3:32 PM: today i took celebration 19 further, and applied 2 pieces of paper with calligraphic brush markings.
earlier this morning, i discovered an abandoned collaged canvas. it had some interesting elements, which caught my eye. so i cut off the best portion, which now sits in a little frame beneath one of my small closets used for storing sketchbooks.
collaging celebration 19
celebration 19 as she looked at the end of my painting day today
approaching storm, 18x44.5cm. oil & collage on linen
2:52 PM: i started a new painting today, on a canvas i had already stretched a few weeks back, which is 38x20”. it loosely follows the composition of the one i just completed: celebration XVIII., but there’s different bird, which for the moment is the only thing to which i’ve applied oil color, and o fcourse the dimensions are different. let’s see where she takes me tomorrow.
celebration 19 38x20” oil on linen, as she looked just now
celebration XVIII 28x18 1/2” oil on linen at the end of my painting day today
2:49 PM: i continued work, albeit gingerly, on celebration XVIII today and, other than a few tweaks i’ll make tomorrow, it’s resolved. i wanted there to be a lot of white space and at the same time to be a composition with grace and elegance. i purposely left the two figures as just drawings; the tennis player and the guy holding a document he’s reading. the tennis player’s magenta shadow is there, and plays off the violets and blues in the bird’s feathers. tomorrow i’ll extend the brown tree trunk the rest of the way up to that red line, which is where the cnavas will be folded over & attached to the stretcher bars. same with the light blue curved line on the bottom, which needs to go another inch down.
celebration XVIII 28x18 1/2” at the end of my painting day today
3:53 PM: today i started work on the third of 3 28x18 1/2” linen canvases. i have a good feeling about this one. let’s see what tomorrow brings!
3:51 PM: this afternoon i went back into celebration XVII, which had an appealing simplicity yesterday but wasn’t really me. i worked into it, scrubbed it out, scraped over it and continued like this till 15 minutes ago, when i was just to exhausted to continue.
so here’s how i left her. there’s a nude on the left and a mother in a bathing suit seated on a patterned fabric with her baby on the right.
celebration XVII as she looked at the end of my painting day today
3:06 PM: i made significant modifications to celebration XVI, which i started yesterday, and started celebration XVII. they are both on the 28x18 1/2” pieces of remaining portrait linen, which i’m using while awaiting delivery of the new roll, probably wednesday-thursday.
celebration VXI as she looked moments ago, following extensive modifications to yesterdays version
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.
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
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, 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….
