morning drawing / tweaks to 2021 creek oil 2, 5,& 7 / just discovered painting /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil

2:58 PM: today i made tweaks to 3 paintings: 2021 creek oil 2 (left on the wall), 5 (3rd from the left)& 7( 2nd from the left)

2021 creek oil 2: my changes were mainly to the floor on the bottom 3/4 of the composition

2021 creek oil 5: i toned down the green jacket

2021 creek oil 7: flesh tones were introduced to the left arm of figure on the left and a few modifications were made to the geometric lines of the glass floor

i had intended to start something new today, but i think i’ll have to stretch a new canvas for that to happen. so that’s my next move.

at work on 221 creek oil 4, february 27, 2021

untitled oil painting on two attached canvases

SITE-3::15:21 morning drawing.jpg

8:56 am: today’s 8am morning drawing: colored pencil on archival paper. cacti: in the corner of our bedroom. and by the way they need water!

i’m thinking i’ll continue making these morning drawings and see where they take me. i might switch up the medium, so that one morning i use my flex nib fountain pen, then perhaps brush & ink….

this one hour time shift has thrown off my schedule, so i’m getting to my studio later than i used to. should be there today around 11 and will post today’s process as it unfolds.

i may do more work on 2021 creek oil 4, which i last worked on february 27 and considered complete at the time.

3:13 pm update: i decided not to do anything yet to 2021 creek oil 4. i’m going to wait a few days.

4:57 PM: as i was going through a stack of paintings leaning against my east studio wall, i cam across this painting, consisting of two attached canvases, each one 20x16”. it’s probably vintage late 2020. i remember joining the two canvases in what was then intended to be a horizontal composition. i was playing around with the idea of a fully loaded composition transitioning into a spare one.

i do remember working on the more spare one, on top, and extending the branch shapes and the blue colors into the adjacent canvas.

i could see doing a little more work on it. maybe…

snowstorm / morning drawings / /  by Philip Tarlow

4:14 PM: i worked on 2021 creek oil 2, which was a horizontal and hadn’t been touched since january 24. this is a variation on the theme of the acropolis museum, which we visited the year after it opened, in 2009. these figures of two girls interacting, their shadows falling on the magical glass floor, continues to enchant me. the juxtaposition of the stunning architecture with it’s geometric angles, with the figures of these museum goers is simply something magical for me.

i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow.

the snow has stopped, and i think that’s it for this snowstorm.

shot at 8:45 am

11:57 AM: continuing my morning drawings before heading to the studio, today i made two. about to get to work, as the blizzard continues. looking like about 8 inches so far.

9:02 AM: the snowstorm started yesterday and will continue throughout the day. right now we’ve received about 4-5” of fresh snow, and may end up with 8” or so. at least double that on the sangre de christo peaks, which is vital for our snowpack, but may likely result in an active mosquito season, once it all melts & flows down to the valley, where they breed. i’m a bit disoriented with this time change, and probably won’t get to the studio till 11, after getting the snow off the car. i’ll post more once i get back to work.

another morning drawing / snowstorm / resuming work on 2021 creek oil 6 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:40 PM: i made a few tweaks to yesterdays work on 2021 creek oil 5, then moved on to 2021 creek oil 6, a very skinny girl, coming in at just 56 x 12”.

a new path is being forged. it’s not something i planned or intended; it just happened as a natural evolution of my ano kato series holding hands, as it were, with my creek series; both the watercolor/collages and the oils. the areas of drawing or sketching left unpainted on areas of the canvas is of course intentional. it reflects an ever present aesthetic dating back decades, but most evident perhaps in this 2008 oil, which was shown in my 2009 solo exhibition at skoufa gallery in athens.

BELOW: on the left: 2021 creek oil 6 and on the right: 2021 creek oil 5, both of which i worked on today.

BELOW: i made a second drawing in my morning drawing series. they will all be made in our bedroom, before leaving for the studio.

a snowstorm is moving in this afternoon, and is forecast to continue on and off through tomorrow. as usual, it’s totally up in the air how much we’ll get out of this storm, but there’s no doubt they’ll get a good boost to our snowpack on the peaks, above 12,000 ft.

BELOW are shots of the landscape at about 10:30, just before it began snowing.

starting my day with a drawing / continued work on 2021 creek oil 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

my east studio wall with the two new paintings i’m currently working on: 2021 creek oil 5 & 2021 creek oil 7

2021 creek oil 5 as it looks right now

2:48 PM: a painting can be a very fugitive thing. one scrape across the surface; one touch of red…cna make a big difference. once you do any of those things, you need to set it on the easel or hang it on the wall and step back ideally about 20-30 feet, depending on the size of the piece. furtive glances work best. that’s when you catch something that’s off. that’s when you hear it sing. that’s when you feel it transcend individual marks, colors, compositional elements, and gain an identity, have a presence.

is this a painting of a student working on her computer on the lobby floor? is it a painting of a water bottle? or none of the above?

post your thoughts by clicking on the comments tab at the bottom of this page.

