The Art of Buying Art

I’ve been asked if it matters if people buy original art. Here’s a short list of some of the reasons I came up with:

It presents a personal, and unique look to your home. Your personality is reflected in your choices.
It creates the feeling that you want to express in your home. What’s your vibe? It's what makes people say, “Yeah, she's a generally happy person,” or “I always love being around him.” Art is one of the very best ways to fill your home and office with positive vibes, or energy.
An original painting or sculpture is a story waiting to be told. You may meet the artist, even visit their studio. Maybe it reminds you of some very special place, or somewhere you went on holiday, or it’s a subject that is important to your family. This is very different from buying something from a retailer.
It can lead to great conversations when your guests see the kind of art that you have chosen to display in your home. Your adventure in finding it; who the artist is and why you enjoy their work - often it’s the story of the search for a special subject.

Here is a beautiful story about a painting. It was written to me by someone who bought a large painting I had created of our iconic Mount Katahdin here in Maine.

I purchased "Glory" to celebrate my husband's completion of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. He hiked the trail (a long time goal) while raising money for Alzheimer's Disease which took his father's life. We as a family met Doug to finish the final 5 miles to the summit of Katahdin together. It was beautiful and spiritual and I will never forget the experience. I searched many sites for Katahdin prints/paintings and your "Glory" captured the awe and beauty of that day and the name could not have been more perfect.

The best advice is to “buy something you love”. When I asked a collector why he bought original art, he related seeing two of my paintings in an exhibition. “I saw them, I thought: I want to see these every day. Where is my checkbook”! What a great response!
You will have a very different feeling about an original piece of art than you will with something that you picked up in a retail store just to have something to put on that bare wall. You have a one of a kind original that is yours alone, with all of the emotional attachment that comes with how you found it, decided you had to have it, and finally, hung it in your home.
Wait until you find just the right piece, and then buy it. You only regret the one you didn’t buy!

In the end, I think the reward of surrounding yourself with art that means something to you is the real reason for buying originals. You’ll look at it every day. It’s YOURS! We know that art affects our mood, changes the ambiance of a room, and can really just make us feel better. What more do we need to know!

This painting takes me instantly to a day at the beach with the children racing with the tide as it rolled in over the sand. It is engraved in my memory. It's called "Racing the Incoming Tide".