final tweaks to ano kato 50 /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50 FINAL STATE TODAY

1:54 PM: i had thought ano kato 50 was resolved. but when i came in this morning, i realized it needed to pop just a bit more. so while the thin layer of pinkish color i used to paint thinly over it a few days ago was still somewhat wet, i took a washcloth dipped in solvent and wiped into a few areas that needed to be revealed so they could act as “popping agents,” allowing some of the underlying vibrant colors to be stratigically revealed. examples: the black of the paddle handle beneath the red head’s hand; the shadow on the neck of the paddler on the left and the dark blue upper band on his bathing suit, as well as some of the white frothy bubbles in the river water. so are we done? YES!

since i discovered and photographed these paddlers, i’ve included them, in one way or another, in numerous paintings, both oils on canvas and watercolor/gouache/collage on paper. so who are they and what do they represent? first of all, they are forms in space. they are headed somewhere. on a voyage. they transport me beyond my familiar spaces and boundaries.

BELOW: BEFORE (LEFT) and after today’s tweaks

she starts to sing / STARTING ANO KATO 61 /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 61, stage 1

4:09 after completing work on ano kato 50, i strated painting over one of the less interesting motion series paintings.

ano kato 50 following this morning’s transformations

11:55 AM: this morning i had to take care of a few logistics: re-shooting 8/2/2021 creek oil. 26x62 in. for the print i’m having made in denver; requesting a backup night guard identical to the one i had made in may, which fits perfectly & ordering some materials i need for the upcoming aspen exhibition.

once i completed that & had my little road talk with mikela as she drove to the schools, i re-engaged with ano kato 50.

i’ve been feeling over the past few days that it was becoming far to specifically descriptive, but after all that work i was hesitant to paint over it.

finally about an hour ago i took the leap. i mixed up a rose/pinkish color, went over the entire painting with it, then scraped into it & blotted with paper towels, which leaves those cool telltale little dots from the patterning on the towels. when i hung it back on the wall, it just looked like a dull version of what it was before. then i went in with an old, very substantial washcloth & rubbed a few select areas, alllowing some of the vibrant colors underneath to come through.

the clincher was when i added a light blue stripe on the left, and a green shape next to it, following the curve of the skiff. and lo, she started to sing! i’ll have to sit with it and ask what she thinks comes next, if anything.

but here’s the real question: do i really have to plow through all this realist bullshit to get to this point? i already know the answer…i’m just sayin’.

next stage of ano kato 50 /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50 on 8/23/22 4pm

3:50 PM: we walked up the trail this morning, so i got a bit of a late start. we saw 7 people on the trail; the most we’ve ever seen. just one more indication of how much crestone/baca are growing.

in the earlier stages of this current painting, i was, as always, tempted to leave it with one of the two figures just sketched in. i’m glad i decided to keep going with it. it has a richness beyond the numerous other variations of this theme of 2 paddlers on the river in alamosa. as was the case yesterday, my focus was on the right portion of the composition: the red head, the skiff & the river water.

i’m definitely going to continue tomorrow, and likely for a few more days after that, until it sings it song in a full throated way.

BELOW: yesterday’s stage and today’s (right)

ano kato 50 continues /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50 as it looked at the end of my painting day

3:09 PM: i continued work on ano kato 50, primarily on the right half of the composition. as you can see from the comparative before & after photos BELOW, i shortened the stick on his paddle, made some additions to his green garment as well as making adjustments to his arms & shoulders & extending the blue water aaround to the right of the skiff.

tomorrow is our trail walk day, so i’ll get back to work on it after we’re back.

gazing at it from my desk, about 20+ feet away, and with artificial light because we’re having our daily afternoon monsoonal thunderstorm, she looks rather handsome, and makes my other recent paintings pale!

ano kato 50-continued work today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:11 PM: i continued developing ano kato 50 today. i’d been debating whether or not to just leave it “unfinished,” but, although i find that look very appealing and, in many cases, even more compelling than a finished painting, the more i gazed at it, the more it called to me to take it further. and now that i have, there’s no doubt in my mind that i’ll continue tomorrow. so i’ll see you all then!

