to be included in my "jestur" talk at my opening tomorrow /  by Philip Tarlow

the 32x40” board of images i put together for my exhibition opening in aspen tomorrow

3:54 PM: this morning and into early afternoon i completed work on printing and mounting the collection of images you see above, mounted on a 32x40” board. it will be placed behind me as i talk, and although attendees won’t be able to make out details or the labels i made and attached, they will get the general idea from afar and be able to view it close up following my 20 minute talk. the purpose is, of course, to shed more light on the title of the exhibition: jestur. what’s the nature of the gesstural marks in these works? how and why do they transcend time, so that a cave painting made over 18,000 years ago rests ocmfortably next to a matisse painted in 1938? why does a vermeer sleeve evoke abstractions? how does the painterly show up in all these works, regardless of it’s origins in time and space?

7:33 AM: these are a few of the art historical examples of jestur i’ll be referring to tomorrow at my gallery talk.

mosaic 1 continued/ exhibition prep /  by Philip Tarlow

1:17 PM: i did a bit more on mosaic 1 this morning, but i need to wait till we’re back from the exhibition to do anything more; i have too much to do and to think about right now.

so i’m going to print out some 19x13” images i want to use to illustrate my talk on thursday. we arranged to have dinner with the friends we’re staying with that night, and then lunch with another couple who are friends & live in the area, so it should be a fun trip. i’m really looking forward to seeing what the paintings look like hanging in the gallery space!

mosaic 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

mosaic 1 42x35” oil on portrait linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day

2:36 PM: i took mosaic 1 further this afternoon, adding the figure of the guy who is cleaning and restoring the ancient mosaic. it will be interesting to see whether i do my usual scrapeover and this becomes the underpainting. but right now, i’m finding it exciting the way it’s going. and because these paintings are for a greek audience, my mind has shifted in that direction, and so far it seems to be reflected in this new work.

but there’s no way i could have done what i did today without the artfix portrait linen. it’s really a magical surface, the very finest linen there is, and i’m running out! so i’ll have to order more, but it’s very expensive! i may have a way of getting it at a much lower cost….i’ll find out tomorrow.

at work moments ago on mosaic 1

1:06 PM: i begans adding oil colors in this central portion of the composition. it’s kinda cool as is, with the rest of the composition just drawn in. i have about another hour in me; let’s see where it goes from here….

11:20 AM: i tacked a piece of 42x35” artfix portrait linen to my wall and started the drawing for mosaic 1, destined to be the first painting i create for my march, 2023 exhibition at genesis gallery, athens. as you can see, right now it’s inspired by an aerial view of an ancient mosaic being restored.

as always, i have no idea where it will end up, but it’s likely all that will remain of this is a ghost image beneath other compositions layered on top.

dates confirmed for my athens exhibition / framing watercolor 106, 7/10/2020 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:49 PM: this morning i went back & forth with the director of genesis gallery in the kolonaki neighborhood of athens and we settled on the dates for my exhibition: opening march 14 through april 1st, 2023. i’m going to get started in the next few days on watercolor sketches for the oils. there will be a total of 20-25 works, most on canvas and some on paper.

i’m kind of on a framing kick right now, replacing the work i had in some of the white 20.5” square frames with watercolors & watercolor/collages. this one is pure watercolor with no collaged areas, & was painted on 7/10/2020, measuring 9 3/4 x 12 1/2.”

watercolor 106 7/10/20

going through my 2014 work on paper / replacing yesterday’s smaller painting / ceramics /  by Philip Tarlow

5 of the 2014 works on paper i picked out this afternoon

2:34 PM: today, after switching out the piece i placed in the square white frame yesterday, i went through other works on paper from 2014 mostly. i picked out a handful that stood out to me & tacked them to a wall and placed others on the ledge beneath my west facing window.

