July 10, 2011

on a summer's day

Recently on Facebook I posed a question for an artist friend. He wanted to know whether it's considered ethical to paint the same painting twice. The discussion was really interesting and it led me to remember that I had actually recently done two small paintings based on two much larger earlier works. I have occasionally also reinterpreted paintings using coloured pencil. I call my coloured pencil work 'drawings' but many pastel artists consider themselves painters, and after completing this drawing I'm wondering if that makes more sense.


This drawing is from a favourite early landscape (acrylic), now residing near Winnipeg. The location is a little glade deep in the woods on Mt. Belcher on Saltspring Island, where my brother-in-law once lived and my mother-in-law's ashes are now buried.

It was a July day just like today.

8 comments:

dinahmow said...

Yes, very painterly.

Brian the Mennonite said...

Funny that I would visit today after not coming here for a very long time.
Is she for sale?

Anonymous said...

There have been occasions when I've been asked to reproduce a painting...and I have but with changes because I struggle with the possibility of devaluing the uniqueness of the original and offending the original's owner - though I have created a new work based on an older one but have also incorporated different colours, different time of day, slightly different forms, differernt media, different sizes and/or a totally different perspective of the same subject. In this way it becomes an entirely new piece.

INDIGENE said...

They are never the same! Because your feelings are different when you did each one, and you will be able to tell the difference...and why not paint it again! Each time is a learning experience. :)

andrea said...

Di: I can see that the actual drawing is darker, deeper, like the woods. But just as painterly. :)

Brian: Coincidental indeed. She's designated for the gallery in Invermere.

Veronica: It seems to me that there needs to be a good reason for it. I could never just paint the same painting again for the simple reason that it would bore me. I like to like what I'm doing and if it also adds depth of understanding, like artists who work in closely-conceived series, then bonus.

Indigene: Just talk to Monet about his water lilies and haystacks, right?

Tracey said...

Isn't painting similar versions of a painting called a series ;)

Looks like you may require a 3rd in the series :)

andrea said...

Nicely put, Tracey! :)

Hayden said...

reading this I was initially confused - thinking of Monet, and Cezanne, and so many others - it seems normal to return to the same well to drink. The results are never the same, and often seems (to me) an act of love or homage for the original scene.

but setting out to create a replica - yeah, I can see that this might have ethical implications if the original had already been sold.