The Challenge of Recreating My Own Work
I’ve been making good progress on a recent commission — I have been asked if I’m able to crate a smaller version of one of my popular jaguar paintings (the larger originals are still available!). To make it more affordable and to fit within the space more easily. So from 16 x 40 to a 12 x 24.
The background came together easily with minimal mixing, just a lightening of tones here and there, happy I took that approach or may have been difficult or near impossible to recreate. But now I’ve reached the jaguar itself, and this is where things get tricky. Every centimetre requires a new shade mixed, and matching those subtle variations, forgetting how I first mixed them, feels almost impossible. It does show how much variety I’ve painted and proved to myself while I am forever learning and will never reach an arrival, easy to compare self to others, I can paint well. It’s proving challenging — but in a strangely enjoyable way.Having to trust the process even more.
That got me thinking about the difference between creating and recreating.
When I’m creating a painting for the first time, I usually start from an image or an idea that inspires me with several references to build the idea. I let go of expectations and accept that the final piece will almost always turn out differently than what I had first imagined in my mind’s eye. There’s freedom in that process. The creation can wander, the colours can shift, things can be spilt on it and the artwork evolves intuitively, guided by emotion in the moment. For the recreation. I even measured the original to figure out how much of the canvas it took up, one third down etc
Recreating a previous artwork, however, feels very different. There’s a weight of expectation, almost as if a carbon copy is wanted (though yes, I did offer a print, but having an original /painted replica was preferred!). Of course for a print as it’s not been professionally photographed yet, there is a set up cost there. Where as original recreation is just the cost of the canvas (if don’t have the size in stock which I didn’t) Instead of following intuition, I’m following logic: that eye must be shaped just so in order to match what I first created, that shade mixed just right. Even on a smaller canvas, where some elements naturally shift with the scaling and ratio being slightly different — one leaf is already too large for this size of matching the original, I think the leaf is actually the same size as the 16 x 40 — the overall vibe has to match. It’s more pressure, and far less spontaneous, while attempting to keep that freedom going . Recreating the drips just so was easy but also interesting to have this be that deliberate.
That said, I’m proud of how well I’ve managed to replicate the feel of the piece so far. Even the delicate drips of watered-down paint on the bottom left leaf have the same energy. The jaguar’s fur will be the biggest challenge — flicks of hair I created intuitively the first time, without really knowing how I did it. Now I need to trust myself to rediscover that same magic.
These kinds of commissions are actually fun to take on from time to time. At a recent portfolio meeting with them, I brought a variety of works hoping they might choose another piece that was already completed instead — but there’s something refreshing about a client who knows exactly what they want and there’s a painting of mine already to guide me. It removes the ambiguity of the vision they have.
Still, I wouldn’t want my whole practice to turn into recreating past works. Especially if those past works are still available taking up precious room. I thrive on the emotional, intuitive side of painting and the image telling either a story or being a celebration of life around us - inner and outer landscapes as my first solo show was called, the internal imaginative world and the celebration of the external world of nature and animals and people . But I’ve found that offering smaller versions of popular pieces at a more affordable price works well — and once I figure out the layered process, I can sometimes streamline it. Having figured all that out when first painting it (unless I forgot the intuitive process that is )
For now, the layers are dry, and I’m about to tackle the jaguar’s eye and nose with some dry brushing which I hope brings it into subtle softness . My goal is to capture the gentle, friendly energy of the original jaguar — not let it slip into becoming a fierce predator as the reality is . That balance is the challenge, and the joy, of this project.
I wrote this during the creation of the piece but please see below for the now finished painting next to the larger version that sparked all of this off