12:06 PM: the wind is howling and a storm is arriving tonight. but it usually dies down right about when we like to take our stupa walk: 3:45pm. so we’ll plan on that & see how it goes.

i did a first round of work on 2021 creek oil 5 a little while ago, and now i’m going back in, probably to soften some of those harsh greens, and whevever else my brush wants to go.

11:05 AM: after my morning shower & before getting dressed, i glanced at the night table, where a sketchbook lay, open to a blank page. i took one of the pencils on the night table and made a quick drawing of what i saw on the table. this may become a daily activity; a kind of warm up for my day in the studio.

i’m about to get to work on 2021 creek oil 5, picking up where i left off yesterday afternoon. i’ll post pics as they become available.

here’s what it looked like at the end of the day yesterday. that red box was bothering both of us, so getting rid of it may be the first thing i do.

a new selection of watercolor/collages for the boulder show / more work on 2021 creek oil 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:07 PM: after revising my choice of paintings for the boulder museum show, i finally felt i was in the right space to continue work on ˆ2021 creek oil 5. i was going back and forth about leaving it the way it was, or doing more to fill the large areas of gray. BELOW are the before & after images. i have no doubt that this painting gained a lot by everything i just did. i’m going to leave it for now and see how i feel about it over the coming days.

12:35 pm: i had a really good sleep last night & arrived in my studio full of energy. the first thing i did was to switch out the watercolor/collages i had chosen for the exhibition at the boulder museum of contemporary art.

instead of what i posted yesterday, i chose the two you see below: watercolor/collage 12 and 2020 watercolor/collage 149. i trust my gut, and that’s what it prompted me to do today. i must say, i like the fact that both of these have a balance between realism and abstraction; both contain figures which, as john russell said in this 1982 ny times review of my solo show at fischbach gallery: tarlow’s paintings “make us wonder what his people get up to when they aren’t in the picture.” (fischbach was then located on 59th st. in nyc and no longer exists)

2019 plein air drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

the two watercolor/collages i framed this morning, which will be shown starting march 27, at: boulder museum of contemporary art

4/22/19 plein air drawing 7

5:23 PM: i wasn’t up for painting today. maybe because i went to town this morning to shop for some food we needed and go to the p.o. plus i made a bunch of logistical call, setting up doc appointments and so on.

so i just surrendered to not doing any painting, and instead focused on getting the two watercolor/collages framed and ready for the bouilder show, opening 3/27. i’ll post pics of the framed pieces in a bit; i have to photograph them.

yesterday i discovered a very small drawing pad containing quick plein air creek drawings i made back in 2018. the marks in these little drawings are precursors to the marks you’ll see in my current watercolor/collages and oils.

continuing work on 2021 creek oil 7 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 7 after my 3:15 additions

5:58 PM: i had to go into town briefly at about 2:45. i figured that would be the end of my painting day. think again, philip. when i returned, 1/2 hour later, i saw what needed to happen with this painting, and got back to work. i only had about 45 minutes before leaving for the house and our stupa trail walk, so i had to work fast. often that;s a good thing. no thinking, just doing. mix the colors you need speedily, find the right brushes, and go for it! the additions i made were critical, and the painting may now be resolved.

the critical changes are: the face, hair & hands of the girl on the right; the hair of the girl on the left; the grey areas around the figure on the left; the reflections in the glass floor beneath the girl on the right; and finally, more definition in the flesh tones of arms of the figure on the left.

combines this gives one the impression that i did more work on the lower right portion of the composition. i didn’t. but the areas i did focus on allow that lower right passage, which previously gave the impression of something blurry and unfinished, to jump into focus, and make complete sense.

we’ll see in the morning if i still feel the painting is resolved. if so, it will go to the house once it’s dry, and undergo the acid teat.

our stupa walk, buy the way, was magnificent, as always. i shot a pic of the creek, which chenges daily as the ice melts. i’ll post it shortly and you’ll find it at the bottom of this page.

1:50 PM: i was about to post todays blog when i did something foolish and lost the entire post.

i’m going to try and recreate it, but i’m so pissed, i don’t know if i can.

