drawing for "mother & child at space" / July 11, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

an early stage of my drawing for *mother and child at space,* which will eventually become a 38x44” oil painting on linen

4:55 PM: it’s admittedly hard to make out what’s going on in this early stage drawing. what we’re looking at is a mother holding her child and browsing material on a table at a space gallery opening in 2015, as seen from the upper floor. while i as combing through my photos from above folder, i came across a grouping shot at one of the earliest space gallery openings. the gallery, of which i am a member artist, is located on santa fe drive in denver, colorado.

when people, like this mother, don’t know they’re being photographed, they tend to strike more relaxed, natural poses. seen from above, the figures integrate with the items on the gallery table and are rendered more dramatic, as you will soon see, by the light and shadow falling on and around them.

so what's next, philip? / July 10, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:49 PM: it’s a hot one! the temperature reached 90F this afternoon, which is pretty high for crestone/baca, which is at 8,000 ft. but it’s clouding over now, and there are some thunderstorms in the area, which should cool it down.

having completed the dinner party yesterday, i began planning for a series of paintings which will be roughly the same dimensions, maybe a few inches bigger. they will all be on my favorite surface for painting in oil: sennelier quadruple primed portrait linen, which is almost as smooth as a piece of paper and takes the oil paint very beautifully. if you dilute the paint, it’s almost like making a watercolor.

like the dinner party, the new series will be an updated version of my ano kato series (https://www.philiptarlow.com/anokato) which started with this watercolor, made looking down from my athens studio window in about 1972.

this is the guy who was the self appointed car parker for this region of the plaka neighborhood, overlooking the roman era tower of the winds, or the horologion of andronikos kyrrhestes, considered the world’s first meteorolical station, featuring a combination of sun dials, a water clock and a wind vane! some sources say it was constructed in the second century B.C.

i’ve shot many hundreds of photos looking down on people doing things: eating, watering plants, sitting on the school hallway floor & working on their computers, museum visitors looking at art…..

this one, for example, was painted following our visit to the then newly opened acropolis museum, directly opposite the acropolis in athens. the transparent floor gives us a view of the ancient ruins below, adding an amazing dimension to the experience.

so how, if at all, will this new series be different? stay tuned, and we’ll find out! i’ve got to order some new stretcher bars in order to start the oils. so while i’m waiting for them to arrive, i’ll start tomorrow with some gouache/watercolor on paper studies.

*o kyrios yannis,* ca. 1972, watercolor on paper

one the many paintings i made of the *tower of the winds*

the dinner party, continued / July 9, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*the dinner party,* 38x40” after lightening the exhaust pipe over the wood stove.

3:30 PM: as i was posting half hour ago, i realized that the chimney above the stove was way too black. since the paint was still wet, it just took a few minutes to rub into it with a paper towel and lighten it. i think it’s much better now.

*the dinner party,* 38x40” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:43 PM: today i pretty much painted on the dinner party all day, till half an hour ago. we didn’t do our trail walk (we do it every other day) so i had a good chunk of time & covered lots of ground. you’ll see in the comparative views BELOW just how much has changed. there’s now a fire burning in the wood burning stove, for example. whaqt used to be 3/4 of a dog lying down, over on the left, is gone. the floor tiles have been reworked. stripes have appeared on the clothing of the seated figure middle left. wine glasses have appeared on the table….and a lot more. if you make the images full page & scroll back & forth, you’ll be bale to spot the changes.

the dinner party, continued / July 8, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:20 PM: after returning from our morning trail walk, where i made this little drawing, i arrived relatively late at my studio & didn’t get to work till about noon. so what? noon, schmoon! it’s all good.

i made quite a few additions and modifications to the dinner party, including a fair amount of improvements to the female figures on the right. i also slightly toned down the stark white of the table, tok the couch & pillows to the next level and gave some definition to the sculptural piece on the wall to the right.

i go back & forth between feeling maybe there’s too much going on; too many details, and enjoying the richness of the composition. i know all the participants, of course, but it’s hard to get that this dinner party took place only 6 years ago. seems like ancient history.

i’m also constantly amazed at how i can make a painting like handstand (BELOW left) and this july 1st collage (RIGHT) less than a month ago and then a painting like the dinner party. fortunately, i don’t have a gallerey director breathing down my neck trying to encourage a consistancy in my work. if you review my entire body of work over decades, you’ll discover that, indeed, there is a consistancy. it’s called PAINTERLY!

so i’ll continue work on the dinner party tomorrow. we’re not walking the trail tomorrow, so i should be able to arrive earlier at the studio.

