How to choose art, where to buy, and what size art you need for your walls:
Are you searching for the perfect wall art to elevate the rooms in your home? Before you start the search for that perfect piece, there are a lot of things to consider when selecting what colors make sense and what art style you are attracted to. Canvas wall art transform a room into an eye-catching focal point. However picking the right size is key to not overwhelming your room.
Don't know where to start? It may seem like a huge task to under take and you have a lot of art to choose from. Think original art, posters, prints, and minor works of art. Filling your home should be an enjoyable process and doesn't need to be as complicated as you imagine.
So to start to make it easier let's look at some key steps to take before buying art at any price point. Let's look at what to focus on first because no one wants to stare at a blank wall which is why wall art is a crucial part of decorating our homes.
How to choose art?
First to consider is what style of art are you drawn to? If you're not sure then you need to do a little research first. Keep in mind art has the power to transform any space. It will become the focal point of your room and can be a conversation starter. When it comes to purchasing art, there is a range of styles to choose from depending on your tastes. Note art is subjective. Your personal taste and the emotional connection to artwork that you like. Choosing art on a deeper level, art that speaks to you, and reflects your unique style and personality is a good place to start choosing and collecting works of art. Not sure what I'm talking about? A good example is a person that is fun loving and loves bright colors then this person is going to look at colorful art with movement and maybe a quirky subject matter.
Think about how you want your room to feel?
How is the room used may also be something to consider when deciding the kind of artwork you want. Do you want something ,dramatic, sophisticated, cozy, or soothing at the end of your day. You can pay homage to a particular artist that you would like to collect. If you are someone that wants to become a collector of a local artist or artists, go for it, you may someday end up with a painting in your collection that can become valuable as the artist becomes more well known to other collectors.
You're going to want to consider the room's color palette. This is going to help establish what kind of art will look best in your room. Feel free to use accent colors you have used in lampshades, pillows, area rugs or maybe small accent chairs and fabrics. If you want to make a statement purchase a color wheel to build a color scheme for your room and artwork. This is a great way to build harmony of colors into your rooms.
What king of art for a living room? Are you after a soothing room that has traditional furniture with soft colors, then you may want to choose a textured abstract painting in soft colors or a pictorial landscape or woodland scene to promote a room for calm and quiet conversation.
In a more casual living room a backdrop of a gallery wall might just turn heads and bring smiles to faces. Give the room a Bohemian feel by mixing artwork styles into a collection of watercolors, paintings, photography and second hand art. You can even produce some of your own DIY artwork that suits your home just perfectly.
Artwork for bedrooms.
Bedrooms are the private space in your home that can have more personalized significance. This is the space to hang your wedding photos or a collection gallery style of family photos. Remember bedrooms are a space of comfort so choose a calming scene, think landscape or an ocean scene. Above the bed is an inviting space for a soft abstract in subtle colors. So as you're planning your art for this space think relaxing and comfort to send you into sweet dreams.
Children's bedrooms.
Artwork for children's bedroom should reflect the child's personality and interests. As your child grows with interests and hobbies, so does the look and feel of their room. Aim for artwork that is age appropriate and based on a theme of their interest such as animals, outer space, or educational art. This can include world maps or astronomy. Also consider the color theme of the room.
Kitchen art.
Wall space in a kitchen can be limited. Here you will need to be creative. Wall art can lean against a backsplash on a counter with other decorative items or prop your art on a shelf with decorative plates in a cupboard. If you do have a small wall space to hang art choose artwork that is cheerful and works with the theme and color of your kitchen. This may be the space that small original artwork you have purchased at an art faire may work.
Dining Room Art.
If you have a separate formal dining room choose your artwork based on color found in draperies or perhaps dishes or glassware displayed in hutches or buffets. Don't be afraid to prop a few small paintings in with your dish display or whatever collection you may be displaying. It will add interest and variety to your display. Wall art can vary from botanical illustrations, a calming landscape, ocean scene, to birds. If your dining room is casual make it fun with quirky artwork and fun colorful pottery. If your dining room is open to the living area be sure to coordinate your wall art and colors of both spaces to blend across the common spaces.
Art in your bathroom.
Bathrooms are usually small rooms. This is a room for botanicals or animal illustrations, nature themes or light open scenery. Acrylic painted artwork will hold up to humidity in the bathroom. The bathroom can also be a place for graphic artwork to line across a wall space to give it personality.