2021 creek oil 7 48 x 24” at 2:30 PM

this morning i continued work on 2021 creek oil 7. fist thing i did was to flip it upside down. then i scraped what i’d done yesterday, leaving some of that to show through in spots. then i printed out one of the photos i re-discovered yesterday on an old hard drive. they were shot in 2008 at the then brand new acropolis museum in athens. i spoke in yesterdays post about the architecture of this museum, with it’s glass floors revealing the ancient ruins below.

two girls; friends i imagine, stand on that glass floor, one with her hands on hips. their bodies are reflected by the glass floor. i am not painting the interior of a museum here. i am pursuing the “véritable éspace plastique,” as matisse said. a true plastic space; a space authentically my own.

when i find myeslf in this kind of environment, i feel at home and, at the same time, transported to a realm beyond conventional time/space.

my hope is that the viewer will have a similar experience; feeling at once as though they were in their own familiar living room and are simultaneously transported to a place unknown.

i’m definitely on a new tack. taking all that i’ve done, all that i’ve learned to a new place. i made the paintings in my ano kato series, which i love from a different space.

starting 2021 creek oils 6 & 7 / SELECTING 2 WATERCOLOR/COLLAGES FOR THE BOULDER CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM SHOW /  by Philip Tarlow

2:12 PM: now that i successfully made a painting on top of an older one i wasn’t satisfied with, i’m moving more in that direction. i check first to make sure mikela agrees i’m not destroying one that should be a keeper before moving ahead.

so i went over 2 paintings with a light wash of titanium white & brilliant yellow and then started my drawing using a fat black oil stick.

BELOW are #6&7, stages 1 & 2. 2021 creek oil 6, on the left, hasn’t yet had any color introduced into the composition. whereas in 2021 creek oil 7 reds and blues have been introduced. i love going back & forth between 2 paintings like this. i’ve departed from the photos of students seated on the school lobby floor, and moved on to photos i shot a ten years ago in the then (2009) new athens acropolis museum, which was designed by bernard tschumi architects. amongst other interesting features, there’s a semi-transparent glass floor, which is what these visitors to the museum are standing on. it reveals the ancient temple ruins below the museum, and creates some very cool reflections and shadows. we went out on the terrace, which directly faces the acropolis, for lunch. if i go back to the original photos i shot, i know there’s lots more material to draw from.

i couldn’t make these paintings until a decade had passed and i had that all important, for me at least, distance.

i had about a 20 minute interruption about half an hour ago; every 3-4 months i get what’s known as an ocular migraine. it’d like a short lived misfiring in that area of brain connected to vision, that makes it hard to see; everything is scrambled. so it’s best to just sit & close your eyes for 15-20 minutes, and it’s gone. last one was december.

5:28 PM: this morning i chose 2 watercolor/collages for the BMCA open wall exhibition, opening march 27th. this photo shows the candidates i created to choose from. i decided on the 2, one atop the other, on the right, next to 2021 creek oil 5. they will be mounted on matt board and installed in square white frames, like the one you see just to the left of them. i chose htem in part because they are related in terms of color & composition, and because one contains a figure, which is becoming increasingly important in my recent work. in the two new oils i started today, for example,the human figure dominates the composition.

sunset pics from yesterday / continued work on 2021 ceek oil 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

7:26 am: i should get to my studio by 9; in the meantime, yesterday’s sunsets from our living room window.

continuing work on 2021 creek oil 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

2021 creek oil 5 at the end of my work day

at work this afternoon on 2021 creek oil 5

3:03 PM: i went a bit further with 2021 creek oil 5, focusing mainly on the cabinets behind the seated student & the blue books beside her. i also worked a bit on the creek landscape beside her, softening some of the too busy marks, adding some cascading water then taking it out, which left the sweep of white you see on the upper right. i find the subtle variations of blues and greens a turn on, as well as the bottle of water, with it’s red label. rather than working on her computer, the student almost appears to be nodding off.

the presence of this figure is strong. it would be a shame to do too much more to the space surrounding her. it feels to me as if she needs this space, in part to contemplate being in two places at once: the school lobby and creek side. there is something in all this that brings to mind giacometti’s painted figures.

2021 creek oil 5 32x36” at 1pm today

2021 creek oil 5 on the easel moments ago

12:24 PM: we had a zoom this morning, so i’m a bit late getting to the studio.

i scraped over what i did yesterday, then began working into it with oil paints. the grey ground i applied yesterday is not quite dry, so as i work, the fresh paint is picking up some of the underlying grey; just enough to make it interesting. continuing work now, and will post pics as the painting evolves. once again, these paintings are alive and have a mind of their own, so there’s no telling what direction this will go.

on the wall to the right is 2021 creek oil 1

BELOW: 2 images i shot on our stupa walk yesterday