modifying tokyo olympics 1 & 7/25/2021 Ano Kato / orion / a 2017 gouache of an aspen trunk /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 pm: I made significant changes to both tokyo olympics 1 and 7/25/2021 ano kato today, using predominantly a muted rose, which I noticed on the floor of moma, where the ano kato photos were shot.

7/25/2021 ano kato after today’s modifications

a lot more happened, as you’ll notice if you compare this with how it looked yesterday, BELOW. i’ve also included images of the painting on day one, at an intermediate stage, and following today’s modifications. this is a great example of how a painting needs to ferment for a period of time, in this case about 5 weeks, for the energy to be present in my body to do what i just did this morning.

TOKYO OLYMPICS 1:

tokyo olympics 1 16x40” as it looked following this morning’s modifications

this is another good example of the fermentation period i talk about. this one may still be in process; i won’t know till i enter my studio tomorrow morning. it’s gone through more radical changes than 7/25/2021 ano kato, as you can see in the images BELOW. the image on the far right shows how the painting looked this morning, before the modifications you see in the image ABOVE. the more neutral pinkish tone i used allows the yellows, reds and the blue shirt on the right to sing, whereas the blue i had used in the most recent version, on the bottom right, fightswith those other colors, and ends up confusing the eye, which bounces between the yellow and reds.

8:22 AM:

”Mosaic in Pompeii, capturing the birth of the mythical Orion. 2st century p. x, Pompeii, Italy.

Orion mosaiclate II BC - early I BC mosaic Pompeii, House of Jupiter (V) Archaeological Park of Pompeii Photo Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Italy.

Orion was the most famous hunter in Greek mythology. Once, as the gods of Olympus used to, Zeus and Poseidon went for a walk on earth disguised as humans. Passing through Boeotia, they received the warm hospitality of Yrias, the ′′ famous hero ′′ of the city of Yriis. At that time, however, Yrieus was at a very old age and widower without children.

He confessed to guests his sorrows about his great loneliness and how much he would love to have a child. After the two gods were gone, the next morning Yrieus found an infant on the doorstep: it was little Orion, a gift from the gods for the hospitality he had offered them.”

in 2017 i made this small gouache on paper of an aspen trunk, capturing my love for these trees that surround us here in the baca grande.

an unexpected modification of tokyo olympics 1 / stretching a new 26x62" canvas today /  by Philip Tarlow

2:27 PM: just as I was preparing to start stretching the new canvas, I looked at this painting and decided that the central figure, which was only a disconnected leg, needed to become a full figure. I went back & looked at the photos I had shot of the olympic final celebration and found the rest of the figure. in the one I was working from, it was just a leg. so instead of having to make it up, I was able to work from the photo showing her full body, albeit at a slightly different moment. the player whose shoulder she’s grabbing also acquired the number 9.

but, just to reiterate, it’s not about the basketball players or the skateboarder. it’s about marks on a surface, color, space, composition.

the before and after are BELOW.

DETAIL of the re-painted basketball player in red

tokyo olympics 1 at 2pm

tokyo olympics 1 yesterday, 8/30/21

12:06 pm: we had a wonderful dinner with new friends last evening in salida.

when I entered my studio this morning, both paintings i’ve been working on over the past week or so seemed resolved. so i’m stretching a new 26x62” canvas and will start working on the next painting as soon as it’s ready. here’s a look at some of my crayons, colored pencils & oil sticks yesterday.

yesterday's trail walk /5/9/2021 creek oil this morning /  by Philip Tarlow

noon: following my breakfast with matisse, I was inspired to re-work tokyo olympics 1, which had become far too busy yesterday. large blue & grey fields of color now dominate the composition, with the figures in motion moving within that space. I can see from looking at the image here, that more simplification needs to happen, and that the red shorts and sneaker in the lower center need to be toned down at the least, and possibly be removed. now, back to work!

tokyo olympics 1 moments ago

tokyo olympics 1 yesterday at 3pm

7:49 AM: left: yesterday’s trail walk right: 5/9/2021 creek oil hanging in our entryway this morning

modifications to: 8/24/2021 painting/collage and tokyo olympics 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: just wrapped it up for the day. we did our trail walk at 7 this morning, so it was a long day.i went back & forth between these two paintings, and made quite a few changes. not sure if they’re for the better. maybe.

