continued work on "gained vision II" /  by Philip Tarlow

4:13 PM: i was interrupted at 12:30, when i had to go to a meeting involving the fire mitigation commitee i volunteered for. as it turned out, they were just doing some logistics and i didn’t really need to be there, so i left. but it took a while for me to get back into it.

it’s at a point now where it sings, which is always the goal and the vision. as the eye roams the surface, blues show up just when you least expect it, and yet you feel that’s exactly where they belong. the reds of the garment worn by the main figure is muuch like a beating heart of the painting, and contribute significantly to the singing. the yellow horizontal up top aligns with the yellow triangle on the lower right. and the walking figure with his plaid shirt take the composition from abstraction just enough. right now, i don’t feel like there’s any more to do tomorrow on this one.

the work i just did made me appreciate even more this priceless quote from painter gary komarin, whose work i admire greatly.

“My paintings proceed without preconception. I paint to find out what it is that I am going to paint. I think of myself as a stagehand who sets up the conditions necessary for drama to unfold. The very best paintings are most often those that fail the most. Once a painting has achieved a life of its own, when it speaks back to you as a painter, this is a good place to be. For me, the best paintings are those that paint themselves.”

"working on gained vision LL" today /  by Philip Tarlow

gained vision ll, 80x20” oil on portrait linen, at the end of my painting day today

2:42 PM: i felt complete with gained vision I when i looked at it this morning, so i resumed working on gained vision II. it was very sketchy, so i did a lot, primarily on the lower half, but i made some interesting marks on the upper portion as well, fleshing out the walking figure from above, the main character in the series the good doctor.

of course, at the moment, the composition is dominated by the japanese woman in red. that vertical black mark starting at her left shoulder and going down, is all important to the composition as it stands. the curved creek branch above her head with the blue water & white bubbles takes the viewer to a very different dimension, as do the geometric yellow & green blocks of color.

where will she go next? i’d like to allow as much white space as possible, so we’ll see in the morning where she wants to go, if anywhere.

continued work on "gained vision L" and a 2020 ? oil i found in my storage /  by Philip Tarlow

2:41 PM: today is my first day back in the studio. although we got back monday evening, yesterday was devoted to organizing, unpacking, etc.

so, after the obligatory futzing around, i dove back in to gained vision I. it was a tricky thing to do, as it was pretty cool after i last worked on it, but there was too much white, and our friends dan & bryna agreed with that assesment when i brought it with us to carbondale & showed it to them.

so i did quite a bit today, while allowing some of the white spaces to continue breathing. with what i did today, i was reminded of gorky. his best compositions, while they were heavily worked on, scraped over & repainted,

squeezing out the colors from the tubes this morning

gained vision on 6/21 23

gained vision I as it looked following today’s changes

2017 tarlow study of a painting by archile gorky

untitled creekscape on 2 16x20” canvases i just discovered in my storage, most likely painted in 2020

returning to the studio tomorrow /  by Philip Tarlow

2:54 PM: i’ll be returning to my studio tomorrow to resume work on both gained vision I & II. i’ll arrive bright & early, since mikela has to leave early for school. we had a great weekend visiting with our dear friends in carbondale, about 4 hours drive from crestone. while we were there, i made a small colored pencil drawing of the view from their living room, with a view of their back yard and in the foreground, a portion of their piano, draped in a beautiful fabric.

starting "gained vision II" 80x20"/203x51 cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

2:56 PM: i wasn’t sure whether or not gained vision was resolved or not, so i cut a new piece of the portrait linen & started gained vision II. at this early stage, they have some of the same compositional elments. i do feel that i learned a lot from gained vision so i’m taking it a bit slower and alllowing it to transport me to new places.

i won’t be in the studio again till tuesday of next week, giving it a chance to ripen while i’m away. whereas yesterday’s painting was specifically sized for the wall in our house where it will hang, this one is taller, and has roughly the same dimensions as the paintings in my sound of a flute series, which you can view on this page of the site: https://www.philiptarlow.com/sound-of-a-flute


work contnues today on "gained vision" /  by Philip Tarlow

11:56 AM: in about 45 minutes, my friend david will come pick me up so that we can walk up cottonwood creek. he requested that i join him so that he & another friend, pater, could look through my eyes at the creek in a more “spiritual wholistic way” not sure what i can offer, but i guess we’ll see in 45 minutes!

so i just completed the next stage of gained vision, which as you know, i started work on yesterday. it’s a piece commissioned by mikela, for this wall in our house, adjacent to the kitchen on the upper floor.

gained vision by the way, comes from the title of a 17th c. chinese painting titled the forest of gained vision, or, in chinese, deyanlin gushi.

BELOW: the wall where gained vision will hang/ at work on the painting this morning / my work area today

gained vision 64x18”/162.5x45.75cm. at the end of my painting day today

starting my commission: "gained vision," 64x18"/162.5x45.75cm. /  by Philip Tarlow

3pm: why do i so love commissions? for starters, my personality type is random abstract, which in essence means that if you give me a direction i like, with few restrictions, i’m full speed ahead.

so a few days ago, mikela pointed to one of the walls in the area of our living room adjacent to our kitchen, and asked if i could make a painting with those dimensions for that wall. i immediately broke out the tape measure, took the measurements and, this morning, cut the canvas from the new roll of my favorite artfix extra smooth portrait linen, made the preliminary drawing & started painting.

this is phase one, and we’ll see where it takes me tomorrow. but i’m very excited!

revisions to jazz 13 & 16 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:28 PM: this morning i had to drive to salida, and by the time i got back it was too late to start something new.

so i made a few revisions to jazz 13 and jazz 16, which you see BELOW. the revisions were mostly to the figures, and it was a great pleasure to revisit these two jazz series paintings. now more than ever i can envision them hanging together. i’m feeling that may happen in 2024, and i’m in the process of searching for the right venue. i’ve been thinking of doing a benefit exhibition, and am in conversation about that.

jazz 13 following today’s revisions

jazz 16 following today’s revisions

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003 / more work on jazz 15/ HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:06 PM: jazz 15 as it looked following the work i did this morning

12:51 PM: i mixed a warm grey color using 3 different greys, black & a tad of cadmium red medium. then i proceeded to grey over all the compositional elements i found distracting after working on the skateboarder’s left leg & face/neck.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! my Dad, Roy Tarlow, in NYC, 2003

10:27 AM: good morning my friends! i’m back in the studio, as promised, following a 2 day trip; just back from santa fe yesterday afternoon.

here’s my palette for this morning’s work on jazz 15, which i worked on a few days ago and is not yet singing.

the reason you see all those flesh tones is that i’ll be working on the left leg of the skateboarder.

once i’m done with that, i’ll see where this want to go as a composition.

jazz 15 on june 15th