4 recent paintings in progress on my south wall / making drawings to cut up & collage into a new painting I'm planning /  by Philip Tarlow

3:41 PM: these 4 recent painting/collages are hanging together on my south studio wall.

the two on top are watercolor/collages, and on the bottom, oil, oil pastel and collage on primed linen.

the one on the bottom is very different, in that it’s an ano kato view from above of visitors to the museum of modern art in nyc.

they are all subject to change.

3:07 PM: today i’m making a series of drawings with black ink on paper, which will be cut up and used in the next painting i’m planning.

once the rolls of primed linen I ordered arrive, i’m going to stretch new surfaces, which will all be 58x26” and make an interconnected series of paintings that can all be hung together, in 2’s, 3’s or individually. it’s something i’ve thought about a lot, and created different variations on the theme going back at least a decade. i’d like to use some of the themes that run through my work over that period to create something that reflects my present mood and vision.

with a monet water illies painting at MOMA, 2008

central park , 2008, sans smartphones / revisiting a 2014 series of metropolitan museum & museum of modern art paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

6:25 PM: i found these photos shot in central park, nyc, in 2008. no smart phones visible anywhere. how beautiful!

11:49 AM: I had a request for one of the paintings in this 2014 series of interior views from above of the metropolitan museum and MOMA in nyc. they are all in private and museum collections, so i’m suggesting that I do a commissioned painting of the one they choose, which will allow me to tailor it to the exact size they need. here are 6 of the paintings from that series, all oil on linen.

7/30/2021 creek oil, 16x20 in. /  by Philip Tarlow

7/30/2021 creek oil, 16x20” at the ned of my painting day today.

3pm: a complete re-work took place while you were napping. I think this is it for today. having some delicious fresh corn for dinner, which we got yesterday at the kiosk, from suzanne. t. & her husband.

i’m finding the little grill-like image at the top intriguing; that little bit in the center reads as the head of a figure when you glance at it. and that pink I added really works in the composition.

time to clean up & get back to the house. see ya tomorrow, friends.

1:44 PM: at work moments ago on 7/30/2021 creek oil

this one started out a while back as a crop of a larger oil/collage, and wasn’t going anywhere. so it was sitting facing the wall for 3-4 weeks & today was it’s day. i’ve been going back & forth between stretching 7/18/2021 creek oil after removing the masonite backing, and this one you see.it’s still not resolved, but better than it was and likely salvageable, if I persist tomorrow.

at work on 7/30/2021 creek oil 16x20”

9:12 AM: I brought 7/10/2021 creek oil over to the house to evaluate. here it is sitting on the floor of our entryway

boot repair: 7/10/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

11:14 AM: I got some very helpful feedback yesterday from a dear poet friend in nyc who has one of the best set of eyes for evaluating paintings of anyone I know. it had to do with the boot in this painting. here’s a quote: “your shoe looks too much like a face, a kind of scary face to me….”

of course, she was absolutely right. so this morning I got right to work re-doing that part of the painting. the hiking boot is mine, and is part of a photo I shot on our trail walk 2 days ago.

my boot just doesn’t work as it appears in this photo. the patterns around the laces just don’t work in this context. so this morning, I took one of mikela’s lowa all black boots & used it to re-work the one in the painting, after collaging a piece of thin white paper over it. I made it a tad larger as well. my friend was so right about how the one I painted yesterday resembles a ghoulish face!

BELOW: yesterdays version of the left and on the right, what I did just now.

focusing on 7/10/2021 creek oil today / and a small modification to 6/10/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

2:05 PM: today I felt like putting my attention on 7/10/2021 creek oil, which is 26x24”, oil/oil pastel & collage on stretched portrait linen. when it started out almost 3 weeks ago, the central figure was a little girl with a red cap holding her fuzzy blue toy. you can still see her, just to the right of the main figure, upside down, but she’s playing second fiddle to the large female figure bending forward to tie her shoe on the floor of a school we were going to, that was using our project based educational platform. what appears to be patterning in her blouse is actually bubbling creek water; part of the original composition.

the image of my leg & boot on the right is from a photo I shot 4 days ago on our trail walk. my leg was not the focal point of what I saw that made me stop and shoot; it was a time worn piece of bark with beautiful colors which had fallen from an adjacent tree to the trail.

before going any further with this post, i’d like to acknowledge all those who came before me. they paved the way for me to feel comfortable flipping a painting in progress 180° & painting over much of what i’ve done to date. this freedom was not always a given in the world of painting. certainly my greek mentor, tsarouchis wouldn’t have had this option in his rather large bag of tricks.

but I know for certain that he would have gotten what i’m up to, and applauded it!

