loading the truck! /  by Philip Tarlow

4:11 PM: a few hours ago we loaded the uhaul truck with 28 stretched paintings & 8 watercolor/collages under glass. we’ll get going at 7am tomorrow & should arrive at cmc aspen gallery about 10:30. after unloading the work, we’ll look at what looks best where and take back the ones that don’t seem to fit on the walls. it’s a very varied space, and i suspect it will take more of the paintings than we had suspected.

the paintings will be hung over the next week, ready for the opening on september 29th.

13x19" printouts for the exhibition /  by Philip Tarlow

2:53 PM: this morning i finished surrounding the stretcher bars of the paintings to be included in the show, and then moved on to create a series of 13x19” printouts, which will be posted on the gallery walls and are intended to give visitors a deeper understanding of what they’re looking at.

this is the one i just now printed out, and speaks for itself.

another one i printed today, BELOW, shows a series of recent plein air drawings. i’m going to create an accompanying text talking briefly about how & why these studies are important and the role they play in my studio paintings.

impromptu fruit & veggies signs /  by Philip Tarlow

12:54 PM: suzanne & kurt, who have become friends over the years, drive to crestone every thursday in the warm months with fresh fruit & veggies from their garden. two weeks ago, their normal spot at the kiosk was suddenly closed to vendors, so they, along with the honey guy & others had to find someplace else. last week they were near the post office in downtown crestone, but nobody was aware of where they were , and their normally robust sales plummeted. today, they’ve set up near the golf course, about a mile from town. once again, their customers are not aware. so i made them 3 signs to put up, which hopefully people will see. i just talked to them and, indeed, people are seeing the signs and coming! here they are!

this morning's trail/creek drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

9/14/22 trail/creek drawing

2:53 PM: we took our trail walk this morning in cloudy, chilly weather. as we did last time we walked, we stopped earlier than usual, at the spot we used to go to before we bagan extending our walks to about an hour each way, this spot is just half an hour, but has a full view of the creek and, in terms of drawing subjects, is preferable. i can’t count the number of colored pencil drawings i’ve made at this location, but there are a lot!

so it’s really kind of an exercise in finding essence. what’s the core/essence of this creek-scape? today i looked in the opposite direction from last tim we went, and the main feature was this log, from a tree that had fallen across the creek. it divided my view of the creek in two. so without planning or thinking consciously i used different colors for the rocks above the tree trunk. works pretty well, i’d say!. what i may do at some point is to look at a series of these drawings over time next to each other & see what i observe.

after the dust settles /  by Philip Tarlow

6:25 PM: in a week, we’ll be transporting the paintings to aspen in a rented uhaul van, driving back a week from today. then there will be a little over a week till we go to the opening on the 29th , when we’ll stay over at a friend’s home in carbondale. then back home on the 30th.

then what? i’ll finally be able to get back to work. but of course it’s not like going back to the office! no idea of course what i’ll do. none. which is as it should be. but my hope is that i’ll raise the bar a bit. that i will use this break to further integrate all that i’ve done ove rthe past decade or so and allow new buds to spring up & sprout.

BELOW are some of the paths i’ve taken.

sending out invitations /  by Philip Tarlow

7:19 PM: so far today i’ve emailed out 40 invitations to the exhibition. above is the one i designed and below, the poster designed by cmc aspen’s design department. as the opening gets closer, i’m feeling more anxious than i normally do prior to the opening of an exhibition. i can’t really tell you why that is, but i wouldn’t say it’s a bad feeling. just ususual.

i’ll continue going through my list of names tomorrow, and send more out, as will mikela to her list of contacts. i’m going to leave it up to their crew to decide where the various paintings should go, although the larger verticles will definitely be hung on the big 2 story wall.

my talk is scheduled for 6 on the evening of the 29th. i’m planning on keeping it short, although i do have lots to say about the evolution of these new paintings and what they represent in the arc of my career as an artist. i’ll make sure somebody tapes it so that i can post it here for you to see.

trail walk to a beloved spot /  by Philip Tarlow

12:14 PM: this morning our trail walk was later than usual, and we stopped lower down the trail, at our old resting spot, where i’ve made many drawings. i was missing it! so i made a couple of drawings & took some photos of the site to share with you.

this morning’s creek drawing

tweak to acropolis museum III 78x16" oil on linen, paddlers on bright yellow on our living room wall 2022 /  by Philip Tarlow

paddlers on bright yellow hanging on our living room wall until the 19th, when we take it to aspen

we wanted to see what this one would look like hanging in our house, so just before our dinner guests arrived, i brought it over from the studio and hung it. in the simple, clean lines of the house, it looked way better than in my cluttered studio! lets see how it looks at aspen cmc.

11:03 AM: in order to leave time for the oil paint to dry, this is really my last opportunity to make any tweaks to the paintings for the show. mikela had pointed out an issue with the face of this hs girl seated in the school hallway, so this morning i corrected it.

i tweaked the face in this area of the painting this morning

continuing aspen prep & a trail drawing this morning, modified this afternoon /  by Philip Tarlow

3:06 pm: this is the trail drawing i made this morning, with the modification i just now made.

tape, tape & more tape...preparing for aspen /  by Philip Tarlow

6:44 PM: over the past few days and probably through the weekend, i’ve been photographing and labeling the paintings bound for the aspen CMC exhibition, opening september 29. it’s the kind of thing i’m not great at but i’m doing the best i can…