a small change that made a big difference /  by Philip Tarlow

1:35 PM: i had mentioned in yesterday’s post, at the end of my painting day i inoticed something in the composition that needed to be addressed. the blue triangualr passage towards the center needed breaking up, as it was tending to draw the eye & not allow the rest of the painting to flow uninterrupted.

when i first entered the studio this morning, i had the exact same impressoin, but i felt it might be better to wait a day and instead to start something new. as i was preparing to move it aside on my painting wall & tack up another, piece of same-sized primed linen to the wall, i felt the energy kick in, squeezed some white oil paint onto my palette, and made the semicircular brush mark you see in the comparative photo on the right, BELOW, which seems to have worked.

benaki museum vista, 78x23”/198.12x58.4cm. oil on linen as it looked following today’s changes

continued work on benaki museum vista" /  by Philip Tarlow

2:58 PM: i resumed working on benaki museum vista today. so why did it change from acropolis museum vista, which was the title when i started this painting yesterday? because mikela, when she saw the photos i was working from, corrected me!

it’s changed quite a bit. the top and bottom quadrants of the composition have filled in a bit, so that the blue sky in the center no longer seems to disect the long narrow composition into two distinct segments. right now as i cast glances form about 30 feet, it appears playful, energetic and kind of serves as a frame for the figures you now see, adding to yesterday’s lone female figure looking out the museum window onto the heart of athens; the acropolis. shots i took while waking through the city two weeks ago, of antique stores with frames and mirrors stacked against one another, mingle with the fragmented cityscape , leading the eye up, down, around and into the suggested space beyond the canvas.

tomorrow i may interrupt that still too dominant blue triangle of sky and create more connection between the upper and lower portions.

benaki museum vista 3pm 3/31/23 detail of lower portion

benaki museum vista 78x23” 3pm 3/31/23

BELOW: YESTERDAY’S PALETTE

starting work on "benaki museum vista," 198.12 x 58.4 cm (78 x 23") /  by Philip Tarlow

2:19 PM: jet lag: they say it takes a day for every hour of time difference. so right now, it’s 11:19 pm in athens. and the energetic wall i hit about half an hour ago makes sense!

but up until that point, i was able to start work on this new painting, inspired by our visit about 2 weeks ago to the acropolis museum in athens, greece, where had gone for my solo exhibition, to visit with my son & grandkids, and hang with my cousin mindy & her husband marc on their very first visit to greece.

when we visited the benaki museum, we encountered this view of athens from one of the large windows. there was a tourist gazing at the vista, and i shot a couple of photos, figuring i might refer to them in a future painting when we returned home. we got home march 18th, and i’m just getting back to work today, or at least this morning, till that time-difference freight train hit me full on!

the size of the canvas i chose to start working on is larger than the paintings i had been making before leaving for greece: 78 x 23”, or 198.12 x 58.4 cm. how i proceed tomorrow is up in the air.

BELOW: details of this new painting

benaki museum vista, 198.12x58.4 cm. stage 1

a change of plans /  by Philip Tarlow

4:08 PM: today in reviewing the photos i shot while in greece last week, i was moved to draw from them instead of the watercolor/collage i posted yesterday. so right now i’m adjusting them in photoshop. i may strat working on the 78x 27” canvas tomorrow.

2018 watercolor/collage 1 will become a 78 inch high oil /  by Philip Tarlow

4:33 PM: this morning i read and made corrections to mikela’s proposal for an important grant for her educational product and took periodic breaks, which allowed me to be more focused when i resumed as well as allowing me to start a new project. the new project will be an oil, possibly with collaged elements, inspired by this 2018 watercolor/collage, which i have framed & hanging in the studio.

it’s something, believe it or not, i’ve never done! it’s going to be tricky to translate the spontaneity of this small work on paper to a 78” tall canvas, but i haven’t signed a contract stating that it has to exactly mirror the watercolor/collage! more than anything, it excites me as a challenge, whatever happens.

we’ll see tomorrow how it goes…

light snow last night / resuming work in the studio /  by Philip Tarlow

1:13 PM: my jet lag today is a lot worse than yesterday, plus i can’t seem to warm up. the temperature outside is 25F and the wind is gusting to 30mph, with a wind chill of 12F.

i tried getting to work, but all i could do was to make a small self portrait in colored pencil & pastel. maybe tomorrow will be better.

self portrait in colored pencil & pastel, 25x17 cm.

