a new painting titled "zoom" /  by Philip Tarlow

1:21 PM: this morninig i cut two 13x13” canvases and started work on one of them. this new painting is titled zoom, and is inspired by a photo i shot yesterday during a zoom mikela was on, relating to her work. i held the phone up high, so that we are looking down. i started this one on my painitng table rather than on the wall, and made a few additions once i tacked it to my painting wall. as well, there are elements from the earlier two paintings; in motion and in motion II.

zoom, 38x13” oil on portrait linen on day one

2017 interior /  by Philip Tarlow

11:01 PM: an interior i painted in 2017 in oil on linen which hangs in my studio. i can’t recall the location of this interior, but i’ll research it and post when i find the answer.

2017 interior, 19.75x6.25” oi on linen

7/15/25 watercolor/collage a 2021 plein air watercolor /  by Philip Tarlow

11:47 AM: this morning i made this watercolor/collage. it strated out as a view from above of 3 figures in a museum with a glass floor. it was flipped 360, so if you turn it upside down, you might be able to make out the 3 figures, but probably not since they’ve been painted & collaged over. included in the collage materials are pieces of black ink quill pen drawings, which i make every so often then cut up and save for collaging.

7/15/25 watercolor/collage, 23x31 cm. Canson watercolor paper

this is a plein air watercolor from 2020 made at cottonwood creek and then brought back to my studio, where i turned it into a collage.

in my collection /  by Philip Tarlow

polyptych #12 14.5x17” oil on linen mounted on board

1:01 PM: in addition to posting the paintings i’m currently working on, i’ll be posting works from our collection, one a day. this one: polyptych #12, was painted in 2022 and is part of a series inspired by photos of musicians.

ten recent paintings / Mikela at Hockney's Malibu house, 1994 /  by Philip Tarlow

ten recent paintings on my south and east studio walls. all but two are 32x36” the one on the upper right is 38 x 32” and on the upper left, 33x23” all are oil on portrait linen. the white borders will of course be gone once they’re stretched.

2:16 PM: today i spent the day tacking 10 as yet unstretched recent canvases to my east and south studio walls. it’s allowing me to see them together for the first time, and evaluate them as a series and individually.

i definitely feel they should be shown together; where & when is as yet unknown.

12:04 PM: this is a 10 1/4x 6 1/4” painting of Mikela at Hockney’s Malibu house, painted in gouache on paper in 1994, a few months after our visit.

mikela at hockney’s malibu house, 1994, 10 1/4 x 6 1/2” gouache on paper

6/5/25 ANO KATO tweaks /  by Philip Tarlow

6/5/25 ano kato, 32x36” oil on portrait linen as she looked following today’s tweaks

1:32 PM: our power is out but my laptop is at 97% and my phone is 86%, so i’m ok for now. they’re working on it….we’ll see how long it takes.

i made some minor but significant tweaks to 6/5/25 ano kato just now, and it may be resolved. so i’m going to move on to something new. i think the black outline surrounding the figure has made a big difference, as well as the addition of the watering can and the whiting out of the lower central area.

"5/27/25 ano kato", day 5 / “O Kolokotronis” 8.5x11” /  by Philip Tarlow

3:06 PM: yesterday afternoon, in between woring on 5/27/25 ano kato, i began work on this small (8 1/2 x 11”) watercolor-collage on paper. i continued this afternoon, introducing a karagiozis image of kolokotronis, the pre-eminent leader of the Greek war of Independence (1821-29) and a very interesting figure in Greek history. for those of you not familiar, karagiozis, he is a shadow theatre puppet and fictional character of greek folklore. when he was a kid, we often took our son dimitris to karagiozis performances in the athens neighborhood of plaka, where the famous spatharis shadow theatre was to be found.

"5/27/25 ano kato" 32x36” oil & collage on extra fine portrait linen, as she looked following today’s tweaks

2:14 PM: i made a few slight but significant tweaks to "5/27/25 ano kato" today. i added a collaged piece on paper just behind the skateboarder’s behind, and added a deliniation of the handstander’s shoes.. other than that, the handstander and the colors surrounding him are perfect. and tat small piece of collaged paper is all that was needed to connect the right and left sides of the composition. for now, i’m not going to do any more, and see how i feel about it after having it up on my painting wall for a week or so. so tomorrow morning i’ll start something new.

"5/27/25 ano kato", day 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

5/27/25 ano kato, 32c36” oil on portrait linen as she looked at the end of my painting day today

2:39 PM: i got an early start today. the first thing that hit me when i entered the studio was that the right side of the composition wasn’t working. so i whited over it, then painted into it with a new figure; a skateboarder.

as i gaze at it now, i’m uncertain as to whether the right & left sides of the composition work as a whole. i’ll sit with it and see.

5/27/25 Ano Kato /  by Philip Tarlow

5/27/25 ano kato, 32x36” day #1…drawing in black crayon.

2:40 PM: this afternoon i started the drawing for 5/27/25 Ano Kato, 32x36”. the figures are star members of my favorite-figures-seen-from-above collection. we’ll see what happens on the left portion of this new composition tomorrow!