4 more of the 2014 works on paper that caught my eye (upper left & the 3 on the bottom)

11:14 AM: it’s rather rare to have a dark day in crestone, with no sign of sunlight. it’s been raining on & off, although, as usual, the predictions for “heavy rain” have not materialized, other than a very brief period at 1am this morning, which woke me up it was so loud.

neither of us really liked the smaller of the two pieces i framed yesterday & brought to the house. so i brought it back and am replacing it with this one, which i picked out of a stack of watercolor/collages in my watch series. i’ve been a big watch guy for as long as i can remember, and in 2014 i included cropped images of watches in this series. it’s kind of depressing that, after going through the whole group of 15 or 20, this was the only one that held up. and we won’t know till i place it in the white frame & hang it in the entryway of our house, whether it passes the test. what makes me feel somewhat better about this is that, when i browse through the work of even the greatest of the artists i love, like matisse, i have a similar experience of finding only one in ten or even twenty that really sings. that’s just how it is. even when i look at those fabulous 1st c. pompeian frescos, the same holds true. if you could hit it out of the park every time, or hit an ace on every serve, there would be no point to the game.

5-26-14 watch 1, 13x11"

6:54 AM: these are a variety of ceramics on out living room table; some painted by me, along with local crestone conglomerate rocks.

framing two gouache-collages for the house /  by Philip Tarlow

4:15 PM: today was my first day in the studio after getting all the paintings to aspen yesterday. it was so great not to feel i’m under a deadline that i just did whatever i felt like doing, which was to frame two gouache/collages i made over the past year and had stacked on top of my file cabinet.

they look pretty cool hanging in the house.

delivering the paintings to aspen cmc gallery /  by Philip Tarlow

5:24 PM: we got going a little before 7am & arrived at the aspen cmc gallery at 10:30. driving the uhaul truck over independence pass was a little tricky, but we made it. we unloaded the paintings, stacked them agaist the wall in the gallery, which doubles as a classroom, talked with the director lauren about where she might hang the pieces & were on our way back by 11:30! mikela has a talk in saguache tonight, so she wanted to have a fe whours rest before then. she’s there right now & then has to leave at 8am tomorrow for a full day at school, and gaian on wednesday. i’m going to get started on planning work for my march exhibition in athens.

heavy rain is predicted over the next 2 days, but i’m not holding my breath after so many predictions that didn’t pan out over the apst few months.

loading the truck! /  by Philip Tarlow

4:11 PM: a few hours ago we loaded the uhaul truck with 28 stretched paintings & 8 watercolor/collages under glass. we’ll get going at 7am tomorrow & should arrive at cmc aspen gallery about 10:30. after unloading the work, we’ll look at what looks best where and take back the ones that don’t seem to fit on the walls. it’s a very varied space, and i suspect it will take more of the paintings than we had suspected.

the paintings will be hung over the next week, ready for the opening on september 29th.

13x19" printouts for the exhibition /  by Philip Tarlow

2:53 PM: this morning i finished surrounding the stretcher bars of the paintings to be included in the show, and then moved on to create a series of 13x19” printouts, which will be posted on the gallery walls and are intended to give visitors a deeper understanding of what they’re looking at.

this is the one i just now printed out, and speaks for itself.

another one i printed today, BELOW, shows a series of recent plein air drawings. i’m going to create an accompanying text talking briefly about how & why these studies are important and the role they play in my studio paintings.

impromptu fruit & veggies signs /  by Philip Tarlow

12:54 PM: suzanne & kurt, who have become friends over the years, drive to crestone every thursday in the warm months with fresh fruit & veggies from their garden. two weeks ago, their normal spot at the kiosk was suddenly closed to vendors, so they, along with the honey guy & others had to find someplace else. last week they were near the post office in downtown crestone, but nobody was aware of where they were , and their normally robust sales plummeted. today, they’ve set up near the golf course, about a mile from town. once again, their customers are not aware. so i made them 3 signs to put up, which hopefully people will see. i just talked to them and, indeed, people are seeing the signs and coming! here they are!