The Collectors

Often enough, successful Hollywood actors spend their wealth on showy homes, exotic cars and lavish private parties. But many possess the means and taste to collect works of art that inspire and delight them. With their well-established art collections, Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson are successors to earlier Hollywood collectors like Vincent Price and Edward G. Robinson. Here are five actors who are not necessarily known for extensive collections, but who own paintings they passionately love.

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Gillian Anderson Ur-farm by contemporary painter Darren Waterston

"It inspires me. It reminds me of the potential of new growth, that every day is a new day and what we can always begin again."

Eric Stoltz The Inlet by early California painter Clyde Scott

"It reminds me of my childhood. I grew up around a beautiful beach and when I saw this painting, I was taken right back to a more innocent time. It's fun. I can get lost in it."

Melissa Joan Hart La Celestine by Pablo Picasso

"This piece is inspiring to me, not only because of the rare medium of acid and sugar, but also because I believe Picasso intended it to be a self-portrait. Picasso believed he sold beauty, as portrayed in the work by Rembrandt's La Celestine on the left. As Picasso had intended, I bought this piece because of the great beauty I saw in it. Especially stunning to me is the absolute clarity of the woman's body."

Leelee Sobieski Ooga Boola (Left) and Submission (right), her own work

"I made these at my birthday party. They were created together in an hour of my life. They put me in a light, fun mood."

Joan Chen Unfinished by contemporary painter Chase Chen

"I love this painting because of its direct expression of human emotion. My brother has yet to finish this painting. Who is to determine when a work of art is finished, anyway? The 'unfinished' painting is as intimate as a person without makeup. The girls in the painting have come from Italy. They are young and aspiring actresses who are full of dreams. Nothing has yet come true, but nothing has been broken. They picked this newly plowed dirt as a place to sit because there is nothing on it, and it is ripe for any development. They remind me of myself when I was young."

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