thursday poem / acropolis LL continued… /  by Philip Tarlow

acropolis II 35x37”, oil on linen, as it looked just now, at the end of my painting day

2:24 PM: i thought i was done with acropolis II, but no, there was more to do in the floor area, and i can see now looking at it, there’s more i’ll do tomorrow. i like the reflected lights, which i guess balance out the yellow surrounding the guy in white, on the right. i want it to POP a bit more, but not too much. it’s always a delicate balance. but some day, someone gazing at this painting in a gallery or museum will take not of and appreciate these subtle strokes.

12:56 PM: the brownies are in the oven, this time cooked softer. i’m cutting 4 of my best portrait linen rolls into 35x37” pieces for the new stretcher bars arriving today.

THURSDAY POEM:

one more

one less if you like

you like

mein chairi

eene scared

of the far where u

are diaphenous

plenty agrieved

you are

giv mee yor

hand to skweez

like i do

oh oh oh

how we

muve togethr

the acropolis museum II continued /  by Philip Tarlow

2:47 PM: acropolis museum, 35x37”, oil on linen following my addition of dark hair on the male figure to the left

2:45 PM: before leaving the studio for the house, i gave the male standing figure some hair.

the acropolis museum 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked following todays session

1:48 PM: today the nude female figure is now clothed. and i made a number of other tweaks. once again, we’ll have to see in the morning how it strikes me. mikela came in on her way to school and gave me some very valuable feedback, as always, which was instrumental in the work i accomplished this morning.

so now, as soon as she’s back, we’ll go for a walk. i still have to be careful and walk more slowly than her so my pressure doesn’t rise too much because of my LANAP recovery.

the acropolis museum II, next stage /  by Philip Tarlow

the acropolis museum II 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked just now, following another round of work

2:19 PM: so after gazing at acropolis museum II for a while, i felt the 4 figures were too deliniated, preventing them from becoming an integrated part of the composition. so i whited over them a bit, then scraped into them and went back in with some blue lines surrounding the figures so that they didn’t fade too much. here’s where it’s at right now; i’ll have to see how i feel about it in the morning.

what i did today makes me wonder if it would be valuable to revisit a few of my recent paintings, such as this one, the drummer, and do something different with that pinkish ground surrounding the figures so that, as with this one, thet are more integrated into the composition as a whole.

i spent part of the day creating a video for the organization for which i’m volunteering, as a coach/mentor for ukranians who want to improve their spoken english. if i’m accepted, i’ll be having zoom sessions with a ukranian multiple times a week. during the period when i lived in greece, i taught/mentored students in spoken/written english, so i have some experience with that. i’ll likely ifnd out in the coming week whether i’ve been accepted as a volunteer.

the drummer, 35x37” oil on linen

11:01 AM: this morning i brought a fresh energy to acropolis museum II. i got to work as soon as my talk with mikela ended; she was driving to her appointments at the high school, 50 minutes away. our tradition as for us to talk as she drives so that, when she arrives, it’s as if no time has passed at all!

the acropolis museum II continued /  by Philip Tarlow

the acropolis museum II 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked moments ago

1:34 PM: i have a zoom in 25 minutes, so i’ll be brief and continue later. i re-worked the acropolis museum II (previously the acropolis) so that we are now looking at the interior of the museum, with visitors gazing at the exhibits. the pink i had added yesterday, combined with the yellow, blue and green with a touch of red create a very playful, visually stimulating composition, which i’ll continue working on tomorrow. this is an example of how working in layers, with the previous layer peeking through, is exciting to me and had become my natural process of developing a painting.

at work today on The Acropolis /  by Philip Tarlow

the acropolis on the studio floor after todays work. i can hang it tomorrow and take a better photo, when it’s dry & won’t drip

1:10 PM: i did a lot more work on the acropolis today, introducing the by now familiar figure of the jumping skateboarder.

the orchid, better photo / THE ACROPOLIS, DAY 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

the acropolis, 35x37” as it looks at the end of my painting day today

2:46 PM: i did a bit more work on the acropolis, then flipped it 180 and worked into it, with a bit of scraping & some of my favorite pink. that’s it for today!

the acropolis, 35x37”, oil on linen, as it looked moments ago

12:49 PM: it was suposed to be a snowy day, but the sun just broke through…so go figure!

