celebration XVI, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XVI, 28x18 1/2” as it looked at the end of my painting day today

4:20 PM: i have three canvases left from my roll of portrait linen, each 28x18 1/2 “ i started work on the first canvas today, which is titled celebration XVI.

re-evaluating celebration XV & grey-over / SCROLL DOWN FOR A CA.1980 DRAWING I MADE OF HOCKNEY /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XV, 35x38” oil & collage on linen, as she looked moments ago

1:33 PM: it’s been thundering and growing darker, and the wind picked up and the rain started a little while ago, and the fragrances are dizzying. the heavier rain just kicked in as i’m typing this.

i’ve been continuing my grey-over process, occasionally adding a bit of blue and a few flesh tones. i went over some bits that i liked and was somewhat attached to, but it was necessary for the composition as a whole. she’s lookin’ good and i may stop here for the day.

12:13 PM: a short time ago, i began the greying over of celebration XV. why i take such delight in this always spontaneous, never planned ahead process, i can’t say. but it’s giving me immense pleasure, so i’m ging to get back into it now.

10:40 am: i got to my studio a tad later than usual. when i walked in & glanced at celebration XV, it seemed far too busy. so let’s see what i’m going to do about that!!

WEATHER: it’s clouded over and the temperature is only 66F. it’s usually higher at this hour. the prediction on keno is for possible thunderstorms throughouh the possibility of brief heavy rain/hail. this fore cast extends through monday, so we’ll so how it develops.

©TARLOW: drawing i made ca. 1980 of david hockney with his dog stanley

adding collage to celebration XV /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XV, 32x36” oil & collage on linen, after the collaging i did today

BELOW: celebration XV before (left) and after todays collaging

2:09 PM: after the collaging i did yesterday on celebration XIV, i was inspired to do the same with celebration XV, which i had considered resolved. what got me over the line was just how elegantly simple celebration XIV became as a rersult of the collaging.

so earlier this morning i made more reed pen ink drawings on light weight paper and cut them up into shapes typical of what i do. i brought them all over to where i had the painting resting flat on my table and began trying different pieces out in sections of the composition i felt could use some braking up, being careful not to collage over any critical passages containing figures.

when i compare the freshly collaged painting with the previous version, i think it’s mission accomplished. the newly collaged composition allows the eye to move more easily and naturally to the key figurative elemnts which now sing more of a harmonious song.

BELOW: details

celebration XIV /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XIV, 32x36” oil & collage on linen, as she looked moments ago

this afternoon, i returned to celebration XIV with a new vigor and enthusiasm, based upon the discoveries i made yesterday with celebration XV. it helped a lot that i was in the mood to add a couple of collaged pieces of quill drawings, made last week expressly for this purpose. had been lying on my painting table since then, and today their relevence announced itself.

earlier this morning, i knew it was time to tape, while it was still relatively cool, so in spite of what my logical mind was squauking about wasting my morning energy on this, i boldly strode 500 feet to the house with my step ladder and rolls of tape. i had been promising mikela for days that i’d tape the perimeter of the screen on the bedroom window, where mosquitoes were finding cracks and slipping in. so up i went on the studio step ladder and in 10 minutes, it was done. there’s NO way they can get into the bedroom now. of course in the process i got bitten a few times, buy hey….

as fresh as spring water: "celebration XV" / after sun on netflix: watch it!! /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XV 32x36” oil on linen as she looked moments ago

3:47 PM: i did more to celebratoin XV this afternoon, and flipped it 90 degrees. it’s getting late, and i’m getting hungry, so i’m leaving it as is till the morning.

celebration XV, 32x36” as it looked moments ago

1:14 PM: i did more work on celebration XV today, keepting it simple and fresh as spring water, with a little help from the unbelievable surface of my quadruple primed portrait linen, with practically no texture. a painterly painters dream!

STARTING CELEBRATION XV /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration XV, 32x36”, oil on linen, day 1

3:17 PM: TODAY I STRETCHED A NEW 32X36” LINEN CNAVAS AND STARTED WORK ON CELEBRATION XV. i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.

quacker modified / some 2023 creek drawings /  by Philip Tarlow

12:25 PM: this morning i made a slight modification to the central femail figure in quacker, giving her legs!

BELOW: quacker following modifications

quacker, 35x38” oil & collaged paper on linen, following modificatiions to the central female figure today

7:35 am: as soon as the mosquito season ends, in about 3 weeks, i’ll be going back up to the creek. i love sitting there by the rushing water and making drawings & paintings. the energy there is so high, i never know what i’m going to do, but it’s always fresh and lively, which i then bring back into my studio and surf on. elements of these plein air drawings/watercolors-collages can be discovered in all my recent work, if you examine it carefully.

on my story page: https://www.philiptarlow.com/chatty-bio you’ll learn a bit about my relationship with rock, going all the way back to my summers at birchwoods, the camp in the massachusets berkshires i attened as a kid, where the landscape was strewn with gorgeous rocks, as is crestone/baca.

"sangres sunset" day 5 /  by Philip Tarlow

sangres sunset, 16x66” oil on linen with collage as she looked moments ago

2:11 PM: work continues on sangres sunset, 16x66” which is now hroizontal with a dark warm grey background, a collaged piece of quill drawing on paper and additional figures.

she seems rather happy with herself, so i’m going to leave her alone for now.

PAINTING AS A PROCESS: the stages of this painting, which you see in the images below, are a good example of painting as a PROCESS. the initial inspiration came from a photo i shot from our house, of the sangre de christo mountains at sunset on july 5th, and then printed out, with the intention of making it into a panoramic painting.

next, figures entered the composition, which were interesting but not what i was envisioning. the following day, i whited over the composiiton and turned the canvas vertical, introducing a matisse inspired seated female figure. yesterday when i entered my studio and took one look, i knew it had to go, so i turned it horizontal once again and introduced some figures viewed from above, inspired by photos i shot in MOMA, nyc, some years ago, along with some archiectual elements of the museum interior.

today, i used a warm dark grey to go over much of yesterdays composition, collaged a cutout piece of a quill drawing i made this morning especially for this purpose and introduced several more figures, one of which is inspired by a photo i shot last year from a bridge overlooking the river in alamosa, a one hour drive from our house.

what we see when gazing at this painting today, are a series of figures punctuated by bits of the underlying stages and providing the eye with just enough marks and color to create what i consider to be a very cool painting!

BELOW: 5 stages of sangres sunset, starting july 6th, when i stretched the canvas.