discovering kali / 2 new plein air creek gouaches /  by Philip Tarlow

yesterday afternoon i went up to the creek and made 2 plein air gouaches. it was about 10° cooler than last time i went, which made it harder to focus; i had to stop & leave when i got too cold sitting on my little stool.

this second one is interesting in that the watercolor paper it was painted on was prepared with a light brown ink wash years earlier. both mikela and i love the taped area surrounding the image, with the ink splatters, so we’ll keep this one in our collection just as is.

the larger of the two: 10/31/22 plein air #1, is too busy; i was too cold & not totally in my groove.

so i think i’ll bring it over to the studio later this morning and do some collaging onto it, preserving the areas that work and covering the areas that don’t. stay tuned & let’s see what happens!

10/31/22 plein air #2

ABOVE: 10/31/22 plein air #1

11:44 AM: over the past week or so, i’ve been perusing old works on paper, which badly in need of organizing. this morning i discovered a painting of KALI on 3 separate and connected sheets of paper. the entire image measures 182x48 cm. i tacked it up on the east wall of my studio & it’s quite imposing! here’s what is generally said about kali:

Kali, (Sanskrit: “She Who Is Black” or “She Who Is Death”) in Hinduism, goddess of time, doomsday, and death, or the black goddess (the feminine form of Sanskrit kala, “time-doomsday-death” or “black”)

Alongside being the Goddess of darkness, destruction, and death, Kali is also a symbol of Mother Nature because she is believed to be timeless and formless, representing the creation of life and the universe as well.

She is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother figure and symbol of motherly love. Kali embodies shakti – feminine energy, creativity and fertility – and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva.

so what possesed me to make this painting, which clearly took a lot of time and attention? everything elso in the studio pales in comparison, so vivid are the colors. perhaps during the period i was deeply engaged with babaji, i was exploring the visuals of the hindu tradition and was so taken with the imagery that i just had to make a painting. i honestly can’t recall.

i will definitely need to protect her from the light, or the gouache colors will surely fade!

KALI, 182x48 cm. gouache on paper, likely date: 2000-2008

panachrandos monastery /  by Philip Tarlow

panachrandos monastery, oil & collage on linen

view of panachrandos monastery, 2007, 5 1/4 x 17 3/4” gouache on paper

ABOVE: in 2007, i made this painting in gouache on paper. it’s a view of panachrandos monastery from the road below.

1:02 PM: the new title, panachrandos monastery, derives from the fact that i shot the photo i’m working from at that magnificent monastery, which is situated 2,500 ft. high, on the side of mt. katafigio, providing an exceptional view of the capitol, chora & the surrounding area. the central figure is mikela, standing at the entrance to the courtyard.

the monastery / trail walk drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

at work this morning on the monastery

5:03 PM: just back from our walk up the trail, where i made a small colored pencil drawing.

this morning, i started work on the monastery, one more 21x17” oil on linen destined to be part of my march solo show in athens. it felt right to start with a collaged piece of an old paper oil palette into a composition inspired by a photo i shot quite a while ago of the interior of a monastery on my beloved island of andros.

and then this afternoon, we took our walk up the trail & stopped at my favorite spot to make quick plein air drawings, overlooking the creek.

10-29-22 trail drawing

man on rocks, sunset /  by Philip Tarlow

4:05 PM: this is the end of a long painting day. over the past hour or so, i worked on the lower 1/4 of the painting, which i wasn’t satisfied with at all. i think it’s improved , but as usual, i’ll have to wait till the morning to evaluate more accurately. so now, the mountains that the man on the rocks are gazing at are ours: the sangre de christo range. our house & my studio sit in the foothills of this majestic range.

the figure and the rocks he’s seated on are based on the seascape at piso yialia beach, on the island of andros, greece. these are two key elements in my life over the past 4-5 decades. so is that me seated on the big rock outcropping?

man on rocks, sunset as it looked moments ago

2:11 PM: here’s where it’s at now.

12:31 PM: i started a second oil on linen, 21x17”, this one titled man on rocks, sunset. this is a very early stage. more later; stay tuned!

early stage: man on rocks, sunset

"man on rocks," day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

man on rocks, 21x17” oil on portrait linen

2:13 PM: i had a rocky start to the day, when i thought i had lost my wallet. after frantically searching the house & studio, i found it on the cement floor beside the studio bathroom toilet, where it had dropped yesterday afternoon. i was so shaken up that i didn’t think i could paint. but man on rocks drew me back in & before you know it, i was at work, making some significant simplifications and modifications, for the better i believe.

included in my modifications are the sea, the sky and the rocks. the only thing left is the figure, which i didn’t touch. although the paint is still wet, i plan on taking it back to the house, which is always the acid test of whether a new painting is resolved.

this is the first of 12 new paintings, all 21x17,” which will be included in my march exhibition at genesis gallery, athens.

BELOW: yesterday’s stage on the left, and today’s.

man on rocks /  by Philip Tarlow

man on the rocks, 21x17” oil on portrait linen

3:51 PM: now that we got clear with the director of the gallery on the dimensions of the paintings, i was able to cut the first 4 of the 12 oils that will be 21x17”

i started work on the first in this series of 12, titled man on rocks. i painted all day and got it pretty far along. and i could only do this kind of in the moment painterly work on this paticular portrait linen, which is unlike any canvas i’ve ever painted on.

i started with the figure of the guy in the white undershirt. i love that he’s in the middle of reaching for something or perhaps just grabbing a rock to steady himself.

man on rocks, early stage

detail of the figure

athens 1, day 2 / a gouache from 2017 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:47 PM: i continued painting athens 1 today. it’s coming more into focus now, as the reflection on the right activates the quality that moved me to shoot the original photograph, where the reflection becomes as critical, perhaps more interesting visually, to the composition as that which is being reflected. the reflected sky, predictable a shaqde darker blue than the original, enriches and accents kapnikarea, which is the name of the 11th century byzantine church, constructed originally over the ruins of an ancient temple dedicated to the worship of a goddess; possibly athena or demeter. i like to think it was athena who intervened when a bavarian architect brought in by king otto I wanted to demolish the church.

located as it is in the heart of athens, right in the middle of the highly trafficed ermou street, it’s always surrounded by pedestrians strolling down the street. they will begin to appear as this painting progresses.

following my talk this morning with the director of genesis gallery in athens, where this and other new work will be shown next march, we concluded that this will be one of only two paintings this large: 34x44”, and the rest will be about half the size, in addition to smaller works on paper.

5:55 PM: as part of the process of removing the old and installing the new windows in our house, mikela took a painting off our east wall & was so engaged in what she was doing that she failed to notice a gouache on paper taped to the wall beneath the painting she removed.

it was painted on 1/31/2017 and is one of a series of semi-abstarct creek inspired paintings i was making at the time. when i first saw it from a distance of about 20-25 feet, i was struck. struck by it’s freshness, it’s playfulness and it’s ability to include landscape elements in a very skinny composition in such an effective way.

athens 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:51 PM: yesterday i painted over mosaic 1 and genesis 1. they were too dark & busy.

this morning and while the paint was still a bit wet, i flipped mosaic 1 360° and started a new painting, based on photos i shot about 10 years ago on the streets of downtown athens. many pedestrians are visible beneath the architecture and the centrally located byzantine church. it’s still to early to tell, but this may be the first in a series of athens & andros inspired paintings destined to be shown in my athens show next march.

i’ve been scanning my work, and concluded that what where it might be most exciting for me to go next could be a coming together of my adventures in realism, my love for architectural elements in my work and my semi-abstract landscapes.

i like that the painted-over mosaic 1 peeks through, so that at least one of the two mosaic faces are visible, as are some of the rocks in the creek-scape that began taking shape over mosaic 1.

DETAIL revealing the faint but visible underlying mosaic face

plein air today /  by Philip Tarlow

4:18 PM: i knew the wind was forecast to pick up significantly this afternoon. so i went up to the creek at noon, and as it turned out i was just able to complete the second plein air watercolor before the wind kicked in, and now gusing to 40mph. that would have made it impossible to sit by the creek and paint.

the tempreatures will drop tonight and into sunday-monday. we’ll see if they rise to the high 50’s as the end of october approaches, or if today was my last plein air day until spring 2023.

next stage of "genesis 1" /  by Philip Tarlow

genesis 1 32x45” oil on linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3:36 PM: an interesting day, it has been. i quickly became bored with the ecole des beaux arts,versialle image i’ve been working from the past few days. a few figures from an image of downtown athens from above showed up, followed by a creekscape.

so right now it’s in flux. but oh, how i love flux! i want to the viewer to be presented with a tumbling image of seemingly unrelated images, which he/she must interpret and enjoy.

thus far, this painting is a clear followup to mosaic 1. whereas mosaic 1 is painted over an ancient roman floor mosaic, with just a few faces remaining visible, this one thus far is painted over the early stages of my interpretation of a photo, admittedly stunning, of reflections in the enormous windows looking into the art school in versailles.

the result, for me, is a much more engaging coming together of the reflected tops of neoclassical buildings in versaille, athenian pedestrians from above and the roaring, spalshing waters and bold rocks of our creeks. a symphony of sorts. we’ll see where it goes next!