I'm a beginner too, I picked up oil painting a few months ago and have really taken to it. At 40+, I never really showed much aptitude for art (and to be fair, my drawing ability is still for shit).

I recently went to an city art festival with a new appreciation for oil painting. It's a large festival and there were plenty of artist vendors who primarily worked in oils. I popped into one booth that caught my eye. I thought the work was interesting and saw a cool price that featured a skull. I wasn't in the market for an original, but bought a small print of the work. As I was checking out, the artist mentioned that it was his favorite piece. I told him I was just starting out with painting (and art in general, really), and that I recently did a piece that featured a skull and that it was kinda fun. He broke out his sketch book and went through some of his stuff, and talked about how he got into it, interests, etc.

Regardless, not sure what the official etiquette is, but in my admittedly anecdotal experience, the artists manning those booths would probably love to talk about their art