January 10, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

4:14 PM: after making the changes to w-c 2 earlier today, i cut some new pieces of primed portrait linen and started work on tokyo olympics 8. as the title suggests, i continue to be inspired by the celebrations following the 2020 tokyo olympics. this is day 1, and a lot more will likely happen tomorrow, when i can get an earlier start.

11:57 AM: ever since i last worked on w-cup 2, which was about 10 days ago, on december 30, both ,mikela and i have been looking at the white space above the main figures, increasingly feeling that something needed to happen up there.

so today i addressed that issue, adding the figure of a jumping skateboarder wearing a yellow top. as usual, i’ll have to sit with it for a while to make sure it works. it’s always tricky to go back in to any painting, but especially one with such a delicate balance fro forms & colors.

BELOW: w-cup 2 on december 30 and as it looked following todays modification

*tokyo olympics 8,* 37 1/4x 18 3/4” as it looked at the end of my painting day

w-cup 3 becomes "Tokyo Olympics 7" / January 9, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

i added into the red block below

1:03 PM: mikela came over this morning before i got to work. she hadn’t been to the studio in a while (it’s only 500 ft. from the house!) so her feedback was very useful, as she was seeing the newer pieces for the first time.

one thing we both agreed upon, was that w-cup 3 was a flop & needed to be painted over, which i’ve been doing fro the past 3 hours. i like what’s happened thus far, and i may leave it as is. it has elements of yesterday’s tokyo olympics 6, but with a much bolder composition. and i thought tokyo olympics 6 was bold!

something is happening in my consciousness that i’m not going to try and understand or analyze. let it be.

that said, there’s definitely a synthesis happening, of the work i’ve done over the decades.

i actually started the day by making significant additions to a collage on paper i’ve been working on, on and off for over a month. i think it opened the door to what i then did on tokyo olympics 7.

*tokyo olympics 7* 36x19” oil on portrait linen, previously *w-cup 3*

BELOW: w-cup 3 before transforming into tokyo olympics 7

starting tokyo olympics 6 / January 8, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:08 PM: i started tokyo olympics 6 today…more later…gotta walk up to the stupa!

*tokyo olympics 6,* 42x18 1/2” on day one

starting tokyo olympics 5 / January 7, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:34 PM: today i started a fresh painting, which is a variation on the one i completed yesterday, tokyo olympics 4. not surprisingly, this one is titled tokyo olympics 5.

new elements include: above right: ll. cooljay singing it’s tricky; 3 arms & hands & a few more figures seen from above standing in line waiting for their flight to board.

the two together could make an interesting diptych.

BELOW: tokyo olympics 4 & 5

continuing work on tokyo olympics 4 / January 6, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:56 PM: i had a few interruptions today, but very welcome ones! the crew was here to evaluate what needs to be done to clear brush on our lots in order to reduce the danger from a potential wildfire. over the next few months, they’ll be working to achieve that goal, which is a service provided by the county.

but i did get some work done, and may actually have brought this painting to resolution. i’ve been able to maintain lots of white space while not fragmenting the composition. in that respect, it’s like a piece of music, with staccato & adagio playing out across the surface.

the carbon pencil drawn figures, who are people waiting for their flights as seen from above, introduce a cool balance, with their smaller scale and distictive angle of view.

the central figure above, seen from behind wearing his many colored and patterned tokyo olympics jacket, appears to be directing a symphony, and his red headed buddy encourages the viewer to become part of the drama, and allows you to fill in the blanks of where his head ends & body begins.

*tokyo olympics 4* as it looked at the end of my painting day

starting tokyo olympics 4 / January 5, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:57 PM: after doing some studio reorganizing this morning, i started a new painting on a piece of primed 33x19 portrait linen. i have a second canvas with the exact same dimensions tacked next to it on my east studio wall, and i’m thinking of making the two interconnected.

here’s how it looks so far

as far as imagery goes, you’ll notice 3 things going on here: 2 celebrating figures viewed from behind; a drummer viewed from above and a drawing of two pedestrians walking, also seen from above.

w-cup 3 scraped / w-cup 1 re-worked / January 3, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*w-cup 1* at 1:45 pm, following today’s work thuis far

*w-cup 1* following removal of today’s changes

4:45 PM: once i got back to the house, mikela was very dissapointed at what i had done to w-cup 1. so i put my coat back on, went back to the studio & restored it to it’s former self. i think she was spot on, and i’m glad i caught it while the new paint was still wet & was easy to rub off using solvent & a rag.

