"still life with refugees" / April 22, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*still life with refugees,* 42x42” as it looked just now, after adding the green bits in the center & lower right.

3:25 PM: i introduced a bit of green, which i knew was needed; i just didn’t have the gut feeling of where in the composition it needed to be, and i din’t want to force it. when i start painting earlyier in the day, i don’t think at all about what i’m going to do, but when it gets to be 3, not so much. it’s just a small amount of green, which however makes a big difference to the harmony of the composition.

BELOW: before (left) and afer adding the green; see what i mean?

*still life with refugees,* 42x42” oil & collage on linen, as it looked following todays session.

2:14 PM: the central portion of the composiiton was screwing up the works. using mostly warm greys and blues, i collaged over and then painted into that area, allowing ones eye to move more freely over the composition, which can still be considered a figurative abstraction. i pointed out the figures yesterday, and they remain the same, although i did put shoes on the guy doing a handstand, as well as giving a bit more definition to his hands.

"words & Worlds," continued / April 21, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*still life with refugees* 42x42” oil & collage on linen, as it looked following todays modifications

1:14 PM: once i made the changes to words & worlds yesterday, i felt ready to return to still life with refugees.

rather than enveloping the forms in blue, i used 3 colors: a warm grey, orange and blue, but a different blue than yesterday.

the circular form on the upperleft is a rice filled bowl and derives from a screenshot i made of a photo shot from above, of palestinean refugees cooking dinner in a makeshift setting, using a wood burning fire.

in addition to enlivening the entire painting, the bright colors i introduced today eliminate the unnecessarily complicated elements in the composition and allow the more compelling forms, such as the figure on the right doing a handstand and the guitar player on the upper left, to pop. the guitar player, by the way, is form a tv screenshot i took of the elton john/bernie taupin concert.

bluing words & worlds / workmen in plaka, 1978 / April 20, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*words & worlds”* 42x42” as it looked at 2pm today

BELOW: words and worlds before and after today’s bluing”

bluing words & worlds a little earlier today

1:19 PM: after going through many stages, words & worlds is now being what i call blued. here i’m still engaged in it.

2:38 PM: i had a great time brushing on that blue earlier today. my sense of composition as well as my sense of pure fun guided my brush as i painted over passages in the painting that, as i gazed at it this morning, were confusing and simply didn’t work. one might say that what i just did was a radical move. and it was.

what has shown up now are shapes floating in a blue background….or is it a foreground? some of the shapes are obviously identifiable, such as the woman on the right, the striding, plaid shirted figure beside her and of course the bird. others are biomorphic, suggestive shapes., leaving the interpretation to the observer.

personally, that feature in a painting that’s well painted is all important. it’s one of the chief reasons why i so love gorky who, along with mata and others of that period, was able to create “ a palpable discrepancy between artifact and affect, appearance and intent, the manifest identity of objectand the elusive identity of the author” (robert storr writing in “Archille Gorky, a Retrospective” 2010.

is this a breakthrough, a sign of things to come or a one-off?

*the plow and the song II,* gorky, 1946, 52 1/4 x 61 1/2”

*gorky* dancing an armenian dance at a wedding in 1944

*workmen in plaka,* 12”/31cm. x 24”/61cm. egg tempera on board, 1978

11:46 AM: in the ‘70’s, my studio was on the edge of the Plaka neighborhood, directly facing the ancient Tower of the Winds. half a block to my right was a building under renovation. the workmen interested me as subjects for painting, so i asked if any of them might be interested in posing. naturally, the most innocent ones responded, and that was the start of a series that would come to define my years in Greece.

most are in private and museum collections, but fortunately i had the good sense to hold on the this one, which is painted in egg tempera on board, 12”/31cm. x 24”/61cm.

learn more about my years in Greece by clicking on the GREECE link on the upper right of this page, or simply go to: https://www.philiptarlow.com/art-created-in-greece

still life with refugees tweaked / April 19, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

**2:51 PM**: *still life with refugees* 42x42”, following today’s tweak.

2:49 PM: the upper left portion of the composition was too heavy and interfering with the flow. so i went over it with a yellow-ish white, which i think did the trick.

BELOW: before (left) and after todays tweaks

still life with refugees, day 3 2:30 pm / April 18, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*still life with refugees,* 42x42” as it looked moments ago, after revising the band of color on the bottom

2:32 PM: as i said i would do earlier, i revised the band of color on the bottom of the composition, so the painting looks much better but still needs work. here’s a detail of one of the musicians from the collages i applied earlier today.

*still life with refugees* 42c42” as it looked at 2pm today

1:58 PM: i continued the modifications i strated this morning, working mostly on the perimeters of the painting. i’m not completely satisfies with the light blue horizontal band of color at the bottom, so that may change later today or tomorrow.

*still life with refugees,* day 3 12:20pm

12:35 PM: this morning i collaged some drawings i made of musicians playing at the elton john/bernie taupin gershwin prize concert on april 8th. i had shot photos from the tv and turned a few into drawings, with the intention of using them exactly as i did this morning.

words&worlds, day 9 / still life with refugees, day 2 / April 17, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*still life with refugees,* 42x42” day 3

3:48 PM: i painted sporadically throughout the day, going back & forth between these two paintings. i flipped still life with refugees as i sometimes do do avoid getting stuck on a particular composition. so elements of photos i shot a few years back of the acropolis museum views from above, as well as the guy doing a handstand, from the 2020 olympics celebration, have entered the picture.

both paintings are still in process and i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow.

words&worlds, day 8 / STILL LIFE WITH REFUGEES, DAY 1 / April 16, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

3:32 PM: this is day 1 of still life with refugees, 42x42”

*words & worlds* as it looked following the additions i mention below.

2:11 PM: as i began work on still life with refugees, i ambled across the work table to words & worlds. “black,” i thought. so i introduced some black to the upper left quadrant and then added some japonese inspired yellow patterning. earlier, i had introduced a few green marks inspired by a vuillard fabric in one of his master paintings, which have become an integral part of the composition.

12:56 PM: today i’ve got both paintings on my work table and am going back and forth between the new one and the previous words & worlds.

words & worlds, day 7 /israel-hamas, day 1 / April 15, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*words & worlds,* 42x42” oil&collage on linen, as it looked following the modifications i made this morning

12:16 PM: words & worlds seemed too busy when i made my first glance this morning. although i saw some beautiful passages and strokes, the composition as a whole seemed confusing; my eyes kept bouncing around and couldn’t find anyplace to land.

so i untroduced a warm grey around what i feel are the most striking, evocative forms and am moving on to a new one, the exact same size:42x42”

i’ll see how i feel about it later today.

3:47 PM: late this afternoon i started a new painting, which is also 42x42”

it’s inspired by photos i shot last night during a program about victims of the war in the middle east.

words & worlds, day 6 / April 13, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

3:20 PM: more collaging happened this morning. for example, on the mid-right you’ll see a collaged piece of a map of texas.

the bird on the left has appeared in earlier paintings; she likes showing off her black spots.

as a whole, comparing this to other recent paintings that are on the wall to the right and left of this one, there seems to be more certainty. the newly added blues and yellows make it pop. and, while there are human forms throughout, they are less distinct than in previous paintings in this series and integrate more into the composiiton as a whole.

"words & worlds" day 5 / April 12, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

1:21 PM: this morning was collage time. i made some ink drawings on a large roll of paper, then cut them up and collaged some of them onto words & worlds. as usual, they required careful smoothing out, using a few of the tools i have for that purpose. then i went into a few areas that needed simplification with white titanium-zink oil color, and added some drawing in siena where i felt it was needed.