Matplotlib: Is there a way to use previous plots in a newer subplot?

Question

I'm currently running a loop that exports a 2 column, 1 row subplot (initial state, final state where initial_state needs to have a circle patch and an arrow drawn.) on each iteration but I'd like to have a way of, when that loop ends, show on a big plot all the previous subplots together on a 2 column, N row subplot. Is there a way to "save" previous plots and then "append them" on the new figure once the loop ends?

I was looking for something in the sorts of:

initials = []
finals = []

while done == False:
    fig, (initial_state,final_state) = plt.subplots(1,2)
    initial_state.imshow(initial_state_data)
    initial_state.add_patch(circle)
    initial_state.arrow(arrow_parameters)
    initial_state.set_title('Title 1')
    final_state.imshow(final_state_data)
    final_state.set_title('Title 2')

    initials.append(initial_state)
    finals.append(final_state)

fig2,big_plots = plt.subplot(n,2) #n is the number of iterations in this case
for i in range(n):
    big_plots[i,0] = initials[i]
    big_plots[i,1] = finals[i]

Of course, I'm pretty sure that appending plots to a list is not going to work, but I feel like that's the easiest way to explain what I needed.

This seems like a simple enough thing to do, but I've been looking for days and couldn't find anything.