day 2 of "windows 2"....adding a second figure /  by Philip Tarlow

2:35 PM: seems my nursery school teacher in brooklyn was right when she stated in her evaluation “Philip seems especially interested in watching construction workers.”

and if she only knew how greatly that interest would expand once i combined it with my passion for views from above!

so today i took windows 2 to the next stage. in the morning, i worked on the larger figure of the installer on the left side of the composition. this afternoon, a second figure was introduced; the same guy i introduced into the windows 1 composition, who, in this painting, is the figure in blue on the upper left.

compositionally, things have gotten more interesting now, with the architectural elements on the left playing against the ones on the right. i could actually leave the painting as is, which i might do. i always prefer to allow the space to breathe rather than filling it with unnecesary elements. as i have often said, this is, first and foremost, a painting, period. and not a painting of window installers. it’s a balance of painterly marks and colors defining a space pregnant with movement and suggested destinations.

windows 2 as it looked at the end of my painting day today

"windows 1" completed & signed / on to “WINDOWS 2” /  by Philip Tarlow

4:09 PM: after completing windows 1, i started windows 2 this afternoon. it’s still at a very early stage, and here’s what it looks like.

we’ll see where it wants to go tomorrow morning!

windows 2 at a very early stage.

windows 1 on 11/23/22 signed & completed

12:27 PM: at 8 this morning i went to a friend’s house to get my first lesson in bread making. not surprisingly, the process is not unlike my process of making a painting. over the next month or two, i’ll continue with my lessons until i get to the point where i can do it myself. apprenticeship: the best, most ancient way to learn!

windows 1: i went over the areas on his colorful shirt without doing too much, as i did & then wiped out yesterday afternoon. it’s signed & dated it & i’m ready to move on.

gazing at it from about 20 ft. here in the studio, it works compositionally and coloristicly. the subject matter, while compelling, does not dominate, and the interplay between the two figures is critical. without the obvious clue you get from the title, you would guess that these are 2 guys doing some sort of construction work. more importantly for me, you would experience it as a playful abstraction containting painterly marks, with a touch of the enigmatic….enough to draw you back in again and again.

DETAIL of the shirt, which i reworked today

more work on "windows 1," re-work of 10-12-22 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

BELOW: windows 1 before (left) & after todays changes

2:44 PM: after removing the beard of the crouching window repair figure yesterday, i did more work on his colorful shirt, his arms & trousers. as it turns out, i did too much on the shirt, so before leaving the studio today, i went back in & took out a lot of what i did. tomorrow morning i’ll go back in to tk red outline on top.he shirt, restore what was there and remove the dar

i found a watercollage from october 12th, which was originally painted plein air, on site at the creek.some parts of the composition were bugging me, so i went back into it and made radical changes form the original, using oil pastels, collaged maps, colored pencils & charcoal.

in looking at the before & after images, i feel that the rework today created a far better piece, with a more coherent and compelling composition.

BELOW: 10/12/22 watercolor/collage before (left) & after todays re-work.

removing the beard, lightening the hair on "windows 1" /  by Philip Tarlow

windows 1 following the painting over of his beard just now

3:12 PM: this morning i went to the dentist in alamosa to have my bone graft stitches removed. i just got back a few hours ago, so i had only a little over an hour to paint. what was most pressing for me was to take out the beard of the crouching window repair guy. it wasn’t working at all compositionally. i’ll make further adjustments in the morning when i’m fresh.

BELOW: with & without the beard

continued work on "windows 1" and "8/7/20 watercolor/collage" /  by Philip Tarlow

5:56 PM: today i continued work on the new oil: windows 1 and on an older watercolor/collage on paper: 8/7/20 watercolor/collage, which i combined using collage with another piece from that period.

windows 1,

windows 1 has gained a second figure, seen from above is standing in front of a ladder installing a window. the main figure, who is bending over, holds a measuring tape, and is wearing a colorful t-shirt.

i won’t be in the studio tomorrow morning, since i have my dentist appointment 10 days after the bone graft/extraction. if it looks good, she’ll remove the stitches.