7/10/2021 creek oil at 2pm today

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

mikela ambled over around 1 pm to take some watermelon I bought this morning back to the house. she looked critically at 6/10/2021 creek oil and zeroed in on the legs of the large, striding figure. it bugged her that his left leg just trailed off, giving a visual hint that perhaps he’s one legged. so after she left, I fixed that, and she was right, the lower portion of his torso now reads as though he has 2 fully functioning legs!

DETAIL of 6/10/2021 creek oil

6/10/2021 creek oil following my adjustment a while ago to the left leg of the striding figure.

further changes to 3 paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

2:12 PM: today i’m dividing my time between 3 paintings. the first is 7/10/2021 creek oil, which I worked/played on yesterday.

red and blue bands of color have appeared top & bottom, and an area of bubbly blue creek water appears on the right. a collaged piece further invades the predictability of the figure of the little girl in the red cap holding her toy.

7/10/2021 creek oil at 2:30pm

7/25/2021 ano kato. 16x20.

2:44 PM: the second painting I modified is 7/25/2021 ano kato. a few more touches of color have appeared on one of the 4 figures seen from above, as well as a small pool of bubbly blue creek water at the feet of the figure in green.

although it was quite a few years back, I have a distinct memory of leaning over the railing at MOMA, one floor above, and photographing these visitors to the museum strolling about. it took all this time for what I saw to distill into the poetry of what we see here.

3:31 PM: and finally, I made one significant modification to 6/10/2021 creek oil. there was something bothering me about that black sweater that the striding guy has over his shoulders. too much uninterrupted black…it needed something that would connect it to the collaged pieces of ink drawings scattered through the rest of the painting. I think what I did works but i’m still pondering what’s really going on in this painting. the right portion, now that it’s become a horizontal, has an almost gorky-esque quality, and i’m increasingly feeling that the striding figure on the left may be out of place in this environment, and that the rest of the composition wants to gobble him up! on the other hand, he’s like an anchor for all that’s going on to his right, and makes this painting more of a human drama than simply a cool abstraction. stay tuned, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

6/10/2021 creek oil after a modification I made this morning to the sweater thrown over the guy’s shoulders.

6/10/2021 creek oil modifications / 7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20 continues / 7/10/2021 modifications / 1980 egg tempera painting-"Santa Monica Beach" /  by Philip Tarlow

6/10/2021 creek oil as a horizontal at 5pm, 7/26/2021 26x78in.

5:11 PM: at the end of the day, i hung 6/10/2021 creek oil horizontally on my east studio wall and asked mikela to walk over & give her opinion. as soon as she saw it,she became ecstatic and had certaintly that was the ideal way to view it, although it works as a vertical as well. so now, it may finally resolved; i’ll see how it strikes me tomorrow morning after our trail walk.

7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” at 3pm

3:39 PM:i went back & forth between 3 paintings today: 7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” now looks like this. previous stages can be founding my earlier, 12 noon post below. this is the current state.

the second painting I worked on is 7/10/2021 creek oil. I had thought it was resolved, and we had it hanging in the house for the past 10 days or so. the more I looked at it, it became clear that it needed more work.it was too simplistic, too predictable. I hate when paintings, my own or others’, are predictable. for example, in the comparative before & after images below, the upward looking face of the guy in the blue plaid shirt really bothered me, as did the little girl’s hat. too perfect.i’m into blue stripes going down the side of a painting these days. but it’s not a gimmick; they all have a compositional raison d’être.

it’s getting there, but needs more work/play.

