two 2005 drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

5:29 PM: i discovered these two drawings, amongst many others, this morning in a drawing book from 2005. the first is a drawing of vincent. he was from ghana, and was my dad’s helper in the months before he died. vincent was a treasure. he gave my dad the love and care he needed as he approached his final days. this drawing was made just two weeks before roy tarlow’s passing.

in 2005 mikela and i took a trip to canyon de chelle. i made a series of drawings, of which this is one. a unique landscape, that inspired me profoundly.

looking at this drawing makes me want to return, this time with gouache or oil colors.

starting 6/8/22 oil /  by Philip Tarlow

6/8/22 oil as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4:10 PM: today i started work on the new 6/8/22 oil, which is 36x42” on portrait linen. as i said yesterday, it will likely be a fusion of 3 or 4 directions i’ve taken over the past few decades. what you see here is a cloud formation over the sangre de christo mountains. if you look carefully by clicking on the image and making it full page, you will see an under drawing of nadal seen from abobe, about to serve in the french open final match a few days ago.

it’s still up in the air….pardon the pun…whether or not i’ll be adding color to that drawing and including him in the composition. a lot is yet to come, so stay tuned!

our morning trail walk / cutting portrait linen for new work /  by Philip Tarlow

cutting 2 pieces of portrait linen this afternoon

4:41 PM: after much contemplation and head trips during our trail walk, i took the step, opened the 85” tube with 5yardsx84” of the finest french portrait linen and started out by cutting 2 pieces, which will give me 2 stretched canvases, each 36 x 42.” my feeling is that i want to integrate the 3 or 4 directions i’ve explored over the past decade or so. the new paintings will integrate skies; views of people from above, some of them french open tennis players, creek-scapes, possibly interiors….i can sort of see these paintings; they dance into my consciousness fleetingly ….they tumble about and give me brief windows into a world i don’t yet know but i do. all the images stored in my consciousness, the colors and forms, they slide swiftly into my physical body, travel down my arm into my hand and fingers holding a brush or palette knife.

i’m thinking i may work on unstretched canavs tacked to the wall, in part because i haven’t yet ordered the stretcher bars.

1:43 PM: we walked up the trail this morning at 10; 4 hours later than usual, so the temperature was on the edge of being comfortable at about 65F. as always what we observed as we walked was magical.

softening "anschutz from above 9" /  by Philip Tarlow

anschutz from above 9 following this mornings intervention

9:56 AM: first thing this morning, it became clear that anschutz from above 9 needed softening. the edges were tooo sharp & hard, so that the viewer’s eye kept bouncing from one too bright color to the next, not allowing the subtle pinks, yellows, blues & tans were getting lost. following this mornings changes, your eye travels naturally over the 16x20” surface. the white border also helps in the process.

on the RIGHT: how the painting looked yesterday, before the changes I made this morning.

anschutz from above 9 as it looked yesterday

anschutz from above 9, continued /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: I made some significant changes to anschutz from above 9 this morning. all of yesterdays scraping left the surface devoid of any clear definition, as you can see BELOW left. this morning, the seated figure was joined by the figure of a HS student, also seated on the hallway floor. in person and up close, this is a compelling image. the painterly brush work and vibrant red, greens and blues bring the whole composition to a new level of aliveness.

1:18 PM: this morning we took our first early morning walk, to avoid the heat we began encountering on our afternoon walks. it worked! a very comfortable 50F, no bugs and a heady fragrance in the air we were breathing. so that’s going to be it from now on, till the fall chill sets in again.

the creek at 7 am this morning.

starting "anschutz from above 9" /  by Philip Tarlow

anschutz from above 9 at 2 :30pm

2:31 PM:just when you think you’ve nailed it, you realize you’re nowhere near nailing it; it’s nailing you! and just when you think you’re working brilliantly wet into wet, and have surpassed all the other 8 in this series, the magnitude of your folly hits you. just stay connected and keep going until your gut lets you know it’s resolved.

what i love, when comparing it to it’s brothers & sisters, is the fiery warmth of the siena/pinks of the under-layer; the first coat of oil i applied this morning. i think i’ll call it a day, especially since we plan on walking up the trail soon. it’s a little on the warmish side to take a strenuous walk, and we’re almost but not quite at the point of switching from afternoon to early morning walks, when the temperature will be in the upper 40’s rather than the mid 70’s, as it is at the moment. and for those of you in s. texas and florida, our humidity is hovering around 13%. not exactly uncomfortable!

4:15 PM: well, our walk lasted only a few minutes; the gnats were swarming, making it impossible to walk at all. so we turned back, and our plan is to walk tomorrow morning around 7:30 am, when the temperature will be a bit over 50F. our hope is that it’s too early for the gnats. we can’t remember having such an extreme gnat problem last year. it may have to do with climate change issues, but there’s no way to know that. the mosquito season, if we have one this year, usually kicks in at the end of june.

looking now at the photos i shot of this new painting, my conclusion is that it has a long way to go. it’s still in it’s adolescence. if you look back at my blog posts of the development of previous paintings in the series, you’ll see that it’s always about the process. adding, scraping out, sometimes flipping the painting 360°…..getting out of my own way, out of my mind.

anschutz from above 9 was it looked around 1:15 pm.

