Sylvester Stallone has become a "man who concentrates on his art".
The 80-year-old actor has enjoyed a hugely successful career in Hollywood, starring in the Rocky and Rambo film franchises - but after stepping back from his movie career, Stallone is now embracing his love of art.
A source told People: "At 80, Stallone is a man who concentrates on his art.
"He has an incredible studio built at his house, and drawing and painting is his life. If he has a character to play, he sketches it out first."
Despite his tough-guy image, Stallone has always been a huge art enthusiast, and painting has been described as the actor's "first love".
The insider shared: "He had an amazing retrospective of his work in January and painting is truly his first love — something he’s been doing since he was 11."
Stallone lives on a "gorgeous compound in Palm Beach, Florida", and the actor has managed to find a really healthy balance in his life in recent years.
Another source explained to People: "He’s still golfing and he’s still acting."
Stallone staged his first art show, called Evolution, at Art Palm Beach last January, and the organisers explained that the actor had made a conscious effort to keep his artwork private until then.
A press release at the time explained: "That’s the interesting part: someone who built one of the most recognised personal brands in entertainment deliberately kept a six-decade creative practice separate from it. No merch tie-ins, no licensing play, no Instagram content strategy. Just the work, in private, for sixty years."
Before that, Stallone opened up about his love of art.
He told Interview magazine in 2015: "I’m thinking of starting a gallery. I’d live in a museum if I could. I used to spend hours and hours in the Museum of Modern Art."
Asked about his art-buying habits, Stallone replied: "I’m very hung up on the late 19th-century artists. Mostly Romantic.
"I think that the great artists — the majority of them — are dead. We don’t have many today who have the draughtsmanship.
"Most of my bronzes are Baryes, I have Menes, I have Rodins. I bought a Bourdelle sculpture of Heracles as The Archer — a beautiful piece — and I just bought a Delvaux. But again, I also love established artists like Botero, and Robert Graham."