Where to Buy Art:
Having a budget in mind to purchase your art.
After achieving the idea of the feeling you want in your art for your room your next consideration must be your budget. Art ranges greatly in price. Don't be afraid to start small when collecting original art. You can build a collection of original artwork to hang as a gallery wall. A great way to start is to collect your favorite artist small studies which can start
around $30.00. Their are many artist that have their own websites to check out. Many offer prints and small original art that sell at reasonable prices. When working on a limited budget and love a well-known artist consider buying prints and editions either aiming for a high number edition or a lower value print. This way you can have a piece of their art without purchasing a piece that may run into the thousand of dollars. You can collect art that fit your budget and personal taste and have a great and meaningful collection. Not all art has to be by a well known artist. There are many talented local and on-line artist you can purchase from to build a collection to give your home a unique look. Also look at minor works by major artist such as drawings or etchings. When buying from a major artist look for easily identified work such as characteristics symbols, styles and subjects that the artist is known for. Check out on-line galleries. This allows you to compare artist and study their styles and prices. If you're like me I can find art galleries quite daunting, especially large galleries in big cities The internet has made studying art and artist much easier. It also has made buying art more transparent and accessible to all of us and easier for new collectors. Many artist have their own websites and you can study their bio and paintings or start out on their social media sites and really get to know the artist story. Going on-line to do your research can make it much easier for you to decide on the artwork you plan on purchasing at galleries, auctions, and art fairs. By doing your research before you start shopping can arm you with the knowledge of what you love and the comfort of knowing you're making an informed purchase to hang in your home for years to come.
What Size Art to Buy:
You now need one more bit of information to complete your art journey. Decorate with art that is the right size for your space. Bigger isn't always better. Wall art that is too big can be just as detrimental as art that is too small for the scale of your room. A painting above your sofa should be approximately three quarters of the length of your sofa and the height of the painting use the factor of the number 51 and subtract the height of your sofa then multiply that sum by 2 this total will give you the height of your painting. ( 51 (factor) - (the height of the sofa x 2 equals the height of your painting (Ex: 51- sofa height 32"= 19" x 2 = 38" the height of the painting).
Another example is hanging a piece of art on an empty wall. Firsts measure the width of the wall, then multiple the width by 0.65. This number is the approximate width of your painting. The next step is to measure the height of the wall. Take the height measurement and multiple it with the same factor of 0.65. This total will give you the height of your painting. You can now feel confident on what size of art to buy for your empty wall.
Be sure to consider the size and scale of your room. Evaluate how the art piece will visually impact your room. A good tip is to place painter's blue tape on the wall in the dimension of the painting and see how it feels. A large room can of course accommodate larger scale artwork. It is also important to consider the scale of the furniture. Hanging a huge painting above a small delicate piece of furniture will throw the portions of the room off giving an unsettling feeling when you are in the room. In most circumstances wall art should be approximately three quarters the size of the piece of furniture it will hang above. One last measurement in hanging your art is the bottom of the artwork (including the frame if there is one) should be 6-12" above the closest piece of furniture. Note that the standard hanging height for art is from the middle of a painting is 58" from the floor, which is the standard for art galleries. I'm not trying to confuse you but inform you of some of the standards that professionals use in hanging wall art. Following this rule is perfect for hanging art in a hallway or going up a staircase. Remember there are exceptions to every rule. This will help those that want to feel they are making the right choices for their home. For you rule breakers you're going to break what you like (haha) just make sure you have portions and scale in the room done well.
The only thing left is to hang your precious piece of artwork so be prepared to have the tools and hangers you will need to hang it right away. Art work is delicate and can become damaged if left leaning against walls for children and pets to bump into.
What You Now Know:
You now have enough information to educate yourself to start buying artwork that expresses your personality and make your home unique. Over time it will be easy for you to feel comfortable in collecting original art if this is one of your goals.
Do your research to learn what you are excited by in art and artist whose style you love and admire.
Shop for your art in a variety of places. This is the fun part. Learning what you love and have an emotion connection to. I myself love art that tells a story in the painting itself or the story of the artist. Go to local galleries or art shows. Many towns and a cities have art walks with many artist present displaying their works and it's a chance for you to ask questions and get to know the artist. Don't forget to go on-line, and shop artist websites and social media. There are websites dedicated to artwork. You can shop from the comfort of your home and pick the sizes of original art or their prints that suit your needs.
