1/6/26 oil, 24x24” following my latest changes, including some maps collaged
2:30 PM: more work on 1/6/26 oil
1/6/26 oil, 24x24” following this morning’s changes
12:40 PM: this morning i made asome additional changes to 1/6/26 oil, mostly on the right side of the composition..
4:53 PM: towards the end of the day, my eye caught this 24x24” oil/collage painted on 1/6/26. i felt moved to make some changes, which i did. here’s the before and after: now that i’m looking at it, i think it needs more work.
baca#1 38x36” oil on portrait linen as she looked today at the end of my painting day
3:10 PM i added a collaged piece, painted a warm grey over the dark blues at the top and gave the figure on the right legs.
baca #1, 38×36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked this afternoon at 2pm
2 PM: this morning i introduced a few collaged pieces into the composition, as well as a blue border top, bottom and left. i’, currently gazing at it tacked to the wall and contemplating where i may go next.
baca #1, 38x36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day, at 1pm
BELOW: THE 3 STAGES OF BACA#1 thus far
12:54 PM: i did a bit more on baca #1, before cleaning my brushes and preparing to go with mkela to watch the movie over at the college.
baca #1, 38x36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago, at 11:30am
11:27 AM: this morning i took baca#1 further. i tacked the unstretched as yet canvas to my east studio wall and i’ll leave it there for a bit and evaluate before resuming painting.
baca #1, 38x36” terracotta pencil & oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of day one.
1:31 PM: so on this very cloudy day, with snow predicted tonight and tomorrow, i started work on the new baca #1, which is 38x36” on portrait linen. i’m taking it very slow, working into the drawing in terracotta pencil, which i started yesterday and completed this morning. the figures should all be familiar if you’ve followed my work over the past year or two, and are mostly viewed from above.
2:03 PM: i simplified the area above the head of the musician in musician & runner, which had been distracting from the composition as a whole.
BELOW: before (left) and after the changes i made today
12:57 PM: as i looked at the musician over the past few days, i felt the female figure to the left of the musician needed some work, so i made some changes this morning which i think did improve that figure and the entire composition.
BELOW: the musician before (left) and after today’s tweaks
DETAIL
1:51 PM: i just now stretched and signed 1/19/26 oil. as with all the paintings, it gains a lot once the white border is gone, allowing the composition to pop. i could have taken her a bit further, but i’ve learned not to mess with a painting that emerged in one shot; whatever i were to do would take away from the freshness and immediacy; the balance of colors and the movement of the figures, which are loosely based on a series of photos i shot from above in a denver shopping mall. the plant is from a photo i shot years ago from the upper floor of our house, of mikela watering our plants.
1/19/26 oil, 38x24” oil on xtra fine portrait linen
day one of 1/19/26 oil, 38x24” oil on xtra fine portrait linen
3:13 PM: i started work this afternoon on 1/19/26 oil. i felt the urge to use lighter colors and to allow the composition to create itself, if that makes sense to you. it felt new, so i stopped when that urge faded and i’ll see hwere i’m at in the morning.
11:56 AM: this 16x10” painting in egg tempera on board was created in 1979; the last year of my 15 year stay in greece. it was painted in my studio on the island of andros. for much of my work during that period i used egg tempera, with powdered pigments i purchased at the athens art supply store. skouloudis was well known in the capital town of chora; a very sweet guy, from whose shop we purchased a lot of our food supplies.
this was, by the way, probably the last year that i signed my name tarlow. from 1980 on i’ve been using my initials.
3:44 PM: this afternoon i started a sketch for a continuatoin of my jacobs pillow series. here she is:
