back to the studio /  by Philip Tarlow

4/8/24 creekscape. day 1

2:05 PM: mikela is progressing with her healing so this is the first day i was able to go to my studio for about 3 hours. i had been ruminating over the past week and envisioing clearing a space on my work table, unrolling an 85” wide roll of portrait linen and seeing where i go.

that’s exactly what i did. using only a few oil colors and looking at one of my enlarged creek photos, i started this new painting. no idea where it might go, but that’s part of the journey i’m on.

i stasrted working on this new painting on my work table, with the canvas unrolled and uncut to leave space for whatever happens next

what's next? /  by Philip Tarlow

study of a roman fish mosaic

3:12 PM: i’m keeping mikela company while working on a small 6x7” study of a mosaic from a bedroom at Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, 4th century, CE.

8:18 AM: i haven’t been posting lately, but i’m back. i should be able to be back in my studio monday or tuesday for limited amounts of time, until mikela’s healing has progressed far enough.

of course i’ve been thinking about, contemplating on what i’ll be painting next in my studio. i have my watercolors here in the house so i may start making some preliminary sketches and see what emerges.

celebration X 36x38” this was completed march 21, 2024

celebration XII ...continued! /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII 16x20” oil on linen, as she looked moments ago

2:50 PM: pink has been added, as well as greater definition to the upper garment and torsos of both figures

celebration XII 16x20” following this morning’s whiteover & new composition

12:20 PM: while it was a fun experiment, yesterday’s C-B XII reclining woman was just that; an experiment. today i whited over it and, inspired by one of my photos from above of women playing basketball, began a new composition. as always, it benefits from theprevious paintings showing through. i simply did as matisse said; following where the painting wanted to go rather than imposing my will on it.

celebration XII is now C-B XII/reclining woman /  by Philip Tarlow

C-B XII, reclining woman, 16x20” oil & collage on linen

1:47 PM: celebration XII was entering a territory i prefer to avoid: predictability.

so i worked into it, scraping, drawing with compressed charcoal and yes, occasionally glancing at deKooning’s women.

this is what has emerged thusfar from a burst of frenzied work. hints of the underlying painting remain, resulting in an enigmatic poetry of sorts; how, for example, the plaid shirt is incorporated into the reclining woman’s cheek.

i shortened title to C-B XII, reclining woman since spelling out celebration made it too long.

so if you take a look BELOW at yesterday’s version and compare with today’s, you can see for yourself what i mean when i say it was predictable. while the figures are animated and interesting visually, the composition as a whole is somewhat formulaic, especially if you have a look at previous paintings in this celebration series. while i continue to admire them as beautiful paintings, i think i reached the end of that road; that period.

BELOW: on the left: celebration XII as she looked yesterday, and right: C-B XII, reclining woman today

DETAIL of the woman’s face with the plaid shirt peeking through from the previous composition

celebration XII, further modifications today /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII 16x20” oil & collage on linen as she looked following my most recent modifications

3:40 PM: i wasn’t happy with the modifications i made this morning, so, just as i was about to leave the studio and return to the house, i made further modifications, replacing the grey with yellow plus a few more things, such as the pink horizontal stripe on the upper left.

celebration XII, 16x20” oil & collage on linen following today’s modifications

12:56 PM: i had taken celebration XII over to the house so that we could both evaluate. it became clear that it needed further work, so i brought it back this morning and made the modifications you see here. BELOW are the before and after images.

BELOW: celebration XII before (left) and after the modifications i made today

"celebration XII" tweaks /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII 16x20” after removing the collage and restoring the shadow in the center of the composition

3:30 PM: i had collaged a cut-out from an art magazine over the shadow of the figure in the center of the composition. due to heavy snow, i wasn’t able to be in the studio yesterday, but just before leaving on sunday afternoon, i decided the collaged piece was superfluous and was ruining the composition. so i tore it off. with it came some of the grey shadow underneath. so this morning, i brought that shadow back to it’s old self, and that’s all i’m going to do on this one.

BELOW: celebration XII with the collaged piece (left) and after removing and restoring it (right)

celebration XII: day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII, 16x20” as it looked moments ago, after this morning’s modifications

12:47 PM: after ging out in the snowy weather to get bannanas, i returned to the studio full of SUNDAY energy, had my breakfast and launched back in to celebration XII.

at the end of the day yesterday, it was a nice oil sketch but with no kishkes, which is yiddish for GUTS. so, following the advice of matisse, i let the process dictate where to go next. in addition, when mikela saw it she suggested some collage.

now there are 3-4 collaged areas; either pieces of quill drawings i made for this purpose, highlighted with colored pencil; or cut up pages from an old art magazinei had on my bookshelf.

i daresay the result is rather handsome, not to mention stunning! goode jobbe, flipper!

Celebration XII, 16x20" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII, 16x20”

3:23 PM: before stretching some new 35x38” canavses, i decided to make a new celebration series painting on an already stretched 16x20” linen canvas. it’s a simpler one, with no collaged elements, no scraping or paint-overs. just 6 figures in a museum and their shadows, viewed from above, plus the walking figure in the plaid shirt, but i haven’t painted the blue plaid stripes.

tweaks to "celebration XI" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XI 36x44” following this mornings tweaks

1:09 PM: before moving on and stretching a new canvas, i made some tweaks to celebration XI, 36x44”

mikela pointed out that the hat on the figure to the left, seen from above looking at his phone, needed to pop more. so i accented that red patterning on the blue ground and added a few white accents that are actually there in the original.

the leaf patterning on the lower right now extends a little into the yellow ground, plus a few other minor details.

continued work on "celebration XI" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XI, 36x44” oil & collage on portrait linen as it looked following todays work

1:23 PM: i continued painting celebration XI. as following the path created by the previous celebration series works, blue-green & yellow dominate, figures overlap, are scraped and engage with the new pieces of collage; either pieces of quill pen black & white drawing or cutout pieces from art magazines.

BELOW: celebration XI as she looked yesterday (left) and just now, at 2pm