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Lessons from Palazzo Pitti – Don’t Apologize for Your Art!

Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

Here’s my latest acrylic painting called “Strawberry Madonna.” I started it in February, and it’s my first painting using old masters’ techniques with acrylic paints. It’s much more difficult to use acrylics instead of oil paints, but I managed to find few tips and tricks that helped. But this blog post is not so much about the techniques. I want to write about being unapologetic when creating art. It feels like a never-ending journey to me, and I hope this blog post will resonate with you too.

Palazzo Pitti and Traveling to Florence, Italy

Last week, I traveled to Italy with my husband to see Renessaince art. We flew to Rome, then took a train to Florence. After spending a couple of days in Florence, we got back to Rome, spend a couple of nights there, and then flew back home. We visited so many museums that it was a bit exhausting at times. I took over 700 photos, and there were so many highlights in our journey that I decided not to try to fit it all in this blog post, but focus on the glory of Palazzo Pitti, an art museum located in Florence, and save other experiences for later.

Namely, seeing Palazzo Pitti on the first evening in Florence, reminded me of how needless it is to tone things down and how we can be as glorious as possible when creating art and when using our imagination.

One Chandelier is Never Enough!

When watching the chandeliers of Palazzo Pitti, my first thought was: “Isn’t one enough?”
Then I realized that on my artistic journey, I have often thought like that: “it should be enough.”

  • Creativity: “I should be enough to have one idea for one image.”
  • Time: “It should be enough to have two hours for this piece.”
  • Skills: “It should be enough to just have a little bit of fun with it.”
  • Potential: “It should be enough to stick with what I know now.”
  • Imagination: “It should be enough to replicate the reality.”

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

But one idea, one short session, one technique, one reality, is never enough if you want to continue the journey. When you have passed the first steps in creating, the room gets bigger. Making art frustrates you. It feels like your chandelier is broken. But instead of continuously changing the chandelier, you need more chandeliers to lighten your way.

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

When you begin creating, it’s just fun to change the chandelier: the theme, the technique, the idea. But when you have been creating for a while, it becomes overwhelming. The nature of creativity is never to focus on one small thing at the time. One chandelier is never enough for the curious mind. You need to learn to:

  • combine your many ideas
  • take more sessions for one piece
  • find the blind spots in skills and knowledge
  • and the most important of all: increase your imagination so that it takes you above the everyday life.

When you have many chandeliers, you see it clearer why you create art and where you want to go with it. Don’t apologize for your lacking focus but embrace all aspects of your creativity!

Ask What Your Heart Says!

When I saw “The Horrors of War” by Peter Paul Rubens in Palazzo Pitti, it caused an immediate emotional reaction. I was in tears before I was able to analyze the painting. Even if the theme was very dramatic, violent even, the movement and the wind was so beautifully painted. To me, it expressed the beauty of change, the theme that has always been close to my heart.

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

When I was a teenager, I often drew scenes or portraits where the wind was present. It just looked fun and dynamic. But the more I have been creating, the more I have realized that I love to express movement, change, and transformation in one way or another, and the wind is often a symbol of that in my work. Thinking about big changes is one of those chandeliers that always lightens my inspiration.

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

I believe in digging deeper behind the first reactions. If art makes you emotional, there’s something important that’s behind it. It’s often contradictory, something so different that you have a hard time in believing it.

It’s kind of funny how much time I spend at home, doing the daily routines, and how my mind is in grand transformations and explorations. But to find what’s your true passion, the mundane life and your everyday wishes don’t give answers to that. You need to connect with your imagination.

Don’t apologize for your circumstances but use your imagination to experience the freedom! 

Decorating is Not an Enemy of Expression!

One thing that I found very delightful in Palazzo Pitti was how the number of decorative designs. I have always felt drawn to decorative painting style and even called myself as a “decorative artist.” It was my way of saying that I don’t feel like being very expressive. But nowadays I think that it’s possible to combine both decorative and expressive together, and there’s no need to limit the inspiration. Namely, who couldn’t be inspired by this ceiling?

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

And look at the door and the tabletop! The most amazing thing is that the table top is made from stoneware!

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

We may not be the similar masters as those decorative artists, but the experience in crafts can still be a treasure chest of ideas. For example, in my Strawberry Madonna, I added a crocheted lace on her dress and truly enjoyed painting it!

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

Don’t apologize for your background in crafts (or in anything) but see that as a part of your artistic journey!

