March 21, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4 PM: after mounting & photographing 6 of my watercolor/collage series (see BELOW), I embarked on what may be the last in this series: watercolor/collage 12. thus far, it’s a partially completed pencil drawing of a woman’s basketball game at the 2020 tokyo olympics, viewed from above. I’ll take it further tomorrow morning.

we had some light snow today, and it was overcast all day long; rather unusual for crestone/baca. right now it’s 37F, but the sun should be back tomorrow, when there’s a slight chance for some afternoon snow, and by the end of the week our temps will reach 60F.

2:54 PM: UPS just delivered a pair of brooks glycerin GTS 19 running shoes. i’m trying them on my cement studio floor, & so far so good. “like walking on air,” as the doctor at anschutz medical center said when I asked him about what he was wearing. i’ll try wearing them all day tomorrow, and that will let me know if they really work as well as they seem right now.

1:11 PM: this morning I had to photograph some of the watercolor/collages for a flyer they’re putting together for the Anschutz eye center. I found some grey board, mounted 6 of them and sent them to mikela, who is very good at graphics. she’s working on it right now & i’ll post what she comes up with when it’s ready.

BELOW is the grey board with 6 of the watercolor/collages

1976: the miracle / March 21, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

8:01 AM: during my 15 years in greece, i spent a lot of time on the cycladic island of andros, just a few hours by ferry from the port of rafina, which is about an hour from athens. during that period, i made many studies, drawings & paintings of andriots. one day in about 1976, while shooting photos near our house in the plakoura neighborhood of chora, capitol of andros, i encountered a fisherman bringing his days catch to a small taverna on the sea. he told me the story of a miracle that occured when he was a child in asia minor. in one of the first movie theatres at the time, he was watching a kids film with his parents. as frequently happened, there was a problem with the projector and the attendees were asked to leave until the problem could be resolved. once the last person had left the theatre, the theatre, which was a wooden structure, burst into flames and burned to the ground. he and the others attributed their miraculous escape to the virgin, protrectress of their village.

as he told the story, i shot a series of b&w photos, which i later used to make a series of small paintings in oil on canvas mounted on board, collectively titled the miracle. it’s one of the few paintings i made during that period which i have in my private collection.

3/20/22 watercolor/collage 11 stage 1. / March 20, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:35 PM: at the end of the day, I made changes that reverse the predictability of the image, interrupting the 2 legs and giving precedence the the forms and spaces. I feel that the collaged piece on the upper right makes the composition pop in a way it didn’t in the last iteration.

3:22 PM: so I did go back in to watercolor/collage 11 and I think it has improved from the previous stage, which you see BELOW. the b&w bit of collage above his head was more in my head than in my gut. so I collaged over it. his trousers were somewhat timid in execution, whereas now, the richness of the browns has increased, as has the patterning. a bit of white gouache color was used in the area between his head & leg, and the color of his face is also more pronounced.mehinks it sings, and i’m going to let it be for now & see what I think in the morning, when it’s forecast to be snowing. with the inaccurate snow forecasts recently, i’m doubtful.

by the way, in case you were wondering, the surface of his skateboard is a collaged piece of a printout od a watercolor/collage of our creek, which sold recently in my denver gallery.

2:29 PM: I did quite a bit to watercolor/collage 11, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. something’s not quite right when I cast that all important furtive glance. I have maybe one more round in me before stopping for the day, so let’s see what happens. remember, I have to be willing to totally fuck it up in order to reach resolution.

so OK, here goes.

BELOW: paintings in various stages of framing

10:24 AM: go a nice early start today so I could meet R who arrived at the studio precisely at 10, as promised. he’ll likely complete work on the wood frames today.

I started 3/20/22 watercolor/collage 11 stage 1, and in an unusual move, began with collaging 3 bits of paper before putting brush to paper. here it is on the RIGHT.

watercolor/collage #10 / March 19, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

the title of my upcoming *space gallery* exhibition, with the images i’ll be using on the invitation.

