bluing words & worlds / workmen in plaka, 1978 /  by Philip Tarlow

words & worlds” 42x42” as it looked at 2pm today

BELOW: words and worlds before and after today’s bluing”

bluing words & worlds a little earlier today

1:19 PM: after going through many stages, words & worlds is now being what i call blued. here i’m still engaged in it.

2:38 PM: i had a great time brushing on that blue earlier today. my sense of composition as well as my sense of pure fun guided my brush as i painted over passages in the painting that, as i gazed at it this morning, were confusing and simply didn’t work. one might say that what i just did was a radical move. and it was.

what has shown up now are shapes floating in a blue background….or is it a foreground? some of the shapes are obviously identifiable, such as the woman on the right, the striding, plaid shirted figure beside her and of course the bird. others are biomorphic, suggestive shapes., leaving the interpretation to the observer.

personally, that feature in a painting that’s well painted is all important. it’s one of the chief reasons why i so love gorky who, along with mata and others of that period, was able to create “ a palpable discrepancy between artifact and affect, appearance and intent, the manifest identity of objectand the elusive identity of the author” (robert storr writing in “Archille Gorky, a Retrospective” 2010.

is this a breakthrough, a sign of things to come or a one-off?

the plow and the song II, gorky, 1946, 52 1/4 x 61 1/2”

gorky dancing an armenian dance at a wedding in 1944

workmen in plaka, 12”/31cm. x 24”/61cm. egg tempera on board, 1978

11:46 AM: in the ‘70’s, my studio was on the edge of the Plaka neighborhood, directly facing the ancient Tower of the Winds. half a block to my right was a building under renovation. the workmen interested me as subjects for painting, so i asked if any of them might be interested in posing. naturally, the most innocent ones responded, and that was the start of a series that would come to define my years in Greece.

most are in private and museum collections, but fortunately i had the good sense to hold on the this one, which is painted in egg tempera on board, 12”/31cm. x 24”/61cm.

learn more about my years in Greece by clicking on the GREECE link on the upper right of this page, or simply go to: https://www.philiptarlow.com/art-created-in-greece

still life with refugees tweaked /  by Philip Tarlow

2:51 PM: still life with refugees 42x42”, following today’s tweak.

2:49 PM: the upper left portion of the composition was too heavy and interfering with the flow. so i went over it with a yellow-ish white, which i think did the trick.

BELOW: before (left) and after todays tweaks

still life with refugees, day 3 2:30 pm /  by Philip Tarlow

still life with refugees, 42x42” as it looked moments ago, after revising the band of color on the bottom

2:32 PM: as i said i would do earlier, i revised the band of color on the bottom of the composition, so the painting looks much better but still needs work. here’s a detail of one of the musicians from the collages i applied earlier today.

still life with refugees 42c42” as it looked at 2pm today

1:58 PM: i continued the modifications i strated this morning, working mostly on the perimeters of the painting. i’m not completely satisfies with the light blue horizontal band of color at the bottom, so that may change later today or tomorrow.

still life with refugees, day 3 12:20pm

12:35 PM: this morning i collaged some drawings i made of musicians playing at the elton john/bernie taupin gershwin prize concert on april 8th. i had shot photos from the tv and turned a few into drawings, with the intention of using them exactly as i did this morning.

words&worlds, day 9 / still life with refugees, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

still life with refugees, 42x42” day 3

words & worlds, 42x42” day 9

3:48 PM: i painted sporadically throughout the day, going back & forth between these two paintings. i flipped still life with refugees as i sometimes do do avoid getting stuck on a particular composition. so elements of photos i shot a few years back of the acropolis museum views from above, as well as the guy doing a handstand, from the 2020 olympics celebration, have entered the picture.

both paintings are still in process and i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow.

words&worlds, day 8 / STILL LIFE WITH REFUGEES, DAY 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: this is day 1 of still life with refugees, 42x42”

words & worlds as it looked following the additions i mention below.

2:11 PM: as i began work on still life with refugees, i ambled across the work table to words & worlds. “black,” i thought. so i introduced some black to the upper left quadrant and then added some japonese inspired yellow patterning. earlier, i had introduced a few green marks inspired by a vuillard fabric in one of his master paintings, which have become an integral part of the composition.

12:56 PM: today i’ve got both paintings on my work table and am going back and forth between the new one and the previous words & worlds.

words & worlds, day 7 /israel-hamas, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

words & worlds, 42x42” oil&collage on linen, as it looked following the modifications i made this morning

12:16 PM: words & worlds seemed too busy when i made my first glance this morning. although i saw some beautiful passages and strokes, the composition as a whole seemed confusing; my eyes kept bouncing around and couldn’t find anyplace to land.

so i untroduced a warm grey around what i feel are the most striking, evocative forms and am moving on to a new one, the exact same size:42x42”

i’ll see how i feel about it later today.

3:47 PM: late this afternoon i started a new painting, which is also 42x42”

it’s inspired by photos i shot last night during a program about victims of the war in the middle east.

day 1 of israel-hamas, 42x42”

words & worlds, day 6 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:20 PM: more collaging happened this morning. for example, on the mid-right you’ll see a collaged piece of a map of texas.

the bird on the left has appeared in earlier paintings; she likes showing off her black spots.

as a whole, comparing this to other recent paintings that are on the wall to the right and left of this one, there seems to be more certainty. the newly added blues and yellows make it pop. and, while there are human forms throughout, they are less distinct than in previous paintings in this series and integrate more into the composiiton as a whole.

"words & worlds" day 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:21 PM: this morning was collage time. i made some ink drawings on a large roll of paper, then cut them up and collaged some of them onto words & worlds. as usual, they required careful smoothing out, using a few of the tools i have for that purpose. then i went into a few areas that needed simplification with white titanium-zink oil color, and added some drawing in siena where i felt it was needed.

making the drawings to be collaged

collaging the drawings onto the painting

DETAIL

words and worlds /  by Philip Tarlow

day 4 of words and worlds 42x42” oil on linen

4:19 PM: this is day 4 of this painting, which started out as creekscape, it’s new title is words and worlds.

how i work when it’s flat on the table is quite different from when it’s tacked to the wall, as it now is. that’s likely because my plotting mind is less engaged and my strokes and marks are freer. it may well go back on the table tomorrow.

elton & bernie /  by Philip Tarlow

untitled as it looked at the end of my painting day, as a vertical and horizontal composition

elton&bernie drawing #1

2:18 PM: i’m adding to the drawings i’ve made for the oil i started a few days ago. i had titled it womens basketball but it’s going beyond that, so there will be a new title.

this drawing is based on shots i took 2 nights ago from the amazing elton john-bernie taupin concert.

elton&bernie drawing#2