BELOW: yesterday, on the left, and today

ano kato 50, into the blue / this morning’s trail drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50 at 2:30pm, after extending the blue & beginning to define their white skiffs

2:46 PM: i extended the blue quite a bit, and created the beginnings of the white skiffs they’re paddling. i kind of like the balance right now between the yellows, the blues, the flesh tones & the yellow paddle. as always, it’s tempting to let it be, just as is. right now, i feel finished for the day. let’s see how it strikes me when i enter the studio tomorrow morning.

ano kato 50 at noon, with the beginnings of the introduction of blue

11:57 AM: this morning , after gazing at ano kato 50 while having my breakfast, i felt the need to get rid of some of the yellow surrounding the 2 paddlers. since they’re in the river, even though the actual color of the river water is more like a browish color, i decided to go for the blue. thus far, at this early stage, i’m likeing what it’s doing to the adjacent flesh tones. i’ll keep going & see where it takes me.

this morning’s trail drawing, which i added to when we got back

we took our trail walk this morning & i made this little drawing, which i continued working on when we got back to the house.

ano kato 50 continued /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50, 40x45 1/2” at the end of my painting day today

2:20 PM: it got very cloudy & started raining, making it hard to see the colors, and since i prefer not using artificial lighting, i’m stopping here for the day.

i got started on the second paddler,including his yellow paddle, and added some highlights to the shoulders & arm of the paddler in blue. i’m going even slower than usual with this one, painting into it only when i feel the energy surge. while i’m taking breaks, i look at the family photos i found in my loft yesterday, especially this one of my grandma on my father’s side, shot in about 1948. i cropped it from a larger photo, which you also see here. i hadn’t noticed the amazong look on her face until i isolated it. this may be the first time i’m getting what an extraordinary woman she was. as a teen, she escaped from russia just in time to avoid being slaughtered.

11:44 AM: this morning i continued work on ano kato 50, starting the drawing for a second, red headed paddler. i’ll keep working & post when i’m further along.

ano kato 50 transforms /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato 50 as it looked today at the end of my day in the studio.

3:25 PM: today i was in a mood. you know by now, that usually means i’m going to paint over what i did the previous day. which i did, after flipping it 180°.

i used a light yellow with a little pink in it, then scraped & put it up on the east wall. scraping got rid of a lot of the liquidy stuff, but there was just enough left to create some beautiful drips, which i couldn’t have planned better. i was inspired to make a third version of the paddlers, with the 2 previous compostions i painted over the past 2 days faintly peeking through and adding, in my opinion, greatly to the composiiton, which had become far too complex. but it was compelling to work on, and somewhere in the back of my mind, i knew it would dissapear in 24 hours.

why are upside down calligraphic japanese letters so wondrerful? and hows about that upside down couple on the right, who appear to be engaging in suggestive behavior? actually, they are a couple hugging each other in the athens acropolis museum! the diagonals in this composition, by the way, also originate with photos i shot at that museum,which had opened just a few months before our visit. the floor is transparent, revealing the ancient ruins below just below the visitors’ feet.

i originally photographed the paddlers from a bridge in alamosa, 50 miles south of us. of course i loved that i was looking at them from above. but more than that, there was something in that moment i identified with, i can’t say exactly what. i shot more than one photo. i have no idea where that folder is, but i’m going to search for it tonight.

i’ll pick it up again tomorrow after our 2 hour morning trail walk.

ANO KATO 50, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:31 PM: i took ano kato 50 to the next level today, but i’m too close to it right now to evaluate what i did. i definitely love the colors: the pink is cool alongside the blues. i’m just not sure yet about including elements of taiga landscapes with the views from above of the acropolis museum, works or not. there’s a kind of comic book quality to it, in the good sense, mostly because of the blues, pinks and the yellow stripes on the right. the more i look at it, from about 15 feet, the more i like it. i think allowing it to become more abstracted than the previous two: red door & desde arriba is making it a more interesting & fun to look at.

starting ano kato 50 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:54 PM: i finally got my artist statment & photos together for the poster, sent them off as emails, & discovered today that the cmc aspen director didn’t get them! so i’m going to re-send tonight.

for the first time in way too many days, i was able to actually paint! i’m painting over one of my motion series of creekscapes, and this one is titled ano kato 50. here i am at work on it. more later; now i have to work on re-sending those 8 emails.