1/19/26 oil stretched & signed /  by Philip Tarlow

1:51 PM: i just now stretched and signed 1/19/26 oil. as with all the paintings, it gains a lot once the white border is gone, allowing the composition to pop. i could have taken her a bit further, but i’ve learned not to mess with a painting that emerged in one shot; whatever i were to do would take away from the freshness and immediacy; the balance of colors and the movement of the figures, which are loosely based on a series of photos i shot from above in a denver shopping mall. the plant is from a photo i shot years ago from the upper floor of our house, of mikela watering our plants.

1/19/26 oil, 38x24” oil on xtra fine portrait linen

1/19/25 oil on day one / skouloudis shop, 1979 /  by Philip Tarlow

day one of 1/19/26 oil, 38x24” oil on xtra fine portrait linen

3:13 PM: i started work this afternoon on 1/19/26 oil. i felt the urge to use lighter colors and to allow the composition to create itself, if that makes sense to you. it felt new, so i stopped when that urge faded and i’ll see hwere i’m at in the morning.

11:56 AM: this 16x10” painting in egg tempera on board was created in 1979; the last year of my 15 year stay in greece. it was painted in my studio on the island of andros. for much of my work during that period i used egg tempera, with powdered pigments i purchased at the athens art supply store. skouloudis was well known in the capital town of chora; a very sweet guy, from whose shop we purchased a lot of our food supplies.

this was, by the way, probably the last year that i signed my name tarlow. from 1980 on i’ve been using my initials.

“LB INTERIOR"/ View from Stavropeda," 2001/ 1/1026 watercolor/collage tweaked /  by Philip Tarlow

3:41PM: i painted over an older 56x12” canvas that has been whited out, with the subject being the interior of a friend’s appartment in nyc. i created a 28x11” photo collage years ago, before internet, and worked from that. i’ll continue tomorrow morning.

View from Stavropeda, 2001, 10.75x33” gouache on spekletone kraft paper whiloe sitting in my car.

11:06 AM: another painting from my storage room, titled view from stavropeda, painted on site in 2001 on Andros, Greece. this one was painted while sitting in my car, often during strong meltemi winds, which blow frequently during the summer months.

a good friend pointed out that the upper portion of 1/10/2026 watercolor/collage was too heavy, so i tweaked it. here’s the before & after:

"the musician" updated / "1/12/26 collage" tweaked /  by Philip Tarlow

12:34 PM: the upper left rectangle in the musician was bugging us both. i whited over it and, once the oil paint dries, i may go back in with a drawing perhaps of a walking female figure but more sketchy, akin to the drawing of the musician’s legs.

what you see BELOW are the before and after photos. once the white oil dries, i’ll see what if anything needs to happen on the upper left, but it’s definitely improved…

the piano room , 1997 /  by Philip Tarlow

the piano room, 25x20.5” oil on linen

12:36 PM: i came across this painting this morning in my storage room. it was painted in 1997 and measures 25x20.5” oil on linen. as you can see, over time it has suffered numerous scratches, which i plan on repairing today. the setting is the living room in the home of two dear friends in the netherlands, situated on one of the many canals. the standing figure is mikela and the other two are friends who were with us on this trip.

1/12/26 collage, 11x13 1/2” / sunset /  by Philip Tarlow

1/12/26 collage, 11x13 1/2” on strathmore bristol, as she looked at 1:45 PM following numerous tweaks

11:04 AM: so this morning i continued work on 1/12/26 collage, which measures 11x13 1/2”. not much remains of how it looked yesterday (surprise, surprise!) and it seems to me way improved. abstraction is always tricky in art. the casual observer may imagine eeverything is arbitrary, but the oppositen is actually true. since you’re not attached to a realist view, every mark, every collaged bit is absolutely essential to the composition as a whole.

so who would spend so much time on a 11 x 13 1/3” collage? look no further!

another gorgeous sunset here in crestone.

1/12/26 collage, day 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

11:50 AM: i started a new 11x13 1/2” collage today, and i’ll have to continue tomorrow since we have to leave for doctors appointments soon.

1/12/26 collage, 11x13 1/2” on strathmore bristol, as she looked moments ago….still working

1/11/26 collage /  by Philip Tarlow

1/11/26 collage, 6 1/2 x 14 1/4” on strathmore 300 bristol

2:16 PM: today i made another collage. i’m now calling them collages rather than watercolor/gouache collages. they give me great joy to make, so i’ll continue, probably making one a day for as long as the energy is with me.

1/10/26 watercolor/gouache/collage /  by Philip Tarlow

1/10/26 watercolor/gouache, 14.25x5” on strathmore 300 bristol paper.

1:31 PM: i felt a lot like going back to smaller works on paper, so this morning i made a 14 1/4x 5”watercolor/gouache/collage/colored pencil.

i love making small works on paper. i have a box full of cut up drawings & marks, maps, pieces of magazine articles, etc. i allow my instict to take over, frequently collaging over areas that have become too busy and always allowing lots of white space. the squares and rectangles in the composition are the result of my rediscovery this morning of a plastic design template, made in seattle.

i flipped the compositoin every which way till i finally settled on the vertical you see here.