1/25/25 watercolor/collage / a 2017 interior /  by Philip Tarlow

this is an interior in oil on linen which we found today in my studio storage room

1/25/25 watercolor/collage 13x11”

5:20 PM: here’s the current state of 1/25/2025bwatercolor/collage.

2:54 PM: i felt that 1-25-25 watercolor/collage needed more white or, in this case, off-white space, which i used collage to attain. you will also notice that i flipped it 90°, so that the blue bit previosuly on the right reads as sky.

1/25/25 watercolor/collage, 13x11”

watercolor/collage 1-25-25, 11x13” as she looked at 1:10pm

1:10 PM: i did some more collaging over the past half hour. i’m liking where it’s going; it’s far more painterly, and the introduction of collaged elements allow what remians of the original watercolor to gain mystery and create suggestive forms, giving the viewer the opportunity to dream his/her own interpretation. i feel that my nightly perusing of wallace stevens poems has expanded my reality in a way that’s showing up.

so i think i’ll stop for today and continue organizing my studio.

12:45 PM: when i entered my studio this morning and glanced at what i did yesterday, i found it boring and predictable. so i began collaging over it with a passion, and here’s how she currently looks.

1/25/25 watercolor /  by Philip Tarlow

1/25/25 watercolor, 11x13”

1:17 PM: after more than a week of having my focus be on organzing and cleaning my studio, i finally got back to work this morning. i made an 11x13” watercolor, which was much easier due to the fact that my watercolors and brushes are now very easy to access and all in one place. i used tubes and pans of watercolors i had forgotten that i had beacause the were scattered in different places around the studio!

tweaks to "creek dance II" and "cycladic revery" /  by Philip Tarlow

11:09 AM: i made a few more tweaks to creek dance II and cycladic revery yesterday afternoon.

BELOW: the before (left) & after of creek dance II. notice the figure is more defined.

creek dance II on 12-27-24

creek dance II on 1-22-25

BELOW: the before and after of cycladic revery. notice the pant leg of the central figure is no longer hidden by the white of the collaged paper.

cycladic revery on 1/22/25 12-40pm

cycladic revery on 1-22-25 4pm

tweaks to “cycladic revery” / watercolor/collage 37 tweaks /  by Philip Tarlow

cycladic revery, 28x32” oil & collage on linen

12:47 PM: the last time i worked on cycladic revery, 28x32”, was last month, december 2. i ahd considerd it resolved and have had it hanging on my south studio wall since then. but something wasn’t working. the viewers eye wandered about the intriguing composition with nothing to anchor it.

so i went back into it about an hour ago, using mostly collaged pieces of paper with black strokes, which i created last year and have stored in a drawer labeled “collage paper.” the only place i used oil paints in todays revision was on the central dancer, whose shoes are now red.

somehow, these relatively simple modifications have completely shifted how the painting appears to me when i cast those all important glances at it. my eye now moves about the composition as if it were guided, and experiences the relationship of the 6 previously unrelated figures as being engaged in a dance.

9:43 AM: i made a few tweaks to watercolor/collage 37, 15 3/4x 6”, which was originally created in 2024.

watercolor/collage 37, 15 3/4x6”

“wobble re-work / spatharis photos / looking back at my 2016 gaze series photos /  by Philip Tarlow

wobble, 38x30” oil on linen, as she looked following an extensive rework today

BELOW: wobble as she looked on december 19 and, on the right, as she looks following the rework today

2:58 PM: i last worked on wobble, 38x30” exactly a month ago, on december 19, 2024. at that time i considered it a completed painting. but not so fast, tarlow! after a week or more of studio cleanup/reorg, so that all my oil colors and brushes are organized in a way they never were before, and are so easily accessable, it was a very different experience when i started painting over large portions of this painting which, we both agreed, had far to much going on, with a number of figures that were not needed.

i daresay, it’s now a greatly improved composition!i which, yet again, illustrates how painting is a process, and you must hang in there until the process is complete, which may take days, weeks, months, years.

in the 1960’s i created a relationship with the renowned karagiozis performer, sotiris spatharis. one day, he invited me to his workshop, where he made the figures he would be using in his shadow theatre performances. he showed me, in his characteristic humble fashion, figures he’d been working on, and proceeded to continue work on his latest figure. these are 2 of the photos i shot that day.

we regularly took our son dimitri to attend these performances, which had a profound effect on his development in theatre. he became a director/producer with his own theatre, POREIA, well known to athenians for it’s excellent performances.

here’s a facebook link to his site: https://www.facebook.com/poreiatheatre

from the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts:

Greek shadow puppeteer, one of the masters of the karaghiozis (Modern Greek: Καραγκιόζης) form of puppetery. Sotiris Spatharis started his career in 1909 by putting up shows using his own figures and plays that he had himself created. He travelled the country accompanied by a singer. He was the first shadow showman to use advertising placards, which he himself painted, to announce his shows; and the first to distinguish himself with epilogues, called “apotheoses with the whole body”, played by the puppeteer and his assistant facing the stage at the end of his repertory of “heroic” plays.

at work on "Gaze 36," 11/27/2016

"taiko drummer," 72x28" 2022, watercolor/collage 35 /  by Philip Tarlow

1:13 PM: as mikela and i progress on cleanup and reorg of my studio, i/m in the process of photographing and cataloging works on paper, of which there are over 150. so far, i’ve done 35. so what you see here is the most recent, which i made a few additions to; mainly the collaged bit on the upper left corner as well as some flesh tones on the figure. so it’s now dated 2022-25.

painted in 2022, this is one of a series of taiko drummer paintings, inspired in part by a mesmerizing outdoor event here in the baca grand, featuring local taiko drummers.

studio cleanup/reorg /  by Philip Tarlow

9:40 AM: i’m starting 2025 with a major cleanup & re-org of my studio, which is long overdue. i got a new husky cabinet of wheels, which has 12 drawers. my oil paints, gouaches & watercolors as well as my tools are being consolidated in this large cabinet, so everyhting will be far easier to locate.

today i’ll be working on organizing my brushes, many of which need to be tossed.

SEE PHOTOS BELOW