3:26 PM: today I worked on my artists statement for my application to become a member of a gallery that interests me. in the process, I reviewed a variety of past work & got ideas for next steps, as soon as I can get back to work, probably next week.
BELOW are some of my past works the caught my attention.
10/24/21 creek drawing
5:44 PM: we took our creek walk a few hours ago, and i made this drawing at a rock we stopped at next to the creek.
1:19 PM: sometime next week, once my storage room is complete, my studio will begin to return to normal, but with a lot more space. in the mean time, I have plenty of logistical stuff to get done, but I always like to start the day with a drawing. so I set up my folding plain air table in the midst of the chaos that is currently my studio interior, and made a drawing of my tool drawer; a favorite subject for pen & ink drawings, as I love the shapes of those tools!
we’ll be walking up the trail about 3pm, so I have an hour & a half to delve into stuff I need to take care of, which i’m about to do.
3 days ago was the last day the temporary construction crew was working before my trusted guy comes back on Monday from an unexpected trip he had to take. they cut the hole for the door leading to the studio on the outside wall, but left the inside wall opening until the structure is completely walled & sealed, so mice can’t get in. in the mean time, I poured a bunch of moth balls at the base of that opening to keep the mice away till they can close the structure in. bad idea. my studio reeked of mothballs! so I swept them away & am using baking powder to absorb the odors.
making a drawing a few moments ago
drawing in the midst of chaos
2:47 PM: at this point, i’m counting the days until the 10x20’ storage space addition to my studio is completed and ready. i will start moving stuff in that very day, and start painting again the following day. i was in the studio this morning and took this shot of my painting table, awaiting my return.
after having had almost a week to study 9/22/2021 painting/collage, 42 x 54 in., currently hanging in our west facing living room, i’ve concluded, and mikela agrees, that this painting is not resolved. so once i get back to work, this is likely where i’ll begin.
BELOW, you see the painting in it’s current state. while the tennis player in the red shirt is an interesting figure, it doesn’t integrate well into the composition as a whole. if you put your finger over her, you’ll see what i’m getting at. and the central paddler figure needs to pop more.
we’ll see what happens in a week or so.
3:10 PM: while having my breakfast, i generally browse one or moe of my books. today it was the sketchbooks of picasso. this is a drawing he made in 1962, when he was 81. the livliness of his marks is more pronounced than ever. his compositional brilliance boggles the mind. it’s so revealing to look at these drawings/sketches
and when you look at the six month progression of this 1945 painting, BELOW, you get a better sense of his process; what he kept, what he let go of and how much of the open, white space he chose to keep.
6:07 PM: this 2012 painting/collage may be one of my most successful in this range of work. it hangs in our master bathroom, where it can be viewed from the bedroom.
a female torso? not my intention, but it does read as such.
you can’t hide your signature marks. they are present everywhere, always.
can you spot those marks in this detail of an ‘80’s portrait and in this 2012 painting/collage?
consider this next time you’re in a museum.
ABOVE left: this is an example of one of my gaze series paintings in progress. the series was inspired by my lifelong love affair with vermeer and 1st century fayum portraits. what you see in this photo had been painted and collaged over, and this is the only record of it. looking back at it, i can see very compelling visual elements, bringing up the eternal question: when is it time to stop & leave it be?
and on the right, i’m standing in front of a just completed gaze painting in my studio, on june 19, 2016.
2:19 PM: i have about one more week to spend doing things other than actually making paintings. that’s when construction of the 10x20 ft. storage space addition to my studio. today the last of the lumber materials were delivered, placed at the construction site and covered with a protective tarp.
i’ve been taking care of outstanding lostical tasks and reviewing past work to see where i’ve been and how this may be an indication of where i’ll be going over the coming winter months.
here’s a glimpse of my 2016 gaze period work. copy & paste the link below to this page of my site to view the series:
https://www.philiptarlow.com/gaze
BELOW: one of my 2001 creek series paintings in a houston private collection
6:57 PM: mikela had meetings at the monte vista high school today and i went along. i sat in a coffee shop & made a couple of drawings. haven’t been able to do that in a while, and it felt good. there’s something about people sitting around eating, drinking and having lively conversations that makes me want to draw them. today i was able to make 2 before leaving to pick mikela up.
