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