"taiko 1" modifications tODAY /  by Philip Tarlow

taiko 1, 7x11 1/2” mixed media on arches paper; as she looked at the end of my painting day today

9:19 AM: when i brought it back to the house and looked at it carefully, taiko 1 seemed far to busy and without a central focus for the wandering eye. so this morning, as soon as mikela left for school and while we were chatting during her drive, i went into the entire upper quadrant of taiko 1 with a black crayon, allowing the flower on the upper right and the karagiozis figure in the center to POP.

"pink & green dream," 7x11 1/2" /  by Philip Tarlow

1:29 PM: today morning i made a new painting: pink & green dream, 7x11 1/2” mixed media on arches paper. it was much more complex until, towards the end of my time working on it, i collaged some cutout pieces of white paper with black ink marks, and it found it’s identity.

PINK & GREEN DREAM, 7x11 1/2” 3/31/26

"taiko 1" continued today /  by Philip Tarlow

2:55 PM: today i continued work on taiko 1, transforming it to the degree that yesterdays version is mostly collaged and painted over. two female figures have replaced the original taiko drummer figure, a large flower now appears in the upper left and green leaves below.

taiko 1, 11 1/2x 7 1/2” watercolor, gouache, colored pencil & collage on arches paper, at the end of my painting day

BELOW: yesterdays version on the left

"taiko 1" and "artist & mirror" transformed this morning /  by Philip Tarlow

ABOVE: left-taiko 1 right-artist & mirror, both 11 1/2 x 7 1/2” watercolor, colored pencil, crayon & collage on arches paper

1:48 PM: this morning i was in my groove, so when i revisited taiko 1 and artist & mirror, i knew where i needed to go. so i used collage, watercolor, gouache, crayon & colored pencil to juice them both up. compositional patterning now supercedes realism. the unexpected and unpredictable rule, using my photos of mikela watering in our entryway as the figurative anchor.

the night before last in pueblo i slept only about 3 hours in our hotel, so a good 8 hour sleep last night provided me the energy and alertness needed for what i accomplished today. in addition, my gums have healed from the surgery on march 11 to the point where i no longer have pain and am able to eat anything that’s not crunchy or has tiny seeds that could get trapped in my gums. what a relief!

Taiko 1 /  by Philip Tarlow

10:25 AM: this morning, before leaving for pueblo, i started a new watercolor titled Taiko 1.

taiko 1 11 1/2 x 7 1/2” , watercolor on day 1

"walking with leaves" completed / starting “artist & mirror” /  by Philip Tarlow

11:49 AM: this morning i made a few tweaks to the walking with leaves watercolor and declared it resolved.

walking with leaves, 11 1/2 x 7 1/2” watercolor on paper

2:24 PM: once i completed walking with leaves, i immediately launched into a new watercolor with the same dimensions, titled artist & mirror. it’s inspired by a photo i shot about 10 years ago of a good friend sitting in front of a mirror and painting an icon.

artist & mirror, 7 1/2x 11 1/2” watercolor on paper

discovering a 1988 painting /  by Philip Tarlow

mikela with mirrors, 1988 57x24” oil on 3 attached canvases

1:42 PM: earlier this afternooni went upstairs in my studio, which is an absolute mess. i pulled out a painting titled mikela with mirrord, which is on 3 canvases, wrapped in plastic. i didn’t have the evergy to remove the plastic, which was stpled from behind. so i propped it up on some boxes and photographed it as is. i know there’s a way i could crop the extaneous bits, but i’ll have to research that. the canvases form a T shape, so what you see to the right and left is just stuff on the floor. eventually, i’ll get it unwrapped so i can take a clearer photo, but i’m posting it as is, since i find it so compelling.