revisions to jazz 13 & 16 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:28 PM: this morning i had to drive to salida, and by the time i got back it was too late to start something new.

so i made a few revisions to jazz 13 and jazz 16, which you see BELOW. the revisions were mostly to the figures, and it was a great pleasure to revisit these two jazz series paintings. now more than ever i can envision them hanging together. i’m feeling that may happen in 2024, and i’m in the process of searching for the right venue. i’ve been thinking of doing a benefit exhibition, and am in conversation about that.

jazz 13 following today’s revisions

jazz 16 following today’s revisions

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003 / more work on jazz 15/ HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:06 PM: jazz 15 as it looked following the work i did this morning

12:51 PM: i mixed a warm grey color using 3 different greys, black & a tad of cadmium red medium. then i proceeded to grey over all the compositional elements i found distracting after working on the skateboarder’s left leg & face/neck.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003

10:27 AM: good morning my friends! i’m back in the studio, as promised, following a 2 day trip; just back from santa fe yesterday afternoon.

here’s my palette for this morning’s work on jazz 15, which i worked on a few days ago and is not yet singing.

the reason you see all those flesh tones is that i’ll be working on the left leg of the skateboarder.

once i’m done with that, i’ll see where this want to go as a composition.

jazz 15 on june 15th

continued work on jazz 16 / modifications to jazz 15 /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 15 after the modifications i made a little while ago.

2:06 PM: following the work i did this morning on jazz 16, i shifted my attention to jazz 15 and made quite a few changes, with more to come. i won’t be in the studio for the next few days, so i’ll pick up where i left off on sunday morning.

BELOW: jazz 15 before & after

jazz 16 at about noon, following the work i did this morning

12:24 PM: i continued work this morning on the new jazz 16, incorporating some geometric elements into the composition, along with 2 new figures. i may stop for now & do some more work on jazz 15.

BELOW: jazz 16 before & after modifications

starting jazz 16; when a blur & scrape says more than precise descriptions / details of jazz 12 /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 16 on day 1 35x37”/89x94 cm. as it looked at the end of my painting day, when i scraped over it with my palette knife

3:43 PM: today, after my usual futzing around & trying, over breakfast, to make sense of the articles in art forum magazine, i started painting jazz 16. i spent practically the entre day working on the figure of a skateboarder and then a tennis player throwing up the ball. i was taking special care with the female skateboarder, putting little touches on her legs, her arms her garment, her hair.

at the very end of the day, when i was getting pretty tired, i grabbed my spatula and scraped over everything. so all my details became a blur. and i like the blur. i like it better than before. i didn’t think to photograph the painting before the scrapes, so there’s no record of it. but honestly, now that i’m gazing at it i way prefer the blur!

actually, it started when i looked at the cover of the latest art forum magazine. it has a blurred photo of a frontal view of a standing nude. i found it far more interesting, compelling actually, than if it had been sharp & clear.

so what do i do about the others, which are pretty detailed?

the art forum cover i was referring to in my post

12:03 PM: here are 3 details of the recently modified jazz 12.

my new HB Tower / revisiting jazz 12 /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 12, 35x37”/89x94cm. following extensive modifications just now

BELOW: jazz 12 before and after today’s modifications; so much easier on the eye

3:28 PM: jazz 12 looked way too busy, with no compositional reason for all the yellows. so i went back into it using a light, warm grey. it has allowed me to take a deep breath, but we’re not there yet.certainly it’s easier for the eye to scan this composition now without getting stuck on bright yellows or pinks. but it’s not singing yet. let’s see where it goes tomorrow. right now, especially after all the physical work of re-attaching the canvasses to the walls, i’m cooked, and as soon as i post this, i’ll go back to the house & lie down.

