The Power of “Same, But Better”

I got a spicy comment this week.

Ouch... my eyebrows did a small interpretive dance. 

Because yes, I am repeating myself. On purpose. That is how you find your voice. You try all the things, you make all the messes, and then you start perfecting the sauce. From the outside that can look like sameness. From the inside it feels like evolution.

The truth about a recognisable style

A recognisable style is not a random accident. It is a series of tiny choices, made again and again, until your work whispers your name before anyone sees the signature. It is the way your shadows curve, the breath in your negative space, the way two colours hum when they sit next to each other.

To people who are just passing by, consistency can look like repetition. To people who are paying attention, it looks like mastery in progress.

History has receipts

Let us keep this cheeky and factual.

- Vincent van Gogh painted more than 11 sunflower paintings across two series. Different light, different stages, same subject, again and again.

- Claude Monet created about 250 water lily paintings over roughly thirty years. Same pond, same lilies, endless nuance.

Imagine their comment sections.
“Claude, babe, have you considered literally anything else”

If repeating yourself is boring, art history is deliciously boring.

Repetition is not stagnation

Stagnation is mindless. Repetition with intention is focused. The difference lives in three words.

Attention. You notice what changed, and why it matters.
Intention. You choose a constraint, and you explore it with care.
Iteration. You do it again, with one meaningful variable shifted.

That is the entire engine of a signature style.

What I am repeating right now

I am deep in series work. Dark bases. Warm light on top. Organic shapes that nod to botanicals. Transparent acrylic layers. That little gold line that catches the eye and pulls it through the composition. The differences are small and they are everything. A shadow gets softer. A curve holds a breath a little longer. The harmony between two close colours becomes the story.

If you know, you know.

Why this matters for artists and collectors

For artists. Repetition builds skill, recognisability, and speed of decision making. It quiets the panic and turns intuition into muscle memory. You start to trust it.

For collectors. Series create coherence. You can follow the thread and watch the work mature. It makes living with a piece even richer, because you understand the chapter it came from.

Five ways to repeat 

Change one variable at a time. Keep composition steady, shift only the colour temperature, or keep palette steady, shift only the scale.
Set a small constraint. For the next three paintings, every focal shape begins as a circle. Let the variation arrive inside the rule.
Track your micro decisions. After each session, write three lines. What worked, what surprised you, what you want to push next.
Move the light. Same forms, different shadow logic. Side light, top light, rim light, each one tells a new story.
Dial the edges. Play with soft to hard transitions. Crisp tape lines against feathered transparent washes. Clean meets hazy. Magic.

Handling the spicy comments

Not all feedback is equal. Sort it fast.

The passerby. Low context, loud opinion. Smile and keep moving.
The peer. Knows the craft, offers something specific. Listen, even if you disagree.
The collector. Speaks about feeling and fit. Ask a question, learn how your work lives in a home.

A simple reply that keeps your peace.
“Thanks for sharing your view. I am exploring this series with care, each piece pushes a small detail forward. You might not see it yet, that is okay. Wishing you lots of beauty in your feed.”

Final brushstroke

If boring means I am getting closer to the essence of my work, I hope to bore you senseless for many years to come. Because that is how unmistakable begins.

If you are an artist, keep going. Choose your thread and follow it. If you are a collector, lean in. Series tell the best stories on the wall.

Have a great week.
Rinske