mosaic 1, day 5, post biValent COVID vaccine /  by Philip Tarlow

mosaic 1 following this morning’s work

12:17 PM: yesterday we went to salida for dental appointments & covid moderna biValent booster shots. we had cleanings at the dentist, and they found 4-5 areas of deep decay which will require a number of visits, removal of craowns & a number of other procedures over an equal number of visits. i’ve been having moderate to extreme pain in an upper molar where i had a root canal 2 years ago, and what they discovered, which they’ll call to confirm today, is that the molar in question is cracked, causing the pain, and needs to be extracted. more information than you wanted or needed to know, but i’ve got to vent somewhere!

as for the covid shots, we’re both feeling the predicted side effects, so we’re just lying down & not doing much work. i did get about an hour of work done on mosaic 1 however. it’s getting more interesting and emitting faint sounds of song, but it has a long way to go. i may start a second one to move the energy elsewhere.

the underlying painting, which you can see on days 1 & 2, was inspired by an ancient roman/grek mosaic seen from above & being restored by the figure on the left. that was painted over with a pink-ish color. then the image of a byzantine church in central athens, surrounded by blue sky began to appear. that was painted over whit titanium/zinc white, then scraped into & blotted over this morning, then flipped 180° so that the church roof looks kind of like a flower pot.

detail of upside-down church roof

the first clip from my talk / taking mosaic 1 to the next stage /  by Philip Tarlow

mosaic 1 as it looked moments ago, after an intense few hours of work

1:16 PM: after posting the first & longest clip of my 10/29 talk, i continued work on mosaic 1. i scraped over it & then painted over the entire composition with a pinkish color, then scraped some more & added a few collaged bits. that may be all i do on this rainy chilly day, and i’ll pick it back up tomorrow.

going over the composition with pink oil paint

12:14 PM: this is the first & longest clip of my talk: 10 minutes. the camera doesn’t always follow me when i walk over to talk about a painting; i’ll remedy this later, when i learn how to insert stills into the video.

the opening was GREAT! / continued work on “mosaic 1” /  by Philip Tarlow

mosaic 1 as it looked this afternoon at the end of my first day back in the studio

3:28 PM: following a break for the opening of my aspen show, i was able to get back to work on mosaic 1 today. it felt so great to be holding a brush in my hand!

thus far there has been no collaging, no scraping or painting over. i’m not ruling it out though!

this is the first of a series of about 20-25 paintings intended for my athens exhibition, scheduled to open mid-march, 2023. that venue and that particular art-loving public, with whom i am so intimately familiar, are definitely influencing the direction this new series is taking.

DETAIL

8:08 AM: our very first impression were the 4 sound of a flute series paintings on the tall 2 story wall in the entryway; a stroke of genius on the part of the director, lauren, who hung the show, seen here from the 2nd floor looking down.

i haven’t yet taken my shower or meditated this morning following an intense 48 hours of travel to aspen/carbondale, so when i’m more settled, i’ll share more photos from the opening & start working on posting the video of my half hour talk.

to be included in my "jestur" talk at my opening tomorrow /  by Philip Tarlow

the 32x40” board of images i put together for my exhibition opening in aspen tomorrow

3:54 PM: this morning and into early afternoon i completed work on printing and mounting the collection of images you see above, mounted on a 32x40” board. it will be placed behind me as i talk, and although attendees won’t be able to make out details or the labels i made and attached, they will get the general idea from afar and be able to view it close up following my 20 minute talk. the purpose is, of course, to shed more light on the title of the exhibition: jestur. what’s the nature of the gesstural marks in these works? how and why do they transcend time, so that a cave painting made over 18,000 years ago rests ocmfortably next to a matisse painted in 1938? why does a vermeer sleeve evoke abstractions? how does the painterly show up in all these works, regardless of it’s origins in time and space?

7:33 AM: these are a few of the art historical examples of jestur i’ll be referring to tomorrow at my gallery talk.

mosaic 1 continued/ exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

1:17 PM: i did a bit more on mosaic 1 this morning, but i need to wait till we’re back from the exhibition to do anything more; i have too much to do and to think about right now.

so i’m going to print out some 19x13” images i want to use to illustrate my talk on thursday. we arranged to have dinner with the friends we’re staying with that night, and then lunch with another couple who are friends & live in the area, so it should be a fun trip. i’m really looking forward to seeing what the paintings look like hanging in the gallery space!

mosaic 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

mosaic 1 42x35” oil on portrait linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day

