.

the suggestion of blue sky above pushes that portion of the composition back in space, even though there is little to suggest sky other than the positioning and color. the ice bound pool of water below serves as an anchor.

the sketchy, seemingly unfinished look of the two figures gives the viewer something to ponder and build on; a fleeting reality that can’t be nailed down.

2021 creek oil 4 16x78” at 1pm

we spent a few weeks in nyc in 2017 where i shot a series of photos in moma and the met. i was, and continue to be enamoured of these views from above, capturing magical moments of diverse people drawn together in this common space, wandering about, with a common purpose in a museum designed to allow works of art over centuries to exist together in a cultured, spacious environment.

metrolopolitan museum 2 60 x 60” 2017 available at gremillion & company fine art, houston, tx.

2021 creek oil 4, stage 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

12:09 PM: i got an inspiration when we were on our zoom this morning. i was looking at one of my watercolor/collages hanging in our living area, which has some figures inspired by high school students sitting on the floor in the school lobby, working on their laptops. i had considered inserting figures viewed from above into this early stage composition, and somehow it clicked.

once i brushed over what i did yesterday with a diluted oil wash, i used mostly oil pastels to draw the figures. most important was the warm grey i used to make the initial drawing of the two figures.

i’m wacked out because i got up at 2am & couldn’t go back to sleep, so i’m stopping for the day and will continue on saturday. tomorrow we have to pick up a new well pump in salida & go to a doctor appointment, so i won’t be painting.

BELOW are yesterdays stage 2 & todays stage 3

starting 2021 creek oil 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:13 PM: this morning i was finally in the right space to begin work on the 78x26” painting commissioned by mikela.here are stages 1 & 2

just now i worked on the lower half. i wasn’t expecting it to be inspired by our recent walks up the trail to the stupa. i’ll continue tomorrow morning. i’m stopping for the day, since we’re finally going to take our afternoon stupa walk, after quite a few days when we weren’t able to.

i do love these long narrow shapes!