11/16/25 oil on 11/18 /  by Philip Tarlow

11/16/25 oil, 28x28” oil on portrait linen

11:38 AM: yesterday’s’ version of 11/16/25 oil wasn’t working me, so i scrubbed whatever remained wet and then went over it with a warm grey. i introduced the figure of a woman viewed from above, with a blue bag over her shoulder, walking while looking at her phone.

this solution integrates my love of figures viewed from above with my love of painterly solutions and the mystery of an underlying composition peeking through. the fact that she’s walking on pavement is subtly indicated by the few vertical and horizontal marks scraped into the grey with a palette knife.

"11/16/25 oil" day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:35 PM: i whited/pinked over what i did yesterday on day 1 of 11/16/25 oil. that almost always gives me a suggestive surface, with traces of the underlying composition and colors.

this one departs from the goldfish motifs and stronger colors that dominate the 6 previous 28x28” oils i’ve been making over the past month or so. one of my goals was to simplify, create more white space, make the main characters less defined, more sketchy. i think i’ve met those goals and as i gaze at it tacked to my studio wall, it’s more evocative. i’ve reached the end of my creative energy for the day, so we’ll see how it evolves tomorrow, or whether perhaps i’ll leave it as is and move on.

"11/16/25 oil", day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:57 PM: i have 4 more of the 28x28” pieces of extra fine portrait linen that i cut from the 84” x 5 yard roll last week. i strated work on one of them a little while ago, using photos i printed out this morning of views of people from above as inspiration. i’ll continue tomorrow morning, and possibly start another on so that i don’t get stuck on this one.

11/16/25 oil 28×28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of day one

11/15/25 6 recent oils stretched and hung /  by Philip Tarlow

six recent 28x28” recent paintings in oil on portrait linen

2:28 PM: today i stretched the final two of my six 28x28” recent oils\, which now hang together, as you can see in the photo, on my east studio wall.

they all contain images of goldfish, and all but the one on the lower right contain images of mikela, either watering our plants or simply sitting and working on her educational product in the recliner chair in my studio.

11/9/25 mt in the studio day 5 / prehistoric study /  by Philip Tarlow

study of an 18,000 year old cave painting, 21×24” oil on portrait linen i made a few days ago

1:03 PM: a few days ago i made a quick study in oil on portrait linen of an 18,000 year old cave painting, which shows once again that time is irrelevant when it comes to art; great marks are great marks.

11/9/25 mt in the studio 28x28”, following some tweaks to the blacks on the right

11:40 AM: i scratched into the blacks on the right because they were too dominant when i glanced at the painting, so now i think it looks resolved.

detail of the scratches in the black

"11/9/25 mt in studio", day 4 /  by Philip Tarlow

11/9/25 mt in the studio, 28x28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day

3:29 PM: following the changes i made earlier in the day, i launched back in, simplified what i had done and made what i feel are some very good compositional moves.

the black on the right pops just enough; the figure works way better with the striped shirt and the goldfish gain with the bottom of their bowl at right angles. like, how could a fish bowl have right angles?? well, it’s not a fish bowl, it’s a painting!

lets see how i feel about it in the morning…

"11/9/25 mt in studio" day 2 /  by Philip Tarlow

4:16 PM: I wiped out everything I did yesterday & today, so she’s back to the original

11/9/25 mt in studio as she looked at 3pm

11/9/25 mt in studio 28x28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at 1pm today

1:06 PM: this afternoon I continues work on yesterday’s 11/9/2025 mt in studio, 28x28”, oil on portrait linen.

11/9/25 mt in studio /  by Philip Tarlow

11/9/25 mt in studio, 28x28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today

2:53 PM: this afternoon I started work on 11/9/25 mt in studio, a new 28x28” oil. it’s still at an early stage, as you can see, and thus far appears to be becoming a sister of yesterday’s 11/8/25 mt seated.

"11/8/25 mt seated" /  by Philip Tarlow

mt seated, 28x28” oil on xtra fine portrait linen as she looked at 2pm this afternoon.

2pm I used one of my 2 remaining pieces of 28x28” xtra fine portrait linen to start a new painting titled mt seated. I sketched her in oil as I looked at her from my work table, then began adding colors to the composition. the goldfish, which appear in all of my most recent oils, are still showing up. here’s how she looked at the end of my painting day today.

“11/6/25 watercolor-gouache/collage” / continued work on “karagiozis with fish” /  by Philip Tarlow

11/6/2025 watercolor/collage, 29x37 cm. on Bristol paper

3:28 PM: today I began work on 11/6/25 watercolor/collage, which is 29x37cm. on Bristol paper. the 4 figures are walking about in the museum and their shadows dominate the composition.

karagiozis with fish, 6x16” gouache, colored pencil & collage on bristol

I also made adjustments to karagiozis with fish