Lastly remember to consider your personal taste and emotional connection when considering a piece of art . Art has the power to inspire us and can transform people and places. Happy hunting my friends.
Freebie for You:
Since I'm talking about wall art I wanted to include a simple guide for giving you the basics on doing a wall gallery. I will be coming out with a more comprehensive art guide in the near future. Tap the gallery wall guide below the picture to download.
Video/Demo:
This month's demo is on my abstract ladies. They are fun to do and there's no drawing skills needed. In the Tips/Books section below is how I created the background for this painting. Here's a quick run down of the demo:
*Draw a long bell shape or rectangle with a small oval for the head above. Draw as many ladies as you would like varying their heights. I used a charcoal pencil but use what you have. Note: you don't have to draw forms for the arms if you don't want to just keep the bell or rectangular shape and be sure to round off the shoulders. You can also paint shoulders and arms later if you want to. Make them your own.
*I then used zinc white or mixing white to paint around my figures. These colors are a transparent white and will let your background colors show through. Let dry.
*I then used a layer of Titanium White mixed with water to make a loose wash of color. Let dry.
*Outline the ladies in a dark color. I used a dark purple tone. I then painted a midtown gray for the heads, neck and the hand. I painted the sunflower. Note: you don't have to paint the hand form or the flower you don't even need to do the arm if you don't want to.
*I painted the hair with a flat brush or use an angle brush. I used two different colors just layering one over the other til I liked the effect. The hair can be much more abstract if you like.
*I then decided my background needed one more coat of titanium white. I used a large brush to show my brush strokes. You can paint your background a solid color if you like instead.
*Then use acrylic markers to outline everything you like.
I do these on watercolor paper and sell them with a mat in a protective sell.
Just click the button below to watch the demo.
Tips/Books:
Here's a tip I use all the time in my studio. I hate to waste paint when I painting or done with the paint on my palette. I always have a piece of watercolor paper or a gessoed canvas beside me so while I'm painting I can off load the paint from my brush onto the watercolor paper or onto the gessoed canvas. This way when I swish my brush in the water to clean it between
changing colors there is not much paint left on my brush and I'm not washing lots of paint down my drain when cleaning brushes. I use the watercolor paper or canvas till it's covered with paint. Then the painted watercolor paper or canvas become the messy backgrounds I use for my abstract ladies and other paintings. For me it's a win-win and a time saver for creating backgrounds.
What I'm Working On:
So far since I have cleaned my messy studio and set up different work stations and supplies organized with them, I have been cleaning up after myself. Time will tell if this is the answer for me other than having someone trail behind me to cleanup my messes. I must confess though I can't find where any of my color wheels are.
My next grand plan is to build a wall easel just to free up floor space and to be able to keep several pieces that I'm working on at the same time. I'm not sure how Im going to do it yet but a couple ladies shared some great ideas. I also found on Pinterest a pin on mounting my own floor easel to the wall. I really like this but it means only two pieces can be worked on art the same time (my easel holds 2 paintings) So I'm thinking about which to do.
I still have a little more stenciling to do on my front porch and the floor of the porch will be done. I'll just repaint the front door once the porch is done. Choosing the color is the hard part.
Since I really don't have as much time to paint, I've been doing studies to loosen up my paint strokes and to try other techniques. I am really enjoying this and plan to keep doing studies before I start my main work of the day. I still have a ways to go but doing the studies has helped me with my larger paintings.
March always seems to be the month for me when I finally pull myself together in my personal life and my work. I have always been this way. After all these years I'm learning just to go with it. January and February are just the months I now use to put my personal and work life in order, plan my projects for the year and before I know it March is here and I have myself together and ready to to settle down to work.
New on my Website:
My website revamp will be ready to go as soon as I get my photos to my tech guy. I think it will be easier to find what you're looking for now on my website.
I have also started to upload some of my paintings and studies of my abstract ladies to my website. they are all small so they are priced to be affordable. I know I'm a little bare on my website of original and larger art pieces. I sold most of what I painted last year. I'm working on some larger mixed media and collage paintings I hope to add soon.
So till next month my friends. I hope Spring is glorious for you and your blessed with creativeness for the months to come. Until next month. Hugs my friends.
Inspirational Quote:
"I want to be like a sunflower, so that even on the darkest days I will stand and find the sunlight". (unknown)
Social Media:
Let's be friends. look for me on social media.