i started a new painting a few hours ago which, at this early stage, is a view of the acropolis from a photo i shot on one of our many trips to athens to visit my son & grandkids. at some point, sooner than later, it will no longer be recognizable as a view of the acropolis with figures of tourists on the rocks, but as always, this first layer will inform and energize what’s next.

the orchid photographed on my studio wall today.jpg

10:46 AM: now that the oil paint has dried enough not to run down the canvas, i was ablt to hang it and take a much better shot than yesterday, when i had to shoot it lying ion the studio floor. it’s a cloudy, snowy day, so i had to use artificial lighting & it shows a bit darder than it really is.

the orchid, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

the orchid 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked today at the end of my painting day.

2:09 PM: i did more work on the orchid and stopped about an hour ago, when i ran out of juice. here she is lying on my studio floor till she dries enough tomorrow for me to hang it on the wall & take a good photo. as of now, the only thing remaining of the orchid is that bit of mauve blossom towards the upper right of the composition.

we’ll see how much i can get done tomorrow, when the skies will be dark & i’ll have to use artificial light.

12:50 PM: i dove back in to the orchid this morning, there are very few remaining indications that this was, until yesterday, jazz 14! i’m in the midst of working, so here are 2 pics of me at work moments ago.

as many of you know, i’m crazy about weather, so the forecast for a possible 18” of snow tonight through tomorrow night is very exciting. if it materializes, that will put us close to average precip. for the year. right now we’re in light to moderate drought.

the orchid, day 1 / better shot of the drummer /  by Philip Tarlow

2:17 PM: mikela bought a very beautiful orchid last week and put it on our kitchen counter. i’ve been looking at, or, more exactly, studying it ever since. this morning i shot a few photos, from above of course.

i printed one out this morning, after obeying orders from my printer to update the firmware. and then i launched into the orchid, 35x37” which is being painted over what used to be jazz 14, which i whited over last week. hard to keep up, eh?

i haven’t ever painted a flower this big, so it’s an exciting adventure, which is making me want to do more.

the drummer: i had the drummer lying flat on the cement floor all night, so this morning it was dry enough to hang on the wall without drips occuring, and i was able take much more accurate shots.

mid-day collage / the drummer pink-over /  by Philip Tarlow

the drummer, 35x37” as she looked at the end of my painting day today.

1:58 PM: following the work i did earlier, i went back in the the drummer. my challenge was the fact that it had become far too busy. by the end of the day yesterday, so i knew i was just going to have to leave it until today.

my first move was to mix up some pink oils in an old yoghurt container, consisting of titanium zinc white and two different reds. i applied it with one of my medium wide brushes, going around the figures i wanted to keep and painting over the ones i didn’t. yesterdays paint was, for the most part, dry enough to be able to pull that off without too much schmiring.

i have to keep it flat until the paint dries enough tomorrow to be able to hang it on the wall, which i did for about a minute to take a quick shot. you can see the resulting drops on the jumping skateboarder, which i like.

BELOW: the drummer yesterday & today

12:49 PM: i had a collage on paper sitting on my counter for months, and every time i glanced at it, i thought :”i’ve got to do morework on this.” so today i did. it may not be the final version, but it’s a whole lot better than it used to be!

the drummer, day 2 / sunset sky /  by Philip Tarlow

the drummer, 35x37” oil on linen, day 2 as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day today

3:22 PM: each day that passes since my lanap surgery last thursday finds me with less pain and more energy.

so today was spent taking the drummer to her next stage. there’s a lot going on here; perhaps too much. we’ll see in the morning. but there are passages i think work, and constitute a breakthrough of sorts. patterning has always been a core element in my work, as have views from above and the combining of different figures from very different sources. here, in the upper portion, we find the addition of a creekscape, with aspen trunks moving vetically through the composition and backing up to the olympic skateboarder diagonally above the drummer. it’s evolving in spurts, between snacks of mashed avocado on bread stripped of it’s crust, which i can’t yet eat.

the negative spaces in the olympic symbol read from afar as playful green dots, and the newly introduced figure of a viola player standing upright with his instrument seems to observe the play of form and color.

BELOW: the drummer on days 1 & 2

5:12 PM: after a cloudy, cold day with occasional flurries, the sun broke through at sunset.