This version of a previous painting came as a `suggestion` from a dear friend of mine, curator Anne Richard, who really missed not having the 2023 ‘metamorfosis en Cactus’ in an upcoming group show. In the meantime it had sold. I took it as an opportunity to follow up on ideas I had toyed with when working on the original piece, and even used the same round frame to extend it at the lower end and develop the entire ‘body’ of the figure, actually trapped inside a tall vase that, according to my intentions, should from afar resemble a conic dress. This painting ended up being much darker, the figure more active, giving an overall dimension and narrative I couldn’t have predicted.
When opening up a scene the resulting composition alters the narrative in which the figures attain their pictorial meaning. That’s why a small change in composition makes a painting memorable without it being technically obvious at first glance. All the space I had to develop the floor, keeping in mind the Dutch lesson, helped render a less placid, heavier, more grounded figure, she’s meaner, somehow.
It was actually harder to paint most of the repeated motives for this one. I couldn’t go back to the innocent discovery attitude I had the first time around, I had, in a way, no excuse for any shortcomings, the sketch was the first painting. I’m usually curious about the exact nature of the variations you find in old master’s takes on ‘small’ and ‘big’ retelling of the same motive, Brueghel, Bosch.. and this was interesting, I wouldn’t have reached some of the effects done here if not prompted by the situation, while at the same time being unable to carry on fully all that made up the older painting. Some aspects remained unrepeatable.
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