1:51 PM: following a somewhat meandering first half of the day, i felt like going back into w-cup 1, which actually no longer has anything to do wioth the world cup, as the central figure is a skateboarder form the post-tokyo olympics celebration.

in any case, that’s kind of irrelevant, as this composition is, presently becoming a study in figurative abstraction.

blocks of color came about naturally, and the entire surface is peppered with white marks made with one of my fan brushes.

i think i may move on to w-cup 3 and see how it goes.

11:03 AM: this morning, FIRST I WATCHED this extraordinary MUST WATCH video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANaVkRxDPCI

then i scraped w-cup 3 so that it now looks like this, which i way prefer.

let’s see where i go next…

view of SLV on our Stupa Walk yesterday / next phase of w-cup 3 / January 2, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:31 PM: my intention as i entered the studio this morning was to stay relaxed & allow w-cup 3 to go where it needed to go. and that i did. it could now very well be titled sunset header. i love skies and i love the creek, both of which now play an important role in the composition. lately, i’ve been photographing our sunsets practically every afternoon, like the one you see BELOW. so i’m intimately engaged with the greys, the pinks, the mauves…

so the world cup soccer player gains new meaning as he flies over the creek at sunset. the referee to the right has thus far survived the transition, and looks on in awe.

*w-cup 3* as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4pm: looking west across the valley during our Stupa walk yesterday

8:54 AM: as the storm clouds rolled in preceding last night’s snow storm, we took our afternoon Stupa walk, which ended early because it began snowing. our view of the valley at that hour was spectacular, and i tried to capture it using the panorama function on my iphone. the temperature was 45° so the precip fell as a mix of rain & snow, with very high winds driving the rain against our bed room window, which made a loud pounding sound. we ended up with .44” of new precipitation, which was likely over a foot on the peaks above 11,000 ft. a very good statrt to 2023!

starting w-cup 3, 36x19" / January 1, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:55 PM: it’s an overcast day, with rain turning to snow starting later this afternoon.

i started work on w-cup 3, 36x19”. the piece of primed linen i’m working on is the other half of w-cup 2, and has the same grey & blue brush marks on the lower portion of the canvas, which i’m painting into. the figures are the same, except for the referee in red on the right. the there are dancing figures towards the bottom & the soccer player heading the ball in blue on the upper left.

it’s way too early to tell where this one is going; tomorrow will probably be a key day in watching the direction this one wants to take.

tweaks to w-cup 1 & skateboarder dancing / December 31, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

2:15 PM: i had thought i’d start something new today, but it’s actually fitting that i do that tomorrow, the first day of the new year. there were a few small but significant tweaks i wanted to make today, to w-cup 1 and skateboarder dancing, which was last worked on december 18th.

the area of w-cup 1 that needed tweaking was the skateboarder’s hands, face & red shoes, as well as the rectangular window-like form above his head, to which i added a touch more of light blue. a thin stripe of the same light blue was also added to the dark blue rectangle on the lower right. but i believe the most obvious improvement was to the hands.

if you compare the 12/18 version in the photo on the left BELOW with the one on the right, following my tweaks, you can see for yourselves.

the photo BELOW on the left was taken on december 18th. on the right you see the painting following today’s tweaks. just to the right of the skateboarder there was a curved orange shape within a curved red shape. both had black drawings. after gazing at this painting every day since december 18th, or almost two weeks, i concluded that what i took out today was seriously detracting from the integrity of the overall composition.

i knew something was off, and it took that long for me to zero in on the problem area.