celebration XIII /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XIII, 30x34” oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago

1:55 PM: i rolled up yeserdays roiling creek 1 and put it in a corner. i didn’t like where it was going, and there was too much going on underneath from previous compositions, including collaged elements that ultimately took away from the freshness.

so i started celebration XIII, a continuation of my celebration series, which i worked on back in march through may of this year. when i use some of the figures that have appeared many times in earlier paintings, they become like a familiar laguage that i can play with more and more freely. while the juices are flowing, i can play around; scraping, smudging and using my brush sometimes like a tool, other times like a japanese calligrapher.

roiling creek 1, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

roiling creek 1 40x46” oil & collager on linen as it looked at the end of my painting day today

12:59 PM: one of the 4 canvases i pinked yesterday had a few layers already. so today i painted into that one with a new composition: roiling creek 1. here’s me at work a few moments ago.

i haven’t yet done any work on the remaining 3 canvases but i may start one or two tomorrow, since i always work better when i can switch between two or three works in progress.

woman at work / 4 pink-prepped canvases /  by Philip Tarlow

four canvases prepped with pink strokes. the one on the bottom is a whited over pre-existing painting.

3:36 PM: this afternoon i preppped 4 canvases, one of which had already been worked on. i used a pinkish color, brighter than what i used 4 days ago on orange creek. whereas on orange creek i worked ro=ight into it while it was still wet, i lay these down on my floor until tomorrow, when they’ll be about 75% dry, and will start working into them then and she where they want to go. the unpainted white shapes will play an important role in the compositions.

woman at work, 25x10 1/4” oil on linen, 1997

12:48 PM: this is one of the 100 or more paintings that arrived from houston a few days ago. the subject is a woman at work at night.

this is a good example of how patterning delights me and has been a part of my work for decades. it harkens back to some of the interiors i painted on the excursions my former mother-in-law niki karagatsi and i made to shops in and near piraeus.

very glad i discovered this one this morning as i was doing some organizing in my studio. i haven’t yet had a chance to look at 90% of the paintings that arrived from houston.

remembering my Dad on fathers day /  by Philip Tarlow

portrait i made of my dad a few months before he passed, age 92.

3:32 PM: a few months before my Dad, roy tarlow, i made this little portrait of him in his nyc appartment. he was a born seeker, always going deeper in his search for meaning.

ORANGE CREEK, 40X35”, DAY 1 / selection of paintings delivered from houston /  by Philip Tarlow

orange creek, 40x35”, oil on linen, day1

3:37 PM: i started working on a new 40x35” painting today, titled orange creek.

12:17 PM: just now i selected some of the paintings delivered from houston yesterday amd photographed them. what they have in common is that they all have skies.

HOUSTON PAINTINGS DELIVERED 6/13/24 /  by Philip Tarlow

8:33 AM: yesterday afternoon a van arrived from houston containing at least 100 of my paintings on canvas and paper. they were all from the former gremillion gallery, which recently closed it’s doors after many decades. over the years i had one man shows, took part in group shows, have talks and spent wonderful time with the former ownder/director and dearest friend, ron gremillion.

the paintings are now sitting in my studio and newly built studio storage room. it will take time for me to go throught them, photograpg and catalogue them and eventually find homes fro some of them, including museum and private collections as well as galleries across the country.

here are a few shots i too k as they were being unloaded from the van and placed in my studio by the amazing tate, who packed, loaded them and drove from houston over 2 days+.

"tennis suite" has become "pink & blue" / A NEW STUDIO DOOR WINDOW IMAGE /  by Philip Tarlow

pink & blue as it looked following todays session

12:51 PM: tennis suite was too restricting as a title, so it’s now pink & blue. i’m finally able to use my nikon to shoot the paintings. i was using my iphone because my card reader gave out & i had to wait for the new one to arrive.

i painted over most of what i did over the last few days, now that i’m freed from the tennis theme. as usual, my first burst of energy is what counts. i remembered to forget and just go where my heart and hand direct me. amongst other things, i remembered my plastic bubble wrap and what cool marks it makes when you smear paint on it then press onto the canvas. and i remembered the importance of black. the black & white patterning indicate the sleeve of the post-olympics celebration guy doing a hand stand. and the green leaves were inspired by a shot i took from above, of mikela in a musuem foyer with lots of plants.

STUDIO DOOR: my west facing studio door has a 35x21” window. until this morning, i had a 2 canvas painting mounted on the inside facing out. today, after many months , i felt it needed replacement. so i took the two attached canvases down, cut a piece of foam core from the recent delivery of my new full length mirror and taped one of my paper palettes to it. i keep some of them because, when i’m squeezing paint onto the palette, and smooshing it around with the brush, i’m more likely to create something interesting than when i’m working on a painting! so it actually served as an inspiration for what i did today on pink & blue!!

tennis suite 1 day 3 6-11-24 / TSAROUCHIS in my 1974 catalogue /  by Philip Tarlow

2:24 PM:C i brought tennis suite 1 to the next level today. a central figure now dominates the composition. dominates is the key word here; as i gaze at it now, i feel that this figure, as dynamic as it may be, does not allow the eye the fredom it needs to enjoy the composiiotn as a whole. right now i’m too tired to make changes, so it will have to wait till tomorrow.

1:40 PM: this is an excerpt from a text by tsarouchis for my 1974 solo exhibition in athens.