day 2, "exposed flight" /  by Philip Tarlow

exposed flight, 12x56” as she looked at the end of my painting day today

3:21 PM: exposed flight is now a horizontal, with two drummers dominating. one, a female taiko drummer, was inspired by photos i shot during a taiko celebratory event here in crestone.

after applying numerous collaged pieces of paper earlier, i flipped the canvas 90 degrees, which is when the drummers began to appear. my process may seem convoluted, but this is who i am. as i’ve said before, 6 decades of painting have lead me to this point, and all my lessons along the way lie beneath what i did today.

to be continued tomorrow. right now, the predicted snow is about to arrive, and i’m headed back to the house before it begins.

12:52 PM: i began collaging exposed flight this morning, enjoying the extra hour we gained this morning!

i flipped it 360 and am learning from the new perspective.

"exposed flight", 56x12" /  by Philip Tarlow

3:26 PM: yesterday i strated a new 56x12” painting: exposed flight. this is a very early stage, the two figures on the lower portion have appeared in earlier paintings and were inspired by two paddlers i saw from a bridge over the river in alamosa, colorado. i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.

exposed flight, 56x12” as she looked moments ago

stretching a new canvas / fayum study /  by Philip Tarlow

12:39 PM: today i’m stretching a 12x56” canvas in preparation for a new painting.

12:11 PM: this is a fayum study in oil on canvas, that i made a few decades ago in the british museum. it hangs now in our home.

sunset yesterday, looking West from our house

sunset in stages / creekscape, 2022 /  by Philip Tarlow

BELOW: top to bottom, left to right: 5:40, 5:47, 5:52, 5:54, 6:01, 6:08, 6:22 pm

creekscape with red letters, 12x40” oil & collage on canvas, 2022

1:58 PM: last week, rummaging around in my studio storage space, i came across this creekscape, painted in 2022, during a period when i was regularly going to make small gouaches & watercolors at one of our creeks. the collaged element on the left is critical to this composition, the rest of which is painted in the earth tones that characterize much of my work; especially the paintings i made in greece, from 1963-1978.

further work on "windfall light" / yesterdays sunset /  by Philip Tarlow

windfall light, 16x29” as she looked following todays session

2:40 PM: one of the paintings i worked on yesterday, windfall light, 16x29”, was interesting but i was not satisfied with it this morning upon entering the studio. so i went back into it, with some strong colors on the left. it remains to be seen what more i may do to it tomorrow.

BELOW: windfall light as she looked yesterday and today

BELOW: 3:17pm, yesterdays sunset at 5:51 pm. later that night the wind picked up and is still gusting to 40mph, with cloudy, threatening skies & some rain a few hours ago.

“spinning place” / “windfall light” /cloudy windy day /  by Philip Tarlow

spinning place, 32x32” oil on canvas, as it looked following the work i just did. originally, it was a monotone piece, the exception being that triangular pink area in the center.

3:41 PM: i found another painting in my storage room that i felt needed work. it was originally a painting inspired by the studies of the creek i had been doing extensively about 10-15 years back.

i felt it had passages that were begging for some strong colors, so i launched in. the title: spinning place, as with windfall light, which i spoke of earlier, comes from fern hill, a poem by dylan thomas, who was a favorite when i was a teen.

12 noon: yesterday, in addition to the modifications i made to ano kato renewed 1, i worked on a 16x29”painting that had been whited over, which mikela found in my storage room last week. it has no date on the back. i began by making a drawing in dark brown oil, along with some faux chinese stamps in red crayon.

inspired by works by 14thc. chinese artist wang meng, it hints at a rocky landscape with trees and leaves the rest to you. it’s titled windfall light, a phrase i discovered in the dylan thomas poem fern hill.

our sky at 7:49 am

11 AM: today started out as a partially cloudy morning with increasing clouds and possible rain/snow tonight predicted. here’s the word from our local forecaster, keno:

ano kato renewed 1 / no longer going on facebook / paintings in the studio /  by Philip Tarlow

ano kato renewed 1, 16×16” oil and oil pastel on linen, as she looked following todays revisions

2:37 PM: i’m in a space where i like choosing older paintings that i feel could be better and painting over them. this one, from my ano kato series, https://www.philiptarlow.com/anokato is now titled ano kato renewed 1. the only part remaining as it was is the figure of a man in a plaid shirt, walking. he is now ensconsed in a multi colored composition of blues, yellows, pinks, blacks and greens, which evoke plant life without actually describing it.

11:55 AM: these are some paintings currently on the long table beneath my north facing windows. they include: 5 recent collages; 1 study of a gorky painting made in 2017 and a study in oil of a vermeer painted in 2016. i’m in a space where i’m taking stock of my work over the years and getting a feel for where i’m at currently.

11:32 AM: i’m no longer using facebook, although i haven’t deleted it yet. it takes up too much of my precious time,

so now i’m gazing at celebration 27 following the modifications i made yesterday. it’s kind of compelling, so i think i’ll move on to something else and see how i feel about it later.

re-visiting "celebration 27" /  by Philip Tarlow

celebration 27, 32x36” oil & collage on linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day

3:02 PM: celebration 27 was sititng on the studio floor adjacent to my storage room door, since i last worked on it, september 11, 2024. i knew at some point i’d have to go back into it, and today was the day.

BELOW: celebration 27 as she looked before and after today’s modifications

a 1976 painting from athens /  by Philip Tarlow

the artist with six workmen, oil on linen, 1976, 20x68” private collection, athens

2:02 PM: during the 70’s, when i was living and exhibiting in athens, i made a series of paintings of construction workers from a site near my studio at the time. this was the final painting in the series, based on the smaller paintings of individual workers i had made. when i shot this only surviving photo, the face on the right was not yet completed.