vyd zverkhou renewed /  by Philip Tarlow

vyd zverkhou, 24x28” oil & collage on linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today

3:43 PM: the white-over i did yesterday was just dry enough for me to go back into it today. i kinda love the starkness of these 3 figures on the white backround, which is transparent enough to give us a little taste of what lies beneath.

these figures are old friends at this point; i’ve included them in quite a few recent paintings. this allows my strokes and marks, informed by that loving familiarity, to be more painterly.

whiting over vyd zverkhou /  by Philip Tarlow

11:57 AM: when i cast my first glance this morning, vyd zverkhou didn’t inspire me at all. so i prepared some white oil paint and went over the whole painting. a bit of color from the work i did yeaterday hadn’t dried, so it was picked up by the brush, but i was able to make it an overall white, with just a tad showing of the layers underneath, which is exactl how i like it!

vid zverkhou re-work /  by Philip Tarlow

vid zverkhou, 24x28" oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago, following a second round of modifications

2:50 PM: this morning i made changes to vid zverkhou I, which i had last worked on in may. i’ve been gazing at it recently and found, as has happened ercently with other relatvely recent paintings, that it needed to be simplified. it’s a painting i had worked on, then flipped 360, which is why the drummer is upside down. the chinese-like writing was inspired by one of my favorite books on chinese art of the 10th c.

i just now finished making more modifications, painting over the pinks that were surrounding the figure doing a handstand as well as adding two treet and some rocks and here’s the current state.

12:53 PM: i last worked on this painting back in may of this year. the title, vid zverkhou is ukrainian and means from above. i have a zoom friend in kiev with whom i connect twice a week, and at some point i was inspired to title a painting in the ukrainian language. it started out with a number of musicians; today some of them dissapeared, leaving only the drummer, seen upside down on the left, and the guitar player.

yesterdays creek drawings / continued work on celebration 28 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:41 PM: i continued work on celebration 28, introducing the figure of a paddler. i oroiginally photographed this guy from a bridge in alamosa, about an hour south of crestone. at the time, i made several paintings of him…actually there were two paddlers but in this composition i’m focusing on one. it’s always exciting to see the results of painting over two or three mostly whited over layers from previous versions, and in this case i allowed more of those layers to show through, such as the chinese characters you see in red and black.

as a result, a new reality springs forth and the paddler, in this case, is transported through space z& time to a no-place i like to think of as eternal.

working on the painting with the brush attached to long poles allowed me more freedom in my mark making, and contributes, i believe to the immediacy we feel from the imagry.

12:16 PM: today i placed celebration 28 on my studio floor and continued working on it with my brush atttached to a long pole. this tends to free up the drawing and introduce a new perspective to the painting.

the third creek drawing

9:02 AM: i’d been wanting to go back to the creek to paint for a long time, and yesterday was the day. it was clear wth perfect temperatures and little to no wind. so i drove 15 minutes up to the creek in a location adjacent to the trail leading up to the stupa and set up my table & stool. i got out my materials, including a glass container with india ink. it had been too long and i forgot how uneven the terrain is and how shaky my little collapsable table….so over went the table, with the ink and all my brushes, and wood quills. a huge mess!

but i persisted, cleaning it all up and setting the little table back up. i still haven’t been able to get all that ink off my fingers 24 hours later! i was able, however, to make 3 drawings using what was left of the ink with a quill pen and then adding color with my colored pencils. here are the results.

BELOW: 9/19/24 creek drawings 1 & 2

celebration 28 is BACK /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 28 as she looked moments ago

12:51 PM: following a brief detour yesterday, celebration 28 is back. i scrubbed out yesterdays work and am painting back into it. i’m taking a break now and going up to the creek to make a drawing in ink & colored pencil and i’ll continue work on celebration 28 once i’m back, if i have the energy!

CELEBRATION 28 IS NOW "TAIKO 1" /  by Philip Tarlow

taiko 1, 32x36" oil & collage on portrait linen. this is day one of this new series.

3:37 PM: this morning i whited over celebration 28 and began a new painting titled taiko 1. it’s the frist day of a new series inspired by the taiko drummers performance we attended here in crestone a few years back.

i had intended to start the series with sketches and works on paper, possibly leading up to larger works in oil on linen. but after whiting over celebration 28, i was moved to launch into this new series. i did a search this morning and finally found the photos and video i shot at the event, which will serve as my source and guide for the paintings to follow.

"celebration 28," day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 28 as she looked at the end of my painting day

3:07 PM: it’s been raining pretty heavily most of the day and will likely continue through sunset. i continued work on the new celebration 28, and was obliged to use artificial light. it’s evelving and definitly looks like a sibling hanging next to the previous two paintings. the violet tree trunk shape up top needs to be somehow broken up, but i think the newly collaged elements enrich the composition. she’s beginning to sing her song but hasn’t yet figured out all the chords.

CELEBRATION 28, DAY 1 / tweaks to "celebration 26" / MY NEW KLEE BOOK /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 28 32x36" oil on linen, on day one

3:58 PM: i started painting celebration 28 this afternoon, following the tweaks i made earlier in the day to celebration 26. it’s a rather more ambitious beginning than usual, and thus far it’s following in the footsteps of it’s two predecessors.

celebration 26, 36x36” oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked following this mornings tweaks

12:42 PM: the central portion of celebratiopn 26 wasn’t working in the composition, so i did some work on it this morning, on this unusual rainy dark day. i collaged a piece of paper on which i had drawn, worked into the surrounding area with oils and added a basketball hoop just to the right of the jumping player in blue. i was surprised at what a difference that basket made, making the entire upper left area more coherent, giving the eye something to bounce off…pardon the pun!

BELOW; before (left) and after todays tweaks

BELOW: details of the painting

after all these years, i finally bought a book on paul klee. it’s rated the best, most comprehensive one, and i can’t wait to begin reading it.

simplification of "celebration 22" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 22, 32x36” following todays re-work.

3:43 PM: today’s work is part of on ongoing need to simplify some of my recent celebration series painitngs. in this one was attempting to be true to the elements if composition in the photo i shot of an acrobat performing in the 2024 tokyo olympics. the more i gazed at it on my east painting wall, the more i felt the need to simplify elements of the composition that seemed to take away from the 4 stages of flips this acrobat is performing.

i mixed a warm ochre and began working over it. as i did, i reworked two of the figures; the one on the left and the 2nd figure in from the right. it’s almost there, and tomorrow morning i’ll see what more needs work. see the before & after pics BELOW.

and as i gaze at it, my eye keeps shifting over to the the one i’ve been re-working over the past 2 days: celebration 26. i’m 50-50 on whether or not to simplify it, since the composiiotn is far more integrated with the figures.

BELOW: celebration 22 before & after todays changes

tweaks to yesterdays re-work of "Celebration 26" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 26, 36x36” oil & collage on portrait linen as she looked at 2pm, following some tweaks to yesterdays version

2:32 PM: i made some tweaks to the re-work of celebration 26. the blacks in the central area of the painting were too intense, and the blue leaf like shapes, also in the center, were a bit too big. i also made some improvements to the upper right area, adding leaf shapes which echo the ones on the left. part of my inspiration for the composition and colors is from a klee print i found, which i just can’t stop looking at!