sea kinesis III, day 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

sea kinesis III as it looked following last minute end of day changes.

5:58 PM: as i was about to leave the studio, at 4:30 pm, i took a look at the changes i made to sea kinesis III today. i didn’t feel good about the rectangular frame i painted surrounding it. so i wiped most of it out, as well as scraping over the entire painting. so here’s how it looks now.

sea kinesis III as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day today

2:43 PM: i wasn’t planning on doing more work today on sea kinesis III; i thought it was resolved when i left the studio yesterday. but when i came in this morning, it asked for more….begged for more! not one to deny yhe wishes if sea kinesis, i dove back in. yeah, yeah, pardon the pun.

i had noticed that some of the ancient roman mosaics i’d been looking at for inspiration contained an interesting, even compelling border around the entire composition. so i thought i’d play around with that visual concept. it’s definitely a very different look than the other two. the fish & octopii are no longer swimming in a seemingly boundless ocean; they are contained within a rectangular border. in this particular composition, moreso than the other two, it’s going to make a big difference once the white canvas surrounding the painting, which is where the stretching pliars will be applied to attach it to the stretcher bars, it will have a very differnet look. but i did crop that white out in photoshop, so what you see here is what visitors to the athens gallery will observe.

time to do some work on gathering the images of paintings in our final selection, putting them on a drive and giving them to mikela, who will make a PDF, which we can send to blurb so that the catalogue can be made. i’m thinking it may be better to create it here tan try going back & forth with the athens printer. but i’m still missing the text by the athens art critic who promised to write it…trying to touch base with him but he’s a very busy guy!

revisiting a 2012 (?) motion painting, 16x78” / starting “sea kinesis LLL” /  by Philip Tarlow

sea kinesis III as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4:03 PM: this afternoon i did something i’ve never done before: i took part in a zoom meeting of our local firewise committee while working on this new painting: sea kinesis III. more about this later this afternoon; right now i have to get back to the house to make rice, as part of the prep for our dinner tonight.

sea kinesis I, II & III

2012 motion, 16x18” oil & collaged paper on canvas

9:44 AM: i’ll have to do a little research on this on, but my guess is that it was painted in about 2012 and is one of a series of abstractions i did during that period, riffing off the plein air creek paintings i was making at the time. i just hung it yesterday on the NE wall of our house, opposite the couches, where it works beautifully! i would rate this one a 10 in this genre.

starting "sea kinesis II" 43x53 cm /  by Philip Tarlow

sea kinesis II at the end of my painting day today

2:55 PM: i thought it would be a good idea to create a companion piece to sea kinesis I, so with that in mind, this morning i started work on sea kineses II, 43 x 53 cm. in oil on portrait linen. both paintings are inspired by ancient roman mosaics of sea life. i’m having more fun than i expected making this painting. i love riffing. so for example, the shift in the background color from dark grey to blue to green happened in much the same way as i imagine thelonous monk’s unpredictable transitions took place, unusally leaving the musicians he was playing with at a loss. which is why he settled on a select number of musicians to play with, who got his vibe & were able to keep up.

this second in the series of two proves that LES-IZ-MOR, allowing the viewers mind & eye to fill in the blanks. we’ll see where it goes tomorrow; right now i’m feeling very tired & can’t do any more. but maybe in the morning, i’ll realize i don’t need to!

BELOW: sea kinesis I on the left was painted in 2022. comparing the two is a great way to track my development over that short period of time. my experience of space has overtaken my attachment to content.

day 2 of "tokyo olympics 19" tarlification /  by Philip Tarlow

2:48 PM: this morning i dove into tokyo olympics 19, the painting i started yesterday. what i’m calling tarlification took place. what i mean by that is that i lay the painting down on a work table and repeatedly went over it with a wash of greys and ochres, followed by vigerous scrapping, until i got it to a point where it was ready for me to draw & paint into it.. i returned to the image i’ve been using in an number of this series, namely the jumping skateboarder with his grey cap, viiolet socks, pink shirt & brown patterned trousers. what i’m half jokingly tarlification refers to my ever developing porcess of removing a lot of what i know and replacing it with what i don’t know.

tokyo olympics 19 as it looked at the end of my painting day

BELOW: tokyo olympics 19 as it looked yesterday (left) and moments ago

starting "tokyo olympics 19" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:18 PM: this morning, i started tokyo olympics 19. it’s at an early stage, and may take on some greys tomorrow; we’ll see.

this afternoon, mikela came over to help make an initial selection of paintings that will be shown in athens next month. she was, as always, very helpful in weeding out the so-so ones. so i’ll show you tomorrow where we’re at, since they keepers have more brething space on the wall & you can get a sense of what the final selection might look like.

continued work on "tokyo olympics 18" /  by Philip Tarlow

earlier today, surrounded by some of the paintings in my tokyo olympics series

12:32 PM: i got a relatively early start today, with the awareness that i’ll have to stop earlier than usual in order to attend the first firewise committee meeting from 2 to 4. appropriately enough, a team spent all day yesterday clearing the lower branches of trees and anything they determined might increase the danger of a potential fire spreading and damaging the house & studio.

