"I FLY" BECOMES "DESDE ARRIBA" / August 1, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*desde arriba* 32x42” oil on portrait linen-DAY 1

3:34 PM: today when i entered my studio and took a gaze at the new couch, it seemed resolved to me. i’m going to continue looking at it every day while i work on this revision of a painting made in march. it’s titled i fly, which has to do with the image of a skateboarder, arms spread, looking as though he is, indeed, flying.

i’m no longer in that space and didn’t feel like modifying it, so i flipped it 180°, went over it with a thin wash of light sienna/ochre and launched into a new drawing, based on photos from above i shot a few years back, of school girls in a corridor. i’m giving it a new title: desde arriba, which means from above in spanish.

much like the new couch, what is now the underpainting adds richness and mystery to the composition, providing, as always, unexpected twists & turns and visual loop-de-loops. lately, i’m zeroing in on my true visual vocabulary, which is great fun.

mikela is out at school with our car, and rumblings of thunder can be heard announcing the onset, not imminent i hope, of our afternoon monsoonal thunderstorms. so i better get cleaned up & walk back to the house if i don’t want to get soaked!

more later…

*i fly,* ˆ32x42” was flipped 180° and is becoming *desde arriba*

the new couch, day 3 / July 31, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*the new couch* 38x40” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3pm: still taking it very slow, i continued work on the new couch, all of which was on the bottom half of the compostion. i adjusted the red door so that it looks more like a door, filled in some of the stairs and plants on the left, lightened the violet shadow on the lower left and made some changes to the figure holding the door open.

while maintaining the mystery of the undefined shapes above, i gave more definition and solidity to the areas below. lightening the violet shadow to the left of the guy at the door made it easier for the eye to wander about the surface, and making the red door taller allows it to be read more as a door and less as some kind of mirror or painting. suggestions of a black metal railing and stairs on the lower left make the space in the composition work better. the triangular areas of light above the male figure at the door add a nice touch of geometry, playing off the lights & shadows below.

but i’m not there yet, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.

the new couch, day 2 / July 30, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:04 PM: i’m considering yesterday to be day 1 of the new couch, even though there are two previous compositions beneath, which are greatly contributing to this one especially that pinkish tone in the upper right. at this moment, it totally works as a resolved composition, so if i do more tomorrow, either i’ll screw it up or it will get even better; the latter, i’d like to think!

i’m walking that fine edge between abstraction and representation. and, as i’ve said many times, i think i’m cut out to walk this line. the suggested spaces beyond the red door can become whatever you like, wherever your imagination transports you. in my ano kato series, such as the one below, the architectural setting of the acropolis museum in athens is clearly defined, as are the relationships of the figures to that space.

whereas in the new couch, at least at this point in it’s evolution, the space in the foreground is pretty clearly laid out, while in the upper half of the composition, ghost images peak the imagination. the female figure in the lower right opens the red door for a guy delivereing the new couch…or is he looking out in awe on ill defined objects flying in space?

i guess we’ll find out more tomorrow.

*ano kato 48* 56x68” oil on portrait linen

"the dinner party" is now "the new couch" /1980 painting of a house in andros / July 29, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*the new couch* following the transformation from it’s previous existance as *the dinner party*

1:45 PM: after extensive work yesterday on the dinner party, i went over the whole thing with a wash of white mixed with brilliant yellow, scraped & wiped it down, flipped it 180° & started the drawing for a new painting titled the new couch. it’s inspired by photos i shot about 5 years ago from our upper floor, looking down on mikela holding the door open for 2 guys delivering our new couches & bringing them up the stairs to our living room.

as usual, the under-paintings contribute a lot to the surface i’m always after lately; mysteriously structured to peak the imagination and transporting the everyday into an event beyond our usual experience of the vast illusion we know as space/time.

what once was a pattern on the seat beneath the window has become a subtle indication of a floor. what was a dinner table now occupies the space just outside our front door, and so on. one thing these superimposed images have in common is that they are views from above looking down.

in about 1980 i made this small painting of a house on the island of andros, greece. having lived in greece for 15 consecutive years, and spent every easter & summer on andros, i’m deeply familiar with the landscape & architecture of the island. this house is characteristic of the stone architecture of the island.

working into "the dinner party", 38x40" / July 28, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*the dinner party,* 38x40” as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day

2:18 PM: interesting, painting during a series of thunderstorms. if the predictions are correct, they should continue, starting back up about 5 pm and going through the night into tomorrow morning, which may squish or trail walk plans. but now it’s about time for mikela and i to start doing some of the exercises we were shown yesterday by our physical therapists in denver. mikela for hwe knee & me for my shoulder. then comes another delicious dinner of fresh caught salmon, which we brought home from costco. mikela is doing a different style of making the salmon each night.

so i took my modifications to the dinner party to the next level this afternoon, although there’s still more to do. before i started working this morning, i was foinding it too predictably detailed and descriptive. now the reverse is true; it’s too dispersed, with no points of focus. no worries, all that should change tomorrow morning. i can’t really predict how right now, but it’s likely that a dominant figure will appear, allowing all that’s beneath it to play the role of supporting cast. i’m loving layering more & more!

