Resurrection

April 28, 2009

On Friday, Paul Caruana of Valletta, Malta, wrote, "I'm tempted to do another painting of a watercolour I recently sold, this time in oils. Would I be cheating the buyer? I'd like to do it just the same as the watercolour as far as composition and colour scheme are concerned. I've considered changing things around but I think it might lose the impact if I did."

Thanks, Paul. Evolved collectors know that artists refine from one painting to the next and frequently redevelop work from an exemplary one. Further, there's the tradition of the watercolour sketch and the final oil. Resurrection is part of our game, but it can be a tricky wicket.

Artists often notice a slippage of quality or loss of focus when they repeat. Here are a few thoughts:

Repeated works should be of a different size, preferably larger.

Repeated works often work out better in a different medium.

When going from smaller to larger, do the same with your tools.

See the "big picture" in the small one and don't fiddle the big.

Avoid the boredom of back-to-back repeats--let some time pass.

As you work, try to reinvent the second one as a new one.

It's pretty difficult to copy a work stroke by stroke--just one of the reasons to change media. One of the most effective resurrection ploys is to lay in the general areas in a cursory way, take a good long look at the original, then face it against the wall and proceed to paint. If you don't have the original nearby, do the same with the reference or a digital image. This keeps your strokes honest and in the moment. In other words, you don't want to be constantly referring to the original to see if you got small elements the same.

Even though your plan may be to repeat a previous success, you have to look at the project with new eyes. When you take this approach, you'll find the resurrected one may have a fresher spin than in its previous life. Always ask "What could be?" An artist's personal evolution is a playground of unending curiosity and abiding strength.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "To copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility." (Pablo Picasso)

Esoterica: In the tradition of the field sketch and the final studio work, artists have an opportunity to take a fresh, real-time vision and enlarge it. While lots of examples of success with this process exist, many others show tightening and overstylization, and the big final turns out to be less than the little sketch. Winifred Trainor (1884-1962), confidante of the Canadian painter Tom Thomson (1877-1917), wrote in an unpublished journal, "His smaller sketches from nature rang truer than his large compositions, and he preferred them." We've put some Thomson examples at the top of the current clickback, as well as a selection of Paul Caruana's watercolours.



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Current clickback: The private lives of keeners offers a selection of reader responses and live comments on the business of staying motivated when you're all fizzed out.

Read this letter online. And add your own observations or advice on resurrecting previous works. Illustrated comments can also be made at rgenn@saraphina.com.

Facebook: Michelle Moore, 20, who manages our free links, thought my face would be okay for Facebook. She put the letter there too. Now she's done it again for Twitter.

Paul Caruana is at paul.caruana@bpc.com.mt

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