I worked mostly on the right portion of 8/24/2021 painting/collage. at the moment, gazing at it from 20 feet, it looks like it’s improved. it was challenging, because this was a painting that just popped out & it was beautiful, but that right section , although it did “work” being as bare as it was, ended up feeling like I copped out & needed to dive back in. here’s the before & after photos; what do you think?

tokyo olympics 1 was inspired by a series of photos I shot on the tv screen, of the final celebrations of the tokyo olympics. the figure on the left, of the red haired kid paddling his skiff, derives from a series of photos I shot 3 or 4 years ago from a bridge in alamosa, 50 miles south of us. I think the addition of the dancing girl with the plaid shorts, on the right, with that area of red behind her, adds significantly to the overall composition. that makes me feel justified in painting into that pregnant, appealing white space.

tokyo olympics 1 at the end of my painting day today

tokyo olympics 1

8/24/2021 painting/collage was tricky to go back into. that pregnant white space on the right seemed like sacred ground, and it was with trepidation that I dared mess with it. as I gaze at it form 20 feet, I think I made the right decision. the red on the right of the dancing girl with the plaid shorts adds to the whole composition, and gives meaning to john russell’s ny times review, where he says: ”he makes us wonder what his people get up to when they aren’t in the picture…”

8/24/2021 painting/collage at the end of my painting day today

8/24/2021 painting/collage as it looked this morning before starting to modify it

revisiting tokyo olympics 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

12:07 PM: I decided not to mess with 8/24/2021 painting/collage, which i’ve been painting for the past few days. it needs to ferment & ripen while I work on other things. it’s slowly dawning on me that my style of painting demands an indeterminate period of what i’m calling fermentation. this allows me to release any attachments I may have to a particular passage or indeed to the entire composition. and moving from that piece to one that’s been fermenting for a period of time is the ideal way to accomplish that.

so today it was the turn of tokyo olympics 1, painted and collaged on 2 joined canvases, each 16x20.” I last worked on it august 17. 11 days is a good period of time for the fermentation I spoke of to occur. it was descriptive, in the very sense matisse indicated when he said “the ensemble is our only ideal. details lessen the purity of the lines and harm the emotional intensity; we reject them.”

in gazing at the previous version, we witness a composition dominated by details. the jumping skateboarder; the crouching basketball player….in todays version, the ensemble matisse speaks of matters most. another way of putting it: my hand trumps my mind. the viewers eye glides over the painting surface, rather than getting stuck on one element or another, and silently confirming: “oh yes, that’s a tree trunk, that’s a jumping skateboarder, etc.”

tokyo olympics 1 as it appeared moments ago following an hour of painting this morning

tokyo olympics 1 as it looked last time I worked on it: august 17th , 3pm

a new watercolor emerges / my desktop this morning / 8/24/21 painting continues /  by Philip Tarlow

1:57 PM: I couldn’t decide whether to take 8/24/2021 painting/collage further today. I had a conversation with mikela, who is in center working with some high school kids. she suggested, as she does frequently, that I give it a rest till tomorrow & make a watercolor. I haven’t worked in watercolor for months and I was a little resistant to the idea, but I decided to give it a whirl. I enjoyed the shift from oils to watercolor as I made this one, which is 9x11” I think i’m up for making another one & if I do, i’ll post it when i’m done. I used some photos I shot from the tv screen during the final celebrations at the tokyo olympics.

dancing olympiads 9x11”

12:27 PM: here’s the current state of 8/24/2021 painting/collage. work/play continues, updates as they become available

11:06 AM: i’m continuing 8/24/2021 painting/collage and will post updates as the day progresses.

