Once Again...Art Do-Overs
- Denise Cerro
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
Warning...this post is photo-heavy...less talk...more visuals! I'm writing once again about the fun, beauty, and experience of painting over your own work, art do-overs... sometimes again and again and again! I just posted about one of my paint-overs a few weeks back...and it's got me on a roll.
As artists, many of us know the daringness of painting over one of our own paintings, and the delight of something new showing up... hopefully something we love. The painting above started out in 2018 as a collaborative piece with my art pal Yahel Yan. We picked three colors together and went our separate ways. On the left was my portion of the painting... on the right is where it ended up this week, in 2026. I enjoyed the process and the results both times!
It also pays off that I pretty much stick to the same color palette... sometimes lighter, sometimes darker, sometimes with one more color added into the mix. Even when I try to switch it up, I come back to the same palette. My palette gives me the freedom to switch up styles, subjects, and still have my work be recognizable.
I also share with my collectors, when they purchase a piece from me at a show or art fair... where that piece originated from, if it was indeed painted over... kinda like they are getting two (or three or four) paintings for the price of one! They always seem to appreciate the history that went into the piece...and I always enjoy telling the story!
If you know my work, you know I do love a flower! Even when I take a break from flowers and head over to abstract or storytelling in my art, flowers almost always make an appearance. As in the piece above, sometimes they start out a little anemic, but when I come back to them after some time and loosen up, they seem to flourish. I think not looking at a blank canvas makes it easier to be free with your brush strokes... that seems to be the case for me anyway.
Starry Night Revisited started out as a graphic collage and paint piece... pretty clean lines. That was in 2024. Recently, in 2026, it got a makeover and loosened up quite a bit. I wanted to play with a Prussian Blue and see what it would do. Because I wasn't attached to the first version, or how it might turn out... I was free with my paint and ended up with something I really love. "Flowers... now there's a surprise," my art pal Susie Zol always says to me!
And finally... one of my larger pieces... this was actually the third time I painted over it... for a client no less... and each time I was happy to do so! Some people are just fun to work with... especially when we are all open to change! This piece "Every Time It Rains" ended up as the anchor for my Pennies From Heaven series and I'm still loving it... so no changes to it... for now!
So the moral to this art story... change it up...change IS good! If a piece is old, not exactly what you wanted, needs a refresh... use it as your playground. Try out new techniques, new colors, shapes, and textures... whatever you've been curious about. Use these pieces as the jumping-off point to get things moving in a different, often better and updated, direction.
As always... I have a video on the remaking of this piece... Zesty Lemons With Artichoke. It's also about working over a piece and the importance of backgrounds and how they support the images in your work. Take a look and see if it resonates with you.
Thank you for being here and reading my ARTicles...
I so appreciate that, and it's why I keep showing up!
All of the work in this post is available here on my website...
click the titles below each piece...take a look and enjoy!
Comments