January 28, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:30 PM: despite the below freezing temps (it was -16F on the valley floor this morning, and -3F at our house) mikela and I will walk up to the stupa in a little while, so i’m stopping a bit early today.

this morning I started work on the final painting in this 12 canvas suite, loosely inspired by the 2020 tokyo olympics celebration. thus far, i’m using diverse sources for this one: a dancing woman from the olympics celebration; a photo-collage of an interior, which I made in the ‘late ‘80’s, and came across this morning; and a fragment of an ancient greco-roman mosaic, one of many in my growing folder on this topic. how they will all join together in this early stage composition is still up in the air.

for the moment, I haven’t introduced any collage, so what you’re seeing in stage 1 has been created with oils and colored pencils.

at night before falling asleep, i’m reading a book which is a transcript of a conversation between the francis crémieux and the renowned early 20th century art dealer, khanweiler, who was the first to begin acquiring picasso’s work, as well as the work of other well known painters of the period. he sat over 30 times for this portrait picasso made of him in 1907.

i’m learning a lot from this conversation khanweiler had in the book “my galleries and painters.” and it’s slowly beginning to become part of my process of creating new work. i’ll say more about this later.

one more tweak to 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7/ STARTING CANVAS 11 / January 26, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: so I moved on to canvas 11 in this suite of 12 canvases. an acrobat from the tokyo olympics celebration doing a handstand is the central figure. he cam into the picture towards the end of my painting day. you will see elements from the previous 10 paintings here, if you take a look at them tacked to my studio wall.

the face on the left reflects the direction I was taking when I started painting this morning, inspired by ancient mosaics. the small figures moving the large multi colored blocks are also from the tokyo olympics final celebration. in the lower right is a collaged piece of an article sent to me by a friend in houston who knows how much I love watches.

domani.

10 of the 12 paintings in the 12 painting suite

*1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7* following this mornings adjustments

11:40 AM: when I entered my studio I saw the need for one more tweak to 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7. I spent about 45 minutes on it and am about to move on to something new.

BELOW: the before (left) and after

the areas I modified are: the juggler’s head, face & red jacket; and the dancer’s face, which is now enveloped in light blue. a couple of collaged bits have also been added: on the lower portion of the juggler’s body and the pink just to the right of the dancer, who now sports green socks! breaking up the juggler’s torso has allowed the rest of the composition to more freely sing it’s song, as has the blue surrounding the dancer’s upper torso.

by the way, the collaged bit of colored drawing covering the lower portion of the juggler’s torso is from a large sketchy self portrait I made about 6 months ago. the black dot is my iris and the red line above it, which blends so perfectly with the lines of his body, is the top of my eyelid.

rework of CANVAS 7 / January 25, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:37 PM: I was literally walking out the door, with my hat & coat on, when I made this final modification (?) to 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7. see-ya tomorrow, my friends.

2:59 PM: true to form, I made another change just before walking out the door to return to the house. I collaged a piece of drawing I made a few weeks back, which serves the purpose, as usual, of relieving congestion & creating more breathing room. the area of the canvas it covers wasn’t doing very much other than cluttering the space. and in using my scraper to assure that it bonds properly with the underlying canvas, I scraped away some of the stronger Des on the juggler’s back, allowing even more integration. it also did away with that yellow in the center, which was coming form my mind, not my gut. so that’s really IT for today!

2:25 PM: as I mentioned in my earlier post, I made a few more modifications to 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7, and here’s the latest version. i’ll see tomorrow morning whether I want to do any more.

if you compare with the earlier image, below, you’ll notice changes to the juggler’s face & clothing.

BELOW are the before & after photos.

*1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 7* on 1/25 1pm today

the more I looked at CANVAS 7 in the polyptych suite of paintings, the more dissatisfied I felt. so today, instead of starting #11, I began revising #7. thus far, the change is rather dramatic.

a juggler from the tokyo olympics has entered the composition, providing an anchor and a counterbalance to the more abstracted elements. the green of his trousers contrasts with the reds, yellows & blues.

as we await some predicted snow to begin falling, i’ll continue my revisions & post once i’ve completed them.

BELOW: the previous iteration is on the left.

1/22/2022 oil/collage-canvas 10 day 3 / January 24, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:26 PM: we don’t usually walk 2 days in a row, but snow is predicted tomorrow, so we’ll walk again today.

but my BIG news today is that my son’s partner just gave birth in athens to a beautiful girl, whose name is filió. they just made it to the hospital a few hours before a very rare blizzard struck, closing roads & making travel impossible! she decided to arrive about 3 weeks early, and due to the weather conditions, dimitri can’e make it back to his house & will have to sleep in the hospital tonight.

