stretching two new 78x26" canvases / morning sky / 2019 drawing i just found /  by Philip Tarlow

the just stretched 26x78” linen canvas

4:16 PM: ABOVE: the newly stretched 26x78” canvas. you will notice some ripples in the center, which i”ll take care of tomorrow morning, after which i should be able to start working.

12:01 PM: we’re getting up earlier, eating dinner earlier & going to sleep earlier. so today we were up at 5:30, and as a result have lots more time to get work done in our most productive morning hours.

i drove to town to pick up a package & on the way back photographed this view of the mountains with a partially cloudy sky. the weather will be unsettled for the next few days at least, with moderate to strong winds. we won’t be able to resume our walks up the trail today because mikela has a zoom related to actionlab360, which will be entering schools here in the slv (san luis valley) this coming fall.

i’m about to embark on a new adventure, spurred by a request from my denver gallery. it will involve making 4 horizontal painting/collages, each 26x78” which will be in the vein of this watercolor/collage

i discovered this 2019 watercolor this morning.

2019 drawing of a chair

watercolor/collage 8, created on 1/28/21

our denver trip /  by Philip Tarlow

7:17 PM: just back from a two day denver trip. we had to leave at 5am in order to make it to our 9am doctors appointment. we didn’t make it. the roads were snow packed & icy, so we couldn’t go more than 30mph in many spots. so we rescheduled that appointment, but we did make it to 2 others.

we had a great dinner at the home of our indian friends, i delivered 4 paintings to my denver gallery and we did our usual food shopping at trader joe’s and costco. i was introduced to this boulder brewed ipa by one of the staff at trader joe’s. just tried it & it’s spectacular!

eager to get back to work in my studio tomorrow.

un-stretching a 2001 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

1:11 PM: this painting was made in 2001, a period when i was very active in my plein air paintings, which inspired this and other large studio oil paintings. it’s been leaning against the north wall of our living room, resting in a very substantial wood frame. it was too heavy to hang without assistance, so we just kept in sitting in that frame. a few days ago, as we were hanging some of the new 2021 creek oils (https://www.philiptarlow.com/2021-creek-oils) we both looked at it and felt that it was time to put something new in that cool wood frame.

so today i’m about to un-stretch this one so that i can use the stretcher bars, stretch a new double primed linen canvas and begin a new painting.

if you are reading this and are interested in acquiring this painting, let me know & we can discuss pricing.

after the snow / tweaks to yesterday's watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

2:39 PM: so i made one more change, which you can see BELOW. on the left: the painting as it looked yesterday, inthe middle, the painting at 2 pm and on the right, after the changes i just made.

2PM: i made some major changes to 4/16/21 watercolor/collage. not sure if they’re good ones or if i screwed it up.

it was simply becoming too fragmented, and, after putzing around for a few hours, i inserted the central feigure with her arm outstretched.

even though it might be a bit overworked, i prefer it to what it looked like yesterday.

from a distance, it reads almost like a cartoon, the way the colors are distributed . the new central figure looks as though she’s walking on water and the pieces of maps seem to be miles beneath her feet.

there’s one thing bugging me, which i’m going ot take care of right now.

i’ll post when i’m done with that.

8:00 AM: my coffee roasting & brewing process being complete, i’m about to meditate, make a quick run into town for some food supplies and then head over to the studio, where i may make some final tweaks to yesterday’s watercolor/collage.

after the snow stopped yesterday afternoon, we had another of our spectacular sunsets. you can see how warm the earth was in the fact that, even after only a few hours, most of the snow on the ground has melted. some pics BELOW:

continued work on 4/16/21 watercolor/collage / snow last night /  by Philip Tarlow

the usual last minute changes have occurred. this time very important ones, as you will observe if you compare this version with the earlier one below.

the collaged pieces of map i added on the lower half of the watercolor/collage simplified the composition and allowed the most interesting elements to shine.