BELOW: the before & after

and finally, I made more modifications to the ever changing 6/10/2021 creek oil. I tried flipping it to a horizontal, which may just work; here are the two versions, vertical & horizontal, after the work/play I did today.

12 noon:I took 7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” a step further, even though I said yesterday that I was considering leaving it spare. as it was. some creek tree trunks have entered the picture; some more color on the figures and yellow on the left & right borders. the green coat is kinda cool, don’t you think?

i’m going back & forth between a few paintings, as I love doing, so i’m not yet sure when this one’s turn will come again, if at all!

more as the day progresses.

BELOW: yesterday’ version (left) and how it looked moments ago

6/10/2021 creek oil revisions / 7/25/2021 Ano Kato / a 2015 painting revisited /  by Philip Tarlow

5:54 PM: AND, at the very last minute, he runs over to 6/10/2021 creek oil and…wait a minute…he’s grabbing a piece of paper, taping it to the canvas and…yes, an oil pastel and….yes!, he’s making changes just before heading out the door!

BELOW: 6/10/2021 creek oil this morning at at end of day

6/10/2021 creek oil at 5:30 pm

4:16 PM: and a revision to 7/9/2021 watering the flowers. it’s reduced in it’s dimensions to 18 3/4 x 20 in. and the composition has been simplified, particularly the area on the left. BELOW: before (left) and after images.

7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” oil & oil pastel on portrait linen

1:56 PM: yesterday, while waiting for mikela to walk over to the studio & give me some feedback on 6/10/2021 creek oil, I began a new painting in my ano kato series. it’s small relative to what i’ve been working/playing on lately: 16x20 in. the image is inspired by a series of photos I shot from an upper floor of moma, looking down on the visitors to the museum. I may leave it as is. click on the WORKS drop down menu above right, and then on ano kato or

copy & paste the link to see the ano kato series:

https://www.philiptarlow.com/best-left-unsaid

1:25 PM: revisions to 6/10/2021 creek oil continued today, with my main focus being the grey form above the figure. previously there was a large image of a girl stooping to pick something up from a grassy area. that was taken out a couple of days ago and replaced by a small female figure viewed from above. that didn’t work either. the grey area that was left seemed too large, too dominant, and needed breaking up. so here’s the latest iteration.

a section of a colorado map has been introduced, breaking up the mass of grey, to which the eye was previously drawn, and allowing the rest of the composition to sing. the blues, distributed around the composition, are much more available to the eye, and the large male figure seen from above and striding we know not where, appears to have a more purposeful gait. the blue, yellow and black vertical bands of color tie it all together and allow the playfulness of the bits of collaged pen drawings, such as the one on the upper left, to play a greater role.

the legs of the striding figure trail off into a drawn outline, giving us the message “i’m not finished yet with my journey.” which reflects how I feel too.

yesterday, in a phone conversation, my friend p.g. told me about a visit he had paid a few days earlier, to the renowned painter wayne thiebaud, who, my friend related, interrupted their conversation because he said he was late for his tennis lesson. thiebaud, best known for his paintings of cakes & other deserts, turned 100 in november. and after his tennis lesson he would return to the studio and spend the rest of his day painting. “i’m not yet finished with my journey!”

BELOW are the stages of 6/10/2021 creek oil, since june when it was born.

11:55 AM: I pulled out one of my older hard drives and was going through it a little while ago. this is one of the many paintings-in-progress I found on the drive. it’s titled 10/27/15 grey 4, stage 1. since it was painted over, this is the only record I have of it. it includes collaged elements, such as the map on the upper left, and is interesting to me as a record of the evolution of my work and the opening of my vision over the 6 years since this was created.

and now, back to my revisions of 6/10/2021 creek oil, which I was working on yesterday.

BELOW: as it looked at the end of. the day yesterday

yesterday's moonrise, this morning's sunrise / 6/7/21 creek drawing, continued modifications to 6/10/2021 creek oil /  by Philip Tarlow

3:28 PM: I asked mikela to stroll over and give me some feedback. as you know, she has a great eye. after looking at it for a while, she expressed her opinion that the new figure I painted in didn’t work. I agreed. it’s like from another story. so out it went, and here’s the current state. we’ll see what happens tomorrow morning. right now a thunderstorm is approaching, with very loud claps of thunder, so i’m going to wrap this up & see if I can get back to the house before it starts pouring.