I feel that she brought some extra joy to this painting i’ve been working on the past few days.

my new grand daughter Filió, hours after emerging into the world

1/22/2022 oil/collage. day 2 / January 23, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:52 PM: moving slowly so far on this one, I made some additions using blues, reds & yellows. it hasn’t yet found it’s identity , but it’s moving in that direction…

BELOW: yesterday & today

1/22/2022 oil/collage. day 1 / January 22, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:38 PM: I started a new oil/collage earlier today: 1/22/2022 oil/collage-canvas 10.

it’s still very sketchy, but I should be able to dive in tomorrow following our 10am zoom, so around 11:30 or noon. the two figures thus far sketched or lightly painted in are from the tokyo olympics final celebration, as are most of the figures in this suite of 12 paintings.

1/20/2022 watercolor/collage, day 2 / January 21, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*1/20/2022 watercolor/collage* at 3pm today

2:46 PM: this is the end of my painting day today, following some adjustments to the work I did earlier.

BELOW: 5 stages of this watercolor/collage

*1/20/2022 watercolor/collage* at 1:30pm today

1:42 PM: it’s an overcast, cold day, with snow about to happen. I did more work on 1/20/2022 watercolor/collage, adding quite a bit so that it reads way better from a distance. i’ll continue painting for about another hour & post more then.

BELOW: before & after

taking a break & making a watercolor/collage / January 20, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:30 PM: that’s all i’m going to do on this one today. I like where it’s going & want to wait till the morning to determine next moves. I may take it back to the house & sit with it tonight. we’re taking our trail walk in half an hour anyway, so it’s time to stop.

12:46 PM: I was getting a tad fatigued making all this small oil/collages, so i’m taking a break and making a watercolor/collage, which measures 11 1/4 x 30”. here are stages 1 & 2:

continuing work & will post later this afternoon.

1:06 PM: 4 of my watches are telling m it’s time for a mid-day snack. (the one in the black box is in a watch winder.)

how’s about some of that hummus mikela just made? PS: the lines in my thumbnail are an indication of a zinc deficiency, so last week I started taking liquid zinc, but it takes 3-6 months for nails to grow out. great hummus though, on trader joe’s delicious some enchanted crackers.

1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 9 modifications / January 19, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 9* today at the end of my painting day. shot with my new iphone 13 pro

2:33 PM: I made some deep changes to 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 9 today, adding 2 figures and using totanium/zinc white to open & simplify the space. yesterday I got my new iPhone 13 pro, which is reputed to have a very high quality camera. BELOW are two photos of the painting as it looked at 2pm. on the left is the one shot with my Nikon D 7200 with a telephoto lens, and on the right, the one I shot with the iPhone 13 pro. now of course a lot has to do with how I adjusted them with photoshop.

but so far, I can say I definitely prefer the nikon, which has truer colors an less glare. for some reason, the iPhone camera picked up a lot of glare. I have to do a lot more experimental shots to reach a decision as to the quality of the iPhone camera.

on the bottom row: 2 experiments with different adjustments on the iPhone.

my oil colors & some brushes / 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 9 day1 / January 17, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

5:29 pm: i wiped out coolj; it was too much like the other one with llcoolj. i’ll pickit up again on wednesday, when i’m back in the studio.

2:08 PM: I began work on 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 9 this morning, and took photos of 4 stages of development, BELOW.

as you will notice, collage was applied in the very first stage, albeit sparingly. i’m becoming more relaxed about where I stop, and less apt to say “I should have stopped at….” well, I didn’t. this suite of 12 paintings, of which this is #9, has gained an identity. unexpected and unplanned, of course.

this morning I gave a telephone interview to a reporter from the greek newspaper ta nea, about my memories of the greek painter, fassianos, who died yesterday at age 87. I had good things to say about his work, but left out this part, which is in a message I sent Dimitri:

“I like much of his work, but when you go down that path of repeating the same imagery over and over, you better be damned good. Otherwise, it’s predictable. I said good things about him in my interview, all of which I believe, but right now, looking at a page of his work on Google, it doesn’t sweep me away. It doesn’t Move me. I have high standards, so while I think he uses the picture space wisely, has a good coloristic sense & makes beautiful marks, that’s simply not enough for me. Personally, I think Stefanou is a better painter, conveys more feeling in his work.”

9:55 AM: looks like a mess, but it’s working for me….