i introduced a couple of new figures into the lower portion of the tokyo olympics 18 composition. the most prominent of which is a dramatic dancer/skater, arms and hair flailing, epitomizing the absolute joy of being alive in a body. you could say that pretty much sums up the feeling and tenor of this entire series, which started with my response to the video we saw of the celebrations following the 2020 tokyo olympics. following that magical ah-ha moment, these paintings unexpectedly began pouring out of me. having a focus and a deadline: my solo exhibition opening march 16 in athens, definitely helped the process along.

i had imagined, when the exhibition was confirmed, that i’d be making paintings with greek themes. but what i ended up doing is actually more deeply greek than anything else i might have done. the olympics, after all, started in greece centuries ago, and are deeply rooted in the greek psyche. and the joy of being alive in a body is perhaps the clearest reflection of my 15 years living and painting in greece. the indominable greek spirit, as i experienced it, was there to see in the movement and energy of the impromptu rembetika dancers in the little clubs we used to frequent in athens and piraeus.

tokyo olympics 18 15 1/2 x 37 1/4” at the end of my painting day today

day 1 of "tokyo olympics 18" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:50 PM: i started a new one today, which has the same dimensions as the last 3 or so: 15 1/2 x 37 1/4” (which comes out to even numbers in centimeters, which is what genesis gallery in athens will use to order the stretcher bars.

once again, this one contains elements of previous paintings in this ever growing series but, as you’ll see, has a flavor, thus far, all it’s own. before going to sleep every night, i’m reading a biography of thelonious monk. increasingly, i feel his music and piano playing; his moods, entering the picture space. if you’re familiar with his music, you may get what i’m saying. unexpected, unlikely combinations of rhythms, notes & pauses play a bigger and bigger ole in this series of paintings. so, when i make the 10 minute drive into town to go food shopping, which i’m about to do, i play monk and enter his dream space.

i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning. gotta stop early tomorrow to attend a meeting of a group i just joined which is devoted to protect our greenbelts and assure that any fire mitigation done in these areas takes into account ecological and recreational values.

seeya tomorrow!

day 2 of "tokyo olympics 17" /  by Philip Tarlow

5:44 PM: when mikela got back an hour ago, i showed her what i had done, prefacing it by saying “here’s what i do on a bad day.”

she said “i think what you did today is magnificent!” and “i want it for myself!”

so go figure. she never lies, and has a great eye.

3:27 PM: today was kinda messed up. i had to walk back & forth to the house because the guys were caulking the new windows. so that interrupted my rhythm big time, plus mikela had to leave for school earlier than usual, at 7, which meant getting up to prepare & make her coffee at 5, but to be safe i got up at 4. so i’m pretty tired right now, andi have no idea what i did. it ain’t bad, but ….i’ll see how i feel about it tin the morning, but i can’t be in the studio tomorroow because of a dental appointment, so maybe thursday?

tokyo olympics 17 at the end of my painting day

starting "tokyo olympics 17" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:44 PM: this morning i started tokyo olympics 17, which at this point seems very similar to the previous one, which i completed yesterday. but as you all know things can change, and tomorrow is another day.

i’m still undecided as to whether or not to try and get my athens exhibition catalogue printed here or on athens. but i need to make a final decision in the next few days if i’m going to get it done in time. right now, i feel like i’d much rather spend my time on new paintings, so i’m leaning on having it done there, but i’m waiting to find out what the comparative cost will be. clearly it will be less expensive to use one of the online apps to get it done here, but that will be something i’ve never done before and i need to learn the ropes.

tokyo olympics 17 at the end of my painting day today

tokyo olympics 16, some small changes this morning / AND Major CHANGES THIS AFTERNOON! /  by Philip Tarlow

tokyo olympics 16 at 11am this morning

tokyo olympics 16 as it looked at the end of my painting day

2:14 PM: following the slight modifications to tokyo olympics 16 that i made earlier today, when it was still a horizontal composition, i flipped it 90° and began working on it as a vertical composition. it seemed as if the singer who was on the left deserved to be upright!

i took out much of the creek related marks, such as the flowing blue-green water and instead added a second singer with mike on the middle left portion of the composition. i also painted over most of the blacks, which were detracting from what has become a rather delicate composition. the reds & yellows carry the day now, with the only blue being the patterning on the shirt of the singer at the top, with a small blue accent of color remaining at the bottom right.

to my eyes, this painting is now refreshingly spare, allowing the viewer space to wander about at will without getting stuck on any unnecessary details or marks. right now, looking at the rest of the paintings in this series on my east wall, this has become one of my favorites. everything ging on just to the right of the new second singer was taken out not by collaging, but with a thick layer of white oil paint, applied with one of my palette knives.

11:44 AM: this morning so far, i’ve introduced a couple of collaged elements to break up the blacks on the upper left, which were too dominant.