continued work on "celebration 19" & "celebration 20" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19 after taking out most of the black i put in earlier

celebration 19 as she looked after lightening the blacks, which were too intense, late this afternoon

celebration 20 as it looked after taking out the tree trunks late this afternoon

4:39 PM: just before leaving the studio, i took out those tree trunks, which were bugging me as well as mikela, who walked over to check it out.

celebration 20 as she looked following today’s work. i was in a yellow mood, so the passage on the right came first, after which i worked on the two tree trunks with branches and the pink areas to the left.

celebration 19 following the work i did today, basically eliminating much of the fuzzy greys and allowing the main figures, including the bird, to pop.

3:26 PM: i added a lot more black to the composition in celebration 19, and continued with my second day of celebration 20.

celebration 20, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:40 PM: i started painting celebration 20 today. it’s 32x36”, on artfix portrait linen. thus far, all the figures should be familiar to you, and are juxtaposed with a view of the creek. i love not knowing where she will go tomorrow, and am as always letting go of that part of my mind that wants to plot it out.

i also love having a cast of characters, as it were. thus far, none of my paris olympics characters have shown up, but they are waiting in the wings.

celebration 19 early morning modification / afternoon adjustment /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19, 20x38” as she looked following my early afternoon adjustments to the figure with checkered shorts

1:57 PM: once i got settled back into my studio, i made another adjustment to thecentral figure at the top of the composition, giving her a light green blouse, making a slight adjustment to the space between her legs and slimming down her left leg.

celebration 19 following my early morning scrape of the bare breasts

9:39 AM: i went to my studio at 9am to take out the trash. when i cast a glance at celebration 19, the bare breasts of the female figure in the upper senter of the composition grabbed my attention to the detriment of the rest of the painting. sice they were freshly painted, i just grabbed a palette knife and scraped over them. when i get to the studio later this morning, i’ll see what else i might do…

more modifications to the ever changing "celebration 19" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:59 PM: celebration 19 following the addition of a dancing femaile figure with patterned shorts

2:57 PM: after gazing at it for a few hours, i felt it needed something. so i added the femaile dancing figure who has appeared and previous compositions. those checkered shorts and bare breasts add zing.

celebration 19 20x38” oil on portrait linenm as it looked following extensive modifications this morning

11:30 AM: this morning before even having my breakfast, i made new modifications to celebration 19.

i employed only two colors in these modifications: black & white. some scraping was invloved, and i used a rag soaked with odorless mineral spirits to remove unwanted areas that had been painted over.

the result is looking more in the direction of my heroes, deKooning/gorky/freud/vuillard/and yes…rembrandt than the previous state. in other words, more painterly, which is always what i strive for. what stands in the way, with hands on hips, is my f—-ing MIND!

BELOW is the previous version, which now looks to me like an interesting composition with a centrally located large bird.

celebration 19 as she looked yesterday afternoon

celebration 19 simplification /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19 20x38” following the white-overs i did just now

12:30 PM: i don’t have much time in the studio today because of a dental appointment, so i whited over some of the passages that i deemed unecessary and we’ll see in the morning if and what else i might do.

celebration 19, day 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19 as she looked at the end of my painting day today

3PM: i made some further modifications to celebration 19, and here’s how she looks at the end of my painting day.

celebration 19 20x38” following this mornings modifications to the bird

12:23 PM: well, i thought celebration 19 was complete, but that bird on it’s side was bugging both of us, so i painted a different one over it.

celebration 19, day 3 & 2 works on paper from 2020 & 2012 /  by Philip Tarlow

4:03 PM: after stretching a new canvas using my just delivered portrait linen & the 36x32” stretcher bars i had ordered last week, i got back into celebration 19. as i was flipping through some older works on paper, i came across these two untitled pieces, which now have the titles: papua and starflower. i made a few modifications to papua, which is why it’s dated 2012/2024.

starflower, 30x11 1/4” 2020

papua , 8x6” 2012/2024

celebration 19, day 2 / “approaching storm” /  by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: today i took celebration 19 further, and applied 2 pieces of paper with calligraphic brush markings.

earlier this morning, i discovered an abandoned collaged canvas. it had some interesting elements, which caught my eye. so i cut off the best portion, which now sits in a little frame beneath one of my small closets used for storing sketchbooks.

collaging celebration 19

celebration 19 as she looked at the end of my painting day today

approaching storm, 18x44.5cm. oil & collage on linen

celebration 19, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:52 PM: i started a new painting today, on a canvas i had already stretched a few weeks back, which is 38x20”. it loosely follows the composition of the one i just completed: celebration XVIII., but there’s different bird, which for the moment is the only thing to which i’ve applied oil color, and o fcourse the dimensions are different. let’s see where she takes me tomorrow.

celebration 19 38x20” oil on linen, as she looked just now

celebration XVIII, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XVIII 28x18 1/2” oil on linen at the end of my painting day today

2:49 PM: i continued work, albeit gingerly, on celebration XVIII today and, other than a few tweaks i’ll make tomorrow, it’s resolved. i wanted there to be a lot of white space and at the same time to be a composition with grace and elegance. i purposely left the two figures as just drawings; the tennis player and the guy holding a document he’s reading. the tennis player’s magenta shadow is there, and plays off the violets and blues in the bird’s feathers. tomorrow i’ll extend the brown tree trunk the rest of the way up to that red line, which is where the cnavas will be folded over & attached to the stretcher bars. same with the light blue curved line on the bottom, which needs to go another inch down.