more modifications to the ever changing "celebration 19" / July 31, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

**2:59 PM**: *celebration 19* following the addition of a dancing femaile figure with patterned shorts

2:57 PM: after gazing at it for a few hours, i felt it needed something. so i added the femaile dancing figure who has appeared and previous compositions. those checkered shorts and bare breasts add zing.

*celebration 19* 20x38” oil on portrait linenm as it looked following extensive modifications this morning

11:30 AM: this morning before even having my breakfast, i made new modifications to celebration 19.

i employed only two colors in these modifications: black & white. some scraping was invloved, and i used a rag soaked with odorless mineral spirits to remove unwanted areas that had been painted over.

the result is looking more in the direction of my heroes, deKooning/gorky/freud/vuillard/and yes…rembrandt than the previous state. in other words, more painterly, which is always what i strive for. what stands in the way, with hands on hips, is my f—-ing MIND!

BELOW is the previous version, which now looks to me like an interesting composition with a centrally located large bird.

*celebration 19* as she looked yesterday afternoon

celebration 19 simplification / July 30, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*celebration 19* 20x38” following the white-overs i did just now

12:30 PM: i don’t have much time in the studio today because of a dental appointment, so i whited over some of the passages that i deemed unecessary and we’ll see in the morning if and what else i might do.

celebration 19, day 4 / July 29, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*celebration 19* as she looked at the end of my painting day today

3PM: i made some further modifications to celebration 19, and here’s how she looks at the end of my painting day.

*celebration 19* 20x38” following this mornings modifications to the bird

12:23 PM: well, i thought celebration 19 was complete, but that bird on it’s side was bugging both of us, so i painted a different one over it.

celebration 19, day 3 & 2 works on paper from 2020 & 2012 / July 28, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

4:03 PM: after stretching a new canvas using my just delivered portrait linen & the 36x32” stretcher bars i had ordered last week, i got back into celebration 19. as i was flipping through some older works on paper, i came across these two untitled pieces, which now have the titles: papua and starflower. i made a few modifications to papua, which is why it’s dated 2012/2024.

celebration 19, day 2 / “approaching storm” / July 27, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

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.

*approaching storm,* 18x44.5cm. oil & collage on linen

celebration 19, day 1 / July 26, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

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, day 2 / July 25, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*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.

starting celebration XVIII / July 24, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*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!

celebration XVII reworked / July 23, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

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 XVI and XVII / July 22, 2024 by Philip Tarlow

*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.