more tweaks to "hu 1" & beginning work on "piso yialia" / August 15, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:22 PM: i still wasn’t happy with the upper portion of the composition of hu 1, so i went over what i had done, took out the skateboarder and instead painted in a dancing figure with checkered shorts, who has appeared in previous paintings & is part of a celebration following the 2020 olympics. the green diagonal floor with triangles of sunlight behind her really does it for me. i also introduced a stronger orange next to the duck and the walking plaid shirted figure, as welll as a light speckled floor surroiunding the dancing girl with the red hat. i think this may be it for hu 1!

for the past few weeks, i had the tall, narrow 80x20” untitled painting sitting in storage waiting to dry. i had made a preliminary drawing of the landscape at piso yialia on the island of andros, in diluted grey-black oil on the off-white ground. so today i started working into it, using a photo i had shot 10 or so years ago or perhaps longer, i can’t really recall and the photo isn’t dated.

this landscape is very familiar to me, and much loved; more so than any i can think of. so it’s a delight to be making such a large painting of it. a lone figure sits high on the rocks overlooking the sea and the landscape beyond, with it’s characteristic, for andros, beautifully constructed stone walls. thus far, i’ve only worked on the upper half of the composition, but i’m definitely excited about it!

*HU 1* at the end of my painting day today

tweaking shinkeizou & hu 1 / August 14, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:21 PM: at the very end of the day, i added a jumping skateboarder, who has appeared in previous paintings. the upper left portion of the composition seemed empty & disconnected from the rest of the composition.

seeing as it was a last minute move, i can’t really tell whether or not it works. tomorrow…

12:17 PM: i felt that the yellow stripe i painted on the upper right of shinkeizou was too pale and didn’t become a part of the composition as i had wanted. to this morning i went over it with a somewhat brighter yellow, added a few red marks and painted a grey stripe adjacent to it. i think that did it, but i have to sit with it.

on hu 1, that blue triangle made with an oil pastel stick in the uppe rleft corner of hu 1 wasn’t working at all. so this morning i took it out with solvent on a rag and in it’s place sketched out a round table, which was in the original photo of the good doctor and kept that area white, except for the red diagonal of a door frame, nicely mirroring the two red diagonals further to the right.

*shinkeizou* following todays modifications

tweaking shinkeizou & taking next steps with hu 1 / August 13, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:53 PM: today, after our delightful morning trail walk, i made some tweaks to shinkeizou; specifically to the hair & blouse of the female figure seated on the left as well as the addition of a yellow vertical stripe on the upper right.

hu 1, which i whited over and started anew yesterday, has progressed substantially, although it’s still very much in a formative state. the white i used to cover the underlying hu 1 was still not dry, so it picked up whatever color i was applying today & kind of greyed it all. the walking, plaid shirted figure of the good doctor has once again twice entered the composition. however in the as yet partially defined figure on the upper right, he’s not walking, but rather interacting with his girlfriend, also ill defined for the moment. the swimming duck below is reflected in the water. it’s too early in the process for this new composition to have jelled, but it’s showing promise. so tomorrow, when the white will have dried more, it will begin coming together.

shinkeizou continued / whiting over hu 1 / August 12, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*shinkeizou,* 38x20”/96.5x51cm. as it looked after this mornings work

1:18 PM: following our 2 day visit with friends in carbondale, i was back in the studio this morning, rejujinated and pumped to go. feels like we’ve been away for weeks, not days! somehow being in a completely different environment, sleeping in a different bed, having different conversations, allowed me to get back to shinkeizou with fresh energy.

i knew right away what i wanted to do, which is that pinkish reddish color above & beneath the figures seated at the table, as well as adding the last figure of a woman seated on the upper right.

but it still needs work, so the table with it’s diners will break up tomorrow, opening up the composition and making it more in alignment with the others in this series. see them by clicking on CURRENT in the menu bar or just going to this link: https://www.philiptarlow.com/current

3:24 PM: this afternoon i decided to paint over hu 1 & flip it 360°. when i gazed at it next to the more recent series, it just wasn’t ding it for me. so here’s where it’s at now, which of course will change tomorrow morning.

