August 19, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

1:58 PM: i had thought hu 1 was resolved, but not so fast tarlow! i started finding all that grey a bit boring. so first i went over the entire paiting with bubble wrap tinted with white oil paint. then i scraped into that, removing most but not all of it. then i introduced a triangle of yellow ochre next to an adjacent area of blue, which is where it’s at now. certainly more visually interesting than that grey.

i’m leaving it like this till i come back fresh in the morning.

here’s the freshly whited over experiment 1

experiment 1 / museé d'art moderne, paris, 2012 drawing / / August 18, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:53: i started working into experiment 1. going back to the house & i’ll post more when i get there.

*experiment 1* at th eend of my painting day today

11:18 AM: in 2012 mikela and i were in paris. when we visited the musee d’art moderne, i made a series of drawings of sculptures that were being shown. this is one of them, made in pen in a small drawing book i always carry when traveling.

not yet sure what i’ll be doing today in the studio, but stay tuned and i’ll update.

important tweaks to “jazz 9” & "hu 1" / “experiment 1” / August 17, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:45 PM: i’ve been looking at the jazz series since it was created, tacked to my studio wall. this one, jazz 9, was completed may 26 of this year. i kept feeling like it needed something more, and today was the day. i added one more plaid shirted figure seen from above, who was photographed in conjunction with the good doctor tv series, where he plays the lead role. in addition, i added the horizontal orange stripe in the upper right corner.

i think this is a great example of how a good composition can become better; the newly added figure seems to fill a void, adding a further tough of mystery to an already mysterious pictorial event.

BELOW are BEFORE & AFTER images.

12:24 PM: i had started painting over an 80x20” canvas with a new painting of piso yialia, the beach on the island of andros, in greece. it was so boring i couldn’t stand it, so yesterday i made some marks using oil pastel. then, this morning, following the work i did on hu 1, i looked through the tubes of paint that had been lying around unused, for months, maybe years. i came across one, made by lefranc, called sahara yellow. it was so old that the cap wouldn’t screw off, even with pliars. so i cut off the bottom of the tube & squeezed a bunch out into an old miso container, along with a squeeze of another old tube of cadmium red purple. with the stretched canvas lying flat on my painting table, i made sweeping marks, then later on painted into one area with those characteristic white creek bubbles i love so much, in a blue ground.

for now, i’ve designated this my experimental canvas, and we’ll see where it goes. interesting to see it hanging nevt to the current series.

10:40 AM: this morning, after that all important overnight break from observing hu 1, i observed thatt the grey that i surrounded the figures with yesterday was a tad mindless and predictable.

so a little while ago, i interrupted my breakfast to make a few changes while the painting was still tacked to the wall. ultimately though, i needed to take it down and work on it lying flat on my painting table. i also adjusted the left arm of the dancing figure, which looked as though she had bulging biceps. when you compare the BEFORE and AFTER images posted here, you’ll see what i did, and, with only those few changes, the entire painting jumps to life. am i exaggerating?

grey-over of HU 1 / August 16, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:12 PM: i felt this morning that hu 1 sorely needed simplification, so that the key elements of the composition could shine, as occured with almost half of the paintings in my jazz series, which you can view here: https://www.philiptarlow.com/current

the human figures, as well as the floating duck, now sing their songs uninterrupted by compositional fury. the blue rectangle of color on the upper left is tasked with holding the note; holding the space, which i think works unexpectedly well!

the grey in *hu 1* functions in much the same way as it does in *jazz 8,* 37x35” which you see here.

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.