some 2020 travel drawings / 9/4/2021painting continues /  by Philip Tarlow

3:39 PM: and a few last minute additions: the orange dots floating in a sea of yellow. felt that yellow needed to be broken up a little.

9/4/2021painting on 9/5 3:38pm

2:38 PM: I stopped painting a little early today due to some calls I needed to take, which interrupted my flow. i’ve learned that when that happens, it’s best to stop. you simply can’t get back into it.

the biggest shift has been the introduction of a light blue surrounding the foliage and the dancing male figure in dark blue. thus far, it’s calmer than it’s brothers & sisters, and exhibits more certainty. there’s a lot to be said for having the luxury of painting almost every day in a big, beautiful studio with few interruptions. you can’t turn inspiration on & off. when the juices are flowing, you need to stay with it as long as you can.

I forgot to mention a big difference from the recent paintings in this series: whereas they are painted mostly lying flat on a table, this one is being painted on my easel, allowing me to continually step back and evaluate my moves.

9/4/2021 painting on 9/5 2-15pm

11:51 AM: i’m continuing work on the new painting I started yesterday: 9/4/2021 painting. yellow has entered the picture. the female dancing figure on the left is no longer bare breasted and is covered in blue dots as well as a collaged piece of an old newspaper. green foliage inspired by photos I shot on our trail walk dominate the composition for the moment. as work continues, i’ll post updates.

9/4/2021 painting PT paints on 9/5 11am

7:34 AM: this is a small selection from my travel drawing books. this one is 2020, and i’m working on cataloging others from previous years, which i’ll post as i complete each book.

9/4/2021 painting / morning trail drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

9/4/2021 painting 26x62” oil pastel on portrait linen (so far)

3:33 PM: so I started a new painting, which i’m simply calling 9/4/2021 painting. i’m tired of titles. it’s in a very early state, which I always love. the becoming is what I love. there are the outlines of a couple of the tokyo olympics celebration dancers i’ve put in recent paintings (click on SERIES in the dropdown menu and then 2021 mixed media). that title will probably change to, simply, recent work. the first 6 as you scroll down are the most recent. the hints of orange & red in the green leaves and the checkerboard pattern on her shorts get me excited. the space is beginning to take shape, and doesn’t quite know yet what it wants to be. does that make this an adolescent painting?

10:56 AM: we walked up the trail this morning. i made a small drawing in ink on paper of some rocks i was looking at when i sat down to rest, about 40 minutes up the trail. here’s the drawing with the fountain pen i used and the rocks i was looking at.

more when i get to my studio.

paintings in the entryway / a recent painting/collage that needs researching / /  by Philip Tarlow

8/20-29/21 gouache on paper, 9x11”

12:53 pm: i’m stretching up canvas for a new 26x62” painting. in the process, I discovered this gouache, which I think I posted back when I first made it, on august 20. on the 29th I made some modifications and neglected to post them. so here’s the gouache as it looks now.

these are dancing figures from the final celebrations on the last day of the tokyo olympics. their dancing was extremely joyful and energetic, and their costumes colorful and celebratory.

11:29 AM: this is a drawing I just discovered in one of my drawing books, made on 3/7/20 of one of the participants in a political caucus in crestone.

the fabric her jacket, on the back of the chair was of great interest to me, sparking my love of patterns.

these drawings, made on the fly, are probably the most accurate selection of who I am and have always been as an artist.

it all started when I was in grade school, where I made non-stop drawings of classmates and teachers, which I then brought home to show my parents and, more importantly, my uncle mort, who was then a student at an art school and lived in our basement in valley stream, long island.

his feedback and encouragement was instrumental in my later growth and development as an artist.

the untitled, undated 49 1/4 x 49 1/2'“ painting collage i refer to in the post below

the untitled, undated 49 1/4 x 49 1/2'“ painting collage i refer to in the post below

8:22 AM: i brought 7/25/2021 ano kato to the house after making yesterday’s modifications. here it is hanging with other recent works in our entryway. i’m pleased with how it looks in the space, and how well it holds up with the other recent works. as a matter of fact, i think it’s stellar! click on the image to make it full screen.

upstairs, there a recent painting collage which measures 49 1/4 x 49 1/2'“ and fits perfectly into the substantial wood frame it sits in. i never signed or dated it, and am not sure when it was made. so later this morning, i’m going to scroll through past blog posts to find the exact date, which i’ll then put on the lower portion of this painting, along with my signature. it also cannot be found in the drop down menu on this site, so i’m going to have to correct that. those menus need updating, which is a big job that i’ll do over the next month or so.

mikela went to center this morning to work with the kids. after their initial exposure to our educational platform, actionlab360, they were excited enough about it to all sign up for today’s session with her. a very good sign!

tweak of 7/25/2021 ano kato and tokyo olympics 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:56 PM: after my adjustments to 7/25/2021 ano kato, I began making changes to tokyo olympics 1. I added some collaged elements, breaking up the muted pink background & making it a more active space, with shapes mirroring the curves of the basketball players & the skateboarder.. I took out the blue diagonal on the upper left, which was coming too much from my head. so now, the crouching figure of the skateboarder with the yellow top is the focal point of the composition, the female basketball players enhance and reflect his crouching body and the collaged bits of drawing remind us that this is a painting we are looking at, a dance of form and color.

BELOW: the painting before (left) and after today’s modifications

DETAIL of tokyo olympics 1 following today’s modifications

12:16 PM: mikela pointed out the one spot that kept drawing her eye in 7/25/2021 ano kato, which I just tweaked. BELOW: the before and after. the tweaks were to the neck & head of the figure eon the left. as well, I removed the two black marks behind her back, which were actually left there mistakenly from an earlier iteration of the painting.

amazing what small tweaks can do!

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.