preparing for my gallery talk with dimitri on thursday draing of tzaneris / kathimerini newspaper article by vatopoulos /  by Philip Tarlow

5:20 PM: this afternoon at the gallery i made a drawing of gallery director and new friend yiorgos tzaneris.he requested that i make a drawing of him to add to his rich collection of gallery artists who have drawn him.

it’s always a little tricky to make a drawing on request, as opposed to my usual hotel lobby or coffee shop drawings made in a state of spur of the moment inspiratipn.

he sat absolutely motionless for as long as it took me to make the drawing, and when i showed it to him he was enthusiastically positive; so i guress i overcame my caution about making a drawing on demand!

before leaving the gallery, he gave me a copy of the major greek newspaper kathimerini, where there’s a beautiful article by nikos vatopoulos about me and the exhibition. i’ll translate it for you when i find time in our busy athens schedule.

11:15 AM: some important collectors will be coming to the gallery in 45 minutes, so i need to get ready & i’ll make this post brief until i have more time this afternoon.

my cousin mindy and her husband marc, who have been here for the past week, staying in the same hotel as us, just left an hour ago to fly back to new york. we had a really wondderful time together! it was their first visit to greece, and i think they had a good experience, including attending two of dimitri’s plays at his theatre: poreia.

my gallery talk yesterdfay /  by Philip Tarlow

10:43 am: yesterday afternoon i gave a gallery talk, which i invented in the moment. it covered everything from analyses of a few paintings in the show to an overview of my day in my colorado studio. if i had been able to transport the audience to crestone for 20 minutes, it would have been ideal.

it was fun for me to speak to an audience that included my son dimitri and two grand children philip & manio, who had never heard me speak about my work. I had no idea what i was going to say, but it seemed that people enjoyed & got value from my talk, from the comments i received afterwards.

the opening at genesis /  by Philip Tarlow

11:26 AM:the genesis gallery opening took place two days ago, on thursday march 16 from 7 to 10 pm . it was truly wonderful to see so many old friends, both from athens and andros, and to meet so many wonderful visitors to the exhibitions. i was able to see my paintings through their eyes and receive many insightful comments and observations.

of course i began envisioning my next series of paintings and strategizing where i might show them next. there were no sales at the opening, but yiorgos, the gallery director, explained that his regular collectors are staying away form crowded openings due to covid fears, and will be showing up in the coming days.

this afternoon from noon to 3pm there’s an event at thje gallery & i’ll be giving a short talk about 2pm.

yesterday we visited several athens museums with my cousin mindy & her husband mark. i shot quite a few photos fro use in future paintings. it was a cloudy, rainy day in athens, but we had a very fun day followed by a delicious dinner. hard to beat the athenian appetizers!

the journey leading to tonight's opening /  by Philip Tarlow

6:03 PM: over the past few days we’ve been preparing for tonight’s opening at genesis gallery in the kolonaki neighborhood of athens, greece.

the painitngs are all hung, and i’m meeting yiorgos, the wonderful gallery director an hour before the opening, at 7pm. the is an unexpected general strike today, which may or may not affect people’s ability to get to the gallery. we’ll see!

BELOW are some photos i shot as preparations were going on. i’m going to jump in the shower now so i can be ready to meet yiorgos at 7.

/  by Philip Tarlow

11:23 AM, athens, greece

we arrived in athens this past saturday and are jsut settling in to the new time zone, with an 9 hour time difference from crestone, colorado.

the weather is beautiful!

the oil paintings were stretched yesterday, thanks to the help of a local artist friend of the gallery director, yiorgos. and the watercolor/gouache collages have all been framed under glass.

the show opens tomorrow night 8 pm. the final hanging will happen in about an hour at the gallery: genesis, which is conveniently located just 5 doors down the block on the other side of the street from our beautiful hotel: periscope.

i’m sitting in the hotel lobby looking out onto the street as i type this. there’s a surreal quality to it all, especially listening to the boring, mindless music that’s playing.

my cousin mindy and her husband marc arrived yesterday from new york. they’ve never been to greece, so we’re their guides during their one week stay. we’ll visit the more important museums. today i think will walk up to the acropolis & visit the spectacular acropolis museum overloooking all of athens.

"painterly marks," opening in athens on thursday /  by Philip Tarlow

5:10 PM, athens, greece

we arrived in athens this past saturday and are jsut settling in to the new time zon, with an 9 hour time difference from crestone, colorado.

the weather is beautiful!

the oil paintings were stretched yesterday, thanks to the help of a local artist friend of the gallery director, yiorgos. and the watercolor/gouache collages have all been framed under glass.

a studio tour /  by Philip Tarlow

5:21 PM: this morning i was reading about archile gorky and somehow that led me to look critically at the 4 watercolors i just made in relation to some of the rest of my work hanging on the studio walls.

so we’re preparing for our flights right now, and i’ll continue with this post when i have a moment, ok?

greetings from athens, greece!

one more "chora neoclassical" before the show /  by Philip Tarlow

2:09 PM: tomorrow is packing day, and i didn’t think i’d be focused enough to make any more watercolor/gouaches. but i was, so this is the last one, for now: chora neoclassical IV.

like the other three in the series, this one is inspired by one of the photocollages i created following our trip to greece in 1995. here we see the main street in the capiatal of andros, chora, which is paved in marble, with a lone figure strolling down the street beneath the dominant neoclassical architecture.

the sky, as with the 2 previous paintings, is a collaged piece of a map of seattle, providing geometric squares that add immeasurably to the composition light purple shadows of palm trees are splayed across the street, and flowering bougainvillea peek out between the buildings.

chora neoclassical IV, 37.5x14 cm. watercolor & collage

starting "chora neoclassical III" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:15 when i entered the studio and cast my all important first gaze at chora neoclassical II, it seemed resolved.

so i stopped working on that one and started chora neoclassical III, 44x19 cm. it’s drawn from one of the photocollages i made in 1995, following a visit to greece with mikela. the neoclassical buildings abound in chora; one more beautiful than the next most with flowering bougainvillea.

BELOW: 3 stages of chora neoclassical III today

chora neoclassical III, 49x19 cm. at 3pm

starting "chora neoclassical II" 33x24cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

2:31 PM: as predicted, today is an extremely windy day, with gusts of over 45mph and zero visibilty across the valley due to blowing dust.

i had mentioned yesterday that i was thinking of making a second version of chora neoclassical, which i started this morning. it’s more of a rectangle, with dimensions of 33x24cm. and it mimics the outline of the original photocollage, in which individual photographs were pasted down on foam core so that the edges form irregular angles wherever the rectangle of that photo ends. therefor they form an outline something like this blue shape on the right.

this allowed me to depart from the boring rectagle. then, as i began painting the sky, i found that too boring & predictable as well, so i cut a piece of a map of seattle into a shape that circumvented the outlines of the neoclassical structures, with a few bits that are not blue as a reminder that we’re looking at a composition, not a picture of chora.

those two factors join with the watercolorness; those characteristic marks the brush makes when loaded with watercolor pigment, to create a new feeling; one that tends to perk up your eye and transport you someplace new.

and then, after a few minutes of gazing, you may notice the two seated figures on the left, sitting beneath the fence discussing who knows what.

the day i shot these photos was a holiday. thus we see 3 greek flags fluttering, lending their blue & white stripes to the composition.

there’s more to be done, so i’ll dive back in tomorrow morning.

chora neoclassical II, 33x24cm. watercolor & collage

DETAIL showing a section of the seattle map