solstice celebration signs / looking back: march-april 2017 /  by Philip Tarlow

6:19 PM: looking back four years, this is where i was at in march-april, 2017. i was in the midst of my gaze series, (https://www.philiptarlow.com/gaze) paintings inspired by vermeer and by the 1st c. fayum portraits.

what precipitated this series? i’ve loved vermeer since i was old enough to visit the metropolitan museum, and with the fayum portraits since tsarouchis introduced me to them in the late ‘60’s. they are two very painterly ways of looking at the human face.

2:55 PM: I was asked to make a couple of signs for the solstice celebration taking place in center ( a 45 minute drive) on friday. so I figured it’s best to get that done before launching into the new 49.5x49.5” painting I just stretched the canvas for. this is the one that is designed to fit the beautiful wood frame sitting empty in the house.

I made the two signs on plain, light weight white roll paper & then taped them to cardboard. i’ll have to use fixative tomorrow, since I used oil pastels, which will rub off on anything they touch.

i’m not used to making signs, so I had to make a few throw-aways before settling on these two.

everything I do is harder till this groin strain gets better, so i’m going back to the house to put some ice on.

it’s been a really hot week here and all over the west, but that should ease up starting Friday. each day it’s more likely we’ll get afternoon thunderstorms, which cools things down. actually, about 5 minutes ago a clap of thunder was heard and there’s a bit of rain falling right now.

starting the big re-org & cleanup /  by Philip Tarlow

4:29 PM: today i continued cleaning up and re-organizing my studio. this afternoon mikela came & helped out, while a technician started the overdue repairs following the flood last year in the studio loft and the ensuing damage to the cieling & walls. there’s a long way to go, but you can see the difference in these comparative photos.

cutting canvas yesterday for a new 49 1/2 x 49 1/2” painting

8:41 AM: yesterday afternoon I got everything off the two work tables so I could unroll my 84” x 5 yards linen canvas and cut a 52x52"” piece to stretch on a stretcher bar designed to fit in a big, beautiful, heavy natural wood frame that was formerly home to a 2001 creek oil.

everything is now sitting on a big strip of plywood, on my 2 saw horses. so today i’m going to organize all that stuff; mostly collaging materials & brushes, in a more efficient way.

we’ve been without water since yesterday morning, when our friend & technician David was installing a new pressure gauge on our well pump & it blew out, not one but three times, soaking him each time.

no showers, no dish washing, no toilet flushing, and we’re having to drink “purified” water we bought in a 2 1/2 gallon container in town. he should arrive any minute, and hopefully we’ll have our well water pump working sometime today.

8:50 AM: that was quick…he just arrived moments ago and the well pump water is working already and, lo, we have water!!!!

morning creek drawings with mosquito netting /  by Philip Tarlow

11:28 AM: this morning at 6:45am we set off for the creek. i’m not going up the trail with mikela until my groin strain healing process is further along. so I stayed down at the stupa trailhead, where there’s an ideal place to stand and make colored pencil drawings. we’re both wearing our mosquito netting jackets during this, the heart of mosquito season, and I took a photo of one of them that landed on my drawing. it’s kind of a drag, but you get used to it. and, even though we’re experiencing a heat wave this week, at that early hour the temperature is a perfect 55-60F.

mikela accurately commented that these drawings are serving the purpose of refining my lines, which is showing up in recent paintings, where there’s a certainty in my marks that’s new.

one of the drawings I made at the creek this morning

an experiment /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: end of work-day state of 6/10/2021 creek oil. another tree trunk-ish form has entered the picture. and here’s a detail of one of my watercolors that I cut up, of a female figure seen from above with some flowers.

DETAIL showing the cut up watercolor I inserted

6/10/2021 creek oil 26x78”. at noon today

12:00 noon: I had a breakthrough of sorts. I needed to break up the straight lines of the collaged canvas I attached earlier this morning. so I rifled through the stack of watercolors and gouache paintings inspired by the creek and followed my inclination to cut them into pieces and collage them onto the painting.

i’m still working on it, but I needed a little break, so i’ll jump in my shower and continue after i’m out.

