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"Art is a visual language that speaks
directly to our hearts"
Just as the way a city or a town is characterized
by its architecture, our homes and offices form a medium
of self-expression. Our individual styles and tastes are
displayed in the way we decorate our homes. From the gardens
around our homes, to the furniture inside, even the walls,
each one communicates our inner thoughts and tastes to the
outside world.
Taste is an expression of what we've seen
in life, our experiences and what we like. These are the
things that we are intuitively attracted to and what makes
us feel comfortable. The way we entertain, work and decorate
reveals our taste. No one has to tell us what we like. We
just know.
The right ambience
What goes into selecting the right ambience
in our homes, the kind that is an expression of our tastes
and style? What's the kind of mood that we want to convey
to people who visit our homes - a comfortable or relaxed
feeling that will make the guest linger on and begin an
interesting discussion about the painting and the artist.
Grouping art with furniture to get that
correct mood in a room requires some thought and some planning.
Before decorating a home, establish its focal points - places
where you want to exercise your creativity. Starting from
whether you need a bookshelf or a coffee table in a room
or a painting or a decorative rug, define these focal decoration
points in the home.
If the focal point in the house is the
fireplace, maybe a painting above it will add color to the
wall and the room. Or you may just feel like hanging a great
piece of art someplace in your home?
Once you've decided what kind of an ambience
you want a room to convey and how a painting will aid in
this effort, the next thought would be the colors of the
paintings, the types of paintings and how to frame it in
that correct manner that will bestow the desired effect
that you seek.
Paintings and color
Paintings add zest and color to a room.
The right kind of painting can present a sense of adventure
and bring life to an otherwise faceless room. A landscape
can soothe and convey serenity while a seascape can suggest
change or constant movement. A street scene represents the
hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Still life and portraits take on life through
the color and lighting used. Portraits convey feeling and
expressions and a living presence in a room.
If a painting is too big for a wall, the
room will be masked under its enormity. If you happen to
like a painting that may be too small for your room, select
a few and hang them as a group on the wall. When collecting
paintings that are part of a 'family' make sure that they
share a common theme, or color or subject and are all of
the same kind. Also, it's not just enough to buy a beautiful
painting. The manner in which you hang them on your walls
will also make a big difference to the room. You must frame
it appropriately and place it at the right place on a wall.
Paintings can be hung solo or in a group based on a common
theme or color and in arrangements that can define a room
and give it a personality of its own.
Abstract or Impressionist? Oil or Watercolor?
Let's look at a few styles.
Abstract: An abstract image is the
kind where the viewer and the artist understand the painting
differently. It is a non-representation of something that
the artist feels at that point of time. But it's beautiful
all the same. As they say, "it's all in the interpretation".
Content that is communicated through abstract paintings
can be of a political nature, psychological, or poetic and
can include any meaning within its essence.
Expressionist: As the name suggests,
such a painting is an expression of the artist's feelings
and ideas in a fairly strong manner. This is usually achieved
through the use of strong and vibrant colors, distorted
images and subjects.
Modernist: Considered to be of an
intellectual nature, these paintings got their names from
the Mid-20th century School of painting that popularized
this style.
Impressionist: Characterized by
broken color and brushwork, this is a style of painting
that originated in France.
The other popular kinds of paintings are
Surrealist paintings and contemporary drawings, photography,
computer animation and art like movie posters, original
Disney drawings that form some of the newest mediums in
two-dimensional art.
Materials and techniques:
The materials that go into a painting can
vary from acrylic emulsions to watercolors while painting
techniques can be as different as those painted with airbrushes
or gilded with gold or silver and then coated with varnish
to give a sheen.
An Original
An original is a unique piece of artwork
that cannot be exactly duplicated. For example, an image
from an original oil painting can be duplicated as a print
but the reproduction is not oil paint on canvas.
A Lithography is the process of
taking an original image and reproducing it on a new surface,
such as a paper or canvas.
A Gicleé (gee-clay)
Gicleé is a type of painting that gives the finished
product the look and texture of an original painting. These
pieces are colorful and created by spraying ink on to a
canvas or paper.
Edition
The total number of copies
printed from the same plates or blocks and published about
the same time are referred to as editions.
A visual inspection is the best way to
check if a painting is original. An original watercolor
will have a rough surface when looked at from an angle,
a print will have a flat and even surface, while an original
oil painting will have a rough and uneven paint edge on
the sides of a canvas.
Art of buying a painting
What are the techniques that you can use
to maximize not only the quality and value of your painting,
but also for your own personal enjoyment, appreciation,
and understanding of that art?
The essence of selecting a good painting
is to be true to your tastes and acknowledge that you like
certain types of art regardless of what you think you like
or what is the current rage. All great painting owners share
this trait - in fact it makes them stand out from the rest.
Study and understand
If you just want to have some decent stuff
on your walls to live with and enjoy, then buy pleasant,
well done art at reasonable prices and enjoy it. If you
want to have both pleasure and possible value appreciation
in the future, then you will pay a higher price for your
pictures. Either is a good and valid reason for buying art.
Sometimes it might make sense to buy a
painting with a high-priced signature because this would
resell well, but if the sole aim of buying art is for personal
pleasure and then passing the painting on to future generations,
it could mean buying an aesthetically pleasing painting
created by even a lesser-known artist.
A few questions that you need to ask yourself when you want
to buy art are: Does the art make you feel good? Do you
like the subject matter, the colors, and the historical
aspects of the painting? Does it take you to a special place?
Do you respect the way it's composed? Does it make you see
life differently? Okay, maybe not the last one, but what
it should do is to inspire you and convey that same mood
to others.
Are the paintings old or new, local or
foreign, big or small, what are the main colors, the subject
or themes? Do the colors of a painting complement or blend
with the color of your walls? Or will the rest of the room
be decorated based on the colors of this painting?
Investing in Art
Art is an investment and it's therefore
important to evaluate the price and negotiate the purchase.
Sometimes it helps to stash away information
about the painting - stories about the author (apart from
the fact that he may be penniless or a budding genius) or
any other memorable incidents associated with it. Documenting
this information may be of use later.
You will need to know what the art means,
what the artist accomplished and when it was created or
whether it was exhibited in public before. You would also
need to know if the piece is a forgery or a fake. First-time
buyers could do well with some expert neutral advice.
Hand in hand with knowing the art, know
the marketplace. Compare and contrast what dealers offer
in order to assure yourself that something is as good as
you are led to believe.
To summarize, buying a painting will include:
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Selecting a location to hang the
painting
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Taking note of that area's color
group.
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Selecting a painting that you like
and trying it out in the space.
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Determining how it should be framed
and what kind of lighting it needs.
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Remembering the story behind the
painting and telling it well!
Purchasing Online
With the advent of the Internet, online
galleries have become very popular these days. Online art
galleries make it very easy for a prospective art buyer
to search and select from a wide collection of paintings
on display. More so, one can browse at one's own convenience
and select paintings without a sales person hanging around.
Galleries display a range of paintings
not just in terms of artists and genres, but also in a diverse
price range. For those who don't want to spend too much
money in buying a painting there are the lesser-known artists
to select from.
What about online payments? Most galleries
ensure that all online payments are safe and secure. Moreover,
the return policy of the art website should offer a provision
to return a painting if one doesn't like it.
Shipping is usually a part of the expense
and can be quite expensive. It's best when framing is not
a part of the art due to the increased cost of shipping
and the uncertainty of meeting one's expectations. The user
then has the freedom to opt for a frame of his choosing.
Related links
View our collection of galleries from around the world
http://webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/paintings.html
- Learn more about what goes into a painting.
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