when predictability threatens, flipit, scrape-it / storage construction /  by Philip Tarlow

10/2/2021 painting/collage today at noon after flipping, scraping & a bit of painting & collaging

1:08 PM: 10/2/2021 painting/collage was starting to become predictable. that’s boring. so I flipped her, painted & collaged a few areas & scraped like a madman.

now I like looking at it from 20 feet more than ever. my first burst seems to be lasting for about 2 hours max. that’s probably how long indigenous cultures did whatever required focus.

2:49 PM: the crew continues preparations for the 10x20 ft. storage space addition to the south side of my studio. today they’re preparing the forms for the concrete, which wil be poured thursday afternoon.

so what you see here is the form for the cement & the layer of dirt which will underly it.

moving ahead with the new painting / cutting up drawings, articles for 10/2/2021 painting/collage / 2 creek drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

10/2/2021 painting/collage at 1 pm today

1:20 PM: I spent a couple of charged hours on 10/2/2021 painting/collage & stopped when I no longer had the juice. as usual, i’ll have to re-evaluate in the morning when i’m fresh. I like what happened with the pinks & reds, the lettering scraped into the pink ( top right, ) & the fallen figure of the tennis finals winner, down on the ground in profound disbelief. the greens of the map fragment play against the green of the tokyo olympics celebration dancer on the far right, and all together, it’s jumpin’. vermeer has yet again made an appearance, as has the red headed paddler, who as yet has remained a sketchy figure.

you can discern, I think, the influences i’m absorbing by browsing elderfield’s splendid MOMA 2012 deKooning retrospective catalogue while having my morning toasted bagel & matcha tea.

11:43 AM: the rain is over for now, and the sun is shining, with a warming temperature of 56F. in preparation for the continuation of my new 10/2/2021 painting/collage, i’ve been cutting up and sorting through b&w drawings, magazine articles & maps this morning & am now ready to dive in, always trying to keep in mind that this first surge of energy is all important.

10/2/2021 painting/collage / a 2020 collage watercolor / candidates for my imminent storage space /  by Philip Tarlow

1:46 PM: this is phase 2 of 10/2/2021 painting/collage. all my focus has been on the right section, where an upside down vermeer has re-entered the picture as well as a colorful juggler from the Tokyo olympics. i’ll keep going for another few hours and post updates as they occur.

well, it’s 3 pm and I don’t think i’ll be doing any more on this new painting today. saving it for tomorrow morning when i’m fresh. that firs burst of morning energy is what’s needed, especially for this one. this new painting wants to convey to me where it wants to go, and I need to be in a place where I can listen.

DETAIL

10/2/2021 painting/collage phase 2

12:49 PM: just started 10/2/2021 painting/collage, which is 26 x 62 in. this is phase 1.

11:49 AM: just discovered this one in my files.

the view looking towards my studio bathroom today

10:08 AM: as I entered my studio this morning, I observed piles and stacks of paintings and rolls of canvas sitting just outside my studio bathroom. soon, within a few weeks, all this will be transferred to my new storage space, and the studio will have a far more open look and feel.

the two 2018 motion series paintings on the right, the gaze series painting on the bathroom wall (inspired by vermeer’s the love letter) and the skinny creek watercolor/collage beside the door frame are all available for purchase. you can view the motion series here: https://www.philiptarlow.com/motion and the gaze series here: https://www.philiptarlow.com/gaze

i’ll be getting to work as soon as I meditate & have some breakfast, which will include smoked salmon and locally baked n.y. style bagels.

another minor adjustment to 9/22/2021 painting/collage / drawing of dan /  by Philip Tarlow

9/22/2021 painting/collage today after new modifications to the central figure

2:10 PM: following our trip to denver and carbondale, i’m back in my studio. if you told me I was going to paint today, I wouldn’t have believed you. I had my 2 knee injections, which I get every 6-8 months, and my knees hurt a lot. that usually lasts 3-4 days then clears up. mikela has 20 stitches form a surgery to remove a lesion above her eye and has 20 stitches, so she’ resting. I had planned to join her, but couldn’t stay away from this painting once I saw what I wanted to do.

his bathing suit had been colorless, and I felt moved to add the blue you see here, as well as some more definition to his legs and a shadow beneath his feet.

i’ve been careful to avoid going too far down the realist rabbit hole, but it just felt like this was what needed to happen. the before and after are BELOW, so you be the judge. comments are always welcome.