*7/8/22 trail drawing*. 4x6” colored pencil

*cobleskill, 7/1/22,* after i flipped it upside down last night

"the dinner party" continued / a poem i wrote last night / July 7, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

7/6/22 poem

terrnanium geranium

cranium

uttered she

flax bound

fracus sounds

either oui or non

plus one

or thereover

from the underlings

sweping moons

asunder

he wondered

*the dinner party* 38x40” oil on portrait linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3:19 PM: i continued painting the dinner party today, working on practically all areas of the composition. i worked a lot on all the seated dinner guests, as well as the tile floor, the patterned rug, etc. it’s slow going, but i’m having a great time mixing the subtle shades of greys, pinks & blue/violets. the table, with it’s red patterning, is still too starkly white, as is the area of wall on the upper right, and i’ll address that tomorrow.

BELOW: yesterday’s version is on the LEFT

the dinner party: adding color to the drawing / July 6, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:25 PM: i was literally licking my lips in anticipation of this morning’s session, when i began adding color to the drawing i made over the past few days for the dinner party, “ 38x40”

i began with the light siena tiled floor and proceeded to the seated figures.

i love that there are so many patterns. and, of course, in keeping with my ano kato series and many of the paintings i’ve made earlier in my career, views from above gte me very turned on!

i’ll continue work on this one tomorrow, after our morning trail walk.

DETAIL: *the dinner party,* 38x40” oil on portrait linen

at work on *the dinner party* earlier today

palette for *the dinner party* as it looked today

starting the drawing for "the dinner party" / July 4, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*stage 1* of the drawing on stretched, primed linen for *the dinner party,* 38x40”

3:01 PM: we’re invited to a july 4th dinner party this evening, so i’m stopping a bit earlier than usual. i stretched a 38x40” canvas this morning, and started the drawing in colored pencil for a new painting titled the dinner party. it’s inspired by a series of photos i shot in 2016 at a friend’s house here in crestone. i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.

dwell tweaks today / July 3, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*dwell*, oil on linen, 17x80” today, follwing some tweaks

2:34 PM: it’s all in the tweaks; those small but often significant modifications that take place towards the end of the creation of a new painting can allow it to sing it’s song. in this case, i made some adjustments, most noticeably to the daisies on the left side of the countertop, as well as to the bowls of fruit, the arms of the figure on the left and more.

the tweaks are informed by my experience of seeing the painting fresh, as i enter my studio in the morning. if my eye gets stuck on a particular area, that’s a sign something’s amiss. here’s where the concept of painterly enters the picture. i’m not looking for a true to life recreation of the theme, if there is one. rather, i’m scanning the whole collection of marks, forms, colors to evaluate whether or not there is that delicate balance that satisfies the soul.

i think this painting has found that balance today.

DETAIL: *dwell*, oil on linen, 17x80” today,

DETAIL 2: *dwell*, oil on linen, 17x80” today,

dwelling on dwell / picasso on art / July 2, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*dwell,* 17x80” at the VERY end of my painting day today!

i made a last minute decision, before returning to the house, and broke up the countertop with rectangles, indicating a tiled surface. i think it improved, but i may need to do more tomorrow morning.

*dwell,* 17x80” at the end of my painting day today

3:48 PM: follwoing our trail walk this morning, i resumed work on dwell, 17x80”. i added the walking figure in the upper right,as well as a table & chairs, all viewed from above. i don’t have a lot more to do tomorrow, but there will definitely be some tweaks. i think the daisies on the left need to pop more, and it needs an accent of color, possibly on the figure at the lower left.

i’ve made paintings roughly this dimension, but i don’t think i’ve made a horizontal one. it’s tricky to have that expanse of white countertop, and i may have to break it up somehow; maybe by putting in imagined tiles.

2:08 PM: in 1904, picasso wrote the following:

DETAIL of *dwell with the new figure & table-chairs.*

that about says it all.

watercolor/collage 1 is now titled cobleskill and work continues on dwell / July 1, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:27 PM: i changed the title of watercolor/collage 1 to cobleskill. whenever possible, i prefer titles that refer specifically to the painting. so in this case, when i looked closely at this watercolor/gouache/collage, i discovered i had collaged a segment of a map of new york. upstate, norht of poughkeepsie, is the town of cobleskill. i’ve never been there, but i liked the name.

this piece has gone through more stages than most. late this morning, i think it was resolved. it conjures memories of two of my favorite artists: archile gorky and deKooning, both in terms of color and form. and it accomplishes one of my goals in making a painting; namely that one never tires of gazing at it. you’ll always discover something or some set of relationships you hadn’t noticed before. also, it could scale up 10x and not lose any of it’s qualities.

i cut the tape off the sides and placed it in a frame, which allows it to sing it’s song.

i continued painting dwell, going back and forth between the two very different paintings. i love doing that whenever possible. it’s more fun as well as giving me something else to focus my attention if i get stuck.

i’m doing as little as possible because i love the spareness of this painting. i can acually envision leaving it as is. i think it’s visually more compelling with the large “unfinished” area to the right left as is.

the figure with his cutting board, seen from above the the daisies and bowls sitting on the countertop, is painted with just a few critical, painterly strokes. the reflection of lights on the floor tiles to his left read almost as if there were a fire beside him. your imagination will fill in the “blanks.”