2:36 PM: i took mosaic 1 further this afternoon, adding the figure of the guy who is cleaning and restoring the ancient mosaic. it will be interesting to see whether i do my usual scrapeover and this becomes the underpainting. but right now, i’m finding it exciting the way it’s going. and because these paintings are for a greek audience, my mind has shifted in that direction, and so far it seems to be reflected in this new work.

but there’s no way i could have done what i did today without the artfix portrait linen. it’s really a magical surface, the very finest linen there is, and i’m running out! so i’ll have to order more, but it’s very expensive! i may have a way of getting it at a much lower cost….i’ll find out tomorrow.

at work moments ago on mosaic 1

1:06 PM: i begans adding oil colors in this central portion of the composition. it’s kinda cool as is, with the rest of the composition just drawn in. i have about another hour in me; let’s see where it goes from here….

11:20 AM: i tacked a piece of 42x35” artfix portrait linen to my wall and started the drawing for mosaic 1, destined to be the first painting i create for my march, 2023 exhibition at genesis gallery, athens. as you can see, right now it’s inspired by an aerial view of an ancient mosaic being restored.

as always, i have no idea where it will end up, but it’s likely all that will remain of this is a ghost image beneath other compositions layered on top.

dates confirmed for my athens exhibition / framing watercolor 106, 7/10/2020 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:49 PM: this morning i went back & forth with the director of genesis gallery in the kolonaki neighborhood of athens and we settled on the dates for my exhibition: opening march 14 through april 1st, 2023. i’m going to get started in the next few days on watercolor sketches for the oils. there will be a total of 20-25 works, most on canvas and some on paper.

i’m kind of on a framing kick right now, replacing the work i had in some of the white 20.5” square frames with watercolors & watercolor/collages. this one is pure watercolor with no collaged areas, & was painted on 7/10/2020, measuring 9 3/4 x 12 1/2.”

watercolor 106 7/10/20

going through my 2014 work on paper / replacing yesterday’s smaller painting / ceramics /  by Philip Tarlow

5 of the 2014 works on paper i picked out this afternoon

2:34 PM: today, after switching out the piece i placed in the square white frame yesterday, i went through other works on paper from 2014 mostly. i picked out a handful that stood out to me & tacked them to a wall and placed others on the ledge beneath my west facing window.

4 more of the 2014 works on paper that caught my eye (upper left & the 3 on the bottom)

11:14 AM: it’s rather rare to have a dark day in crestone, with no sign of sunlight. it’s been raining on & off, although, as usual, the predictions for “heavy rain” have not materialized, other than a very brief period at 1am this morning, which woke me up it was so loud.

neither of us really liked the smaller of the two pieces i framed yesterday & brought to the house. so i brought it back and am replacing it with this one, which i picked out of a stack of watercolor/collages in my watch series. i’ve been a big watch guy for as long as i can remember, and in 2014 i included cropped images of watches in this series. it’s kind of depressing that, after going through the whole group of 15 or 20, this was the only one that held up. and we won’t know till i place it in the white frame & hang it in the entryway of our house, whether it passes the test. what makes me feel somewhat better about this is that, when i browse through the work of even the greatest of the artists i love, like matisse, i have a similar experience of finding only one in ten or even twenty that really sings. that’s just how it is. even when i look at those fabulous 1st c. pompeian frescos, the same holds true. if you could hit it out of the park every time, or hit an ace on every serve, there would be no point to the game.

5-26-14 watch 1, 13x11"

6:54 AM: these are a variety of ceramics on out living room table; some painted by me, along with local crestone conglomerate rocks.

framing two gouache-collages for the house /  by Philip Tarlow

4:15 PM: today was my first day in the studio after getting all the paintings to aspen yesterday. it was so great not to feel i’m under a deadline that i just did whatever i felt like doing, which was to frame two gouache/collages i made over the past year and had stacked on top of my file cabinet.

they look pretty cool hanging in the house.

delivering the paintings to aspen cmc gallery /  by Philip Tarlow

5:24 PM: we got going a little before 7am & arrived at the aspen cmc gallery at 10:30. driving the uhaul truck over independence pass was a little tricky, but we made it. we unloaded the paintings, stacked them agaist the wall in the gallery, which doubles as a classroom, talked with the director lauren about where she might hang the pieces & were on our way back by 11:30! mikela has a talk in saguache tonight, so she wanted to have a fe whours rest before then. she’s there right now & then has to leave at 8am tomorrow for a full day at school, and gaian on wednesday. i’m going to get started on planning work for my march exhibition in athens.

heavy rain is predicted over the next 2 days, but i’m not holding my breath after so many predictions that didn’t pan out over the apst few months.