October 19, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*ecole des beaux arts, versaille* 32x45” oil on linen, stage 2

3:13 PM: i did a lot of work today and maintained very high energy throughout, thanks to a fantastic morning neck & head massage from mikela!

so i went back & forth, as i love doing, between the new versailles painting and mosaic 1. ecole des beaux arts, versailles. the inspiration for this new one comes from a couple of photos posted on FB of the art school. the lighting, the reflections, the architectural elements, including reflections of building on the opposite side of the street, the 2 small figures of artists within & their easles….all together create an ideal image for me to draw from & riff on.

i think mosaic 1 definitely improved, but might still need some simplification.

BELOW: left: mosaic 1 as it looked before today’s modifications right: after

DETAIL: notice the two heads from the earlier version, which were part of an ancient roman floor mosaic

starting work on "genesis 1," / modifications to “mosaic 1" / October 18, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:09 PM: mikela is at school today & attending a dinner this evening, so i don’t have to be back in the house, where i normally would now be, at any special hour.

while commencing work on genesis 1, the first in a new series of paintings for my march ‘23 exhibition at genesis gallery in athens, greece, i unexpectedly re-engaged with mosaic 1, which as you know if you follow this daily blog, i had considered resolved last time i worked on it, october 6th. i kept feeling that some of the greys needed lightening but i wasn’t moved to do anything about it. it’s always helpful to be working on something totally different in order to access that fugitive impulse to mess with a painting i had considered complete.

i introduced pink oil pastel to the areas surrounding the grey rocks. as well, if you click on the image & make it full screen, you will notice some greyish dots throughout the composition, which i feel are a unifying factor .

BELOW: the before (left) and after. you be the judge!

genesis 1, now in it’s very early stages, began with a drawing inspired by the 2020 tokyo olympics celebration, which is now pretty much hidden by the grey dots. they too will slowly dissapear and be replaced by new compositional elements as yet to be discovered. stay tuned my friends!

at work earlier today on stage 1 of *genesis 1*

an afternoon creek drawing / the hat shop / October 17, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:54 PM: we oook our walk up the trail this afternoon, and at the spot where we stop & turn around, i usually make a small drawing. today was no exception. i love making these colored pencil drawings and observing their development over time.

the challenge is, in a very short period of time, to make very small drawings using a limited selection of colored pencils that reflect the fugitive quality of light in the moment.

*The Hat Shop*, oil on linen, 1966-7 24 3/4 x 26" collection of the artist

11:52 AM: 3 years into my 15 year sojourn in greece (without once returning to the states) i was married to marina karagatsi, daughter of the aclaimed novelist m. karagatsis. his wife and my then mother-in-law was niki karagatsi, an excellent painter from whom i learned a lot. she didn’t drive, but loved going down to piraeus to paint the interiors of various hat shops, etc. so i became her driver for those expeditions, and in the process developed a strong attraction to and interest in that world.

this is one of a series of paintings of a hat making shop i made during those trips with niki. there were many more, most of which are in private collections in athens.

2 creek paintings this afternoon / October 15, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

5:16 PM: it was a perfect day for plein air painting. so i went to the creek and made 2 watercolors in a shady spot, slightly different than where i sat for the previous 3 or 4 plein air. the light at 3pm is absolutely stunning, and i’m so engaged in what i’m doing that time literally flies by.

the long narrow one was painted on a piece of watercolor paper i prepared with a tan wash many years ago. i found it stacked with other similarly tinted watercolor paper taped ti cardboard surfaces and ready to go.

i’m hoping we’ll get more days like today, because i’m really in the right space to do more of these!

preparing internally for my march show in athens / October 14, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:14 PM: i’m contemplating as i prepare internally to start a new series of paintings, to be shown in my mid-march, 2023 exhibition in athens.

perusing painitngs such as this one, kapnikarea, painted in 2010 and now in a private collection in athens, i’m tempted to make “realist” works with greek themes. i’ve made many in my history as an artist, and because i don’t differentiate between “realist” and “abstract” paintings, i don’t consider this a step backwards. i’ve said this many times. there are good paintings, painterly paintings and the opposite.

