8:34 PM: we both had doctors appointments today in denver, it’s 3 hours, 45 minutes each way. we got up at 4 & just got back 2 hours ago. we always do food shopping when we’re in denver, so we came home with some delicious chesses, fruits & veggies. and some delicoius bread.
i din’t get a chance to make waiting room drawing, as i usually do. all i had time for, while i was waiting for mikela to come pick me up, was a quick drawing of the view from the netrance to my dentist’s building.
7/10/2021 creek oil at the end of my work/play day
1:55 PM: I took 7/10/2021 creek oil to the next stage and have stopped for the day. I won’t be in my studio tomorrow, so i’ll resume on tuesday morning.
integration of the figure with the creek-scape has become clearer now and will become even clearer in the next stage, on tuesday morning.
despite the 90° temperatures that day, the little girl wears her pink wool cap, which right now is the focal point of the composition, along with the blue fluffy toy she’s holding.
instead of trying to find stretcher bars in my studio that fit these various pieces of linen canvas I have leftover from larger paintings, i’m just taping them to masonite & working that way.
12:09 PM: I made the first marks on the new 7/10/2021 creek oil and will continue working/playing as long as my energy is good.
my direction involves integrating figures seen from above, which you can see in my Ano Kato series, https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid with views of the creek. you can see the figure of a little girl viewed from my studio loft in the lower left, and the sketched out branches & sky of the creek views above.
7/10/2021 creek oil at 12:09 pm today
11:31 AM: after an enlivening conversation with my old friend David Hockney, who is now living in normandy, I continued work on there drawing for the new 7/10/2021 creek oil. right now, i’m about to add some areas of oil color, so stay tuned and i’ll post once this new stage of development has progressed.
4:23 PM: this one has taken a long meandering path, and the latest stage is ABOVE right, with the earlier state on the left. it may well be that I should have left it alone this morning, as yesterday’s state was, possibly better. but I have to trust my gut, and my gut said that those leaves in the foreground were too dominant and not allowing the composition to breathe. it’s also become clearer that there’s a figure (mikela) watering the flowers. maybe i’ll allow myself to move ahead with the new one I started this morning, and give this one a break!
2:21 PM: ABOVE: I made a few more modifications to 7/9/2021 watering the flowers, introducing some collaged bits. on the right=after the modifications. and I started the drawing for 7/10/2021 creek oil, which includes the photos from above I shot yesterday of our repair guy and his beautiful daughter.
ABOVE: 7/9/2021 watering the flowers. oil on linen. 21x25 in. (this morning’s modifications on the right)
10:51 am: so what’s new with you?
this morning, I continued work/play on watering the flowers. the changes and additions I made have lightened the composition and allowed this new painting to sing it’s song. I think that will be all for now.
yesterday, while working in the new watering the flowers oil, I made some modifications to 4 recent small works, which you can see BELOW.
i’m reading the biography of thelonious monk, which is as compelling as his playing. I was fortunate to have seen & heard him at the legendary five spot cafe in nyc, in 1958.
he’s a perfect example of my increasing passion for the unplanned and accidental in art.
7/9/2021 watering the flowers. 21x25 in.
4:17 PM: after re-stretching 7/4/2021 creek oil, I launched into the new watering the flowers oil on linen, 21x25in. it’s inspired by some photos I shot from our upper floor looking down on our entryway, of mikela watering a pot of flowers, which no longer exist. as you can see, I scraped over it, creating some unexpected marks that liven up the composition. i’ll continue working on it tomorrow morning, when I may start a second one to work on in tandem.
this is a look at some recent work & how it’s evolving. the figures from above will enter more and more into the composition, and he creeks-scape will be integrated into the compositions.
