starting a new watercolor today /  by Philip Tarlow

7/2/2021 water/collage. 11x14 in. on arches watercolor paper

drawing of k. 7/2/2021

3:14 PM: my mentee & buddy, 13 year old k. came over at 1. we exchanged stories, made drawings of each other & talked about digital art. next Friday he’ll bring his tablet, we’ll connect it to this my i mac & he’ll show me the ropes. i’m excited, as i’ve been wanting to learn how to use a tablet to make art for a while now.

I did more work on 7/2/2021 watercolor/collage, which I started earlier this morning. I discovered, as I said earlier, that I actually do better work when there’s someone in the studio doing their thing as I do mine. I incorporated a piece of one of the ink drawings I made this morning, as well as a piece of map & a magazine clipping.

but now i’m wiped, after a long day which started at 5am. we skipped our walk today so that I could get to the studio by 9 for the repair work. so we’ll walk tomorrow morning. our plan is to go a bit further up the trail each time we walk to increase our endurance

10:53 AM: I’m in the process of starting a new watercolor/collage this morning. I made some b&w brush drawings to use as collaging material if I want to use them for that purpose.

I discovered I actually do more & better work when reed is here working on studio repairs! he’ll be here again tomorrow morning.

my mentee, k., whom I haven’t seen since covid started, will be arriving at 1, and we’ll resume our mentor-mentee relationship, which has proven to be very fruitful for us both.

at work this morning on 7/2/2021 watercolor/collage

continuing work on 6/30/2021 watercolor /  by Philip Tarlow

DETAIL

1:13 PM: I continued work on the new watercolor this morning. i’m going very slowly; as it evolves, each successive stage stands alone as a completed work. so it’s up to me how far I take it. I do like how suggestive the white spaces are.

i’m going to leave it alone for now & maybe start a second one tomorrow, which will allow me to do my favorite thing: going back & forth between two works in progress.

the detail on the left reveals the relationship between the tree trunk & branches and the caryatids, whose draped bodies echo the peeling bark of the dead tree.

starting a new watercolor / caryatids and a formerly living tree / jonas mekas (1922-2019) gives his thoughts on critics & criticism /  by Philip Tarlow

4:43 PM: i got the drawing to the point where tomorrow morning i can start applying watercolors. i made a small start with the green leaves you see in the image ABOVE.

1:52 PM: so as it turns out, this watercolor will be based on two very different photos ABOVE. both represent a journey through time; the one on the right was shot in 1991, in the newly opened acropolis museum in athens. the one of the left 2 days ago on the trail.

in the acropolis museum photo, we see visitors commingling with the ancient caryatids.”…caryatids represented the women of Caryae, who were doomed to hard labour because the town sided with the Persians in 480 bc during their second invasion of Greece.”

the tree in the second image has died. it’s bark is falling from the trunk, creating a special kind of beauty. these caryatids may be relieved to finally find themselves in the company of another formerly vibrant, living being, whom observers can be enriched by, and whose history is shrouded in mystery.

12:43 PM: i’m about to start a new watercolor inspired by one of the over 70 photos I shot on our Monday trail walk. i’ll post as it develops.

making the drawing for 6/30/2021 watercolor

JONAS MEKAS (1922-2019) a great film maker, had this to say about critics & criticism:

continued work on 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage / a radical crop at 2pm /  by Philip Tarlow

3:38 PM: I did a bit more work on the 20x20 in. version, and created a second smaller version of 6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage, which is 20 x 16” BELOW, you can see them side by side; it’s what is known as a two-fer.I

2 PM: I cropped the painting, so that it’s now 20 in. square. i’m still somewhat in shock, and won’t know how I feel about this radical solution until tomorrow.

cropped 6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage after cropping to 20 x 20 in.

6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage on 6/29 11am

11:27 AM: I continued work on this new piece this morning and about midway into the process, I flipped it 90°. compositionally this makes a lot more sense. new blue marks intended to indicate sky are now found on the left. and a pink-red 4 inch square grid in colored pencil has appeared, covering the entire image.

as I gaze at it from 20+feet, I feel it need simplification, so i’ll get busy with that now.

starting 6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage at 3pm today

DETAIL

3:38 PM: I did quite a bit more work on this new one, which is singing sporadically, but not yet projecting a full throated melody. close.

pieces of pen & ink drawings I made today have been collaged in, as well as 2 sections of maps, a piece of a worhol reproduction of a nude figure and a piece of a drawing a friend’s kids made when they visited my studio a few years back. while the canvas i’m using for this one is quadruple primed artful, from paris, it’s not the very smooth textureless linen I used for the previous one. so it takes the colored pencil and oil pastels differently.

the photos i’m using for inspiration were actually shot during our morning trail walk today, when I shot over 70 photos. the colors were more vibrant than usual because of the heavy rains we had yesterday, so I went kinda nuts with my iphone.

although, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, i’ve been down this road before, in terms of the marks i’m making and the colors i’m using, I feel that a new language is emerging, and I find that exciting.

12:04 PM: I decided, instead of spending time searching for stretcher bars to match the various pieces of primed linen canvas I have, to take each one, tack it to the wall & work on it there, worrying about stretcher bars later. thus, I was able to immediately get to work on the new 6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage. I have quite a few stray pieces of varying sizes, which should take me through the summer. I also had an idea, while taking our trail walk this morning, to tack some of the pieces side by side on my painting wall and make a composition using all of them.

continuing work & will post updates as they become available.

BELOW: 6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage in an early stage this morning

shot at 7:30am this morning on our trail walk

6/28/2021 creek drawing/collage as it looked moments ago.

stretching 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage & installing at in it's frame the house /  by Philip Tarlow

the completed and framed 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage

the completed and stretched 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage

1:10 PM: I just finished stretching 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage. it looks so much better without the wrinkles! we can’t wait to see how it looks over at the house, once we place it in it’s frame. we can’t however hang it until it’s secured in the frame. and then we may need help because that frame is so heavy we’ll have to locate a wood beam behind the wall and use heavier screws than what we currently have.

