day one of "Musical Bird" /  by Philip Tarlow

musical bird, 15x17.5” oil on xtra fine portrait linen, at the end of my painting day today

1:58 PM: this afternoon i started a new painting, titled Musical Bird,” 15x17.5” on xtra fine portrait linen. there are 4 or 5 things going on here, which will eventually blend into one image: my hand, drawing and holding a pencil; a man playing guitar, looking down from our second story; some dried out bristlecone pine needles; a piece of dried out pine branch; and an orange headed bird. right now i’m tuckered out and ready to go back to the house and lie down. to be continued tomorrow morning.

dried out bristlecone pine needle

reviving "in flight" and "goldfish in tub" / PT WITH RECENT PAINTINGS /  by Philip Tarlow

2:45 PM: an odd day, i must say. my old macbook pro died, so i switched to this one; the M$ Pro, which has a larger screen and a much cooler liquid retina XDR display. why did i wait so long? just lazy, i guess. so when it finally bit the dust, i opened squarespace on this one and never looked back!

the other odd thing about today is that i painted over the two paintings you see here, turning them into really crappy pieces and when i got that out of my system, i scraped and wiped them both, returning them to their old selves, albeit with a bit of a faded look due to all that scrubbing.

OMG, this keyboard is so far superior!!

so here they are post-scrapping/rubbing and ready to do whatever it is i’m going to do tomorrow morning.

BELOW left: goldfish in tub, 15x17” and RIGHT: in flight, 12x14”

a recent photo taken in my studio with a grouping of recent paintings

ZOOM drawings with new fountain pen /  by Philip Tarlow

above is this is the only colored pencil drawing i made this evening during mikela’s zoom

6:20 PM: this evening mikela has a zoom focused on political issues. so i’m sitting in the room making drawings with my new Asvine transparent fountain pen, which was just delivered this afternoon and i’m already in love with!

at work on "In Flight" starting “walk & fly” /  by Philip Tarlow

2:26 PM: once i completed work on In Flight, i got started on walk & fly, which has the same dimensions: 12x14” here’s how she looks at the end of day one.

walk & fly, 12×14” oil on portrait linen, at the end of day one

In Flight, 12×14” oil on portrait linen, as she looked following this morning’s work

11:50 AM: this mornign i was moved to do more work on the 12x14” In Flight. reds, blues and blacks were added as well as ochre trousers on the dancing figure.

yet ANOTHER rework of "passing through" !!?? “in flight” continued today but as yet unresolved /  by Philip Tarlow

11:53: while listening to a series of BEETLES classics on youtube, i made more changes and improvements to passing though. here she is.

so how, how did she emerge? Dunno, but my best guess is that, over time ripening has occured; soul ripening. and along with that, the eyes see what they didn’t used to and the hand with the brush moves to the soul’s music, boom, batta boom, bam, batta bam.

know that yesterday my voice therapist recommended singing daily for 10 minutes. so i put on The Beetles on youtube, began singing along, did some more on passing through, …..

passing through, 12x14” oil on portrait linen, moments ago

6:36 PM: i did a bit more on in flight today, but, as small as it is, it needs more…on second thought, maybe it’s resolved!

yet another rework of "passing through" /  by Philip Tarlow

passing through, 12x14” oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago, at 12:30pm

12:36 PM: when i gazed at this painting upon entering my studio this morning, it wasn’t quite doing it for me. i just now completed yet another rework, and i’m waiting till tomorrow to evaluate. so far i think it rocks!

rework of “Passing Through” / man walking /  by Philip Tarlow

passing through, 12 x 14 1/2” oil on portrait linen, at the end of my painting day today

1:37 PM: before going out on our trail walk, i scrubbed out man waking, revealing passing through underneath, which i reworked and greatly improved, so that it has become one of my better recent paintings, despite it’s small size. reads really well from a distance, and confirms what i already knew: keep at it until you find the magic.

man walking, 12x14 1/2” oil on portrait linen

11:07 AM: i revised man walking, 12x14 1/2” this morning, which i painted over passing through.