7/4/2021 creek oil. 26x78”
7/4/2021 creek oil 26x78 in. oil & oil pastel on linen. at 2pm today
2:06 PM: took a little snack break and did another round. at this stage, I prefer it as a horizontal, although it can work either way. what started out to be an integration of creek inspired imagery and views of figures from above has become strictly the latter. the indications of tree trunks and branches that were sketched in during the first stage have disappeared . in their place are two figures. one, the female figure, is inspired by a photo I shot about 5 years ago at an opening in the gallery representing my work in denver: space. the male figure was photographed in 2009 from the balcony of the gallery in athens, greece, which hosted my solo exhibition in 2010: skoufa gallery, located a block from kolonaki square. he was one of a crowd viewing the military parade celebrating a greek holiday, which was winding it’s way up skoufa street. the photos I shot that day looking down from the second floor balcony form the core of the images I used to create my ano kato suite of paintings in 2009-10. you can view them if you copy & paste this link: https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid
if you check out that suite of works, you will see that they are more literal, more photographic than what i’m doing now. i’ve had the desire to return to those figures viewed from above with my current sensibility to see what happens. figures viewed from above continue to turn me on, but i’m in a different space now than I was in 2010. I see the painting surface differently. there’s an element of ambiguity and an implicit statement that the painterly trumps any attachment to realism.
12:09 PM: got to the studio unusually early today. it’s a long story; bottom line: gave me more time to work/play. I added a walking figure from some photos I shot years ago in athens. it works as a horizontal or a vertical right now, as work/play continues.
7/4/2021 creek oil, 26 x 78 in. as it looked at the end of my painting day, after being scraped moments ago.
4:00 pm: ABOVE: the image you see didn’t meet my aesthetic, so I scraped it while it’s still wet, and will continue work/play tomorrow.
7/4/2021 creek oil, 26 x 78 in. as it looked at 3:22 PM
3:22 PM: this is a shot of the left 1/4 of the painting, which i’ve been working/playing on for the past few hours. ABOVE is a shot of the left 1/4 of the entire composition, which is still in process. these two figures are taken form a photo I shot of an opening last year at the gallery representing my work in denver: space gallery. more figures viewed from above will enter the composition and integrate with aspects of the creek-scape. I know not how, as yet.
the idea is to somehow integrate my ano kato series with my creek oils.
here’s the link to the ano kato series :
https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid
at work on 7/4/2021 creek oil at 2pm today
2:43 PM: I took a break from the two watercolor/collages to do some more work on the new 7/4/2021 creek oil, 26 x 78 in., on stretched quadruple primed french linen
afternoon thunderstorms forming at 1pm
12:38 PM: we’re expecting another round of thunderstorms in about 2 hours. this is great fro 2 reasons: it usually cools down the temperature by as much as 20°F in under an hour and secondly, we can use as much precip as we can get.
i’m working on 3 different paintings in rotation today; something you all know I love doing! I made more modifications to 6/30/2021 watercolor/collage and 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage. and i’m continuing work on the new, 26x x78 “ 7/4/2021 creek oil.
BELOW are the 2 watercolor/collages I made changes to. the previous version is always on the left.
at work this morning on 7/4/2021 creek oil
7:38 AM: it’s unusual, not to mention unheard of, fro me to make adjustments to paintings at 7am. but when i brought back these two watercolor/collages from the studio yesterday, they looked way too pale. what had seemed cool and interesting in my studio yesterday afternoon, looked like two washed out images when i got them back to the house. this is yet another gift in having my big, light, beautiful studio 500 ft. away from our house. as i sit here on our couch, looking out the south living room windows, i can make out the yellow north facing studio door through the pinon pines, and above it, the blue grey shpe of sisnaajini, or mt. blanca, one of the native american sacred peaks.
so getting back to the two watercolor/collages: 6/30/2021 watercolor/collage and 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage, i did more work on them last night and again this morning, using the colored pencils i have here in the house.
BELOW are comparative views of the two, before & after the changes i made using only colored pencils. yesterday afternoon versions are on the left.
6/30/2021 watercolor after this morning’s intervention.
1:48 PM: after transforming 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage earlier today, i made similar changes to 6/30/2021 watercolor, with a similar result. i’m finding this one equally compelling to look at, in comparison with the earlier stage. you can view them side by side, BELOW. I love the mystery, as well as the unpredictable poetry of the under-painting peeking through the over-painting. from the prosaic to the sublime?
now what? I have about 2 hours before returning to the house, and still feel pretty pumped. so let’s see what I do next!
