Does loving other oil painters' art make you "unoriginal"?

Fantastic insights! Thank you, Chelsea.

It's what is called appreciation and learning! Good going Chelsea! Genius

Handel and Mendolson both used phrasing from other composers in their works

There are elements in art that are common , proportions to good art

Favourite influences? Matt Talbert. Oh, and someone called Chelsea Lang. 😁

I think all of the greatest painters of the past made copies of paintings they admired. This was standard practice in the art academies of the 19th century. The great John S. Sargent studied the work of Velazquez and Franz Hals among others. I once saw a copy of a painting by Poussin by Degas. Artists do this to increase their knowledge and confidence, not because they lack originality or imagination.

I think every slightly jazzy group says they were inspired by Coltrane. The Doors the Dead. But it means more when Hendrix and Soft machine claim a Coltrane influence. I just say my influence is Paul Gauguin. That covers all bases.

I suppose as long as there have been painters there have been painters "influenced" by other artists, either from before them or contemporary with them. May hold for other artists too, musicians, composers, writers, etc., and even movie makers. So, it's a natural thing to like something that you want to emulate in your own work.

It depends on art genre too, like for portraits and landscapes, sometimes/often they will be different artists. And for me, when I began painting, it was wildlife, and it was someone few here will have likely heard of, a great Canadian painter in acrylic, Robert Bateman! Now as a landscape painter, in oils, primarily, it's Edgar Payne, an American Impressionist, and also a few other living artists.

Fauvorite influences? Chelsea Lang of course and some others amazings and generous painters around the world ❤

You just nailed it! I was trying to explain this to one of my student and just was not buying it. Thank you!

Good artists copy, great artists steal. Someone can take rembrandts lighting and make superhero paintings with it..

So stunning ❤❤❤Thank you for sharing your experience with us ✅️👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

I think you do need to buy art. I’m not saying you need to endanger your financial stability by buying $3,000 pieces, but most artists offer prints at pretty cheap prices often just $10 to $50. Some even sell original watercolors or drawings or tiny pieces for those prices. You CAN afford this. I have a wall dedicated to pieces of art by other artists and it is a CONSTANT source if inspiration. Plus, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and spreading my support to others who also need it. If you believe what comes around, goes around, this is how to start putting out the energy you want to receive.

One of the things that keeps artists from considering contemporary work is the fear of copyright. Copyright no longer serves to protect the artist or the culture at large as it was intended. It serves corporate interests, and those who can pay to legally afford to protect the work. 100 years ago work moved quickly into the public domain for all of us to be inspired by. Many didn’t even wait and just took the IP for their own use (as Disney did with Steamboat Willy, based on a Buster Keaton movie Steamboat Bill Jr the year before, which was based on the song Stramboat Bill the year before that. The audacity that Disney now is the leader in extending copyright protection and sued preschools for painting Mickey on their nursery walls is mind blowing. The fear of being sued for being influenced by other’s work is a real fear among visual artists today when we should be protected, as musical artists are, in sampling the work of others to bring new life into that work. We don’t really have a painting equivalent of a masterpiece based on other masterpieces like Gotye’s “Someone I Used To Know,” one of the most successful songs of the last 2 decades. Visual artists sampling isn’t protected the same way, as shown by Sheperd Fairy’s “Hope” image of Barack Obama, a piece that was denied protection through fair use. Until we get back to a sensical copyright law that both protects an artists ability to sell their work and also drives that work into the public domain for the good of the culture, this will stifle artists willingness to risk considering being influenced by contemporary work.

Hello, I’m just an amateur but I love Monet, Van Gogh, Utrillo, and Géricault among others. A master study of a work of each would be an interesting cross section of styles, and hopefully make me better.
What kind of palette are you using? Haven’t seen that one before, looks very portable! Thanks

Hi Chelsea! I just watched a video you did 4 years ago on how you became a full time artist. I am thinking about making this change in my career as well and I’m just wondering briefly how it’s been for you now 4 years later and if you’d still give the same advice? 💛

Studying other artists is how you learn. Art's not born in a vacuum.

Does being jealous of your wonderful hair, make my thinning hair line less balding? No, that's not how thinning hair works. Love the hair cut.

Very interesting topic. We Wii include it to our discussion with the artists.