4:39 PM: while sitting in the kitchen yesterday afternoon, i made a quick sketch of my friend dan, BELOW left, who has a collection of my work. BELOW right is gaze 13, one of my gaze series paintings hanging in the living room. in the foreground and beneath the painting are some of his ceramic pieces.

here’s a link to my gaze series: https://www.philiptarlow.com/gaze

a minor adjustment to 9/22/2021 painting/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

9/22/2021 painting/collage 42x54 in. after today’s changes

1:42 PM: the more I looked at this painting, the more I felt that there needed to be a tad more definition of the central paddler figure. it’s a fine line; I don’t want to get too absorbed in creating a life like figure, since this series maintains delicate balance between the abstraction and realist depiction of figures in motion, mostly viewed from above. i’ll wait till i’m back in the studio on friday to evaluate the changes I just made to the central figure, giving more definition to the back of his head & hair. I think the hint of an ear helps a lot.

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

how one line can make a big difference / PERIMETERS OF THE STUDIO STORAGE SPACE ABOUT TO BE BUILT /  by Philip Tarlow

5:58 PM: mikela is at a dinner event at the university in alamosa & i’m here posting following a small dinner. there was a thunderstorm happening & it was pouring, so i couldn’t eat on the deck, as i had planned.

work will begin in a few days on the new 10x20 ft. storage space addition on the south side of my studio, and i’m SO excited!!

i shot a couple of photos of the exterior south wall of the studio, where the storage space will be. it will run the 20 ft. length of what was meant to be a trombe wall (collects heat & transfers to the interior) but wasn’t properly constructed so it never really worked. anyway, the space will run the length of that metal wall and extend out from it 10 ft. there will be a door connecting to the studio about in the middle. with the right shelving, i should easily be able to fit all the painting currently clogging up my studio interior. on friday, the concrete company’s truck will arrive and pour the cement foundation, which the construction crew will frame wednesday & thursday. they’ll also pour cement into a framed 4x14ft. area in front of the front door of our house, which is 500 ft. north of the studio, so that we no longer track mud into the house when it’s raining or snowing.

the second cement slab will be located here, in front of the door.

9/22/2021 painting/collage after accenting the line running down the left side of the paddler’s body.

2:07 PM: I kind of thought 9/22/2021 painting/collage was resolved, until mikela took a look and gave me the following feedback: the central figure needs to be a little more defined.” so today, I looked carefully and saw exactly what she meant.

so as I was stretching a new 26x62 in. portrait linen canvas, I grabbed a big fat, dark blue oil stick and darkened the line defining the left side of his body and the lower left edge of his bathing suit. you can see the difference in the two images BELOW. in yesterday’s version on the left, that figure gets lost in the overall conflagration of forms, colors and lines.

morning trail walk /  by Philip Tarlow

9/22/2021 painting/collage was just hung on my studio wall

5:07 PM: our construction crew, consisting of two wonderful guys, came over at 4 and we finalized the plans for building the storage space addition to my studio, starting this week through next weekend. i still can’t believe that this dream is coming true. it will be 10x20 ft., with a concrete floor, just like the rest of the studio and two smallish windows. there will be a 3 1/2 ft. wide door on the south wall of the studio, and believe me, as soon as it’s ready, i’ll be bringing paintings, stretched and unstretched in rolls, into the space. later on, i’ll

1:54 PM: before diving in to my next project, I just now hung 9/22/2021 painting/collage on my studio wall to get a better sense whether I feel it’s resolved. although it doesn’t have as many layers or as much complexity as the others in this series, damn, I like it! next stop: our west facing living room wall, where we can see it in different lights and from 50 feet away.

12:58 PM: on our walk up the trail this morning, I shot only 2 photos and made no drawings. here they are in color and in black & white. I find them each far more interesting in black & white. this makes me re-think a few things i’ve taken for granted.

let’s see if it show up in what I do today here in my studio.

out to the creek for plain air this afternoon / LOOKING AT YESTERDAYS PAINTING/COLLAGE NEXT TO A 2020 WATERCOLOR/COLLAGE /  by Philip Tarlow

this is the second watercolor I made, 7x17 in.