2:55 PM: while R was mounting the wood stripping frames on my paintings, I worked on watercolor/collage # 10 of 12. it’s in the same vibe as the others, and i’ve used maps plus a piece of the wrapper from a greek bakery I kept in my pile of papers used for collaging. that’s what the blue lettering in the central portion of the composition is.

I could never have imagined that i’d be so heavily drawing on these images from the 2020 tokyo olympics celebration; to the degree that they have dictated the title of my upcoming exhibition!

watercolor/collage #9 of 12 / stretched paintings for the petAow exhibition / March 18, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

3:55 PM: this morning I prepared my studio for a virtual tour, which ended up not happening. so I mounted one more of the polyptych series paintings on board. so now 6 out of 19 have been mounted, 13 to go. it’s a painstaking, messy process which is well worth the effort. but you gotta get all those little air pockets before the adhesive dries!

then I started work on #9 of 12 watercolor/collages, also destined to be shown in my petAow exhibition, opening April 22 at space gallery in denver. I think it’s resolved, but i’ll bring it over to the house & we’ll both gaze at it tonight & tomorrow morning. this is it on the right.

BELOW: the stretched paintings, the mounted paintings and the watercolor/collages on my studio walls for the virtual studio tour.

exhibition title? RE-STARTING WATERCOLOR/COLLAGE#8 / March 17, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

i’m considering this as the title of my upcoming exhibition

1:26 PM: I did some collaging on 2020 tokyo olympics, so here’s how it looks now. the collage makes a significant difference, as do the two figures of dancers on the lower portion of the piece.

11:47 AM: following a couple of false starts a few days ago, i’m re-engaging with watercolor/collage #8. the central figure is a drummer from the 2020 tokyo olympics final celebration. i’m about to do some collaging. once it’s complete, i’ll finish stretching the last of the seven canvases i’ve been stretching so that R (keeping his name private) can attache the thin wood stripping frames on saturaday.

plans for 5 more watercolor/collages / framing the stretched canvases / March 16, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

4:09 PM: R was here today, framing one of the oils for the exhibition. he’ll try and complete the rest on saturday. the show is beginning to take shape, & we had a very productive zoom this morning with mikela, mike (space gallery director) & Ellen, who is the liaison for the benefit aspect of the exhibition. a good percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center, where I had my eye surgery.

stretching 5 canvases for the exhibition / March 16, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

8:42 AM: after a full day of stretching 5 canvases with recent paintingsn for my april 22 exhibition in denver, i was too wiped out to post this. stretching canvases, especially paintings done on extra fine portrait linen with areas of collaged paper, is more complicated than simply pulling them taut & stapling them. so i finished about the same time mikela returned from school, 4pm.

i ahve 2 more left, so i’ll continue this morning & then r will come over & help me to frame them with the wood stripping he cut a few days ago, from pieces of lumber left over from the construction of my storage space.

BELOW: some shots of the newly stretched paintings, which look so much better now that the excess white linen is no longer surrounding them.

watercolor/collage 7 & 8 / March 14, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

5:54 PM: i reworked watercolor/collage #8 before leaving the studio. it’s on the RIGHT, BELOW.

2:54 PM: today I worked on watercolor/colages 7 & 8 .

the dancing figure on the left is a little harder to discern than the biker falling from his bike on the right. not yet sure if they work; i’ll know in the morning. right now, I think #7 is resolved, #8, not so much.

mounting 3 more polyptych oil/collages / starting 2 new watercolor/collages / exhibition title / March 13, 2022 by Philip Tarlow

6:04 PM this morning i mounted 3 more of the 19 15x17” polyptych canvases on the masonite that r cut up for me yesterday. they are the 3 square canvases in the center.

i also started 2 drawings for watercolor/collage 7 & 8 out of a total of 9.

this afternoon, i came up with a title for my upcoming exhibition, opening april 22 at space gallery, denver:

petAow or ΠΕΤΑΩ in modern greek, which means “i fly.”