Sylvester Stallone’s paintings on show at The Russian Museum in St Petersburg

Some 30 paintings by Sylvester Stallone are on show at The Russian Museum in St Petersburg.

The exhibition, titled: Sylvester Stallone. Art. 1975-2013, is a selection of works produced by the 67-year-old over the past four decades.

At the show’s opening Sylvester Stallone said, if he had the choice, he would spend his life drawing instead of acting.

“I think I’m a much better painter than an actor,” he said.

“It’s much more personal and I’m allowed to just do what I want to do. Quite often in acting you have to play a certain part, you cannot speak as much as you want to speak. I suppose the heroes don’t talk much, you have to be very stoic.”

Sylvester Stallone studied art before his film career took off and has also had shows in Switzerland and Miami.

The museum’s website described Sylvester Stallone’s works as “comments on the events in his creative and personal life” that focused on the use of bright colours.

Museum director Vladimir Gusev said Sylvester Stallone’s paintings “show the character of a passionate man” and were not simply “the work of an amateur”.

“This is a real artist,” Vladimir Gusev told journalists.

“The Russian museum does not show weak artists.”

However, the state museum – which is heavily focused on Russian art – has received criticism for exhibiting works by Sylvester Stallone.

“If my visit is a challenge for somebody, let it be so,” Sylvester Stallone said when asked what he thought of the critics who thought showing his artwork was a travesty.

Curators defended the exhibition, arguing the show was on display at one of its branches of the museum – which boasts a modern art collection including works by Western artists like Andy Warhol – rather than its main building.

Sylvester Stallone’s artworks will be on display for a month.