the bar, 16x20” following today’s modifications
2:29 PM: i continued work on the bar, 16x20”
i lightened the graphite grey i used yesterday, permanantly attached the cut out paper figure of the woman, then painted into it, making a pattern on her dress. i also introduced some suggestions of curved green lighting supports overhead
the bar, 18x20” at 3:15pm today
1:30 PM: lotsa changes this morning to the bar….for the better i think.williamsburg graphite grey is a new favorite color, which i’ve employed to reduce the background confusion and allow the figures to pop. i’m using some new oil colors i recently got, including W-N copper, which is more interesting than i expected. if you want to learn what it looks like, that’s what i used for the bottles just above the bartender’s arm.
the central female figure is now clothed, and the figure of the bartender is a bit more defined. as a composition, there’s enough white space remaining to balance the graphite greys, and the forms are definitely relecting all that i’ve been reading and absorbing every evening in the matisse bio.
3:15: i cut out a piece of white paper and stuck it over the femaile figure, which was bugging me.
but now i’m liking that white piece of paper! it works compositionally and adds mystery to the whole.
it’s being held in place by the wet oil paint underneath. but tomorrow, i may peel it off and attach it permanantly with some adhesive i have, designed for something like this.
DETAIL: the bartender with the W&N copper bottles
this is the link to view my drawings from greece: https://www.philiptarlow.com/drawings-from-greece
the bar, 16x20”, following the changes i made at 3pm
3:20 PM: i made a few last minute changes before walking out the door to meet mikela for our afternoon walk up the trail.
2:53 PM: i started a new one today: the bar, 16x20” it’s inspired by a b&w photo i shot last week. this is of course a very early stage & will continue in the morning, after my zoom with my ukrainian buddy.
the bar 16x20” oil on portrait linen, day 1
PAINTERLY: (of a painting or its style) characterized by qualities of color, stroke, and texture rather than of line."Botticelli is a linear painter, whilst Rembrandt's work would be considered painterly"
the last supper, 38x20” after scraping into the graphite grey
2 PM: i scraped into the graphite grey a little; i felt after gazing at her for an hour, that it read too much as an unbroken black, and thus needed some very light texture, created by scraping. i think it worked, which is making it easier to appreciate her without getting stuck.
if you compare with the image i posted an hour ago, you’ll notice the subtle but significant difference.
1 PM: i’ve been bugged all along that this painting was a prisoner of it’s title: the last supper. and i’ve had a growing desire to treat it as i would any other painting; as a play of forms and color in space. so, earlier this morning, i removed it from my east painting wall, laid it on my painting table, and felt a strong desire to use black. well, not really…it’s called graphite grey by williamsburg, the manufacturers of this oil paint. i’m biased towards them because they’re located in williamsburg, brooklyn, where i was born.
so now, as i look at it on my wall, it reads as a painterly painting, and not a group of people having dinner. as with my other recent paitings with figures viewed from above, my eye is taken on a journey, i’m left to create my own story about what’s going on, but more importantly, i revel in the interplay of reds, greens, blues and BLACK!
it took long enough, but it was worth the wait!
2:01 PM: after working on today’s breakfast drawing/colllage, i shifted my attention back to the last supper, which i began revising yesterday. the yellows were too strong and it needed some patterning in the upper left. there’s an obvious improvement when i gaze at it deom my computer desk, about 16 feet away.
the last supper following today’s revisions
BELOW: the last supper on 8/24, yesterday and today (right)
1/6/24 breakfast drawing 10x8” mixed media & collage on paper
11:20 AM: while having breakfast, i continued my new tradition of making or at least starting a 8x10”drawing/collage.
1:02 PM:i worked and re-worked this one until just moments ago. i think this one will definitely be included in my april exhibition in houston.
this is a self portrait drawing i made 10 years ago, in 2014
self portrait drawing in ink on paper, 2014
the last supper before (left) and after the revisions
2:01 PM: the last time i worked on the last supper was 5 months ago: august 23. since then i’ve been casting critical glances at it. i knew it needed work, but i wasn’t ready to jump in till a few hours ago. don’t ask why, but it definitely has to do with the direction my work has been taking since then, and what i’ve learned in the interim. i may do more tomorrow morning when i’m fresh. do you see the pup that entered the composition, and the fire in the fireplace? the title, by the way, derives from the fact that this dinner was, in fact, the last time that some of those present would find themselves together before most of them have eft crestone.
1/5/24 breakfast drawing/collage, 9x6”
12:05 PM: i started this one during breakfast and my zoom with my ukrainian buddy, and continued working on it till a few minutes ago.
it includes watercolor, colored pencil, oil stick (the green stripe on the bottom & the pink vertical mark just above & to the left of it) and collaged pieces of maps, an old paper oil palette & a cutout from a magazine. i flipped it all 4 ways and settled on this as the one i think works best.
1/4/24 breakfast drawing/collage 6x9” colored pencil, oil pastel, ink & collage on paper
11:34 AM: i made a 2024 new years resolution to always have a drawing/sketch book at my side. so in keeping with that, i made a drawing/collage while having my breakfast in the studio.
2:35 PM: the yellows needed brightening up, so here’s the current state, at the end of my painting day and just before leaving to take our trail walk.
1:42 PM: after my zoom with my ukranian buddy this morning, i wandered about the studio aimlessly, searching for the book i was studying a few days ago, with an image that excited me. no luck. so about 12:30, which is the time my flow usually kicks in, i did more work on by the creek, which seemed to be asking for something more.
1:47 PM: this is yesterday’s momoyama tweaked.
i last worked on yang december 19th, but i didn’t get around to stretching it till this morning. it’s always so much easier to look at a painting when it’s stretched and doesn’t have that white border around it.
yang 37x35” oil on linen i stretched it this morning & it’s as if i’m seeing it for the first time!
momoyama, 24x26” at the end of my painting day today
2:45 PM: after completing work on by the creek, i found a 24x26” canvas sitting on the floor. it had been painted over and i can’t find a record of what was underneath, so i named it momoyama and began work on it after painting over the surface with the same yellow i used on by the creek. then ip proceeded to introduce 2 figures, and we’ll see what happens on the first day of 2024!
by the creek 37x35” as it looked at 1pm today
1:13 PM: i was intending to put by the creek aside and stretch some smaller canvases today. but, after reading another few pages of the unknown matisse last night, i had made a note to myself to check out le bonheur de vivre and when i studied that 1905 breakthrough masterpiece, i just couldn’t resist painting over that overloaded composition with yellow and working into it with some of my familiar figures viewed from above.
from a review of the book: This book tells the story with clarity and literary skill so as to make the book almost un-put-downable. It is mandatory reading for any layperson seeking to understand Matisse and his work. It is recommended reading for anyone seeking to know Matisse better than any other source will allow
a burst of energy took over, lasted for a little over an hour and now i’m going to leave it, since anything further that i do today will be coming from my head.
le bonheur de vivre, matisse, 1905 5.6x8 feet