3PM: i’m back from the creek, where the conditions were perfect. I made 2 watercolors, both of which reflect the progression of my work since I last went out to paint plain air. it’s been quite a while. I have to look at them for a while to evaluate what happened. but it does make want to go back out before it gets cold.

this is the first watercolor I painted, 11x13 in.

12:17 PM: i’m off to the creek to paint plain air. it’s been a while! here are my 2 bags with my materials. there’s also a light weight folding table I packed into the car. the one on the right is a small back pack.

SITE-9:25:21 plein air painting materials.jpg

11:39 AM: i’m contemplating going out to the creek with my watercolors on this, one of our last unusually warm days, just for a change of pace. if I decide to go, i’ll post whatever I paint once i’m back.

in perusing my 2020 works on paper, I came across this watercolor/collage, which in some ways anticipates the this detail of the painting I completed yesterday.

the detail of yesterday’s 9/22/2021 painting/collage is on the left; the detail of the 2020 watercolor/collage on the right.

continuing 9/22/2021 painting/collage after our morning trail walk /  by Philip Tarlow

9/22/2021 painting/collage at 4pm

5:15 PM: mikela saw it on my blog page & flipped out. so we walked back over to the studio to take a look. i trust her eye impicitly, and she feels strongly that i should leave it as is, and that oding any more might upset the delicate balance ,she feels, makes this such a strong piece.

4 PM: a last minute end run! what? unheard of! he’s making radical changes just before walking out the door!

seems like the best time to shift directions is when i’ve cleaned my brushes and am literally ready to walk out the door. one of the well known, at this point, paddlers has entered the picture, larger by far than any of the other figures in the composition. he’s still pretty sketchy, but his impact on the composition is huge.

he provides an anchor (no pun intended) for this previously scattered painting, which began with the flowers in the center, now largely obscured.it still feels busy, but we’re relatively early in the process, and I don’t really expect anything close to resolution until mid week. maybe sooner. making it up as I go is definitely my style of working/playing, and keeps it more like play and less like work. stay tuned.

9/22/2021 painting/collage at 3pm

DETAIL

3:01 PM: I spent an intense 2 hours or so continuing work on 9/22/2021 painting/collage, which is 42x54 in. the most obvious addition is the introduction of red on the upper and left sides of the painting, and 2 collaged elements ; one on the upper right and the second in the upper left corner. in addition, black rectangular shapes, inspired by the tokyo olympics celebration designs, have appeared.

the deep red color hasn’t yet fully integrated with the composition as a whole, and thus may appear somewhat jarring to you. that will all change tomorrow, when i’ll be able to get an earlier start, since it’s not a trail walking day.

12:52 PM: we had a great trail walk this morning. I made a small colored pencil drawing and shot 19 photos, some of which may be used in this new painting. here are a few.

9/24/2021 trail drawing, colored pencil on paper

continuing 9/22/2021 painting/collage / a mouse in the car /  by Philip Tarlow

9/22/2021 painting/collage stage 3 at the end of my painting day today

2:49 PM: a good example of a painting in it’s becoming state. I really love the whimsicality and fluidity of this stage. tomorrow will be a critical day, assuming I have the juice to paint after our morning trail walk, which I usually do. i’m stopping a bit early for the day, both because my fresh morning energy is gone and because it’s Thursday; the day our friends Suzanne & Kent are at the kiosk in town with their big truck full of fruits & veggies. so from here i’ll be driving to the kiosk to get some delicious fresh organic produce, fresh from the farm.

DETAIL

12:43 PM: this morning I continued to develop 9/22/2021 painting/collage, adding some of my dancing, jumping figures. as the day progresses, i’ll post the latest versions.

forgot to mention that, 2 days ago while driving to town, I felt something on my calf. part of me knew what it was, but I remained in denial until I saw the little guy: a small mouse scurrying about the inside of our suv. almost drove off the road at one point, but finally got it when I returned home. no idea how he got in.