starting "gained vision II" 80x20"/203x51 cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

2:56 PM: i wasn’t sure whether or not gained vision was resolved or not, so i cut a new piece of the portrait linen & started gained vision II. at this early stage, they have some of the same compositional elments. i do feel that i learned a lot from gained vision so i’m taking it a bit slower and alllowing it to transport me to new places.

i won’t be in the studio again till tuesday of next week, giving it a chance to ripen while i’m away. whereas yesterday’s painting was specifically sized for the wall in our house where it will hang, this one is taller, and has roughly the same dimensions as the paintings in my sound of a flute series, which you can view on this page of the site: https://www.philiptarlow.com/sound-of-a-flute


work contnues today on "gained vision" /  by Philip Tarlow

11:56 AM: in about 45 minutes, my friend david will come pick me up so that we can walk up cottonwood creek. he requested that i join him so that he & another friend, pater, could look through my eyes at the creek in a more “spiritual wholistic way” not sure what i can offer, but i guess we’ll see in 45 minutes!

so i just completed the next stage of gained vision, which as you know, i started work on yesterday. it’s a piece commissioned by mikela, for this wall in our house, adjacent to the kitchen on the upper floor.

gained vision by the way, comes from the title of a 17th c. chinese painting titled the forest of gained vision, or, in chinese, deyanlin gushi.

BELOW: the wall where gained vision will hang/ at work on the painting this morning / my work area today

gained vision 64x18”/162.5x45.75cm. at the end of my painting day today

starting my commission: "gained vision," 64x18"/162.5x45.75cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

3pm: why do i so love commissions? for starters, my personality type is random abstract, which in essence means that if you give me a direction i like, with few restrictions, i’m full speed ahead.

so a few days ago, mikela pointed to one of the walls in the area of our living room adjacent to our kitchen, and asked if i could make a painting with those dimensions for that wall. i immediately broke out the tape measure, took the measurements and, this morning, cut the canvas from the new roll of my favorite artfix extra smooth portrait linen, made the preliminary drawing & started painting.

this is phase one, and we’ll see where it takes me tomorrow. but i’m very excited!

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: