How to Buy Art Inexpensively
My house is full of art–but I think the most I’ve ever paid for a piece was $50. Here are a few strategies to brighten your walls.
Deal directly with the artist: I’ve gotten great bargains at craft fairs, street festivals, artist-owned retail shops…all places where there’s no middleman.
Look for inexpensive prints in small sizes. I was recently in Alaska, talking to an artist who did exquisite, colorful Inuit-style art. He had beautiful (and expensive) paintings on the walls of his gallery–but several of them were also available as large-format note cards, prints, and even t-shirts. I couldn’t pay thousands or even hundreds of dollars for a full-size original paining, but I did buy a t-shirt and a note card with his designs.
Find artists at the early stages of their careers. These folks exhibit in places like community coffee houses and lower-end restaurants. I once bought a beautiful, intricate design off the wall of a restaurant like that, for the princely sum of $35.
Sets of prints may be very inexpensive per piece. In New Orleans, I bought a vibrant set of jazz prints. I think there were four pieces, and they were so alive that you could just about hear the music. The whole set was about twice the price of buying just one print.
Look for closeouts. Commercial artists change their work, and the old stuff can be snatched up at a discount.
Mount pictures from high-end calendars. By January or February, the current year’s calendars are greatly reduced in price. If you can find any of the previous years, they’ll be close to free. Some of them are incredibly beautiful (and some are not).
Some museum giftshops have at least a few inexpensive pieces.
Make friends with artists. A lot of the work in our house was given to us by various of our many artist friends. This includes my stepfather, an extremely talented artist (you can see his work at http://www.artbyyoshi.com, although the site doesn’t convey the richly saturated colors of his work.)
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