1:14 PM: yesterday my new hb tower was delivered. it’s a 4 step folding ladder with handrails for safety and a tool bag on top, which is proving very convenient. this morning i re-attached 11 of my jazz series paintings to my east & south studio walls. this makes it much easier to get a far better sense of the whole series, except for the 3 that are over in the house. and this new perspective is going to affect the paintings i’ll be making from today on.

so now that it’s already 1:20pm, lets see if i have the evergy and presence to paint!

a lighter blue for "jazz 11"/modifications to “jazz 12” /  by Philip Tarlow

at work today on modifications to jazz 12

3PM: when i took jazz 12 back to the house to see how it looked there, we both agreed it needed more work. so i just finished making some modifications, while attempting to maintain the simplicity and flowing quality of the composition. tha was tricky, because this one emerged one day in a burst of energy. BELOW: the before & after

12:37 PM: the blues in jazz 11 looked a bit too dark as i’ve been gazing at it hanging on my studio wall. so this morning i lightened them. the BEFORE and AFTER are BELOW:

modifications to jazz 13,14 and 15 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:29 PM: today i made modiifcations to 3 of my most recent paintings: jazz 13, jazz 14 and jazz 15. the biggest was the addition of a skateboarding figure inthe upper left area of jazz 15. compositionally, which is most important, she balances things out. in addition, it somehow makes more sense to the eye and helps integrate the two themes of mosaic with skateboarning; a thousands of years old topic with a contemporary one. might the ancient greeks and romans made mosaics of sketeboarders if they existed in the 5th century B.C.? one of their subjects at the time were action scenes, and skateboarding definitely falls into that category!

in jazz 14, with the addition of the walking figure with the plaid shirt, there are now 3 figures, now surrounded by a light blue, which visually unites them in addition to being a lively and seductive color.

and in jazz 13, one figure has been eliminated, greatly benefitting and uncluttering the composition.

the before (left) and after images can be viewed BELOW.


BELOW: jazz 13 before & after

BELOW: jazz 14 before & after

BELOW: jazz 15 before and after:

starting "jazz 15" although i'm not done with 14 /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 15, 35x37”/89x94cm. as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:11 PM: when i couldn’t find my favorite artfix primed linen, i ordered a roll that thas a slightly rougher tooth until i could find the one i usually use. i wanted to try it out today, so i stopped work on jazz 14, which i started yesterday, and began work on the new jazz 15 to try out the canvas. while it doesn’t have the same extreme sensitivity as this one, it ain’t bad. so now i’m working on two simultaneously, which is always my ideal, and i’ll continue tomorrow morning.

the one i started today on the artfix L22 U universal primed linen, continues with yesterday’s inspiration: ancient roman mosaics. the figure on the left is working on restoring one. the skate boarding girl is a partner of the one i painted in jazz 14 yesterday. the color of her dress turned me on; painting the lighter rose and the deeper red shadows of the dress were, i dare say, orgasmic for me. the deliciousness of making the darker shadows of the dress, offset my the pink of her legs is what painting in oil is all about!

starting jazz 14 /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 14 as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:46 PM: having completed jazz 13 yesterday, i dove right into jazz 14 this morning. the composition hasn’t fully formed, so what we can see are two figures and a detail of a thousand year old roman mosaic: the two eyes and the nose can be discerned to the right of the skating female figure. the almost texturless portrait linen is facilitating the kinds of brushwork yopu see in, for example, the skater’s violet dress, flying in the wind and with her swirling movements. tomorrow morning will be critical in this new painting’s development.

jazz 13 continued from yesterday /  by Philip Tarlow

today i took jazz 13 to the next level. some elements of the composition have transformed or disappeared entirely, having been scraped or painted over. there are more varied and vivid colors than in the previous 12 paintings in this series. while some figures reappear, others are new to the jazz series.

in yesterday’s post i had this to say about the bird on the lower right: the creature to the right of the tennis player is actually a bird, believe it or not! it’s from my growing collection of over 200 images of mostly rare birds found throughout the world.

as for the colors, whereas in jazz 12, i thought i had been daring in my departure from the grey, white or blue backgrounds, this one when viewed next to the others, including the most recent jazz 12, absolutely POPS! so there’s a clear progression from the first in the series to what i did today. not that i haven’t employed vivid colors in the past, but they were almost always somewhat muted. at the time, i thought they were positively bold, but that was due to the fact that i was still emerging from my 15 year stay in greece, when soft earth tones were the rule. if you look at all 13 in the grid on my jazz page, you’ll see right away what i’m talking about when i say it POPS! https://www.philiptarlow.com/jazz

so….what next? we’ll see tomorrow!

3 pm: i was perusing a book on matisse over breakfast this morning and came upon these two quotes.

he was not only a great painter; he was a great writer as well, and was able to express complex, timeless thoughts on art with few words. his critique of the early abstract school of painting is as valid today as it was when he wrote it.