8/24/2021 painting/collage at 11 am today

9:52 AM: here’s a shot of my desktop this morning. the gouache/collage above my iMac was made on July 6th. I consider it one of the more successful in this series. the image on my screensaver is from my 8/2/2021 creek oil, which now hangs in our living room. I just brought it over this morning. i’m about to dive back in to the new 8/24/2021 painting, which i’ll likely be working on till mikela returns from her trip to center, where she’ll be introducing high school students to our educational platform: actionlab360.

continuing 8/24/21 painting /  by Philip Tarlow

3:24 PM: i’m taking it slow, as you will notice if you check out my 1:18 pm post. trees & leaves have appeared, as well as aspen trunks; one more collaged piece has been added on top of the red haired paddling figure; a yellow blouse has appeared on the female figure next to him. a lot may happen tomorrow, but I think this one will have a long, winding journey. but i’d like to keep the pinks & blues dominant.

clean up time, and then back to the house.

8/24/21 painting at 3:30pm

1:18 PM: here’s the current state; more when i’m back from the kiosk, where i’ll get the weekly delivery of fresh baked bread.

2 salida drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

6:50 PM: just back from our day in salida, where i saw my dentist, we had late lunch with a dear friend & we did some food shopping. i managed to make 2 drawings: one in the dentists waiting room, one at the restaurant. the conditions were not ideal, but i was really missing the opportunity i have whenever we travel to draw people, mostly in waiting rooms, airports, restaurants….

by the way, i had mentioned that we were going to get apple watches in salida, for us both to be able to check our vitals. we didn’t. they don’t give accurate readings & neither of us like the idea of having a computer on our wrists, constantly alerting us when texts, emails & calls come in.

cleaning up / stretching a new canvas /  by Philip Tarlow

stage 1 of 8/24/21 painting, 26x62”

3:49 PM: it’s only day 1 and i’ve already collaged a piece of the drawing I made earlier. this new painting is at it’s earliest stage, and will be continued on thursday. I won’t be in my studio tomorrow because of a dental appointment.

the figures you see are inspired by two events: the tokyo olympics and the nyc homecoming concert last saturday, which go rained out half way through.

12:29 PM: I got the urge to do some cleanup this morning, before starting the process of stretching a new 26x62” canvas. I started with my studio bathroom. it’s looking better, but the big change will come once we get the 20 ft. storage container we’ve been thinking about. that will allow me to get all the accumulated works, canvases, both & un-stretched & rolled as well as the stretcher bars, out of the studio space.

after the cleanup, I made the drawing you see here, to be cut up and collaged into my new painting.

BELOW: left to right: 2 paintings just hung next to my studio entrance; stretching the new canvas; cleaned up bathroom

stretching new canvases in preparation for the next round of paintings /  by Philip Tarlow

4:37 PM: today was about logistics. making doctors appointments for our denver trip next month; unstretching and restretching 8/2/2021 creek oil (i removed the masonite board it was stretched over, since the painting is complete and i won’t be collaging any more) and re-stretched it on the bare stretcher bars); and investigating the various options for the apple watch 6. mikela and i have decided to get 2 of these. she has never worn a watch, but recently we realized it would be a good idea to be able to track our vitals, and to have a way of notifying each other if we fall while walking up the trail. i walk faster, and am usually 5-10 minutes ahead. it’s kind of confusing, but i finally figured out that, if we go to the att store when we’re in salida this week, we can have them show us the watch & explain all the options. it tracks heart rate, oxygen levels, etc. etc. as well as altitude & other fun stuff.

the apple 6 smart watch

8/2/2021 creek oil which i re-stretched today in preparation for hanging it in the house. the 2 guys paddling are from photos i shot a few years back from the bridge in alamosa, co. they never expected their journey would end up here!