I think my energy may have been affected (in a good way) by the spectacular match we recorded & watched last night, between two titans: djokovik and nadal; possibly the best tennis match we’ve ever seen. the message? never give up, keep pressing in and, in the case of Djokovic, don’t take it too seriously. smile as you work your majik.

10:24 AM: I had one of four previously attached 16x20” creek oils on the easel in front of 6/10/2021 creek oil a few days ago. as I glanced over, it seemed to be part of the composition. but my reasoning mind quickly ruled that out.

this morning it became a reality, as I collaged it onto the painting. we’ll see where I go from here! wat’ve I got to lose?

6/10/2021 creek oil as it looked after collaging on the 16x20” creek painting

morning creek walk/drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

6/10/2021 creek oil 26x78” following a slight modification, extending the log all the way to the edge of the canvas on the mid-left.

2:31 PM: I made one modification, carrying the log in the center left all the way to the edge of the canvas, for compositional reasons. works better. if you compare with the previous state, below, you’ll see what a difference this makes.

6/10/2021 creek oil 26 x 78”, after extensive work, at noon today

12:29 PM: as I mentioned in my earlier post, I was a bit late getting to my studio due to our morning walk. I entered the space of my studio and glanced at 6/10/2021 creek oil to make a quick evaluation of where it was at. yesterday, I thought maybe it was resolved and I could move on to something new. when mikela looked at it she just pointed out one area that she thought might need some work.

so I started with that one area, which was a collaged piece of newspaper with a dark rectangle that drew the eye away from the rest of the composition. and before you know it, I was adding to other areas. and, although there’s now a lot more going on, it seems more, not less coherent. and all the while, a short video of my grandson playing piano was running through my head. although he was playing beethoven, I heard strains of thelonious monk. there was a syncopation to his playing that, for me, shouted jazz! and somehow this became incorporated into my strokes, into the marks I was making, into my sense of the composition as a whole. sometimes, in moments like this, you wonder…”what would monk have said if he could see this painting in it’s current state?”

on top is the area of newspaper I collaged over, mostly hiding the dark rectangular form that kept drawing the eye

the second, more spare drawing

8:52 AM: we went up the trail this morning. i just went a little way so as not to put any strain on my groin, which is healng nicely from my insane dance moves last week at the bluegrass festival. so i let mikela continue on up, while i went back down and made a few drawings at a familiar spot at the head of the stupa trail. we had our mosquito jackets, but they weren’t to bad, so i was able to remove the part that covers my head & face, making drawing a lot easier.

the second drawing, which is more spare has elements that might enter into my studio process today. i haven’t yet meditated, so i maight be a tad late getting started.

the first drawing i made

making drawings for collaging to the new 6/10/2021 creek oil / taking the painting further /  by Philip Tarlow

6/10/2021 creek oil at 3pm

3:13 PM: a few tweaks & i’m done for the day.

12:58 PM: I did quite a bit of work on 6/10/2021 creek oil this morning. BELOW are images of the before and after. for a while, I was working on it as a vertical composition. i’m finding that when I flip the canvas occasionally, ti benefits the whole by tricking my mind and infusing the entire image with the unpredictable passages I so love, but of course can never plan ahead.

that said, it hasn’t begun singing yet. you can tell when something is really singing; if you watched the Kennedy Center awards the other night, remember the look on garth brooks’ face when james taylor sings the river. he tears up, then stands up, in recognition that Taylor is SINGING his song!

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/james-taylor-sings-garth-brooks-kennedy-center-honors/

that’s what we’re lookin’ for. nothing less will do.

so i’m kinds pooped, and will continue tomorrow morning.

9:50 am: i’m trying to get as much done as possible before it gets too hot. staring by making more quill & ink drawings on large sheets of paper.

next step: cut it into curvilinear pieces and add to the pile from the last one I cut up, giving me a good amount to choose pieces from. then i’ll collage a few to the current composition, which seems destined to become a vertical composition.

more once I get going. our roofer is here working on the roof over at the house, so I need to be on call in case mikela needs me to come over.

