February 1, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:34 PM: I started the gouache version of olympic celebration 2, which you see ABOVE.

12:40 PM: with just 3 hours left before the snowstorm begins & mikela returns from the school she’s been at all day, I’m making progress on the drawing for the new gouache i’ll be making : olympic celebration 2. the first one, which you see BELOW, was completed on november 14th of last year.

1:04 PM: the wind is strengthening and the sky is growing darker in advance of the snowstorm, which is predicted to begin in about 3 hours.

9:58 AM: whenever you see me posting from the studio this early, the means mikela had to leave the house at 8 to be in one of the schools. she should be back around 4pm, just about when the snow is predicted to begin. it should continue through the night and most of tomorrow, which would give us enough to get back up to normal for this time of year.

I put on my cold weather/snow clothing this morning to show my grandson philip, who like his dad and I, is passionate about weather and has been tracking our approaching storm.

while cleaning off my desk this morning, I ran across this 1996 ink drawing I made of mikela.( i’m trying each day to create some order in my studio, a little bit at a time.)

one of my tasks ahead will be to organize my drawings and paintings. good luck with that! this is a job for a student anxious to learn from an artist in his studio; a fair exchange i’d say.

now let’s get to work!

canvas 12 modified / January 31, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 12* moments ago

3:37 PM: a bit more work on canvas 12 in this suite of 12 canvases. I think the yellow, red & blue additions on the top portion of the composition have helped enormously, as does the deeper red beneath the two spheres, in the center of the composition. you can see the collaged elements that are bits of the cut up ink drawings I made yesterday morning. this is the only one of the 12 that does not have obvious human figures, although if you look carefully, you will discern a few legs towards the bottom as well as a shoulder and hand towards the right, next to the chair. if you had this hanging in your home, I venture to say you would never tire of looking at it, always finding something new..

on day 2, there was an obvious human presence, as you will see here on the right.

this is one of those paintings that reads far better in person than it does on the computer screen. maybe i’ll re-shoot it in a different light & see if that helps.

4:01 PM: so I did re-shoot it, with an improved result which is closer to what I see looking at it in the studio from about 20 feet.

*1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 12* as it looked yesterday

1PM: a collaged bit that mikela called the “floating eggplant” has been collaged over on 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 12. it’s definitely an improvement, but I think it needs something more. BELOW: the before & after

two 1987 paintings inspired by visits to hockney's studio / making a drawing to use later today as collage / January 30, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:25 PM: we’re going to take our walk a little earlier today, so we can watch the australian open mens finals, which my grandson philip tells me lasts 4 1/2 hours!

I did have time to make some modifications to both 1-8-2022 polyptych, canvas 12 as well as canvas 7, which you see BELOW.

in canvas 7, on the left, the figure of the skateboarder now has a red & green outline on his upper body, which allows him to pop more.

in canvas 12, on the right, all figures have gone from the composition. different tokyo olympics figures will likely reappear tomorrow, when I resume work on this one. I spent too much time making gingerbread and face-timing with hockney to do too much more today. it’s sunny & warmer, so we should have an excellent walk before sitting down to a pasta dinner and watching the match.

see you all tomorrow.

1:14 PM: a few minutes ago, I made this ink drawing, which will be cut into pieces & collaged onto new paintings.

12:17 PM: just made some gingerbread before starting my painting day today. I added some walnuts & raisins to the mix to make it more interesting. of course I had to have a few bites to make sure it was tasty, which it is! a little crunchy, which I love. that’s why I keep it in the oven a bit longer than recommended.

8:33 AM: in 1987, just one year after mikela and i met, we visited with my friend david hockney in his home & studio in the hollywood hills. i shot phots of him with some friends on his deck overlooking the pool, and of the interior of his home. then, once i was back in my studio, i made a series of paintings in gouache on paper. here are two of them, which now hang in mikela’s work room.

I spoke with David moments ago, and he & his assistant are excited about helping to put together a major Tsarouchis museum show. I asked niki, director of the Tsarouchis foundation, to send him the large volume published by the foundation, which they’ll use when speaking with museum directors. very exciting news, and long overdue!

1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 12, day 2 / January 29, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:03 PM: I did more to 1-8-2022 polyptych, canvas 12 as well as making modifications to #11 and #7. that’s a lotta work!

BELOW left: canvas 11 and right: canvas 7, which still needs work.

starting 1/8/2022 polyptych, canvas 12 / 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.