to contact: tarlowart@gmail.com
DETAIL of 10/7/14 plein air creek oil, showing the freshness and immediacy i’m able to attain using double primed portrait linen
10/15/22 plein air watercolor, 10x15.5”
gouache on paper, 2017
the plein air paintings are all executed at nearby creeks in one sitting, usually an hour or less, in oil on portrait linen. the setting: very remote and primal. the creek rushes over the rocks and branches with a loud, unbroken rushing roar. at times it's like murmuring human voices.
being there instantly puts me into a state of ecstasy. my logical mind takes a walk and I work swiftly and with certaintly, rarely second guessing myself.
this ongoing series is the inspiration for my larger abstracted studio works. (visit the recent collages page). over the past decade, they've become less descriptive, more calligraphic & painterly. gradually, a "language" is evolving. an alphabet of signs, a distillation of my particular gestures in response to the creek: how i move my body, arm, wrist...my SIGNATURE SHAPES evoked by my visceral responses. these are always colored by my store of images from works by artists i love: from jacob van ruisdale to huang tingjian and lucien freud.....
OIL ON LINEN, 16X16" AUGUST TO NOVEMBER, 2014
OIL ON LINEN, 16X16" SPRING 2014
OIL ON LINEN, 16X16" FALL 2013
they are all 16x16", oil on linen. the dates can be found at the bottom right of each painting. the grid is chronologically arranged, with the earliest on the top left, the most recent on the bottom row.
