the journey leading to tonight's opening /  by Philip Tarlow

6:03 PM: over the past few days we’ve been preparing for tonight’s opening at genesis gallery in the kolonaki neighborhood of athens, greece.

the painitngs are all hung, and i’m meeting yiorgos, the wonderful gallery director an hour before the opening, at 7pm. the is an unexpected general strike today, which may or may not affect people’s ability to get to the gallery. we’ll see!

BELOW are some photos i shot as preparations were going on. i’m going to jump in the shower now so i can be ready to meet yiorgos at 7.

/  by Philip Tarlow

11:23 AM, athens, greece

we arrived in athens this past saturday and are jsut settling in to the new time zone, with an 9 hour time difference from crestone, colorado.

the weather is beautiful!

the oil paintings were stretched yesterday, thanks to the help of a local artist friend of the gallery director, yiorgos. and the watercolor/gouache collages have all been framed under glass.

the show opens tomorrow night 8 pm. the final hanging will happen in about an hour at the gallery: genesis, which is conveniently located just 5 doors down the block on the other side of the street from our beautiful hotel: periscope.

i’m sitting in the hotel lobby looking out onto the street as i type this. there’s a surreal quality to it all, especially listening to the boring, mindless music that’s playing.

my cousin mindy and her husband marc arrived yesterday from new york. they’ve never been to greece, so we’re their guides during their one week stay. we’ll visit the more important museums. today i think will walk up to the acropolis & visit the spectacular acropolis museum overloooking all of athens.

"painterly marks," opening in athens on thursday /  by Philip Tarlow

5:10 PM, athens, greece

we arrived in athens this past saturday and are jsut settling in to the new time zon, with an 9 hour time difference from crestone, colorado.

the weather is beautiful!

the oil paintings were stretched yesterday, thanks to the help of a local artist friend of the gallery director, yiorgos. and the watercolor/gouache collages have all been framed under glass.

a studio tour /  by Philip Tarlow

5:21 PM: this morning i was reading about archile gorky and somehow that led me to look critically at the 4 watercolors i just made in relation to some of the rest of my work hanging on the studio walls.

so we’re preparing for our flights right now, and i’ll continue with this post when i have a moment, ok?

greetings from athens, greece!

one more "chora neoclassical" before the show /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: tomorrow is packing day, and i didn’t think i’d be focused enough to make any more watercolor/gouaches. but i was, so this is the last one, for now: chora neoclassical IV.

like the other three in the series, this one is inspired by one of the photocollages i created following our trip to greece in 1995. here we see the main street in the capiatal of andros, chora, which is paved in marble, with a lone figure strolling down the street beneath the dominant neoclassical architecture.

the sky, as with the 2 previous paintings, is a collaged piece of a map of seattle, providing geometric squares that add immeasurably to the composition light purple shadows of palm trees are splayed across the street, and flowering bougainvillea peek out between the buildings.

chora neoclassical IV, 37.5x14 cm. watercolor & collage

starting "chora neoclassical III" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:15 when i entered the studio and cast my all important first gaze at chora neoclassical II, it seemed resolved.

so i stopped working on that one and started chora neoclassical III, 44x19 cm. it’s drawn from one of the photocollages i made in 1995, following a visit to greece with mikela. the neoclassical buildings abound in chora; one more beautiful than the next most with flowering bougainvillea.