6/10/2021 creek oil stage 1 / 5/19 & 5/20/2019 creek oils rediscovered / an aborted trip to the creek /  by Philip Tarlow

6/10/2021 creek oil, stage 1 26x78”

2:47 PM: I started work today on 6/10/2021 creek oil, 26x78”

it’s based, for the moment, on a series of photos I shot this morning at n. crestone creek, where I had gone to paint a watercolor. the mosquitoes were swarming, and I had to leave after making only 10-12 brush strokes. it’s that time of year. but we have netted mosquito jackets, which i’ll wear next time I go. the light was spectacular, and made me want to return soon, despite the mosquitoes.

last time we were in denver, I dropped off two new creek oils and took one back, which consisted of 4 attached canvases, each 16x20” when I got it back to the studio, I unscrewed the metal plates holding them together, and found them much stronger as individual paintings. here’s one on the right.

i’m cooked for the day, so i’ll go back to the house, have dinner with mikela & watch a few matches of the french open tennis semi-finals.

5/19/19 creek oil 20x16”

with 6/10/2021 creek oil, stage 1, and 5/19/19 creek oil they look like they want to be together, don’t they?

New canvas / yesterday's drawing cut into pieces for collaging /  by Philip Tarlow

after cutting up yesterday’s drawing into curvilinear pieces, I stretched a new, white 26 x 78" linen canvas over a piece of masonite to allow for future collaging.

i’ll get started on this new painting/collage tomorrow morning, after our trail walk.

before starting to paint, I just may make another large drawing in ink on white paper, then cut it up into pieces, which will give me more material to use in collaging.

continuing to look back at older paintings, I discovered this detail of a 1984 nyc cityscape.

it was done during the period when I was a member of fischbach gallery, which at the time was on 59th st. between 5th & madison avenues. my favorite subject at that time was, as you see in this detail, reflections of figures as seen in the large glass windows lining the streets of manhattan. sadly, I didn’t keep any of these pieces, which are all in private & museum collections.

DETAIL of a 1984 painting

the phil weiser for colorado ag fund raiser yesterday afternoon in alamosa / a 1984 painting of downtown houston /  by Philip Tarlow

5:34 PM:towards the end of the day today, i started messing around with pen & ink drawings on paper, edstined to be cut up & used in my next series of 2021 creek oils. then i got on the phone with apple again, to resolve my ongoing issues with my imac, following an unsuccessful session with a previous apple tech.

these little drawings are an opportunity to make my marks on a not do precious piece of paper and, once i cut them into curvy pieces, have them at hand as i’m making a new painting. i like starting my day making these free swinging drawings, and today i added a bit of colored pencil, accenting the otherwise black & white marks.

9:57 AM: RE-ELECT PHIL WEISER FOR COLORADO AG

https://philforcolorado.com

yesterday afternoon we atttended a fund raising event in alamosa for the re-election of phil weiser as colorado attorney general. we'd never heard him speak, and he was inspiring, compelling, honest and laser-focused on the major issues that are of most concern to coloradans. especially relevent for those of us living here in the san luis valley is the protection of our aquefer, which has been under threat for decades. visit his website for more information about phil. here are some photos, including one of a drawing i made of 2 attendees. on the right: a drawing i made of phil as he was being introduced.

8 x 6” drawing of phil weiser made yesterday

10:37 AM: this is a 54x66”painting i made in 1984 is of downtown houston. i’m currently un-stretching and rolling it up for storage in my studio.

switched to morning trail walk today /  by Philip Tarlow

10:32 AM: today we switched from afternoon to early morning trail walks. afternoons are getting up into the ‘80’s, which is too hot to walk the trails. we started out at 6:30 AM. after about 20 minutes I had to stop because my groin strain hasn’t completely healed & I was in pain. so mikela continued up and I stayed by the creek to make a few drawings till she came back down.

now I plan on continuing with my un-stretching re-stretching process till I have 3 or 4 new surfaces to paint on.

i’m going to try to complete this by 3, when we have a meeting, so I can get to work first thing tomorrow.