In the Studio: Painting a small oil artwork I Having fun creating I Two favourite art quotes

In today’s video I am working on a small oil painting, that I called “Cardinal Richelieu”: https://acrista.com/portfolio/origina.... If you are not familiar with the name, it’s a bit of a word game - the bird is a cardinal, and Cardinal Richelieu is a character from the novel “The three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas and a historic figure.
These birds always look so funny to me, with their posture and almost round form - just like some pretentious authority figure. Hence - the artwork name.

Simple subjects like this one are a nice rest from the figurative paintings and the female faces that I am mostly known for. From time to time I like to just relax with something small, that is not requiring too much thought, and is a lot of fun to work on.

As an artist, having fun in the studio, is actually one of the things that I have to constantly remind myself to do - it’s basically giving myself the permission to be a child again and to enjoy the process, regardless of the end result. And here, of course, I think of one of my favourite artists, who had a great influence on me, when I was starting - the American pastel artist Harley Brown.
I found him many years ago on the pages of the International Artist magazine, where he would share his priceless knowledge and wisdom. For example he says “Art is not work; it’s playtime. Put that in your resume.” And for creativity this is all that matters, isn’t it?

Another quote from Harley that I love is “I am not a serious artist. I am a happy artist.” Actually I used to have this one printed on a T-shirt, this is how much I can relate to his statement.
The pretentiousness that often comes with the art world, the pressure to be a serious artist (whatever that means) and the need to fit in some kind of academic boxes can easily kill your creativity and spontaneity [spɔntə’ni:iti], and the inner child, who just wants to play and make a mess, and express itself.

I kinda realise that this is a long and deep subject, so maybe I will come back to it in another video. In the meantime have fun creating, thank you for watching and see you guys soon. Enjoy the painting process of my Cardinal R! https://www.acrista.com/portfolio/ori...

Music from Pixabay:
- acoustic-motivation-11290-Music by Yrii Semchyshyn
- emotional-inspiring-piano-and-cello-126159-Music by Yevhen Onoychenko
- sunny-spring-154080-Music by Marc Corominas
Thank you all!