"the orchid" reworked /  by Philip Tarlow

the orchid 35x37” as it looked after my rework. BELOW are before & after images

1:42 PM: the more i gazed at the orchid, which i last worked on november 24, the more the ground color annoyed me. it took over the composition and didn’t allow the figures, which were too heavily outlined, to play their part in the composition. in short, it wasn’t working.

so this morning i placed it on my painting table and began reworking it. the bright pink ground is now a muddy pink; the new section on the upper right is inspired by 18th c. japanese scrolls i’ve been studying, as are the white verticals, and a faint reminder of the floor of the acropolis museum has appeared on the lower left. the woman with the red shoulder bag is new as well.

BELOW: Ithe orchid before and after today’s modifications

DETAIL of the reworked the orchid

argolid continued /  by Philip Tarlow

argolid, 38x36” as it looked ar rge end of my painting day today

2:09 PM: just wrapping up for the day after doing additional work on argolid, which is currently a creek-scape.

i kinda like the big tree trunk on the right of the composiotion, which has the markings of the bark without the color of the tree trunk itself. as i often mention, this is something that subtly takes it a step away from description and closer to meaningful patterning. i shoul say playful patterning.

that orange tinted rock has an even more pronounced color in reality, and the white-ish one is even whiter

this detail shows a few of the blues i put in on my second round of work this afternoon.

12:37 PM: after whiting over argolid 2 days ago and enjoying the sublties of what remained on the surface, i felt the urge to use a couple of my hundreds of creek photos and see what i do.

thus far, i’m having a very good time. although we haven’t been on the trail we walked when i shot these for maybe 3-4 years, i remember every detail. you might say i have a photographic memory for rocks, branches & water. but defintely not numbers!

recent paintings hanging in the studio / "the drummer" from pink to grey /  by Philip Tarlow

2 recent paintings currently hanging on the east wall of the studio

the drummer, 35x37” after painting over the pink ground with warm grey.

BELOW: the drummer before and after the shift from pink to grey this morning

1:50 PM: the drummer, 35x37”, had been hanging on my studio wall since i introduced the pink ground, on november 22. today, i glanced at it just as i was starting to work on the next stage of argolid (see yesterday’s post) and suddenly, that pink bugged me!

so i set argolid aside and went into the drummer with the dark warm grey i’ve been favoring lately. the two vertical pinks on the upper left are deliberate, and are in my opinion critical to the entire composition.

there are two dominant figures in this painting: the drummer on the lower left and the jumping skateboarder on the upper right. the familiar figure of the woman with the red shoulder bag has appeared often in recent paintings and, although smaller than the others, is an important compositional element.

my signature and the date have remained on the pink ground, surrounded by grey and now acting as a subtle balance in the overall composition.

my signature and the date remain on the pink ground

"argolid" whiteover / “acropolis museum LL adjustments /whiteover of “rhyton” /  by Philip Tarlow

rhyton, 28x24” oil & collage on linen following this afternoon’s whiteover

2:26 PM: iwas in a whitover mood today, so after whiting over argolid (see below) , next on my list was rhyton, which was way too blue.

acropolis museum II following the work i just did, introducing blues and yellows.

1:24 PM: i’ve been gazing at acropolis museum II, hanging on my south studio wall, since the last time i worked on it, november 30. something was bothering me, and when mikela came over to look at my latest work yesterday aftewrnoon, i suddenly saw there was too much white. so just now i worked back into it with blues and yellows. i think it has improved.

BELOW: THE NOVEMBER 30 VERSION IS ON THE LEFT

12:10 PM: argolid had become too congested and was too much me attempting to repeat the successes of yang. so away it went, under a flurry of white brush strokes. the few spots that peek through are, unexpectedly, turning this into a painting i could gaze at for extended periods! and gaze i will, as i leave it hanging on my east painting wall and move on to other things.

"argolid" continued /  by Philip Tarlow

2:49 PM: ……and one more tweak down at the bottom before leaving to take our trail walk.

argolid, 38x36”. as it looked at the end of my painting day and after rubbing out the foliqage at the bottom

2:22 PM: after more gazing at argolid and while the paint was still wet, i rubbed out the foliage on the bottom, which was coming more from my head than my gut. glad i caught that; it would hve been harder to rub out tomorrow! but now it may need something down there….blue perhaps…we’ll see…

argolid, 38x36” following this morning’s work

1:27 PM: this morning, after gazing at argolid while having breakfast, while i loved how it came across, i felt more was needed.

i may have done a bit too much, but for now i’m going to leave it. i think the foliage and the flying insect enrich the composition without crowding it; time will tell. below are two details.

"argolid" continued /  by Philip Tarlow

argolid, 38x36” as it looked moments ago. the reflections are due to the still wet paint; i can shoot a better pic tomorrow

2:34 PM: it took me a few hours to get into painting mode. when i did, i worked on argolid, introducing the warm grey background color, more sketched in figures from above and the dark grey dots of color that appeared yesterday in yang.

argolid, 38x36” on my painting table as i worked on it.

"nude by the creek" transforms and is now "yang" /  by Philip Tarlow

1:53 PM : hard to keep up, eh? inspired by 17th c. chinese painting, nude by the creek has now become yang. a fold-out image from mai mai sze’s classic series of volumes gave me the path i’d been waiting for. figures from my menagerie of acropolis museum visitors integrate beautifully with the delicate patterning. a frog and a flying insect seem right at home with the meandering figures viewed from above.

i ran out of steam a little while ago, so i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.

tweaks to "acropolis V" / whiteover of "nude by the creek" / whiteover of “argolid” /  by Philip Tarlow

argolid, 38x36” as it looked after the whiteover and the start of my initial new composition

2:45 PM: i had about enough of all that bright blue in argolid, so i whited over it and started working into it. i cut my left index finger this morning with my new super sharp bread knife. i’ve got it all bandaged up but as soon as i take the bandage off to change it, blood gushes out. hoping it doesn’t need stiches…we’ll see tomorrow.

acropolis museum V, 35x37” as it looked following my tweaks to the undergarment of the jumping skateboarder

11:54 AM: i got an early start this morning, and was able to work on the same two paintings i was working on yesterday.

on acropolis V i made some minor improvements to the same jumping female skateboarder as yesterday. on nude by the creek, i whited over the entire painting, but with a thin enough layer of paint as to allow some of yesterdays version to peek through, giving the newly painted figures something to stand on. the white oil paint picked up some of the still fresh layer from yesterday, giving it a pinkish hue. the by now familiar figures of the acropolis museum visitors: the woman with the red bag and the couple are drawn in, with only suggestions of flesh tones.

nude by the creek as it looked at noon today