6:51 AM: it’s currently snowing lightly, and we received about 1/4” last night. every litttle bit counts in continuing our emergence from drought conditions here in crestone/baca!

i’ll be headed to my studio in an hour or two and will resume painting after 2+ weeks in greece. updates as they occur…

welcome home philip & mikela! / 6/19/20 creek watercolor in new frame / a dramatic afternoon sky /  by Philip Tarlow

3:28 PM the southern sky as it looked when i left the studio. looks kind of like what i remember the dutch skies were like.

3:28 PM: as i left my studio this afternoon (the time difference was affecting me & i suddenly felt vert sleepy) i glanced across our san luis valley to the south and saw this dramatic sky. remember, the valley floor is 7,500 ft./ or 2,286 meters.

6/19/20 creek watercolor, 24x33cm.

3:06 PM: i’m back in my studio & it feels fantastic! too tired to work until tomorrow morning, but i placed a 6/19/20 creek watercolor in a spare frame i brought back from athens & it fit prefecftly, showing off the piece beautifully. it’s inspiring me to go back to paint plein air at cottonwood creek, and it won’t be too long before it warms up enough for that to happen!

10/20/22 watercolor, 10x38cm. creek inspired

5:50 am: temperature, 7.7 F. wind chill -9F (-22.7 C.) 20% chance for snow after 3pm.

we fell asleep yesterdayat 6:15 PM, and we’ve both been up since about 1:30 am due to the 8 hour time difference from athens.

the first thing i saw as i went upstairs to brew mikela’s yemeni coffee (our kitchen/living room are on the top floor so we can enjoy the spectacular views) was this, as yet unframed, watercolor, painted on 10/20/22.

after the athens experience of my genesis show, it looks pretty damned good, and would have fit in well with the other two creek paintings in the show. Ah well…..there will be more next time…and we’re but deeply grateful to george tzaneris, director of the gallery,for his outstanding support during our entire stay, and for the love and care he put into every detail.

in case you’re wondering about the yemeni coffee, i get the beans raw & roast them a day or so before brewing, to insure freshness and taste, then grind them just before brewing in my Giannina 6 Cup Stainless Steel Stove Top Espresso Maker. a little frothed soy milk & you’ve got the perfect cappucino! if you’re interested in knowing more about roasting & brewing just text me.

BELOW: the fresh roast raw coffee bean roaster, which you adjust based on how light or dark you like your beans. Freshly roasted coffee reaches best or "Peak Flavor" on day 8-14 after roasting. Compare this to coffee from the grocery store, which is often >120 days old!

giannina espresso maker with capresso bean grinder

back in denver, driving to crestone this afternoon /  by Philip Tarlow

6:51 am: we arrived at denver airport at 7:35 last evening and waited in the cold for the hotel bus to take us to our airport hotel. it was a very long journey; 19 hours counting a 6 hour layover in munich airport, so we were very happy to finally lie down and rest.

we had a great dinner together with our grandkids and gallery director yeorgos the night before leaving! my grand kids were there, as well as the wonderful gallery director, yeorgos tzaneris.

during our flight over the alps, i shot this photo. they’re snow covered, but barely, reflecting the general absence of moisture. to me they look like two huge dragons!

athens-denver /  by Philip Tarlow

1:03 PM: this morning at 6 the uber picked us up and drove us to athens airport. our flight left on time, landed in munich and now we’re in the airport lounge. i made a couple of drawings and mikela did some very good work on her grant application.

a ferry interview / drawing of leonidas /  by Philip Tarlow

11:25 am: yesterday afternoon we sat and talked over coffee with leonidas, son of the great greek poet andreas embirikos and an old friend. as we talked, i pulled out my drawing book and made a quick colored pencil drawing. it kind of looks like him, but makes him younger. he’s ding a very unusual and interesting project, traveling all over greece and neighboring countries recording the increasingly few people who speak the original dialects of the region where they were born. it’s a huge undertaking, which is still in progress.

this morning i gave a video interview focused on the sinking of a ferry years ago, which had one of my commissioned paintings hanging in the main sitting room. the inetrview was in greek, and covers many topics, including my experiences on the island of andros, where my former mother in law, the great painter niki karagatsi was born.