7/4/2021 watercolor/collage following this morning’s intervention.
1:04 PM: we took our trail walk this morning & decided we have to start our earlier, like maybe 6 or 6:15 because it’s getting hotter earlier & earlier. plus, there are fewer mosquitoes.
after gazing at 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage last night & this morning, I decided it needed a radical solution. so I covered the entire composition with semi-transparent white paper, which allows a ghost image of the underlying painting to show through, then I painted on to of that with a diluted wash of watercolor, using my fan brush.
I find it very appealing how the underlying watercolor/collage appears then disappears, leaving you with the very spare, minimal over-painting.
BELOW are yesterday’s version next to what I just did, on the right.
7/4/2021 watercolor/collage as it looked at the end of my work/play day
5:00 PM: ABOVE: here’s the latest stage of 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage. work/play will resume tomorrow morning.
7/4/2021 watercolor/collage as it looked moments ago, after a few hours of work/play
3:05 PM: i’ve been working, or playing as you wish with 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage since my last post 2 hours ago. more and more, I experience these new watercolor/collages as music. and as I write this, a sudden thunderstorm has added to the mix, providing rumbles at the right moment, the sound of wind gusting through the trees, along with an indescribable fragrance. I still have some juice, so i’m going back to work/play & will post at the end of my day here in the studio.
1:00 PM: as i’ve said in previous posts, I like working on two things at the same time, switching back & forth as the mood strikes me. fortunately, there’s no one to tap me on the shoulder & say “hey! you can’t do that!”
so, after making the first fresh marks on the canvas you see BELOW, I started 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage.
it already has a few collaged bits, and will likely acquire more as the day goes on. i’ll post when I get to the next stage of this one, which measure 10 1/2 x 22 in.
at work moments ago on the new 7/4/2021 watercolor/collage, 10.5x22”
making the first marks on the new 7/4/2021 creek oil. 26x78 in.
11:33 AM: my intension was to start a new watercolor/collage this morning, but I found that blank 26x78 in. canvas sitting on the saw horses irresistible. so I launched in, and now that i’ve made the initial brush marks, I feel better about starting the new watercolor/collage.
BELOW: quote from matisse’s journal
quote from matisse’s journals
last night we had fresh caught alaskan halibut smothered in onions & tomatoes, thanks to a friend who just returned from a fishing expedition to homer, alaska.
it was, as you might imagine, delicious. and there’s one more serving left for tonight!
fresh caught alaskan halibut smothered in onions & tomatoes
this article appeared in the palm beach daily news during the period when mikela & I lived there. I just found it, & had forgotten that I showed my work at trump plaza. kind of embarrassing.
4:38 PM: after completing work on 7/2/2021 watercolor/collage this afternoon, i decided to stretch a new 26x78 in. canvas over a piece of masonite, to provide a hard surface for collaging. it’s likely that i’ll start working on it tomorrow. if so, it will be another in the series of creek oils and will be titled 7/4/2021 creek oil. i can’t recall ever starting a new painting on july 4th, and definitely never titled a painting using that date. i have no plan for it. depends on how i wake up.
there’s definitely a new direction taking shape in my recent watrecolor/collages, which have thus far been reflected in my most recent creek oils, like the one you see BELOW.
7/2/2021 watercolor/collage. at 1pm today,
1:18 pm: I did some additional collaging just now.
7/2/2021 watercolor/collage. at 11 am today, following this morning’s work
11:12 AM: as studio repair work continued this morning, I did some more work on 7/2/2021 watercolor/collage. it’s almost there but now that I look at it on my east studio wall at a distance of about 30 feet, I can see a few areas that need modification.
the shadow under the horizontal log is now a deeper mauve; the greens & blues in the upper portion are new, as are the collaged strips of brownish oil palette, which read as tree trunks.
DETAIL