I just brought it over to the house, where mikela & I placed it in it’s frame. looks really good. didn’t bring my phone with me, so i’ll shoot & post it later this afternoon.

so now, on to something new. I have a long narrow strip of canvas left over which may become the next one.

delicious breakfast / continuing work on 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage /2 newly discovered 2014 drawings , and 7 self portrait drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

just today discovered these 7 self portrait drawings I made in February, 2014

I recall deciding to make one every morning before leaving for my studio. they’re all pen & ink, except for this one you see on the right, which is colored pencil. I used our bathroom mirror to capture my reflection.

looking at these inspires me to do another round, 8 years later, which i’ll post if I actually follow through on this threat.

6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage. 49.5x49.5 in. at 1pm today

1:29 PM: this morning I had the intention of taking 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage further. but I didn’t want to overdo it. I think I accomplished that, adding something, reflecting, adding another little bit, etc. during studio cleanup a few weeks ago, I came across 5 pieces, each 30x22.5” on arches paper that are very much in the same spirit, although they are smaller and on paper, and don’t contain any collaged elements. it’s interesting to note that, in the one on the left, below, I inserted a figure, just beneath the rock. 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage also contains a small figure, of our friend David installing new lighting oil our closet, and it’s in almost the exact same area of the painting.

as i’m gazing at it, I think i’m going to declare it complete, stretch it and bring it to the house, where it can be inserted in it’s substantial wood frame. as i’ve mentioned in an earlier post, we removed the 2001 creek oil that resided in that frame for the past 20 years, to make way for this new one. that’s the reason the dimensions are so unusual: 49.5x49.5”, which are the dimensions of the old stretcher bar. as soon as it’s stretched, all the wrinkles you may have noticed will dissapear.

it’s interesting to compare the 2017/2017 works on paper with this new one , so I posted 2 of them below.

at work this morning on 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage

BELOW: 2 just discovered 2014 drawings

6:38 AM: you probably think i’m nuts, but i love sharing my delicious breakfasts, and what i’m reading as i eat them.

here you see my little breakfast table in the studio. at the top is the latest atlantic magazine. the cover article is about british pm boris johnson. i’ve been reading it with my breakfast over the past few days, and learning more about johnson, who is a much more complex & interetsing character than i imagined. and on the plate: toasted pumpernickle from trader joe’s, slathered with french boursin, topped with greek capers, then a layer of wild caught alaskan smoked salmon topped with slices of fresh tomatoes. and next to the plate, my morning cup of organic matcha tea with a teaspoon of manuka honey. great way to start my day of painting!

continuing work on 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage 49.5x49.5in. at 3pm today

3:32 PM:since I started drawing & collaging this morning, the storm clouds moved in, there were periods of rain & wind, and the temperature dropped from 72 to 54. chuilly!

I continued drawing 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage and collaged a few more areas. one of the collaged pieces of paper contains a quick drawing I made about half an hour ago, of our friend David installing new lights in our closet, which are much brighter than what we had previously.

it’s to dark right now to evaluate what I did, so i’ll wait till the morning, after the trail walk we plan on taking at 7.

installing the new closet light

starting 6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

6/24/2021 creek drawing/collage 49.5x49.5”. as it looked moments ago after doing more work

4:22 PM: so I did end up doing more work on what is now 6/24/2021 drawing/collage. I added 3 bits of collage: a fragment for an ink drawing, a fragment of a map and a piece of newspaper from 2018 with the image of a bunch of carrots. as well, I made more marks with colored pencils. the composition is beginning to take shape, but is still very spare. i’d like to keep it that way! and, by the way, i’m finding the wall a good surface to support collaging; I had been concerned maybe the texture of the wall might present a problem, but it was fine.

BELOW: details showing where I applied collage

6/24/2021 creek drawing 49 1/2 x49 1/2”. at 3pm

2:44 PM: i’m calling this one 6/24/2021 creek drawing, instead of creek oil because, at least for the moment, that’s what it is.thus far i’m just using colored pencils, which is interesting & a bit unusual for a 49.5x49.5” piece on portrait linen. last year I did something similar, but on 36” paper. it’s a slow process, which I love, but you do get tired after few hours. so i’ve stopped for the day and will resume tomorrow morning.

I have a feeling there will be some collaging down the line; we’ll see what happens tomorrow. placing masonite behind the canvas to facilitate collaging made this size painting too heavy to move around easily, so I tacked the canvas to the wall so as to have a solid surface if I need it. if the texture of the wall makes collaging difficult, i’ll just but a couple of pieces of foam core on the wall beneath the canvas.

BELOW: 2 details

a bit more work on 6/17/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

at work on 6/17/2021 creek oil today

2:54 PM: it takes a while to re-enter the painting space, even after only 2 days away. all our doctors visits went well, we stocked up on food supplies and got home yesterday at 5:45 pm. this morning the guys arrived at my studio just as I was preparing to launch into my work. they were hammering, screwing things in and it was somewhat distracting. that said, the two doors into the studio now, once again, have the curved protective metal pieces, which are an important part of the architectural design as well as shielding you from rain and snow as you’re opening the door. they were in disrepair after 25 years of exposure to the elements, and it’s so great to see them up there again. they still need some work, which will happen later this week.

I was able to do a bit of work on 6/17/2021 creek oil in the midst of all this, including work he’s doing right now on the light switches in our house. I didn’t do any painting with brushes or collaging. just oil pastel on the tree trunk on the left & some lichen patterns on the rich at the bottom.