Playing as a creative tool for a visual artist : It's About Time - Teatime! acrylic painting as a case study

The purpose of this study was to gather information on how play and playfulness are present in the creative process amongst visual artists. The aim was to find out if there is a way to increase creativity via playfulness. This study concentrates on imagination-at-play, excluding for example playing video games or other types of play with structure and rules. The theoretical data for this thesis was collected from various sources including books, articles, studies, video interviews and publications concerning creativity and play. Four respected Finnish visual artists Leonora Fredriksson, Mikko Kallio, Jani Leinonen and Katja Tukiainen were interviewed as the main source of information. Report of the process of the painting It’s About Time – Teatime!, the artistic part of this thesis, was included as a case study. The findings indicated that playing helps in achieving a creative state of mind and is an essential part of the artist’s creative process. It can be terrifying to suffer from an artist block, especially for artists in the beginning of their career. Therefore it is beneficial to increase the knowledge on these matters. Playing can increase creativity but also make working fun – and not only for artists.