baca #1, 38×36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked this afternoon at 2pm
2 PM: this morning i introduced a few collaged pieces into the composition, as well as a blue border top, bottom and left. i’, currently gazing at it tacked to the wall and contemplating where i may go next.
baca #1, 38x36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day, at 1pm
BELOW: THE 3 STAGES OF BACA#1 thus far
12:54 PM: i did a bit more on baca #1, before cleaning my brushes and preparing to go with mkela to watch the movie over at the college.
baca #1, 38x36” oil on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago, at 11:30am
11:27 AM: this morning i took baca#1 further. i tacked the unstretched as yet canvas to my east studio wall and i’ll leave it there for a bit and evaluate before resuming painting.
baca #1, 38x36” terracotta pencil & oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of day one.
1:31 PM: so on this very cloudy day, with snow predicted tonight and tomorrow, i started work on the new baca #1, which is 38x36” on portrait linen. i’m taking it very slow, working into the drawing in terracotta pencil, which i started yesterday and completed this morning. the figures should all be familiar if you’ve followed my work over the past year or two, and are mostly viewed from above.
2:03 PM: i simplified the area above the head of the musician in musician & runner, which had been distracting from the composition as a whole.
BELOW: before (left) and after the changes i made today
12:57 PM: as i looked at the musician over the past few days, i felt the female figure to the left of the musician needed some work, so i made some changes this morning which i think did improve that figure and the entire composition.
BELOW: the musician before (left) and after today’s tweaks
DETAIL
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
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.
3:44 PM: this afternoon i started a sketch for a continuatoin of my jacobs pillow series. here she is:
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:
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, 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.
