breakfast drawing /  by Philip Tarlow

in the next stage of o-daiko, the drummers have been paintyed over and an interior is taking their place. this interior is from a photo i shot in 1995.

o-daiko 72×28”, oil on linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today

breakfast drawing 11-11-24, colored pencil & watercolor on paper

11:54 AM: i’m getting into the habit of making a drawing as i eat breakfast here in my studio. today i used the bottles of pills on my desk and proceeded to make a drawing with colored pencils and a tad of watercolor.

O-Daiko, 72x28" day one/ (became parisian interior on 11/13) /  by Philip Tarlow

12:55 PM: i started a new painting titled O -Daiko on the canvas i stretched yesterday. at the end of the day yeasterday, i went over the entire surface with the color you see here. it was not fully dry this morning, so i worked into it and my brush did pick up a little of the french ochre havane pigment.

O-Daiko, 72x28” as it looked moments ago.

cafe drawing / paintings on my north studio wall /  by Philip Tarlow

11:41 PM: i’m writing this from the coffee shop/restaurant in crestone. we’re here this morning because our internet is down due to a worn out/broken modem, which they can’t come out from alamosa and replace till tuesday. so we’re on the cafe internet; interesting to be without internet!

i may get to the studio later today and get some work done, although i was able to make a drawing here at the cafe, of a guy sitting at our table.

BELOW: paintings on my studio north wall: upper left: study of gorky painting. then there are 5 recent collages on paper and finally, on the right, a study of a vermeer portrait in oil on linen, painted about 15 years ago, along with other similar studies.

exposed flight & celebration 6 whited over /  by Philip Tarlow

2:19 PM: 3 whited over canvases i’ll be working into during the coming week.

celebration 6, 16x16” partially whited over today

exposed flight and celebration 6 on my studio floor, after being whited over

12:56 PM: i’m in an odd place right now with my work. i do something, like what i did yesterday, then the next morning i think it’s gross. so i proceeded to do one of my favorite things: the whiteover. never an opaque layer of white; thin enough to allow some underlying pieces of the composition to appear, faintly.

i won’t work back into them until they’re about 70 percent dry tomorrow morning, when, we hope, we’ll know the outcome of todays all important election.

day 3, "exposed flight" / REVISITING celebration 6 / yesterdays sky /  by Philip Tarlow

12:53 PM: exposed flight has once more become a vertical, as it was on day 1. i made a drawing of tree trunks using a warm brown color, adding deep blue water and a warm pink between the branches. this was, of course all inspired by a couple of print outs of my many creek photos. what peeks through is some of what i did yesterday, with the head of one of the two drummers, inspired by the photo i shot on the tv screen, of fred armisen. earlier, i had drawn lines in black compressed graphite, dividing the entire canvas into cubes, some of which can still be seen.

at the end of my painting day, i modified celebration VI, 16x18” which was last worked on march 25. below is the earlier version (left) and todays

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