continued work on 5/30/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

working until i could no longer stand up, i mushed up this painting until it was fakakta as one might say in yiddish.

blues are coming and going; pinks are trying to shout their names while whites pretend they mean something in this chaotic, wind driven world.

i worked compulsively, trying too hard to make it work.

there are however some cool passages, llike the one on the right.

2:03 PM: i was interrupted during my continued work on this painting and was a bit thrown off course when i resumed. i’ll have to sit with it in this state till tomorrow and see what i think in the morning.

mikela wandered over a while ago and had an issue with the new green up on top. so that’s mostly gone, replaced by collaged pieces of a pen drawing i made while eliminating the green. also new is the tree trunk on the right, which anchors the composition. in real life, it looks a lot less busy than in the photo, and it’s actually rather beautiful. no way could i do any more today, and besides i’m on the phone with apple support for the last hour, addressing an issue that came up when my printer didn’t recognize the latest OS, so i’m having to revert to the previous. HUGE pain in the ass!

i just have to keep reminding myself what a luck guy i am in so many ways. as i just messaged mikela, life sometimes throws you a curve ball…..no biggie.

5/30/2021 creek oil 78x26” today at 2 pm

11:19 AM: after getting an early start, i picked up where i left off yesterday. we were up at 5 this morning, so mikela was able to get to work early, as was i. i’m still in my flow state, so i don’t want to say too much. i’ll get right back to work after i post this.

i think my next move may be to break up that big rock….possibly with a few tree branches. the green on top is new, & i think it works.

5/30/21 creek oil flips 360....again.. /  by Philip Tarlow

1:35 PM: i continued work on 5/30/21 creek oil, flipping it 360, yet again. a big rock has entered the composition, as well as collaged pieces of a cut up ink drawing i made this morning. the blue ripples in the creek water are always an opportunity for me to make the wavy, painterly marks that permeate my recent work. the pale pink border frames the entire composition, giving the eye edges to bounce off of and containing the multi-directional movement. a piece of bubble wrap pressed into the blues beneath the rock creates the illusion of, yes, bubbles!

it’s getting progressively darker, and we may be in for some thunderstorm activity. so i’ll see whether there’s enough light for me to continue today.

drawings / flippin the berde 5/30/21 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

2:56 PM: after flipping 5/30/2021 creek oil upside down, i continued working on it, despite the very poor natural light due to a series of thunderstorms coming through. i’m going to start using my own spelling, which ayve been doing when messaging mikela laitlie. there’s a relationship between this spelling and my love of flipping paintings upside down.

lette me ex-playne. shifting perspective on an known entity even a litel jogs the brayne in such a way that watte maide senss before now maikes even morr. but upsyd down. this allows for the introdukshun of new percepshuns, previously blokt by our expectayshuns of how the werld looks.

even a slight jogging opinz the dorr.

this clenzing uv the wyndoze of percepshun, evin fore a momint, opinz the dore a krak and letz the lyte inn.

so wyle this payntinge is bie no meenz compleet, it’s onit’s waye

BELOW: lefte: yesterdaze verjun, right: momintz ago

1:27 PM: i’m in the studio with thunderstorms rumbling outside and bursts of heavy rain.i searched through some old sketchbooks and chose to post these two drawings from 2003. they were both made in a now extinct excompta french made sketchbook with superb paper. why do they stop making all the best things?

1:31 PM: here’s one of the drawings i made yesterday at the bluegrass festival in salida in between bursts of rain & thunder.

6:42 am: i didn’t have time to post the latest state of 5/30/21 creek oil ysterday before leaving with our friend for the bluegrass festival in salida.

STARTING 5/30/2021 CREEK OIL AND A SMALL MODIFICATION TO 5/9/2021 CREEK OIL /  by Philip Tarlow

1:08 PM: i completed stretching a new linen artfix canvas & commenced work on 5/30/21 creek oil. it’s starting out as a vertical, and as yet has no collaged elements. but since the canvas is stretched over a piece of 3/4” masonite, i can collage whenever i want. like all it’s predecessors, the joruney ahead will be a circuitous road.

in looking at the two paintings side by side, i realized that, while both canvases are artfix brand quadruple primed linen, the one i just started is not dead white. more like a tan-ish color. that will make any collaged piece of paper that’s white “pop.”

1:16 pm: so the modification i made to 5/9/2021 creek oil is mid-way up on the right. i was looking at a close up i shot last month of a rotting tree stump, which was orange-siena-deep red in color and riffed on that to make the marks you see here in this detail.

a friend is arriving in an hour, and we’ll have dinner together. so i’m planning on stopping early today & will likely start a bit later than usual tomorrow since we’ll have breakfast together before he leaves.

DETAIL of the modification i made today to 5/9/2021 creek oil

returning to 5/9/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

5/9/2021 creek oil at 3:30 pm today

3:18 PM: de-phallic-ing: mikela walked over from the house & liked the new version of 5/9/2021 creek oil a lot. but, she said, the ink drawing on the lower portion kept drawing her eye to the detriment of the entire composition. actually, i agreed. i don’t care if it’s phallic, but it does concern me when any one element in a painting dominates.

so i simply collaged over it, and i do think the painting has improved because of it.

now that it’s become a vertical, i think 5/9/21 creek oil has found her voice, and begun to sing.

i especially love that new turquoise blue next to the cadmium yellow up on top.

and my discovery: making pen and ink drawings before starting to paint, cutting them up & introducing them into the composition, has evolved since i made it last month. it’s become an integral part of my language in making these larger creek oils. i say larger because it all started with small, 10x15” works on paper.