windows, 21x17"- day 1/ trail walk /  by Philip Tarlow

1:43 PM: as the work on installation of our new windows progresses, i’ve been documenting the progress, photographing the installers doing what they do every day. today i felt the urge to use some of this material to create a new series of paintings. we’ll see if it goes beyond this first in the series, simply titled windows 1.

most of the photos i shot were from our upper floor looking down, but not this one. if it actually does progress and become a series, it will in some respects mirror what i was doing in greece in the’70,s making paintings of athenian construction workers who were in the neighborhood of my studio at the foot of the acropolis. cut & paste this link to visit this page and view some of them: https://www.philiptarlow.com/art-created-in-greece

and if i decide to use the photos of the installers i shot from above, that will mirror my ano kato series, which you can see here: https://www.philiptarlow.com/anokato

windows 1 as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4:27 PM: i haven’t been able to walk up the trail since my dental bone graft, but today i was feeling good enough to give it a shot. the trail was snow covered, as were the big rocks we climb over, which are about half way up to the spot we usually stop & turn around. since we didn’t have our cleats, we stopped when we got to the rocks. tomorrow we’ll bring the cleats & walk further up. plus, starting tomorrow the temperatures will rise, and by monday will finally get back up to into the 40’s.

the appeal of my ano kato series /  by Philip Tarlow

ANO KATO 51  35x56"  oil on portrait linen, private collection, houston ,tx.

3:05 PM: when all is said & done, my ano kato series: https://www.philiptarlow.com/anokato reflects my deepest passion. i just love views from above. this one was inspired by photos i shot in MOMA, nyc. it was an ideal setting for me, as i was able to gtet up above the main floor and see the museum visitors.

i may revisit ano kato in the next little while, using new photos i’ve shot.

girl with a glass is now swirling creek III / more work on swirling creek II /  by Philip Tarlow

11:54 AM: this morning after my meditation i asked st. anthony to help me find my groove, and he/she did! so i did more work on what was girl with glass, which has become swirling creek III. it’s a pretty spare creek composition, with a lot of white, a blue sky and a few dark ochre trees.

swirling creek III, 8x11” oil on portrait linen

swirling creek II, 21x17” oil & collage on portrait linen

then i moved on to swirling creek II. i found the top portion way too busy, so i applied white oil paint , then drew and painted into it, also eliminating most of the blue surrounding the central tree branch, resulting oin a much more spare composition, easier for the eye to navigate and in harmony with the plein air watercolors i made while the weather was still warm enough.

my dental surgery site is doing better today & i’m less achy and having less pain at the surgery site, even though the black & blue mark you see in the photo of me at work seems worse. so i may do more this afternoon….we’ll see. stay tuned!

8:34 AM: it’s early & i haven’t yet meditated, but before that i’m painting over girl with a glass, which i think is awful!

modification to: "girl with a glass, oil & collage on linen,8 1/2 x 11” and "swirling creek II" /  by Philip Tarlow

1:39 PM: this is my second day back at work here in my studio since my dental surgery last friday. i’m feeling better, with less pain, so i got in about 4 hours of work on two paintings.

the first, girl with a glass, could now be titled nude girl with a glass, as her garments have dissapeared. not sure if it will stay this way; we’ll see what happens tomorrow. gazing at it from a distance, it seems a little too dark, but from up close, it has very painterly strokes and is appealing.

BELOW: the before & after.

at the same time, i was going back and forth between girl with a glass, and swirling creek II. the modifications i mad eon this one aren’t as radical as the ones i made to girl with a glass, and overall, i think they’re an improvement. but i need to do more, so perhaps i’ll be working on both again tomorrow.

i was able to break up the horizontal branch in the earlier version, which was too dominant and didn’t allow the rest of the composition to sing, by collaging a piece of a gestural reed pen ink drawing. i also broke up the creek water beneath the branch, both in form and color. that did work, but it still needs some adjustment.

my travel drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

7/5/22 creek drawing

2:20 PM: i always have my drawing book and colored pencils with me wherever we go. as a result, i have many drawing books filled with drawings made in doctor’s waiting rooms, on subways & busses, restaurants, parks, and the list goes on. some of these have become the inspiration for paintings in oil or gouache. but all of them reflect the evolution of my mark making over the years. BELOW is a small selection. the one on the lower right is of my Dad in the final years of his life.