day 3 of "Figures from Above II" / October 17, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*figures from above II,* 35x37” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3:41 PM: figures from above II II is now a very different painting. but what came before, what’s underneath provides the underlying hints of color and form.

i wasn’t satisfied with the painting, and when i walked in this morning, what i saw did have redeeming features, but it was at bottom an attempt to make a next stage figures form above I.

the skateboarder is now the centerpiece. she has appeared in previous paintings, including a couple of goaches on paper.

day 2 of "figures from above II" / October 16, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*figures from above II,* 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day today

3:32 PM: i worked a longer day than usual on figures from above II. while it has some of the elements that were in the painting yesterday, there are many new additions to the composition, as you’ll see when you compare the two, BELOW. it’s definitely not singing it’s song fully yet, but it’s humming a melody that gives us many clues as to that that song will be.

it reveals a delicate balance between abstraction and realism. the figures seen from above, along with the flower patters inspired by 18th C. japanese art, are fast becoming a part of my alphabet. the more i introduce them, the greater certainty i have about how to paint them, so that fewer and fewer brush strokes can communicate everything we need to know.

BELOW: day 1 & today

starting figures from above II / facebook post today about tsarouchis / October 15, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*figures from above II,* 35x37” day one, as it looked at the end of my painting day today.

2:28 PM: i started figures from above II and will continue tomorrow, when i anticipate the composition will become more cohesive and interesting, having to do with the positioning of the figures as well as the background colors and how they’re distributed. the clincher in figures from above I was, i believe, the introduction of decorative leaf and blossom shapes, derived from 18th c. japanese prototypes.

11:21 AM: figures from above I seems resolved, so i’m starting figures from above II today. more as i progress on the drawing.

this morning i posted about yannis tsarouchis; here’s a screen shot…for the complete post go to facebook.

"figures from above" day 4 / October 14, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*figures from above* 35x37” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

2:28 PM: we’re going up the creek trail in half an hour & today i’m bringing crayons instead of colored pencils, so we’ll see how that goes….i’ll post what i do later this afternoon.

this morning i took figures from above a bit further, proceeding slowly, listening to where she wants to go next. it’s richer than yesterday, and brings to mind a study i made of an archile gorgy painting in 2017.

"figures from above" day 3 / October 13, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*figures from above* 35x37” here’s how it looked at the end of my short painting day today. BELOW: day 2 & today’s version

2:56 PM: i had a meeting from 10 to 12:30 today, so i couldn’t get to work untill a few hours ago. when i arrived at the studio, i spotted a large deer with big horns and a wound on his side. the same buck was seen about a week ago by someone doing work on our house. he called me out back to see him but he had moved on. joe, the guy who saw him, said he had an arrow sticking out of his side and was limping. i called colorado parks & wildlife to report seeing him, since we discovered they already knew about him and were trying to find him. they didn’t pick up, so i left a message.

looks like he survived for at least a week, but needs either to be put down or cared for and healed. i called CPW again after seeing him, but once again they didn’t pick up and i had to leave a message. i was able to grap my phone and take a quick, blurry shot.

BELOW: the painting yesterday & today

the wound on the side of the buck who had an arrow in his side last week

figures from above, day 2 / October 12, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

2:21 PM: i took figures from above a bit further today, adding pinks, reds, blues & greens with some pale black., then doing a scrape with one of my larger scraping tools.. it’s too early to know where she’s headed; i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow, after the 10am Baca Land Trust meeting, which will probably run till noon.

starting “figures from above” / more changes to tennis/skateboarding panorama / October 11, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

day 1 of: *figures from above* 35x37” oil on linen

2:41 PM: following the work i did this morning on tennis/skateboarding panorama, i started work on a new one: figures from above, which is 35x37” oil on linen. right now, what we see is a melange of some of my favorite figures, all seen from above. the only area that’s filled in with a violet color is the shadow of the jumping skateboarder in the center of the composition. a couple i photographed in salida sits on the rocks overlooking their two kids; a woman with her shoulder bag stands on the museum floor; another woman on the museum floor looking intently at her phone….life, in other words.

*tennis/skateboarding panorama,* 19.5x80” following this morning’s changes

11:45 AM: this morning i made more changes to tennis/skateboarding panorama, eliminating the pink ground i added yesterday. it wasn’t working with the greens, blues and yellows. in addition, a bit of scraping has unified the entire composition, which seems resolved as i gaze at it from about 20 feet.

recent paintings keep each other company on my south studio wall

scraping and adding pink to jazz 20 / tennis/skateboarding panorama / October 10, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

*tennis/skateboarding panorama,* 19 1/2 x 80” this is an older painting i found in my storage room

4:22 PM: after working on jazz 20, i began re-working an older painting that was sitting in my storage room. it’s 19 1/2x 80” and it was partially painted with some figures. so i added 3 more figures: 2 skateboarders & a tennis player. right now, i’m calling it tennis/skateboarding panorama, but that name probably won’t stick.

*jazz 20,*35x37” as it looked following an application of pink oil paint i mixed earlier and then scraped into

10:59 am: my day wouldn’t be complete without some scraping, right? it seems to be the hallmark of my current way of working, eliminating the predictability of preciseness. you can’t predict what exactly will happen when you take a spatula and scrape across a freshly oil-painted surface. on the other hand, it’s not completely random, and does have a lot to do with how your arm and hand move, in a way that totally reflects your gut. your GUT!

continued work on “jazz 20” / july, 2020 creek drawing discovered / tweaks to "jazz 13" / October 9, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

3:45 PM: i did quite a bit more work on jazz 20 this afternoon, as you can see if you compare it with the image in my 1pm post. it’s looking a bit dark right now, and that will likely change tomorrow.

*jazz 20* 35x37” as it looked moments ago. i’m continuing to work on it right now…

1 pm: following the tweaks i made to jazz 13, i moved on to jazz 20. the pale yellow i used to paint over previous stages of this painting is proving to be a very interesting ground for the figures i’m introducing. they have all appeared in earlier jazz series paintings. the paddlers first showed up in paintings i made in 2021, after discovering and photographing them from the bridge above the river just outside alamosa, colorado; about 50 miles east of our home in crestone. i’ll continue painting for another few hours & see where she takes me next.

july 2020 creek drawing in colored pencil

11:10 AM: yesterday while thumbing though an old drawing pad, i came across this july, 2020 creek drawing.

10:51 PM: i made a few tweaks to jazz 13, mostly to the female figure on the right.

and now, i’m continuing work on the many layered jazz 20, which was lightly painted over in pale yellow 2 days ago and is now dry enough to work into.

plein air watercolor II and plein air watercolor/collage I / October 8, 2023 by Philip Tarlow

4:51 PM: as i said yesterday, this weather is just too good to pass up going to the creek to paint plein air watercolors. the first one i did i was too in my head, attempting to replicate the immediacy of what i did yesterday. of course that never works. so the first one got way too busy, and when i returned to the studio, i collaged over some of it, which i think was an improvement.