This guide provides tips and initial pointers to help you make a more informed choice when purchasing original paintings or drawings of artwork for your home or room. From choosing works of art to asking the right questions to ask yourself and the gallery to an introduction to the specific characteristics of oil paintings, watercolors, and images for sale in galleries.
Choose your work of art
Everyone is different and there are many types of art that you can buy. This helps to at least narrow down what you are looking for in your head. You may want to narrow your choices by choosing one of the two main options; old or new, then traditional or abstract, landscape or seascape, etc. as you wish. Or physical properties, large, medium, or small, oil or water paint, light color or subtle color, etc.
We will only use this as a starting point or as a general guide because, as you may be aware, buying artwork is an emotional endeavor, and decisions are rarely made if they are made entirely logically and in many cases emotional.
Find the art, trust your instincts, give it time to think about buying, perhaps with a casual cup of coffee or your favorite drink, and then support your bowel decision. In my experience, this usually leaves you. The ultimate prize for buying art is the personal pleasure of having an original piece of art that you can enjoy in your home or hanging room every day.
Be careful when you become aware of the investment potential of a particular piece of art. The risk/reward ratio of acquiring art to investment is highly biased at the end of the spectrum, and the value of modern artwork can vary widely depending on the artist's reputation, disinformation in the art market, auction market conditions, and the state of the economy.