12:18 PM: i’ve been gazing at the dinner party since it was, i thought, resolved on july 15th. it seemed far to descriptive, with no breathing room or places for the eye to rest and relax. it sorely needed to be broken up somehow.

it seems i had to clean my fridge yesterday for me to get into the right space for that to happen! so this morning i dove in, and am continuing to play with it for as long as i’m in the right mood. BELOW: the before on the left and on the right, how it looked moments ago.

at work on revisions to *the dinner party* earlier this afternoon

fridge/freezer clean-up day / July 27, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

my studio fridge following cleanup & reorg

3:44 PM: i was still kind of tired this morning after our marathon crestone-denver-crestone round trip yesterday. so i decided it would be a good day to bite the bullet and finally clean out my studio fridge & freezer, which was way overdue. i took everything out, placed it on a makeshift table, went through it and tossed over 3/4 of it. some of it may have still been ok, but you don’t want to take chances with food that’s been hanging around for a year or more.

that created room for the fruit we got at costco yesterday, as well as the smoked slamon i love eating for breakfast. it always feels good to get rid of accumulated stuff you no longer need but have been avoidiung taking action on. we’ll see tomorrow what, if any, effect this has on my painting.

we made a brief stop at space gallery on the way home, where we took 9 small framed works & 2 oils that were in the gallery & took them home. some will be included in my aspen show and i’ll re-purpose some of the white wood frames for recent gouache/watercolor/collages. i’ll post some pics tomorrow; i’m too tired right now.

we both had physical therapy appointments in denver, and i got a bunch of new exercises for my right shoulder. i’m going to break them up into 3-4 a day, otherwise they become overwhelming. there are videos accompanying each exercise, making it less likely you’ll do them incorrectly.

my studio freezer following cleanup & reorg

revisiting "dwell" / stretching “tokyo drummer” on a new aluminum stretcher bar / July 25, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:28 PM: today i stretched tokyo drummer on one of my new aluminum stretcher bars.it’s very gratifying to stretch larger paintings like this one on such stable, unwarpable stretcher bars. you’ll notice a ripple in the lower left corner. that will be dealt with sa soon as i get the corner keys tomorrow in denver. they allow you to slightly open the corners so that the canvas is pulled straight.

once we’er back, i’ll stretch the other 72x28” painting inspired by the 2020 tokyo olympics. they will both be hung in my aspen exhibition opening september 29.

3:04 PM: once i stretched dwell, 17x80” and hung it on the studio wall, i realized it needed work. but what exactly? so i started out with one of my favorite blues in the upper left. that immediately made a difference & livened it up. something still needs to happen on the lower right, but i’ll address that on wednesday morning, when we’re back from our quick-turnaround drive up to denver tomorrow.

the bowerbird / today’s creek drawing / stretching paintings on my new aluminum stretcher bars / July 24, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

5:23 PM: after struggling for decades with wooden stretcher bars that would regularly warp, i finally woke up and got some wood/aluminum bars, which i tried for the first time today. what a difference!!! i stretched the two paintings you see BELOW. the one on the right, dwell, 17x80” would have been very difficult if not impossible with the wooden bars. the aluminum bars have an ingenious system for joining the corners, making them seem like a piece of fine cabinetry: smooth, clean, with a perfect 90° angle.

10:31 AM: we took our trail walk a bit later than usual, so the light was different. i think these morning creek drawings are improving. i once had a show titled same time, same place. that would be an appropriate title for a future exhibition that could include the best of these creek drawings as well as larger studio paintings in oil. something to think about!

paddlers on bright yellow, day 5 / July 20, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

1:43 PM: today is a short day. i waited for mikela to leave for school in monte vista & got to the studio around 11. i made some additions to the painting, to the left of the paddler on the left, adding the broken outline of the same paddler’s body, with body color only on his leg &, very lightly, on his back. but i like how it reads now. this is one of those things that could be a discovery one repeats elsewhere, but i firmly believe each painting; each composiiton, has it’s own logic and identity. had i not made a series of at least4-5 paintings with the paddlers last year, i couldn’t have gotten to this point with those same 2 paddlers. not to say the earlier versions were incomplete of undeveloped. they were exactly what they needed to be in the sea i was swimming in at the time.

BELOW: yesterday’s stage, on the LEFT, and today’s, RIGHT

detail showing the addition i made this morning

BELOW: an earlier version of the two paddlers, painted a little less than a year ago, on august 2, 2021

paddlers on bright yellow, day 4 / July 19, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

*paddlers on bright yellow* after removing the green to the left of the paddler moments ago

3:52 PM: a few minutes ago, i took out that green to the left of the paddler on the left. when she came over to discuss storage space shelving, mikela commented that she didn’t like that green, and i agreed. so i took it out while it was still wet & easy to remove, and i’ll see tomorrow what, if anything, i want to replace it with.

BELOW: before and after removing the green to the left of the paddler.

*paddlers on bright yellow* 38x44” oil & collage on portrait linen as it looked moments ago

2:31 PM: yesterday’s stage seemed unfinished when i entered my studio this morning & gazed at it while having my matcha tea & toast. in contrast with earlier versions of the paddlers, which you can see if you scroll down on this page: https://www.philiptarlow.com/2021-recentpaintings, i want to a simpler yet more punchy image, where the 2 paddlers are the only act in town. i think it’s getting there. a friend who has been helping me with construction in my studio will be arriving in 15 minutes to determine what kind of shelving is needed in my new storage space. mikela, who is good at anything architectural, has made a drawing, which she’ll bring over. then he’ll go cut the wood & return tomorrow to install. so i have to stop painting early today; see y’all tomorrow!

BELOW: yesterday’s stage of the painting is on the left