About Confidence and Belonging

When walking in the aisles of Palazzo Pitti, I felt sweaty and modestly dressed. The Medici family would not have invited me to their party, for sure. I thought about my art too and how modest it felt after seeing the big masterpieces.

A Finnish artist Paivi Eerola at Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

But it’s not only my art but I also often struggle when writing these blog posts. I don’t want to just write about my thoughts. I want to write so that you would continue creating and evolving with me. I want to offer classes that make you draw the connecting lines between your brain and your heart.

So that the way you speak about your art, would include more joy and confidence.

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

So that the way you see art, would be filled with happy surprises and inspiration.

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

So that the way you explore the many styles, would make you see higher to your passion.

Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

So that the ideas that you get, would get full wings because you value them.

A detail of Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet

Here’s what we can learn from the treasures of Palazzo Pitti:

There’s no reason to be apologetic when creating and sharing your art. There’s no reason to underestimate the impact that art can have on your life and others as well.

Strawberry Madonna, an acrylic painting by Paivi Eerola from Peony and Parakeet - with a ceiling from Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

Art is Timeless but Our Time to Create It is Limited

The final image is a view from Palazzo Pitti. It is a reminder of how art can stand time but how our time to create is limited.

A view from Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

If your heart wants to create in a new way, don’t postpone it. If you are struggling, don’t delay solving the problem. I hope I will see you in my upcoming coaching program The Exploring Artist, where your art and your artistic identity is in focus. It’s about finding ways and confidence to create unapologetic art as well as building belongingness with the like-minded people.  >> Sign up here!

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20 thoughts on “Lessons from Palazzo Pitti – Don’t Apologize for Your Art!

  1. Your words are always so uplifting to me. I find myself trying new ideas even before I really think about it. That gets me excited to see what it will look like. I find myself also letting go of those preconceived notions I have about my creativity, or lack of. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

  2. Thank you, your words are so encouraging.Now I’m off to use your advise and create something wonderful.It’s amazing how calm and content my mind is after being creative and challenging myself.Always enjoy your posts.Kind regards, Cheryl

  3. Thank you for the uplifting post. It is as I f you give breath to my lungs, encouraging my art in ways I have been instructed to suppress.

  4. I always learn something from your experience and thoughts. I do wonder if you create ‘thumbnails’ before making your realistic paintings (like your Madonna) and I assume you don’t make ‘thumbnails’ before producing your abstracts. If you do, how do you go about laying down your abstractions for study before beginning? I was always afraid to make them since I might make a just perfect line that I couldn’t reproduce later and always think it was not as good the the thumbnail. But, maybe that would help me not be afraid to cover up things that are not needed as if they had a life of their own and I was destroying it. Funny when I put in in writing.

    1. I have written a blog post about this subject:
      http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/using-reference-images/

      In Strawberry Madonna, I have used reference images in the same philosophy than what you presented. I started with creating a reference image in Photoshop, but I have interpreted it very loosely with many intuitive elements. For fully abstract paintings, I rarely use reference images or then they are a series of separate images that I use gradually.

      Using reference images or not, several along the process, or one at the beginning – I am coaching this at The Exploring Artist (Part 3) http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/exploring-artist/

  5. Will you be teaching the techniques using acrylics like the masters that you devised in your Madonna?? Will they be a class, a blog, a workshop or an ongoing process??I would be interested in learning. Thanks for all your inspiration. Lorraine

    1. Thank you for your interest, Lorraine!

      I am preparing a technique-focused class for the fall that takes the most exciting parts of the process. It teaches you how to combine the essentials of the techniques with free expression. Stay tuned!

  6. Hello Paivi,
    Thank you for another very thought-provoking post.
    I love your Strawberry Madonna painting. The colours are just right and so atmospheric. They remind me of a woodland path as the sun is setting.

    1. Maria, thank you! I contemplated with the background a lot but ended up painting an atmosphere where she looks like leaving the scene and moving forward instead of entering it. Your impression of sunset is just that!

  7. Paivi, I love your thoughtful travelogue of the Pitti Palace from an artistic, creative point of view. Please take us with you to more museums and places that inspire you! And please thank the dogs for their sacrifice!

  8. I absolutely love this painting. gorgeous. I so many times start something that I in vision in my head and it does not translate to page or canvas. Then I give up time and time again, defeated.

    I love the statement about not being apologetic, that I believe is why I’m disappointed because I’m much too worried about the reaction from other’s before I complete it.

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