celebration 21 transforms (again)/ 1999, entrance to the Andros monastery /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 21 32x36” oil & collage on portrait linen at 3:45 pm today

2:17 PM: this is probably the 3rd or maybe 4th time i’ve painted over what i did the previous day. this time it was with yellow. i worked back into it, introducing 2 large female figures, one of which is wearing a red garment. the black outlining creates a boldness surpassing it’s celebration series

entrance to panachrandou monastery, andros 1999, 22x23” gouache on paper

12:10 PM: in 1999 i made a series of paintings based on my visits to the Panachrandou Monastery in the moutains of Andros, in the Cycladic islands. this one, which was among the over 100 paintings returned to me from Gremillion Gallery in Houston after it closed, measures 22x23” and is in gouache on paper.

celebration 21, day 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 21, 32x36”, oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today

2:11 PM: yesterdays version was interesting, but too specific and descriptive. ok, so there’s a girl doing a handstand and thbeginnings of a bird…more and more, i’m learning to integrate my passion for painting figures in motion; for creekscapes with pure, painterly marks, giving the viewer space for his/her own creation of a painting. the newly collages calligraphic marks on paper contribute greatly to this integration. they were deliberately placed over more descriptive areas of the composition.

this is leading me towards revisiting, in this spirit, some recent paintings i had considered resolved. we’ll see…

celebration 21, day 3 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 21, 32x36” oil & collage on portrait linen at the end of my painting day today

2:53 PM: i took celebration 21 to the next level today. i collaged a piece of paper with some calligraphy in the central area of the composition, and began adding two birds inspired by an ancient roman mosaic. i like what happened; that said, it needs more work to reach resolution.

being in my studio almost every day, as opposed to the old days when we were travelling extensively to lead seminars and do consulting, home for maybe 2 weeks then off again. the resulting continuity i find priceless!

the start of the 2 birds

the paper with calligraphy i collaged is on upper left

celebration 21, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 21 32x36” oil & collage on portrait linen as she looked at the end of my painting day

2:31 PM: this morning i whited over the entire painting, with a diluted enough white to allow what i did yesterday to peek through. as you know if you follow my daily blog, i love this! it allows what i paint over it to vibrate in a way that would be impossible on a fresh white surface. i also collaged 2 pieces of paper with calligraphic brush marks, which i made this morning.

on a different note, this new roll of primed white portrait linen is not white! it’s got a yellowish tint. i thought of sending it back, but this slight tint to the suface is actually proving to be interesting, so i’m keeping it. but i do plan on letting the seller know.

so now, as is normal for me lately, the painting that existed at the end of the day yesterday is totally different. but i’ve reached the end of my painting energy for today, and i’ll pick up again tomorrow morning. tomorrow is trash pick up day, plus i need to run into town for a few things, so i probably won’t get into it till about noon, which is not unusual for me.

calligraphic brush marks made this morning, deigned to be cut up & collaged to this or a different painting.

celebration 21, day 1/ 2000 creek painting / ceramic platters in our entryway /  by Philip Tarlow

3:46 PM: today i stretched a new 32x36” primed portrait linen canvas and started celebration 21. as always, it’s way too early to tell, but it’s definitely an interesting beginning. as with celebration 20, i’d like to keep it fresh and spare, withj lots of unpainted white canvas.

DETAIL of a 47x56” creek painting from 2000, in oil on linen, hanging in our living room

7:42 AM: these were made by my friend joe about 10 years ago and he brought them to my studio for me to paint, after which he fired them.

creek day! /  by Philip Tarlow

spanish creek, 16x24cm.

3:16 pm: i’ve been waiting for the mosquito infestation to die down so i could get back into my 2-3X a week plein air routine, and today was the day. a tad oin the hot side, but no mosquitoes!

so i made 2 watercolors. what’s interesting about them is that they’re a departure from previous creek watercolors coloristically, particularly #1, where we see the influence the yellows and pinks i used on my most recent oil: celebration 20. looking at it sitting on my table, adjacent to last years plein air creek watercolors, it almost looks as if it were done by a different artist, except of course for the movement of the marks, which are unmistakably tarlow.

8/4/24 creek watercolor 2, 16x24cm.

continued work on "celebration 19" & "celebration 20" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19 after taking out most of the black i put in earlier

celebration 19 as she looked after lightening the blacks, which were too intense, late this afternoon

celebration 20 as it looked after taking out the tree trunks late this afternoon

4:39 PM: just before leaving the studio, i took out those tree trunks, which were bugging me as well as mikela, who walked over to check it out.

celebration 20 as she looked following today’s work. i was in a yellow mood, so the passage on the right came first, after which i worked on the two tree trunks with branches and the pink areas to the left.

celebration 19 following the work i did today, basically eliminating much of the fuzzy greys and allowing the main figures, including the bird, to pop.

3:26 PM: i added a lot more black to the composition in celebration 19, and continued with my second day of celebration 20.

celebration 20, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

3:40 PM: i started painting celebration 20 today. it’s 32x36”, on artfix portrait linen. thus far, all the figures should be familiar to you, and are juxtaposed with a view of the creek. i love not knowing where she will go tomorrow, and am as always letting go of that part of my mind that wants to plot it out.

i also love having a cast of characters, as it were. thus far, none of my paris olympics characters have shown up, but they are waiting in the wings.

celebration 19 early morning modification / afternoon adjustment /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 19, 20x38” as she looked following my early afternoon adjustments to the figure with checkered shorts

1:57 PM: once i got settled back into my studio, i made another adjustment to thecentral figure at the top of the composition, giving her a light green blouse, making a slight adjustment to the space between her legs and slimming down her left leg.

celebration 19 following my early morning scrape of the bare breasts

9:39 AM: i went to my studio at 9am to take out the trash. when i cast a glance at celebration 19, the bare breasts of the female figure in the upper senter of the composition grabbed my attention to the detriment of the rest of the painting. sice they were freshly painted, i just grabbed a palette knife and scraped over them. when i get to the studio later this morning, i’ll see what else i might do…

more modifications to the ever changing "celebration 19" /  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