6/10/2021 creek oil at 3pm

6/10/2021 creek oil, 26x78 in. at noon

12:20 PM: continued modifications to 6/10/2021 creek oil this morning: I took out the upper figure of the girl stooping in the grass. it seemed too much, too confusing.

in her place is a small rendering of a woman viewed from above in the museum of modern art, nyc. the scale is deliberately far smaller than that of the striding male figure below her, and on either side are tree branches. she is enveloped in a neutral, warm grey and there are indications that she’s walking on a floor divided into squares.

aside from the modest information i’ve provided it’s up the you, the viewer to tell the story of what’s going on here.

8:59 AM: as I entered my studio just now, I rummaged through a small backpack I use for plain air drawings and paintings. I found a drawing book and singled out this drawing made last month on June 7, before mosquito season kicked in. i’ll be heading back to make plain air drawings & paintings in a few weeks, once mosquito season had ended. I used to go out during the season wearing my mosquito netting jacket, but it’s too much of a hassle, so i’ll wait.

as soon as I meditate and have some breakfast, i’ll get to work. i’m looking at the work/play I did yesterday on 6/10/2021 creek oil. and it seems to me it needs more.

we’ll see where I go with it in an hour or so; stay tuned!

6/7/2021 creek drawing

6:28 AM sunrise sky this morning

7:10 AM: last night, while watching the stunning tokyo olympics opening ceremony, we could see the full moon risng through the thunder clouds from yesterday night’s storms. we got .39 inches. this is GREAT news, beacuse it puts us within reach of hitting normal amounts of precip by the end of this month.

plus, we’re fortunate to be escaping the effects of the massive heat dome coming to most of the country this week. our temperatures will remain just about normal, in the low ‘80’s, with thunderstorms highly likely each afternoon. this drives temperatures down to the mid ‘60’s, sometimes upper ‘50’s within an hour or two. last night for example, when this moonrise shot was taken, we were already down to 56F.

re-working 6/10/2021 creek oil, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

yesterday’s and today’s creek oils side by side. yesterday’s, on the left, measures 60 x 26 in. and today’s is 78 x 26 in.

both of these paintings have a number of layers, both of oil paint and collaged papers. they’ve been extensively scraped with a large palette knife and, in the case of the one on the right, sanded with a fine sandpaper to remove some wrinkles in a large piece of paper i collaged imperfectly. never did that before. it naturally created lots of dust, and also allowed me to tear off strips of the collaged white paper in a way that actually contributed to the texture of the surface.

you may discern that i’ve been looking at and learning a lot from matisse lately. i’m finding him less bound in time than the others of that peiod, which i love. timelessness is the way to go! all indigenous cultures knew that. the mayoruna, for example carried time with them and had no concept at all of past and present.

DETAIL

2:37 PM: I took it a few steps further, adding that black stripe on the right, which I kind of like. and I also like that the stooping red haired girl, because of the spirts of grass around her back, it looks like she has wings like an angel. so the relationship of the two is open to interpretation. but now that i’m looking at it, the stooping female figure could also be seen as a galloping horse! the head is on the upper left, the body & legs below.

I think i’ll call it a day.

as always, I can’t really evaluate what I did till tomorrow morning when I enter the studio after our trail walk. i’m aware i’ve said this before, but I think something fresh is emerging, incorporating elements of paths i’ve travelled down before and continuing to integrate the creeks-scape with the human figure viewed from above.

but, as many other artists have said, the essence of what I do can’t be evoked by words. it’s in the painting.

12:17 PM: I picked up where I left off yesterday, re-working 6/10/2021 creek oil. 2 figures viewed from above have appeared. one, the string fellow with the black sweater over his shoulders, is larger in this painting. the second has never appeared before, she is a loosely defined girl with red hair, bending to pick something out of the green grass at her feet.

BELOW: yesterday’s version of the left, and on the right the painting as it looked moments ago, after this morning’s work/play

I think I may continue on this one for a while, so i’ll post any updates when available.