BELOW: 3 stages of chora neoclassical III today

chora neoclassical III, 49x19 cm. at 3pm

starting "chora neoclassical II" 33x24cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

2:31 PM: as predicted, today is an extremely windy day, with gusts of over 45mph and zero visibilty across the valley due to blowing dust.

i had mentioned yesterday that i was thinking of making a second version of chora neoclassical, which i started this morning. it’s more of a rectangle, with dimensions of 33x24cm. and it mimics the outline of the original photocollage, in which individual photographs were pasted down on foam core so that the edges form irregular angles wherever the rectangle of that photo ends. therefor they form an outline something like this blue shape on the right.

this allowed me to depart from the boring rectagle. then, as i began painting the sky, i found that too boring & predictable as well, so i cut a piece of a map of seattle into a shape that circumvented the outlines of the neoclassical structures, with a few bits that are not blue as a reminder that we’re looking at a composition, not a picture of chora.

those two factors join with the watercolorness; those characteristic marks the brush makes when loaded with watercolor pigment, to create a new feeling; one that tends to perk up your eye and transport you someplace new.

and then, after a few minutes of gazing, you may notice the two seated figures on the left, sitting beneath the fence discussing who knows what.

the day i shot these photos was a holiday. thus we see 3 greek flags fluttering, lending their blue & white stripes to the composition.

there’s more to be done, so i’ll dive back in tomorrow morning.

chora neoclassical II, 33x24cm. watercolor & collage

DETAIL showing a section of the seattle map

chora neoclassical continued /  by Philip Tarlow

2:03 pm: this morning I took chora neoclassical 56x14cm to the next stage. I may have done too much, so i’m going to let it be and see how I feel about it in the morning. I may actually start a second version, adding more of the image on the left, which includes a seated figure.

starting "chora neoclassical" 56x14cm. / a closer look: “the met,” 38x14cm., watercolor on paper /  by Philip Tarlow

chora neoclassical 56x14cm.

when we returned home, i took some of the printouts and assembled them into a collage. they gave some sense of the expansiveness of the great museum, and the intimacy created by the spectacular view, through the huge windows, of central park. the skylights provided a dramatic flair, casing shadows on the floors and walls.

in the foreground, the stone balcony meets the viewers eye and gives a greater sense of the vastness and magnificence of the museum i’ve been visiting since i was old enough to take the train to nyc from long island, where we lived. go to my story page for more details.

can you get why i’m so passionate about views from above? and what would it be without those beautiful siena walls on the right? ˆzilch!!

2:51 PM: i was wondering why i was feeling so tired this early in the afternoon. then i remembered that i got up at 1:30AM, knowing that mikela had to leave for school at 7:30 & i had to allow time to prepare. i did get some more sleep till 5, but still, it’s not like a normal day. so i did start a new watercolor, but i ran out of steam early.

this one is based on a photo collage i made in the pre-digital era, looking down the main, marble paved street in chora, andros towards a stunning neoclassical structure, which had nbeen in disrepair and was renovated not long before a shot my photos. another neoclassical structure; the library, frames the image on the right.

tomorrow morning, with fresh energy, i’ll continue working on it.

BELOW: the met, 56x14cm. watercolor/gouache on paper, 2014

this is one of the pieces in my upcoming exhibition, opening march 16 in athens, that differs from all the rest. it’s one of my views from above series of works, some of which can be found if you scroll down on the recent paintings tab, above.

on one of our many visits to the metropolitan museum, nyc, in 2014, i walked up to an upper floor and shot a series of photos which, at the time were not digital.

taking "Panachrantou Monastery, Andros", 56.5x13.2 cm to the next stage /  by Philip Tarlow

3:47 PM: i just had to keep going with this one! so in the past hour, i made some additions and changes that i think brought home what i was envisioning.

it’s coherent and delicious. delicious, you ask? that’s what i get as i gaze at it right now. all the marks tingle. all the colors sing.

BEFORE & AFTER

2:17 PM: i’m probably putting more time intonthis little gouache/watercolor than any previous painting with these dimensions. but i just keep getting drawn in! so here’s a comparative view of how it looked yesterday and what it looks like after today’s work.

most of the white spaces have been filled in, creating a denser but more lively composition. some of the richness of the greek orthodox tradition comes through. the intricacy of the alter, with it’s variety of patterning allowed me to engage in a bonnard or vuillard-like playfulness.

i may actually go back to it now, at the end of my painting day, and see what happens.