BELOW: are a few other details

1:51 PM: i collaged some of the pieces of the cut up drawing i made this morning on to the painting surface. then i had the urge to turn it into a vertical, and worked into it with a few of the new oil colors that i ordered, which were delivered a few weeks ago. one, a turquoise blue, really made a difference and livened up the composition , taking it from a 6 to a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

BELOW: on the left you see the painting following todays work. and on the right, how it looked as a horizontal before starting work this morning.

DETAIL of 5/9/21 creek oil at 1:45pm

12:52 PM: i’m finally back in my studio with no likely interruptions today. after having 5/9/21 creek oil on my easel for weeks and not including it in the 26x78” creek oil paintings i dropped off at space gallery this past week, i’m feeling ready to return to the spare painting, which definitely needs something more.

so i started by making some ink drawings of whatever was in front of me. as you can see, i placed the white paper i’m drawing on atop the painting, which is a solid surface due to the masonite beneath the canvas. in case you forgot, i use that as a way to be able to collage onto the canvas without it giving way.

once i move on to the next stage of work on this painting, i’ll post.

more denver drawings / todays podcast /  by Philip Tarlow

this morning i participated in a podcast on the occasion of the exhibition of the work of my late friend and mentor yannis tsarouchis : https://wrightwood659.org/exhibitions/yannis-tsarouchis-dancing-in-real-life/

it was my great honor, and a lot of fun. the podcast will be editied and made availavle to the public at the end of next week, and i’ll post the link.

i should be able to get back to work painting tomorrow morning and will begin posting again as usual. some new oils will be happening, following up on the ones i dropped off a few days ago at space gallery in denver. BELOW is one of them:

5/3/21 creek oil 26x78”

11:51 AM: i made some waiting room drawings yesterday and here they are.

i ove drawing people in waiting rooms. by definition they are all waiting, and thus, until the nurse come out & calls their name, they will remain more or less motionless.

2 days away from the studio /  by Philip Tarlow

12:39 pm: I’m away from my studio for the next 2 days, which is rare. in the past, this has resulted in a fresh burst of inspiration once I’m back, so let’s see how it goes friday morning. I have a podcast with the director of the Hellenic museum scheduled from 9 to 11:30, which is about about the tsarouchis exhibition in chicago, so I likely won’t get to work till noon.

continued modifications to 5/22/21 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

7:22 PM: our afternoon trail walk was splendid. i shot a bunch of photos; here’ one.

shot this afternoon on our trail walk

FOR MY LOYAL VISITORS: THERE WILL BE A BREAK IN THE FLOW OF MY BLOG POSTS STARTING TOMORROW THROUGH THURSDAY, RESUMING FRIDAY. THANKS ALWAYS FOR FOLLOWING MY POSTS!

2:23 PM: we’ll be going on our trail walk in an hour, so this is probably the last round of changes for today.

i feel good about the work i did today, and feel that it’s a more compelling, magical painting than it was when i entered my studio this morning.

before coming to the studio, i picked up the 87” by 5 yards roll of artfix quadruple primed linen i’ve been waiting for. this means i can start work on some new large scale creek oils!

DETAIL, after my most recent modifications

12:35 PM: still not satisfied with 5/22/2021 watercolor/collage, i did more work on it this morning. it’s definitely an improvement over where i left it yesterday. but now that i see the two together, i might do a bit more right now…

DETAIL

more work on 5/22/21 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

5/22/21 watercolor/collage 11x15” mixed media and collage on arches paper

LEFT: or do you prefer vertical?

DETAIL

1:35 PM: i took a little oatmeal break, then scooted over to the house to bring some to mikela, then got back to work on 5/22/21 watercolor/collage. about 20 minutes ago, it found it’s voice and began to sing. i love that moment. just the right balance between white space and marks. just the perfect use of color and line. and the big clue in this one was choosing to use the side of a crayon to scoot over the rock shape on the upper right and the indication of water beneath. the crayon, used in that way, picked up the uneven surface below in a way that is reminiscent of bonnard. it differs from the rest of the flatter areas of color so that it creates a distinct melody. good job, philip. just kidding; the spirit is in charge here!

by the way, if you make the image full page and look carefully at the area adjacent to the blue triangle of color, you will detect the profile of an egyptian sphynx; it’s from a metropolitan museum brochure advertising a trip to egypt.

9:43 AM: i thought i had completed work on this new watercolor/collage, but after looking at it this morning over at the house, it still seemed like it was divided into 4 equal rectangles. didn’t hang together.

so this morning i arrived early at the studio so i could do a bit more work on it before returning to the house in 5 minutes for our bi-weekly 10am zoom with our friends in germany.

i may do a bit more once i’m back, around 11:30.

BELOW: yesterday’s version and, on the right, today’s