Abstract
This study investigated the creative expertise of artists who had been making art for many years. In an initial study, we interviewed four artists at different stages of their careers about their previous artworks to investigate how they made them and how they changed in the course of their making. We asked, for instance, about their concept of each artwork, when and how a new series of artworks emerged, and so on. It was revealed that experienced artists formed their artistic vision (i.e., their long-term intention or main theme related to making art) after changing series of artwork several times, and then created artworks based on it. On the other hand, younger artists did not recognize their artistic vision yet, making artworks based on their temporary interests. In a second study, nine professional artists with more than 10 years of experience were interviewed about their whole body of artworks to identify how they became creative experts and how their artistic vision was formed. As a result, it appeared that there are three periods in creative expertise: the first is “being constrained to external criteria”; the second is “forming their own internal criteria”; and the third is “generating harmonious creations with the artistic vision.” In sum, when the artists were young, they made artworks based on external criteria. Later on, they recognized the limitations of this approach, and started to focus on internal criteria. Finally, on average about 13 years after beginning their artistic careers and creating several series of artworks, artists formed a personal artistic vision. At that point they were confidently able to make original artworks.
