more work this morning on "Jazz 13" /  by Philip Tarlow

12:07 am: it was snowing this morning and i was in the mood to paint. so i continued working on jazz 13, which i whited over yesterday & started fresh, with traces of the previous version peeking through.

it’s a very different painting now. unfortunately, the color of the blue band at the top was impossible to reproduce. in person, it strongly suggests a distant body of water, broken by a grouping of creekscape rocks & two aspens. i can’t stop looking at what i did today! magic.

for those of you who follow my blog, you will recognize these figures from recent paintings. they are taken from my growing menagerie of actors; people doing things; engaging in a variety of activities, not posing, nor are they props. each one has captured my imagination for a different reason. and i feel i’m on a steep learning curve, introducing them together in a way that emerges when i allow myself to play…in an uncalculated, released fashion.

jazz 13 revisited /  by Philip Tarlow

jazz 13, 37x35” oil on linen, revised but not yet resolved following today’s re-work of the earlier version

1:19 PM: i painted over jazz 13, which had been hanging in my studio for a while, and i wasn’t crazy about. at first i was going to make some minor adjustments, but i’m in a different space now, so i whited over it & started fresh.

this is where it’s at right now, and tomorrow i’ll work further on it.

acropolis museum, 80x20" -continued /  by Philip Tarlow

acropolis museum, 80x20” oil on linen, as it looked yesterday (left) and following the work i did today

2:07 PM: the bright colors i introduced yesterday, while compelling, didn’t work for me when i entered my studio this morning and gazed at the painting critically. especially that bright green stripe on the left.

so now, it’s much more subdued, and the overall greyness allows the areas of color to sing. the subtle transitions allow the eye to roam slowly over this very tall, narrow composition, and to slowly realize that what we’re looking down at is probably a 2-300 foot expanse of one of the galleries in the acropolis museum, with the sunlight raking across the floor and the visitors taking in the experience, which many of them, who are foreign tourists may never have again.

DETAIL of the upper 1/4 of the painting

continued work on "acropolis museum" 80x20" /  by Philip Tarlow

1:50 PM: a little while ago i introduced some brighter colors. it’s still too wet to hang on the wall, so to avoid drips i climbed on a ladder and photographed it from above.

i’m liking where it’s going with these new brighter colors. i have to wait, sometimes hours, till i get the message to introduce something new.

tomorrow, when it’s dry enough, i’ll hang it on my east wall and take better photographs.

acropolis museum as it looked following today’s work

day 4, “acropolis museum” formerly "figures from above iv" ...further work needed? /  by Philip Tarlow

2:54 PM: when we both took a critical look at figures from above IV, we felt it needed more work, particularly in the area of floor beneath the woman with the red bag.

and after thinking about it last night, i decided acropolis museum is a better title. of course this means i have to go back and change the name in all my files, but that’s ok.

acropolis museum, 80x20”

day 3, "Figures From Above IV" livens up /  by Philip Tarlow

1:47 PM: it would appear that i had to go grey before diving into brighter colors. today is that day, and everything in this long narrow composition has livened up. it helped that i sent to image to my son in greece yesterday. he responded positively, but i could feel his mind wondering why my painting of the acropolis museum with strolling, gazing figures had to be so monotone.

so bright colors have appeared: on the floor, on the figures and the dark blue horizontal band of color up top. as well, an ancient marble relief sculpture has appeared at the very top, giving the couple facing it a focus of attention.

i entered the studio with a different spirit today, and now, as i gaze at the painting from my usual 20 ft. distance, i’m amazed at the transfromation!

day 2, figures from above 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

figures from above IV, 80x20” oil on linen, as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day today

3:19 PM: today i was able to make some significant improvements to figures from above IV. a few figures needed to POP more, which they now do. some subtle additions to the architectual design of the Acropolis Museum floor and display windows on the right, make it clearer what we’re looking at, without being overly descriptive. now the woman on the upper right holding the red bag makes more sense; she’s looking at ancient artifacts in a glass showcase. the familiar (if you follow my BLOG) striding male figure below in the plaid shirt, while slightly larger than the rest of the figures, adds a note of mystery, which i always love. the grey border gives us mor eof a sense of having a birds eye view.

DETAIL

u.s. open I becomes "figures from above IV" /  by Philip Tarlow

figures from above IV 80x20” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

1:57 PM: i did a fair amopunt of work on the now titled figures from above IV, which is now a vertical composition, 80x20.” all the figures except for the familiar guy with the plaid shirt were inspired by a series of photos I took in the acropolis museum on one of our trips to greece to visit my son & grandkids. they’re mOstly all looking at ancient artifacts through the glass windows on the right. many probably just arrived from their visit to the acropolis itself, just a few hundred yards away.

whiting over u.s. open I and preparing to create figures from above IV

u.s. open I, 20x80” before it transformed today into figures from above PT paints into new figures from above IV

11:15 AM: i’ve been looking on and off at u.s.open I for weeks now, and decided yesterday afternoon that it wasn’t working. so this morning, i whited over it and am now painting back into it.

day four of "figures from above iii" /  by Philip Tarlow

figures from above III as it looked moments ago, afer removing the shadow of the skateboarder, upper right

1:53 pm: so i took out that big shadow, as i said i might a few hours ago. in it’s place are a few creek inspired marks suggesting branches & flowing creek water. better, but i’ll have to see how i feel about it in the morning. right now gotta leave for a meeting.

day four of "figures from above iii" 35x37” oil on linen

12:48 PM: there was an empty space in the upper left asking to be filled. this morning i added a jumping skateboarder with a long violet shadow. not yet sure about the shadow, which seems to dominate the composition in a way i hadn’t intended. so i may take it out.

day three of "figures from above iii" /  by Philip Tarlow

day two of "figures from above iii" 35x37” oil on linen

1:27 PM: i/we didn’t like all that green i painted in yesterday, so it’s gone, along with the pinks. the painting is back to it’s original spare state, but with some critical additions of color on the figures, as well as the triangle of yellow on the lower right. it seems to be singing, but i’ll know better in the morning.