BELOW: hu 1 before and after whiting over & flipping it

watercolor yesterday in carbondale wilderness / August 11, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*carbondale wilderness watercolor 8/10/23*

8:51 PM: yesterday my friend dan & i went to a remote spot he knows in a remote area of the carbondale, co. we found a nice shady spot. he brought a couple of really comfortable folding chairs and we both sat down side by side, took out our respective watercolors and began painting the landscape. there was a nice breeze & a perfect temperaturewe were silent except when i asked to use his fan brush, and after about an 90 minutes of painting, we stopped & packed up.

shinkeizou / August 10, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

7:14 AM: i won’t be able to continue work on shinkeizou until this coming saturday morning. but in looking at it in the photo, i’m thinking i may leave it as is.

i was intending to extend the table with it’s plates full of food and add dditional figures in the upper right, painting over the blue oil pastel. but now i’m leaning towards not doing that, remembering that it’s a composition, and evaluating it in that light.

DETAIL of the area i was ging to paint over

it owuld be so cool if i had two of these, exactly the same. then i’d leave one as is and do what i was planning on the second one.

gained vision IV re-worked....again / shinkeizou stage 2 / “jazz 8” in sunlight / August 8, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

7pm: about 15 minutes ago, the sunlight streamed in through one of our West windows, creating this magic on jazz 8.

4pm: i did a lot more to shikenzou, which for the moment is looking like a family dinner party. some of the underlying creekscape remains. the blue oil pastel marks to the right will probably be gone, which requires first rubbing them out with solvent. if i try to paint over them, the blue will smear into whatever color i’m using. but i could spray it with fixative, which would probably be easier.

12:31 PM: i continued work on shinkeizou. i’m gradually painting over the first layer of creek branches, and instead a dinner party is emerging.

9:56 AM: i whited over gained vision IV and began a drawing of a figure sitting on a rock at yialia beach, andros, gazing out at the sea. it’s still pretty wet, so i dragged it over to my storage room, propped it on some boxes and photographed it. it will stay there till it’s dry enough to work into tomorrow.

*gained vision IV* in my storage room following a white-over

revising "kosode" and "gained vision IV" / August 7, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*gained vision IV* 80x20” oil on linen, at the end of today

1:49 PM: i had considered these two paintings completed, but when i entered my studio i felt kosode was too busy. and when i brought the newly stretched gained vision IV didn’t work at all. that’s the value of bringing a newly completed painting over to the house. the big, open space with nothing else close by allows a much more definitive evaluation than when it’s in the studio, surrounded by other recent work.

*kosode* 38x20” oil on linen, at the end of today’s work

starting "shinkeizou" / August 6, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

1:13 PM: i’m feeling that kosode is resolved, but i’ll keep glancing from time to time. this morning i stretched gained vision IV on the new aluminum stretcher bars that were delivered a few days ago. i won’t go into detail, but assumbling the aluminum bars was a bitch!!!

so here you see the newly stretched gained vision IV next to the just completed kosode, tacked to the wall.

i started work on shinkeizou this morning after my stretching adventure. it has the same dimensions as the previous two: 38x20”/96.5x51cm. right now it’s in the exploratory, anything goes phase, with the dominant feature being a large branch in the creek surrounded by foaming water and rocks. but a city view from above has snuck in, along with a HU musician playing his instrument…

at work moments ago on the new painting: *shinkeizou*

2:17 PM: *shinkeizou* 38x20” on it’s first day in the world

more work on "kosode" this morning / August 5, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

11:12 AM: i got an early start today and got straight to work on kosode. i took out 2 of the figures, including the plaid shirted guy i painted in yesterday afternoon. i added in a guy who’s hard to see, but he’s just to the right of the dancing girl with the checkered shorts. he is inspired by a photo i shot of local workers installing our new windows a few months ago. if you look at the corner of the grey triangle you’ll see him crouching there. as well, to the left of the dancing girl is one of those windows, through which you can see the landscape looking out over the valley.

all that is well and good, but it’s the composition that i’m focused on, which is now doing some interesting, playing on spatial relationships. it causes the eye to jump from one plane to another and may give you the feeling that you just may tumble over the edge and fly down to a lower level. and that’s because there is a lower level! i riffed off the photo of our home’s interior, shot from the upper level. so that’s the origin of the crouching figure, seen from above. the diagonal lines just above the crouching figure are the iron bannisters running along the stairs going up to the top floor.

the yellow vertical stripe on the right has been broken up with a couple of red marks.

so, looking through the window you’re transported 40 miles across the valley to the san juan mountains. shifting your glance just to the right is our interior, seen from above. the seated figure on the lower left is the only one anchored on that yellow ochre triangle of floor , calmly observing it all.

BELOW: yesterdays version is on the left