the work and ideas behind a painting

I wrote on an earlier blog about the way I had studied Cezanne's Vase de fleurs as a prelude to making my own painting. I also wrote about the creative process. I did a lot of drawing as background for the flower paintings that I make. I am not sure how many such drawings I've made. Some were copies of Paul Cezanne's painting; some, studies from still life set ups.
Even in making copies of an old master painting, one finds myriad occasions for invention as can be seen here. I was drawing the same image over and over, yet look how different the various iterations are.

Details

I made studies related to my painting of the flowers. And so, of course, did Cezanne. Above is a detail of a Cezanne watercolor and a pastel detail of a study I did for the painting in the previous post.
Each time you revisit a subject in this way, you see it somewhat differently. All the small spaces have changed. Your attention has changed. Your tools are different and lend themselves to other uses. To redraw the same subject numerous times is itself a form of innovation. {To see some related drawings, click here.)