3:02 PM: today the crew made good progress on the construction of my new storage space. the door to the studio was cut on the outside, but they won’t cut the hole & mount the door inside till the space is completely sealed, so that it won’t allow the cold night air to enter the studio space. until then; hopefully sometime next week, I won’t be able to get much painting done, at least not in oil. but I may make some watercolors on one of the tables on the west side of the studio, where the space is still relatively open.
BELOW: the newly cut door, and a view of the studio this morning, with it’s roof almost completed.
3:13 PM: this morning I decided to bring 9/22/2021 painting/collage to the house and hang it on the west wall of our living room. having a new painting in the house is always the acid test for determining whether it’s completed or needs more work. after living with it for a few days or weeks, it becomes clear; it’s either back to the studio for more work, or not.
3:40 PM: the crew constructed the roof for my storage room today.
10:31 AM: this morning the construction crew are putting the roof on my new storage space. lots of hammering, sawing and a general ruckus. tomorrow, they’ll be making a door sized hole in the south studio wall. that will create lots of dust & debris. so I proposed they build makeshift little house in the interior south studio wall, around where the door hole will be cut. then I suggested they drape that makeshift house with a tarp, so that all the dust will be contained and not settle all over the studio, potentially covering everything including paintings, brushes, etc. they think it’s a good idea, and will implement it before starting to cut the door.
so today, i’ll be clearing the stuff you see on this south wall in preparation for the BIG HOLE!
10:34 AM: this morning, as I have done on many mornings recently, I had my breakfast while perusing one of my large matisse catalogues.
as I ate & drank, I cast quick gazes at the triptych i’ve been working on and decided to put it aside for a while & work on other things. it doesn’t work for me in it’s current state.
above me to the left is a series of ‘70’s paintings in oil on linen mounted on board of a fisherman from corthi, a village on the island of andros, telling the story of a miracle that occurred when he was a child in asia minor.
I have about a dozen leftover pieces of portrait linen, all about the same size: 70 x 35” which I cut down to 35 x 35.” they are the excess pieces I cut off at the end of the 86” roll as I prepared canvas for my 26x62” series of paintings.
I think I may do something with them today. whatever it is I do will be before 3pm, when we’re going to take an afternoon walk up cottonwood trail before our early dinner.
i’ll post updates as they become available.
a rare pic of me sans hat as I have my breakfast and peruse one of my matisse catalogues.
tools i've known on 10-16 as it looked moments ago, after flipping the central panel 180°
2:43 PM: flipping the middle panel has made a big difference. it introduced that element of the unpredictable I keep talking about in these posts, allowing the eye to make it’s own discoveries instead of having them all laid out and ready.
so if you compare the image BELOW, from my earlier post, with this one, I think you’ll see what i’m getting at. and if you have a look at the detail on the RIGHT, you’ll see that the way that hammer form interacts with marks drawn from a photo of the most detailed human cell image to date, creating a visual experience familiar yet mysterious. of course! you’re being reminded what YOU look like under an electron microscope!
to date the most detailed human cell image obtained with X-ray radiation, nuclear magnetic resonance & cry-electron microscopy.
DETAIL, showing how the transitions from the central panel to the one on the right give the eye more freedom to roam
tools i’ve known 1 as it looked moments ago
1:12 PM: continuing to develop this new triptych, I was in a patterning mood today. so I drew from a photo I found which reveals the most detail ever achieved of the structure of a human cell.
so far, this seems to start making the composition sing, and transition from an obvious reference to my studio tools to a celebration of the human cell.