1:38 PM:i took a little break in my black chair, which goes back and up to that my feet are above my head. I put a black cloth over my eyes and did a rebirthing breath for 5 minutes. that seemed to help with the pressure I was feeling in my right eye following my ocular migraine a few hours ago. so here’s the next stage of anschutz from above 9. i’m ready to dive back in.

the new anschutz from above 9 as it looked at noon today

12:18 PM: today I started anschutz from above 9,” which may be the last in this series. thus far, it’s quite different than it’s siblings. no scraping, plus that under painting of reddish swirls. is it connected with the ocular migraine I had about an hour ago? I get them periodically, and my eye surgeon says it’s nothing to worry about.

further tweaks to "anschutz from above 8" and tracking my passion for views from above and architectural detail /  by Philip Tarlow

11:48 AM: in searching through the hundreds of paintings in gouache and watercolor on paper, I came across this one of our house interior, painted in 2006, gouache on paper, 15 1/2 x 6”

if you compare it with my current series: anschutz from above, in oil on linen, you will notice a clear connection. the patterned forms created by the light & shadow falling on the walls, the floor & the staircase of our house reveal a similar sensitivity to light falling on architecture. in this one there are no figures and the color scheme, typical of the work I was doing at the time, consists of muted beiges and whites, with a touch of red in the flower pot on the lower left. but in the 2020 photo from above I shot of mikela watering our plants (see the above photo), there’s a clear continuity of my ongoing passion for views from above, often involving architecture.

recently, i’ve been capturing images of tennis players from above from the currently broadcast french open matches. as I recognize the extent and depth of this passion of mine, I think more paintings will appear in this vein, departing from earlier manifestations in my use of bolder colors and abstracted, expressionist marks.

nadal serving yesterday during the french open

anschutz from above 8 at 11:30am, following further tweaks

11:42 AM: I made further tweaks to anschutz from above 8, toning down the red behind and above the seated figure, defining her legs and the book she’s got on her lap and adding a triangular green architectural element above.

anschutz from above 8 as it looked following this morning’s tweaks.

10:42 AM: upon looking closely and critically at anschutz from above 8 yesterday afternoon, both mikela and I agreed that the seated figure needed to pop more; she was getting lost in the overall architectural marks.

so I went back in and further defined her. now that i’m looking at it online, I think that red needs to be toned down. it’s a fine line between having the figure pop, and having it so strongly defined that it draws the eye away from the totality.

starting "anschutz from above 8" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:43 PM: and one final palette knife swipe or two before leaving, softening the harder edges and helping create overall unity.

anschutz from above 8 as it looked at 3pm, following some modifications to the future & the green area adjacent

3:25 PM: I reduced the intensity of that blue line intersecting the green adjacent to the seated figure, and made that figure pop more. still needs work, but i’ve had it for today, so i’m going to call it a day & clean up.

anschutz from above 8 as it looked moments ago

2:21 PM: I made a slight but significant modification. after gazing at anschutz from above 8 while talking with mikela about how much raw, unfiltered honey to get on her way home, a kept casting glances at the painting. that vibrant green to the right of the seated figure, which is a new color for me to be using, kept drawing my eye. that almost always means it needs some modification. so I allowed the lines of the floor tiles run through it, which, as I write this, I see was a bit too much and the figure doesn’t pop enough. so here it is, and in a few minutes i’ll post the image of the softening of that line I just did.

anschutz from above 8 at 1pm

1:22 PM: I did quite a bit more on anschutz from above 8.lots more primary-is colors that come, to some degree, from looking at early dekoonings. i’m a bit surprised at how i’m able to continue with this anschutz theme. it’s really the combination of my ongoing passion for views from above integrated with my equally intense passion for architectural details.

DETAIL

the new anschutz from above 8 at 11 am today.

11:33 AM: as I said yesterday after stretching 2 new 16x20”canvases, I launched into the next in my anschutz from above series: #8.

like the others, it’s based on a number of photos I shot at the anschutz medical center in denver, from a 4th floor landing looking down at the 3rd floor landing, where patients are seated in armchairs and there’s a very wonderful view of the architecture and the view out the large windows.

DETAIL

so what is philip up to today? /  by Philip Tarlow

1:52 PM: let me start by offering my gratitude for those of you who are regular visitors to my blog. it means A LOT to me!

well, I started out by stretching 2 more 16x20” linen, quadruple primed canvases fo the final 2 paintings in my anschutz from above series. ok. i’ll start painting on them tomorrow.

then I had the inspiration to go into my newly built storage room, which is already full & overflowing, and look for some landscapes of the sangre de christo mountains I painted some years ago in oil on canvas. I found four, which you see here hanging on top of the gouache on paper paintings I found in my drawer & pinned to the wall a few days ago. my idea is to turn some of them into limited edition prints. they’ll be very reasonably priced, and, if I can find the right person to assist me, will be sold around the valley in places such as the great sand dunes national park. I think people will recognize that these are special, made by a real, internationally acclaimed artist, and will look great framed & hung oil their walls, in addition to reminding them of their visit to our magical valley.

then I found this 2014 16x16” collage on paper amongst the stacks of as yet undocumented work from the past few decades. it leapt out at me as being a prime example of one of those one in a hundred or so works that stand out, and bring together the discoveries made over decades in one stunning piece. this one ain’t goin’ nowhere; it’s OURS! but, once again, as with the oils of the sangres, it could be turned into a limited edition print and become available at a reasonable price.

starting anschutz from above 7 /  by Philip Tarlow

anschutz from above 7 at 5pm

6pm: and one more last minute, unifying update.

anschutz from above 7 as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3:33 PM: I did some more work on this painting, and here’s how it currently looks.

1:18 PM: this morning I started starting anschutz from above 7 . a few more figures are included, including two from photos I shot some years ago in the then new acropolis museum in athens, and the seated student I included in the previous painting.

BELOW: stages 1 & 2