celebration XII is now C-B XII/reclining woman /  by Philip Tarlow

C-B XII, reclining woman, 16x20” oil & collage on linen

1:47 PM: celebration XII was entering a territory i prefer to avoid: predictability.

so i worked into it, scraping, drawing with compressed charcoal and yes, occasionally glancing at deKooning’s women.

this is what has emerged thusfar from a burst of frenzied work. hints of the underlying painting remain, resulting in an enigmatic poetry of sorts; how, for example, the plaid shirt is incorporated into the reclining woman’s cheek.

i shortened title to C-B XII, reclining woman since spelling out celebration made it too long.

so if you take a look BELOW at yesterday’s version and compare with today’s, you can see for yourself what i mean when i say it was predictable. while the figures are animated and interesting visually, the composition as a whole is somewhat formulaic, especially if you have a look at previous paintings in this celebration series. while i continue to admire them as beautiful paintings, i think i reached the end of that road; that period.

BELOW: on the left: celebration XII as she looked yesterday, and right: C-B XII, reclining woman today

DETAIL of the woman’s face with the plaid shirt peeking through from the previous composition

celebration XII, further modifications today /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII 16x20” oil & collage on linen as she looked following my most recent modifications

3:40 PM: i wasn’t happy with the modifications i made this morning, so, just as i was about to leave the studio and return to the house, i made further modifications, replacing the grey with yellow plus a few more things, such as the pink horizontal stripe on the upper left.

celebration XII, 16x20” oil & collage on linen following today’s modifications

12:56 PM: i had taken celebration XII over to the house so that we could both evaluate. it became clear that it needed further work, so i brought it back this morning and made the modifications you see here. BELOW are the before and after images.

BELOW: celebration XII before (left) and after the modifications i made today

"celebration XII" tweaks /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII 16x20” after removing the collage and restoring the shadow in the center of the composition

3:30 PM: i had collaged a cut-out from an art magazine over the shadow of the figure in the center of the composition. due to heavy snow, i wasn’t able to be in the studio yesterday, but just before leaving on sunday afternoon, i decided the collaged piece was superfluous and was ruining the composition. so i tore it off. with it came some of the grey shadow underneath. so this morning, i brought that shadow back to it’s old self, and that’s all i’m going to do on this one.

BELOW: celebration XII with the collaged piece (left) and after removing and restoring it (right)

celebration XII: day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII, 16x20” as it looked moments ago, after this morning’s modifications

12:47 PM: after ging out in the snowy weather to get bannanas, i returned to the studio full of SUNDAY energy, had my breakfast and launched back in to celebration XII.

at the end of the day yesterday, it was a nice oil sketch but with no kishkes, which is yiddish for GUTS. so, following the advice of matisse, i let the process dictate where to go next. in addition, when mikela saw it she suggested some collage.

now there are 3-4 collaged areas; either pieces of quill drawings i made for this purpose, highlighted with colored pencil; or cut up pages from an old art magazinei had on my bookshelf.

i daresay the result is rather handsome, not to mention stunning! goode jobbe, flipper!

Celebration XII, 16x20" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XII, 16x20”

3:23 PM: before stretching some new 35x38” canavses, i decided to make a new celebration series painting on an already stretched 16x20” linen canvas. it’s a simpler one, with no collaged elements, no scraping or paint-overs. just 6 figures in a museum and their shadows, viewed from above, plus the walking figure in the plaid shirt, but i haven’t painted the blue plaid stripes.

tweaks to "celebration XI" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XI 36x44” following this mornings tweaks

1:09 PM: before moving on and stretching a new canvas, i made some tweaks to celebration XI, 36x44”

mikela pointed out that the hat on the figure to the left, seen from above looking at his phone, needed to pop more. so i accented that red patterning on the blue ground and added a few white accents that are actually there in the original.

the leaf patterning on the lower right now extends a little into the yellow ground, plus a few other minor details.

continued work on "celebration XI" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XI, 36x44” oil & collage on portrait linen as it looked following todays work

1:23 PM: i continued painting celebration XI. as following the path created by the previous celebration series works, blue-green & yellow dominate, figures overlap, are scraped and engage with the new pieces of collage; either pieces of quill pen black & white drawing or cutout pieces from art magazines.

BELOW: celebration XI as she looked yesterday (left) and just now, at 2pm

"celebration X" a slight modification / continued work on “celebration XI” /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration X 36x44” oil & collage on linen, following today’s tweaks

celebration XI 36x44” as she looked following the work i did today

3:20 PM: today i made some minor changes to celebration X and continued work on celebration XI.

the blue mark to the right of the figure (mikela) creates mor balance in the composition. a collaged piece of drawing has been added to celebration XI, as well as a new figure, above the guy with the patterned trousers. tis figure, see from above, derives from photos i shot some years ago in athens, greece, and is one of a number of people millling about on a heavily trafficked main street near kolonaki square, where i lived for 15 years, and around the corner form the gallery i showed at during that period: skoufa gallery. visit this page on my site for more images of paintings i made during that period: https://www.philiptarlow.com/art-created-in-greece

12:47 PM: i was rushed when i posted a photo of the painting i took with my iphone 2 days ago, and yesterday we were in colorado springs and i didn’t have my laptop, so this morning i took a much better shot with my nikon, which i was able to adjust while looking at the original hanging on the wall, so here she is.

2 travel drawings / /  by Philip Tarlow

i was looking through some old travel drawings sketchbooks this morning and especially liked these two. the guy on the left is asleep on the ferry to the cycladic island of andros; on the right is a patient asleep in the dermatologist’s waiting room.

whiting over “celebration X” and “celebration XI” / a 2020 plein air watercolor /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XI, 36x44” after whiting it over and introducing a drawing of mikela, oil on quadruple primed portrait linen

celebration X, 36x44” as she looked following today’s whiteover

2:23 PM: i whited over celebration XI, leaving only a portion of the figure with the blue outlined shirt and the figure, viewed from above, of the guy in the checker patterned trousers looking at this phone. as often happens, the white-over has created a mysterious image and has given her lots of breathing space. the white oil paint was kind of thick and runny, so in order to prevent dripping, which i sometimes like but didn’t want in this case, i had to lay it on the studio floor and photograph it from above, standing on a step stool & using my iphone instead of my nikon.

2:01 PM: i whited over almost all of celebration XI earlier today and introduced a drawing in grey oil inspired by a composite photo i shot at some point in the past…at least a decade ago…of mikela holding a mirror and adjusting her hair. i’ll probably wait till tomorrow for the next stage to reveal herself.

6/19/2020 plein air creek watercolor

12:11 PM: this is one of my plein air creek watercolors, painted in june, 2023. panting plein air at the creek is indescribably wonderful on all levels: the frangrances; the sound of the rushing water; and the kind of observation only possible during the act of painting on site.