the map, by the way, is of the area where we live here in crestone/baca. very familiar and much loved territory.

this habit of last minute adjustments is interesting. just as i’m about to walk out the door, i cast a glance at the painting and catch something that, just moments earlier, i hadn’t noticed. to act immediately on these aesthetic alerts, you could call them, is all important. tomorrow, i may not notice them. having spent my entire day looking at this composition, it’s become as familiar as mikela’s face & body when i return to the house at the end of every day.

if something is off, it alerts me, and requests that i take action in the moment.

i knew right where to find the rolled up bunch of old maps, and pulled out the first one that came to hand, not consciously realizing i was honing in on our home here in the baca grande, as well as the mountain creeks where we take our walks and i go to paint plein air. there’s no describing just how much this addition has made to my emotional relationship to what i did today.

could it have to do with the pages of popescu’s amazon beaming i read last night before falling asleep? it was all about his deepening relationship to the land, to the mayoruna tribe and to loren’s new concept of time itself.

3:07 PM: today i continued work on 4/16/21 watercolor/collage, which i started yesterday. i worked all day, as the snow continued to fall, albeit a rather light, wet snow.

i added some collaged elements, which are distributed throughout this piece. they introduce the unexpected, interrupt the logic we’re addicted to and introduce the element of play.

DETAIL of the new piece

at work this afternoon on 4/16/21 watercolor/collage

4/16/21 watercolor/collage at the end of my painting day

8:37 AM: we got about 3.25” of fresh snow last night. Although this is great for our snowpack & our yearly average, the future for precipitation in the entire Southwest is bleak, and will move progressively to extreme drought & unlivable conditions; maybe even in our lifetimes but certainly over the coming decades.

i should get to the studio by about 10:30 and will post re:continuing work on 4/16/21 watercolor/collage.

starting 4/16/21 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

2:29 PM: after a snowy start to the day, the skies partially cleared & there’s decent light for working. i spent a few hours preparing new surfaces to paint on over the next week or so, as well as preparing and baking brownies. i purposely burnt them a bit so they’d be nice & crisp, and i added some walnuts too.

i started to paint 4/16/21 watercolor/collage about an hour ago. i love taking it slow, and waiting to learn what i might do next; the expected unexpected you could say.

i like how it started, and i think i may stop here for the day. after all, i don’t have any deadlines other than the ones i choose to impose upon myself, and it’s cool to come into the studio in the morning and be able to continue work on something new that’s poking it’s head about looking for a way home.

small adjustments to 4/14/21 watercolor/collage and starting the new 4/15/21 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

ABOVE: 4 recent watercolor/collages. clearly, a new direction is emerging, which integrates paths i’ve taken over the arc of my career. although i’ve made abstarct paintings, i’m not an abstract painter. i briefly flirted with abstraction in 1962-3, when i was living in my studio in little italy, nyc. and i was influenced by deKooning, who was at his peak. then, in greece, i found my true path in painterly realism, inspired and guided by my mentor, yannis tsarouchis and my then mother-in-law, niki karagatsi.

later, in my ano kato series, i followed my lifelong passion for views of figures from above, while continuing to express my love for the landscape by making plein air paintings at our creeks. what you see above is an integration of this lifelong journey.

3:08 PM: before making the changes to yesterday’s piece, which i talk about below, i was working most of the day on the new 4/15/21 watercolor/collage. it’s elegantly simple right now, and i’m too tired to do anything more today. we got up at 5 so mikela could leave at 6:45 for a meeting in alamosa which started at 8am.

in today’s work, the theme of the tree trunk dissecting the watercolor continues, as do a slection of figures viewed from above, all of which have made appearances in previous paintings, particularly in my ano kato series: https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid

the more i employ these figures as part of the composition, the more they feel like old friends i know and love. there’s one i inserted today that i’ve only used once before. she is a girl i photographed with her family at an outdoor event in alamosa a few years ago. there’s a baby in her carriage which you can barely make out, to the right of the girl. in the original photo, an older woman i assume to be her grandmother stands to her right, along with other family members. the couple on the bottom are from a series of photos i shot from above in the acropolis museum in athens about 10 years ago. and the cactus leaves, which can also be found in yesterday’s work, are from plants in our bedroom. the suggestions, in the center and on the top right, of rippling water are from photos i’ve shot of our creek.