in the end, dates, nationality, medium, all don’t really matter.

continued studio work on yesterday's watercolor/collage / October 13, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

11:34 AM: the watercolor/collage i made yesterday afternoon at the creek was asking for more. so, naturally, i followed instructions. i ended up doing quite a bit, including more collage and marks using colored pencils.

i think it has improved; the eye moves more smoothly over the surface and has the newly gained opportunity of creating it’s own composition, transcending the specific parameters of yesterday’s composition; location of rocks, flowing water & branches…i could do more but i’m stopping here for now. perhaps for good.

the collaged bits fulfill their mission of interrupting the predictable, allowing for a more syncopated rhythm. thelonious is not far off. if you half close your eyes and look at the piece, his notes, now soft now resoundingly loud, can be felt.

this is only the second time in my entire history that i’ve taken a plein air painting further in my studio. usually, i consider them fully formed beings, a product of the light & the inspiration of the moment.

BELOW: yesterday’s version, left and today’s

plein air watercolor/collage this afternoon / October 12, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

out at the creek this afternooon with my watercolors, folding table & stool

8:18 PM: taking advantage of the continued ideal fall temperatures, i went out to the creek at 3pm with my wtaercolors, table & little 3 legged stool.

these watercolors, by the very nature of the medium, happen rather quickly. i do, by the way, use a little white tempera to create some subtle greys & paint over not so successful passages. what is becoming a series of watercolors now has some added collaged elements, which happened when i got back to the studio.

we’ll see where it all goes, but this ideal weather should continue for a while & allow me to continue.

no studio today; i went to the dentist in salida / October 11, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:41 PM: i had another dental appointment in salida today. we postponed the extraction till it could be determined whether or not that rear molar that had a root canal is cracked. if so, it’s history. if not, a re-do of the root canal is a possibility.

while i was away, work began on the installation of our new windows. it’s a very windy day, so the wind is whipping through the house till they can install the first one, which is the steepest learning curve and allows them to understand how the windows were originally installed. so the rest should go quicker, and they think they can do 5 a day. we’ll see.

pleine air watercolor at the creek / October 10, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:32 PM: this afternoon felt like the perfect moment to carry out my plan to make the first in a series of october pleine air watercolors. so i collected my materials, got my stool & table & set off over the rough dirt road up towards the stupa, then right for a mile or so to the spot where we usually start our cottonwood creek walk, then down the little path to the creek. i had a few doubts about that spot, which i’ve been to manmy times in the past. but once i arrived and saw the light on the rocks, i knew it was the perfect spot.

there were some annoying little gnats, but not too bad. plus i’m more exposed to passers by than i would be at more secluded locations, but it worked out fine. one woman, who was on her way up top the stupa and who you see in the photo below, asked “are you going to paint the fall colors?” i responded in a monotine, “yes.” and she left me alone.

something i realized as i painted this watercolor was that the path i took yesterday with doobie doobie was forced and overworked. i’m turning it towards the wall & i’ll decide what i want to do with it. i crave blank white portrait linen canvases that i can very sparsely paint. it’s more me.

doobie doobie day 2 / October 9, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*doobie doobie* as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:05 PM: doobie doobie has morphed into a creek-scape, along the lines of my previous painting: mosaic 1. while it has similar marks and colors, it hasn’t yet reached the coherence and compositional integrity of mosaic 1. it wants to get there, but it just hasn’t got the chi. at the start of my painting day, my intention was to stop painting in oils for a while and start making some watercolor/collages. so i started this one, but jsut could not stay away from this canvas. we’ll see how it evolves tomorrow. and yes, i may end up going back & forth between the two.

*doobie doobie*, 32x32” as it looked following this morning’s grey-over

11 am: first thing this morning, before even making my breakfast, i greyed over doobie doobie and drew in some jars & paper towels in the neighborhood, which coexist peacefully and without strife.

BELOW: BEFORE & AFTER