“7/29/25 draw-lage” / a 1997 gouache of our valley /  by Philip Tarlow

7/29/25 draw-lage, 11.5x14.5” drawing & collage on strathmore 500 bristol as she looked at the end of my painting day

2:35 PM: i made up draw-lage to indicate that this is a drawing using colored pencil and crayons, with collaged elements. i was moved this morning to take a piece of strathmore bristol 500 to create this 11 1/2x 14 1/2” piece. the thickness of the bristol allowed me to collage freely with wrinkling, as a thinner paper would have. included in the collaged elements is a cut up ‘90’s drawing i made and abandoned, which i found in my large pile of works on paper.

some pieces of collaged paper contain gestural marks using a fan brush dipped in black ink.

my work table as it looked following work on the collage

the san luis valley, 1997, 4.5x10.5”, gouache on paper, painted in my car one afternoon

12:17 PM: this 4 1/2 x 10 1/2” gouache on paper was painted in 1997. during that period i would drive out to various spots in our san luis valley and make little studies in gouache or watercolor while sitting in the car. this is one of them.

tweaks to "watercolor/collage 7/25/27" & "watercolor/collage 27" /  by Philip Tarlow

11:02 AM: so far this morning, i’ve made tweaks to both watercolor/collage 25 & watercolor/collage 27.

1:24 PM: 7/25/25 watercolor/collage has become a very different piece and is now a flower painitng, with elements of the earlier version floating about.

7/27/25 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

7/27/25 watercolor/collage, 7.5x11” watercolor. colored pencil and collage on arches watercolor paper

3:27 PM: today i spent the entire day working on this new 7.5x11” 7/27/25 watercolor/collage. it has gone through at least 8-10 stages, until i finally arrived at what you see here. it has lots of collaged elements, which usually cover areas that i spent lots of time on, but ended up being too busy. i’ll take it back to the house now and see how it works with the others i’ve done over the past few weeks.

7/25/25 watercolor/collage, day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

7/25/25 watercolor/collage, 7.5x11” watercolor, oil pastel and collage on paper, as she looked at the end of my painting day

1:25 PM: after spending the whole morning struggling to set up my new printer, which was sent by epson as a replacement for the one that stopped working and was still under warranty, iproceeded to continue work on 7/25.25 watercolor/collage. little remains of yesterday’s versoin, which is not unusual when i’m making this series of works on paper. cutouts of karaghiozis figures from a printout i made of a spatharis painting continue to play a key role. spatharis and his son were central figures in the evolution of greek shadow theatre, the central figure being karaghiozis himself.

BELOW: day one on the left

7/25/25 watercolor/collage, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

2:45 PM: this morning i prepared 6 new surfaces for watercolor/collages. i cut the arches paper into 7.5x11” pieces and mounted them on board. so this is the first piece of six, on day one. i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.

7/25/25 watercolor/collage, 7.5 x 11” on arches watercolor paper, as she looked at th eend of day 1

7/23/25 watercolor/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

7/23/25 watercolor/collage, 11.5x14.5” watercolor, colored pencil & collage on bristol

2:04 PM: i took what is now 7/23/25 watercolor/collageto the next stage today, collaging pieces of paper & a piece of map, and using blue watercolor around the figures.

"moonlight" / 7/23/25 watercolor day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

moonlight, 32x38” oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked at the en dof my painting day today

2:46 PM: i made further changes to the ever changing moonlight this morning, and started work on a new watercolor, which for the moment has no collaged elements and no watercolor; it’s just a colored pencil drawing for now.

7/23/25 watercolor, 11.5x14.5” colored pencil on paper

moonlight /  by Philip Tarlow

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

5:59 PM: moonlight has travelled a long road. yesterday i whited over the most recent version and started a new composition on the still wet surace. i took that a bit further today and will continue tomorrow.

"7/20/25 watercolor/collage" / “moonlight” whited over /  by Philip Tarlow

2:16 PM: i decided to white over moonlight and, if you look carefully, you will see the start of a new composition, which will develop further tomorrow.

1:08 PM: this is the current state of the 9x12” 7/20/25 watercolor collage i started yesterday. the dark drawing of the two main figures with their backs to us were drawn using as a quill this 24” bamboo stick dipped in india ink. mikela found it while cleaning out our closets and was ready to toss it.

moonlight, 32x36” post-whiteover

the 24” bamboo stick mikela found, which i used as a quill for drawing with ink

7/20/25 watercolor/collage, 9x12” watercolor, gouache and collage on paper

"zoom" /  by Philip Tarlow

zoom, 38x13” oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago

10:34 AM: first thing this morning, before having my breakfast, iadded alizerin crimson and yellow to the composition.