"windy creek" becomes "tokyo olympics skateboarder" /  by Philip Tarlow

tokyo olympics skateboarder, 38x35” oil & collage on linen —as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:38 PM: it’s a partly sunny day, with the temperature hovering around 25° F.

when i entered my studio this morning, my always important first glance let me know that what i did yesterday on windy creek was just an underpainting for something i’d do today. and indeed it was!

so now it has become tokyo olympics skateboarder, a figure i love and have included in earlier paintings. at that time, we had seen images & video from the 2020 tokyo olympics, and many of those images struck me and were burned into my memory. as i’ve already said in so many ways, these figures are the embodiment of the joy of being alive in a body. when i began painting this jumping skateboarder this morning, i had a fear that it was old news, and i would just be repeating myself. that fear was immediately dispelled once i launched into my strokes. and this painting has transformed,n ot only in name & imagery, but in spirit.

it needs more work, but not a whole lot more. a demain.

at work earlier today on tokyo olympics skateboarder

day 2 of "windy creek" /  by Philip Tarlow

windy creek, 38x35” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:29 PM: it’s a cold, winy cloudy day, with temperatures hovering in the upper teens.

i took the canvas off the wall and worked a bit with it flat on my work table, where i applied a few collaged pieces. it’s very much in the vein of the previous 21x17” paintings i’ve made over the past few weeks, but on a larger scale: 38x35”

the canvas has been flipped 90° from where it was yesterday; what is now the lower portion of the composition was located on the right yesterday. this was based on my gut, not some planned or calculated decision.

at work on windy creek at 1:30 pm today

cutting up marked paper / STARTING “WINDY CREEK” /  by Philip Tarlow

windy creek, 40x42” at the end of day 1

3:30 PM: about an hour & a half ago i cut a 40x42” piece of primed portait linen for a new painting, titled windy creek.” i was, and still am, in a playful mood; a good place to be when you’re starting a new painting. as i work on the initial strokes, i walk over to cast a glance at the wonderful new watch mikela got me as a new years present. you have to learn how to read it, but once you do, it’s a delight! in this photo it’s 1:20 pm. make it full page; can you read it?

i’ll take windy creek to the next stage tomorrow.

12:58 PM: i needed more of the cut-up marked white paper i use for collage in my paintings, so i made some this morning & cut it into irregular pieces, as i usually do.

the idea here is to introduce an element of the accidental, which of course is never accidental and always accidental, into the composition, both to avoid predictability and add measured complexity to the composition, as well of course as the gestures of the marks i’ve made. in this case those marks have been made with a reed pen & brush, using a diluted sepia india ink mix.

next, i’m about to cut some pieces of fresh primed linen from the new roll i have, and start a new painting. i may do two larger ones for the athens exhibition, since i’ve already done 8 paintings in the 17x21 format.

stay tuned & i’ll post next steps soon. i spent over an hour of precious time this morning getting info on possible rt flights to athens in march.

"man on rocks" becomes "philip at piso yialia" /  by Philip Tarlow

philip at piso yialia 17x21” oil on linen, 2022

2 PM: i started this painting on october 26, using photos i had shot a while ago at piso yialia, a cove near chora, capitol of the aegean island of andros, where my son has a house on the sea. it’s an idyllic spot, surrounded by large rocks and a view of the penninsula which ends at chora.

today, not satisfied with the sky, i came back to it. and when i did, i realized that the title man on rocks doesn’t do it justice. it’s me, philip, climbing over those rocks. my former mother-in-law, the late painter niki karagatsi and i made many drawings and paintings here, just 10 minutes from the house. afterwards, we would compare notes. niki was born in andros, so there was no way i could equal her deep feeling for this place, which was so present in her drawings and paintings. but, as a transplanted american who learned quickly to speak and gesture like a greek, i brought my own music to it. so there’s an echo of brooklyn in every stroke. but perhaps even deeper is the music of what i feel are my former lives in this place of magic.

an early stage of the painting

tweaks to "windows 3" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:05 PM: i felt that the two figures on the left needed work, so, with some trepidatiopn, i went back into them; clothing, faces, hands, everything. not yet sure whether i should have left it as it was….

continuing work on "windows 3" /  by Philip Tarlow

windows 3, oil on linen, 17x21” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

today is a short day, so we can get to my doctors appointment at 3. i continued painting windows 3, to the central and right portions of the composition and adding a figure on the right.

i like how the white spaces allow the composition to breathe, so i may leave most of them alone. the urge to describe is always rearing it’s head & needs to be tamped down again & again.

i also like the dominant tans & greys punctuated by the blue of the ladder top & the new guy’s shirt, and the yellows. i think that one violet shadow is enough, and if i were to extend it to the other areas in shadow, it would lose it’s potency.

the new figure i added today

starting “windows 3" /  by Philip Tarlow

windows 3, 17x21” oil on linen at the end of my painting day

2:24 PM: this morning i began work on a new painting in this 17x21” series of oils on linen, titled windows 3. like it’s predecessors, it’s inspired by photos i shot recently of the crew installing our 12 new windows.

i decided to continue what i began with windows 2 & 1, as i felt incomplete with this series. it deserves more, especially since it rests so heavily on my passion for views from above, and most of the photos i shot are from our upper floor looking down. in looking at 1& 2, i felt like i could definitely take this series further.

this is, thus far, being borne out by this morning’s experience. i’m feeling more certainty; from mixing the colors i want to use, to the way i paint light & shadow, to my compositional decisions. but i do see now that i need to order more smaller oil brushes, which i’m about to do.

continued work on "japanese creek" & "july 7 creek." /  by Philip Tarlow

2:56 PM: this morning my first glance let me know that these 2 paintings were unresolved. so i set to work, switching between the two, as i love to do and which helps shift the energy and open new doorways.

collaging was part of the process, allowing me to cover busy areas in one fell swoop and, in the case of july 7 creek, to add the printed, cropped image of part of a flower.

my current feeling is that, after many decades of painting & drawing, i’m just now finding my groove. “realism” and “abstraction” are meaningless when talking about art. muzic and majik are more appropriate, i think.

BELOW: july 7 creek on the left, july 7 creek on the right. the language they speak has been evolving over a long period of time. it needs no translation. prehistoric cave painters would get it as well as generation alpha. the muzik & the majik.

DETAIL of collaged, cropped flower

more modifications to" july 7 creek" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:21 PM: today i focused my attention on july 7 creek. initially, my intention was the to somehow resolve the blankness of the white space on the upper left. soon however, mt attention shifted to the entire left half of the composition. i think it’s a more interesting series of marks and colors now, but still unresolved, and may have gotten too busy. more work is definitely needed tomorrow.

4:25 PM: at the last minute, before leaving the studio, i added this white semi-circle. as i gazed at it from 25 feet, i saw that the blue needed to be broken up. amazing what a relatively monor stroke can do to the entire composition!

BELOW: yesterdays state is on the left

DETAIL showing the white semi-circle i added at the very end

modifying everything! /  by Philip Tarlow

4:46 PM: i did a lot today, on all 3 paintings i’ve been working on the past few weeks. on japanese creek for example, i opened more white space, taking out the green trees on the upper left nad taking out the dark red swirl on the right. it’s just a better painting, period!

5:29 PM: what i did on july 7 creek was somewhat similar: more white space, less busyness.

the green on top ahs been reduced. and what was left of the large rock in the foreground has been divided up into a series of smaller rocks surrounded by a touch of creek water.