4/15/21 watercolor/collage at the end of my painting day

both these pieces consist of 2 joined pieces of arches watercolor paper mounted on archival foam core. in both these pieces, some of the cactus plant leaves consist of collaged pieces of old paper oil palettes and maps.

2:43 PM: as i started work on the new 4/15/21 watercolor/collage, i kept glancing over at yesterday’s 4/14/21 watercolor/collage. something seemd off, so i went back into it and made a few small changes that i think helped. BELOW is a comparative view before (left) and after my changes. the main areas of change are: the figure on the upper right and the lower portion of the dark brown tree trunk, which starts in the lower left and trevels up towards the upper figure in blue. a few leaf forms break up the brown, allowing it to become less dominant. what i did with the upper figure in blue i’m not so sure of, and i may return her to her previous, simpler state, where her dress and blouse were not filled in. as well, i may return the area to the left of her head to it’s original, lighter blue state.

5:11 PM: as usual, i worked until the very last minute, this time on yesterday’s 4/14/21 watercolor/collage.i’m too tired right now to give an accurate read on the adjustments i made to this, yesterday’s watercolor/collage.

ABOVE: 4/14/21 watercolor/collage went through 3 stages today, as i began work on 4/15/21 watercolor/collage. at first, it may be difficult to make out exactly what changed. but if you click on the image on the left, then the right arrow, which will bring you to the next stage of development, it will become clear. then, if you like, scroll down to the bottom of this page and leave a comment.

starting 4/14 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

4/14/21 watercolor/collage at 5pm

4:21 PM: i stayed a bit later than usual, and i’m glad i did. i took 4/14/21 watercolor/collage to the next level, and i’m excited to get back into it tomorrow morning.

DETAIL of 4/14/21 watercolor/collage at the end of the day

3:22 PM: i had to run a bunch of errands this morning, so i wasn’t able to get too far with this new one, which measures 15 x 11 1/4”

i’m going to work for another half hour & see what happens. will post when i’m done.

4/11/21 waterolor/collage completed / rocks from yesterday’s walk /  by Philip Tarlow

1:04 PM: when i came in this morning, it seemed to me that nothing more needed to be done to 4/11/21 watercolor/collage. so i’m moving on to a new one, and will post once i have something to show.

here’s what it looks like. there are 2 areas where collage was used: on leaves of the cactus plant, which are: cut out pieces from maps, old oil palettes & an illustration from an article on ancient minoan art. and in the figure at the bottom, beneath her hair is a small piece cut out from an unsuccessful watercolor i made last year, and kept so that i could use the more interesting bits.

DETAIL showing the collaged leaves

yesterday afternoon we walked up the trail adjacent to cottonwood creek. the creek is increasigly loud, infused more each day with the spring snow melt. i’ve always been a lover of rocks, which you can read about on my story page: https://www.philiptarlow.com/chatty-bio

our unique crestone conglomerate rocks are amazing, and can be found only a few other places in the world, tibet being one of those places.

the oldest were formed 1.8 billion years ago. you can read about them in this edition of our local paper, the crestone eagle: https://crestoneeagle.com/rock-of-ages-the-crestone-conglomerate/

day 2 of 4/11/21 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

3:05 PM: i continued work on the painting i started yesterday: 4/11/21 watercolor/collage. i’m moving slowly, and from time to time flipping it 180, so that it has an ambiguity i like.

tomorrow will likely be a critical moment, when new elements enter the composition.

it’s forecast to be overcast tomorrow, with a 70% chance for snow/rain, which may affect my work.

we’ll see.

DETAIL